Joining with the spirit of life

Yesterday afternoon I sat down at my computer and wrote a little story, imagining myself back in high school but instead of recalling myself as I always had been: poor student, drinking too much, smoking cigarettes, feeling inadequate and trying so hard to fit in, I saw myself as a girl who had just “woken up” to who she really was: a vital, unique, important, part of All. I loved seeing myself like this, and I have come to love this way of entering into the spirit of life.**

Last evening I received an email from a woman (who I had been very good friends with in high school) saying that she would love to see me. We had not stayed in touch after graduation, and I hadn’t seen or heard from her since 1973.

Coincidence that I imagined myself as a changed person, from a specific time period, and someone from that time then contacted me?

I’ve come to see that (unconsciously and without meaning to) we are constantly sending out signals/vibrations telling others who and what we are. When we see ourselves differently, and begin to consciously change our energy (and really feel that change, not just repeat some lifeless affirmations such as “I am lovable and worthy” when there is no energy matching those words) others will feel that too….and they will respond.

“By entering into the spirit of anything we establish a mutual vivifying action and reaction between it and ourselves: we vivify it with our own vitality, and it vivifies us with a living interest which we call its spirit; and therefore the more fully we enter into the spirit of all with which we are concerned, the more thoroughly do we become alive. The more completely we do this , the more we shall find that we are penetrating into the great secret of Life.” Thomas Troward, from The Hidden Power

 

 

** A few months ago, I offered a “workshop” which was based on this type of writing. That class filled up and has been so successful that I have decided to offer this on an ongoing basis. If you are interested in working with me on writing in a new way, the information is below on how to begin.

WRITE AWAY! Workshop is an on-line class that I offer to individuals wanting to create their lives in a more deliberate way through writing and focused imagination. The format and time-line will be flexible and will include 3 (1/2 hr) phone meetings with me (times will be set up that are mutually agreeable). The first will be for 1/2 hr at the beginning of your writing project, and the second and third will be at any time after you’ve begun to write. The focus of this adventure together will be for you to move closer to your dreams. The cost is $100.

If you are interested, please email me at mmuncil@verizon.net, and I’ll fill you in on how to get started!

 

 

 

The “imprisoned splendor”: Releasing the real you.

Eleanor keeping an eye on things

The other day I woke up with a stomach ache that got worse as the morning progressed. I tried to keep my mind on positive thoughts of health, and then I had the thought, “Maybe this is a ‘healing crisis’ and I’m letting go of old stored-up junk that needs to be released.” This thought helped me relax somewhat and as I closed my eyes and became very still, another thought came to me which was more of a surprise, “This pain is caused from poisonous thinking. There isn’t any bad thing stuck inside of you. You are a perfect point of God-consciousness. It’s time to let that out.”

As I stayed very still, the words of Robert Browning and releasing the imprisoned splendor also came to mind and I thought, “Could it be that I’ve been holding the Goodness inside, and when I relax and open up a wonderful, beautiful, glorious Self will emerge?!”

So many of us on the conscious spiritual path are constantly looking for what’s wrong with us. Maybe we need another “discipline” or one more workshop where we scream, cry, meditate for 12 hrs a day, fast, pray, maintain a week of silence, eat raw foods only, breath in just the right way, sit in the lotus position until our legs fall asleep (and try not to notice this), ….maybe then we’ll expel all of the crap inside of us. That was how I viewed the spiritual journey; almost like I was on a search and destroy mission, looking for my short comings and mercilessly weeding them out,… and when I consider what I was thinking on the morning I woke up with a stomach ache, I can see the remnants of this way of thinking still intact.

Searching for what is wrong, believing that we are fundamentally flawed, only brings us more evidence of this…even though it’s not the Truth. Deep down we are all Divine Love, all of us points of God-consciousness in varying stages of waking up to this Truth, and today is the perfect day to become aware of this!

“Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise
From outward things, whate’er you may believe.
There is an inmost centre in us all,
Where truth abides in fulness; and around,
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
This perfect, clear perception – which is truth.
A baffling and perverting carnal mesh
Binds it, and makes all error: and to KNOW
Rather consists in opening out a way
Whence the imprisoned splendour may escape,
Than in effecting entry for a light
Supposed to be without.”

From “Paracelsus” by Robert Browning

these holy hands

Photograph taken by Jack’s friend Mark Cronin*.

Sometimes the language used to speak about the Divine, is antiquated and can get in the way of the deeper spiritual concept, but most writers of the 18th and 19th centuries, spoke of God in masculine terms. I have had to make peace with this and look beyond the limited use of language so I could have access to their wisdom, and this wasn’t easy for me.

In my thirties, I was a part of a spiritual group that read from certain texts at the beginning of every meeting. Since this material was written in the 30’s, there was no gender-neutral language, and so all references to God were in the masculine form. This drove me crazy and I took offense at it, so when it was my turn to read, I “corrected” every passage. It was a lot of work. Years later, a friend told me that it used to make her really nervous when I read. I’m not so sure it was my words, but probably more the judgement and anger behind them that she felt. I wanted a politically correct world so I could be comfortable in it damn it!

Thank God that I have evolved and grown. I love work of these early writers like Emerson, Emmet Fox, Emilie Cady, Thomas Troward, and others and have come to gratefully accept it in the form that it was given …by the hands and minds that wrote of concepts and thoughts that were beyond language, beyond duality of male/female, material/spiritual, good/bad and saