Kind Pointers to Info Streams

Often times, folks will have what they will call a spiritual experience: a huge heart opening, a vision, an experience of Jesus or an angel speaking to them. Then, instead of that causing a fundamental change in their life, instead of them working with it like we do in the Deity Practice, it just seems to be another story they tell. There’s a piety that comes out when people talk about their collected spiritual experiences, when they reminisce about their teacher, or when they tell stories about some other teacher. There’s always a good in these things: the good is that you had an experience. That’s righteous. The not-so-good part is that we can actually end up collecting these experiences, kind of like books. Then we have shelves of collected spiritual experiences inside of ourselves, and you know what happens to books when they sit on shelves year in and year out: they get dusty.

It begins with taking one book or experience down, showing it to a friend, and then putting it back up on the shelf. But then you get a whole bunch of experiences, and it can become more of a thing where you kind of motion towards or allude to the book shelfthe spiritual experience shelfin your conversation, and that’s about it.
The piety is a very interesting thing. This shouldn’t just be something that was really far out that happened to me with my teacher. It’s not just an incident of my life. Rather, I want to take it and reform the way in which I act, so that the experience really is resonating in my life.

The collection of spiritual experiences is actually a form of spiritual materialism. It’s like taking a spiritual survey course. I’m sure you took survey courses in college where, during the semester or the quarter, you ran through everything that was ever written about physics.

Just think about that, about everything that was ever written about physics. There’s been so much written that you had to go through it so quickly, and all you did was memorize names, dates, and maybe a couple of key words. That’s kind of what happens as we collect spiritual experiences, too; we develop a survey course of spirituality. In survey courses, as you know, you may have the ability to memorize the names, dates, and the key words, so that you can regurgitate them properly on the final exam. But just days after that final exam, you’re out of it. You don’t remember any of it.

Yogi Sean is the student of Swami Ramananda and the author of Dancing in the Fire of Transformation, The Everyday Sanyasin, and Experiments in Awareness, a workbook for yogis.

God is God and besides Him, there is no other. He is the Holy Other, the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent Lord of all creation. Those acquainted with Him know that God is above and beyond all our finite minds can grasp and yet, He is our Father who understands us better than we can even hope to understand ourselves. He is our Creator God and the sustainer of all things and is perfectly holy and just. God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son to redeem us and to use us in the full and rich life of His Kingdom.

His justice being tempered with longsuffering and mercy; He is concerned with our daily living and that we may find in His companionship the guidance and strength we need in the difficult details and practical problems of our lives.

God is the center of His Book which was given to us to learn of Him. In it, we learn of how He revealed Himself to the prophets and made known His character and demands of His people. We learn of His revelation through His Son, Christ Jesus, who so fully revealed the moral characteristics of God that He and He alone could claim deity Himself.

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:8-14 (NIV)

We talk about Him, read about Him, hear about Him, pray to Him, sing praises to Him and see movies about Him. But do we know God in our own personal experience? Is He a remote ideal or is He real to us? Do we feel His presence and know of His personal interest in us?

To know God on a personal, intimate level is not the same as knowing all about Him. But what sincere believing Christians claim is that we have experienced God in our lives and know that He loves His creatures and desires that we recognize His great love. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is our God.

Before anything began, God was. Before worlds had beginning, He was from everlasting to everlasting. God was, God is, and God always shall be. Man has difficulty accepting this truth. Since creation, man has been trying to match wits with His creator. And so God has been busy teaching mankind that He is God and besides Him there is no other. He is God alone. This is the lesson He has been teaching us since we went astray from Him. He has been busy breaking down high places, exalting low valleys, casting down imaginations and pride, that we might know that He is God alone. There is no one else to turn to who can meet our every need.

The Teacher

He was an exceptional teacher,
Had received the highest degree.
From the College of Life Experience
He earned his Ph.D.

He taught what it meant to live
A life of self-sacrifice.
He was totally devoted to others,
Though He paid an exorbitant price.

He was one solitary life who
From a grace procured from above,
Sacrificed so much of Himself
Motivated by nothing but love.

He was wholly and solely committed,
Honor bond to set men free.
So He died on Calvary’s cross that day,
To redeem all humanity.

He was ridiculed, hurt and abused,
Profaned and labeled as odd.
Men thought they could kill the Teacher;
Didn’t know He was man and God.

Yes, He was indeed “The Teacher,”
And “The Teacher” He will forever be;
For none who lives or has died
Can compare to such as He.

SLW

Rev. Saundra L. Washington, D.D., is an ordained clergywoman, veteran social worker, and Founder of AMEN Ministries. She is also the author of two coffee table books: Room Beneath the Snow: Poems that Preach and Negative Disturbances: Homilies that Teach which can be reviewed on her site. Her new book, Out of Deep Waters: My Grief Management Workbook, is expected to be available soon.

You are welcome to visit AMEN Ministries: Your Soul’s Service Station for reviewing spiritual services being offered, obtain spiritual refreshing and soul edification, browse our newly expanded Stop & Shop Mini Mall or review our recommended books you may want to add to your personal library.

Blessings to all!

Lessons for Life: How to be Humble

Our culture says that humility is a virtue.

However, we often fail to apply the concept in our own lives.

Some of us look for aggressiveness in our children. We think that it will help them to succeed in life. It also will make you proud when your son scores a touchdown or makes the “All State” debate team.

But have you noticed that some of the greatest athletes are humble, that some of the greatest intellects are humble, and that some of the greatest leaders are humble?

What! Your culture doesn’t say that humility is a virtue?

Try this if you are Jewish or Christian:

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chr. 7:14

Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud. Prov. 16: 19

And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:
Isa. 5: 15

Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matt. 18: 4

And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matt. 23: 12

Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. James 4: 10

Here is one from the Koran:

Surely (as to) those who believe and do good and humble themselves to their Lord, these are the dwellers of the garden, in it they will abide. The Holy Prophet 11.23

Go to http://www.unification.net/ws/theme128.htm to study what the world’s religions say about humility and being humble.

Here is a Native American tradition:

The Lamenter [who is seeking a vision] cries, for he is humbling himself,
remembering his nothingness in the presence of the Great Spirit. Native American Religions. Black Elk, Sioux Tradition

Here is a Mormon scripture:

Be thou humble; and the Lord thy God shall lead thee by the hand, and give thee answer to thy prayers. D&C 112:10

There is something about being a benevolent and humble person that exceeds the expectations of the angry core of our crocodilian being. We have that great urge to survive, to remove or run from threats, to grab food wherever we can find it, to reproduce, to fight when bored, to grovel in our minds.

When we find a humble person eager to share what he or she has, we are surprised and then pleased.

Why do I combine benevolence with humility? Because they go hand-in-hand don’t they? A humble person gives his or her soul to God and serves others not expecting any earthly reward.

Here is an opinion that I’ve had for many years: The most effective leaders and the best leaders are benevolent. This applies to religious leaders, of course, but it equally applies to business executives.

Does being humble drop your self esteem?

I don’t think so. It simply places you in the scheme of things now and in the hereafter. You no longer have to think of yourself being the brightest, cleverest, strongest, best looking person in the world.

If you are rich it will diminish the fact and you will become more benevolent. You will seek wisdom more than riches and you will govern your affairs with dignity and honor.

A humble person can take bad luck much better than a person less humble.

I have noticed over the years that people from poor straights can take a loss better than a more wealthy person or a person of higher social status. They expect bad luck and they can cope with it.

Humility is the beginning of knowledge.

If you say that you know nothing about the fauna of Egypt but would like to know about it, you are on your way to gaining knowledge. You will feed your mind and you will be grateful for that knowledge and you will seek more knowledge.

If you say that you know nothing about a subject and you have no desire to learn more because you are afraid that you might not understand the knowledge you receive, you will be miserable if you don’t even try to gain such knowledge. You are “suffering” from low esteem not humility. A humble person says that one will do the best one can to learn.

A humble person will do what he can to serve others.

A humble person will search for wisdom.

A humble person will be grateful for all he receives.

A humble person will recognize that he knows little but can learn much more.

A humble person will not be aggressive to others.

A humble person will take care of his family and give them support in all that they do.

A humble person will love God and recognize that God will lead him to truth and knowledge.

The End

Humility, humble, religions, world, Bible, Koran, native American, world religions, culture, God, benevolence, benevolent, living, ethics, morals, leadership

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

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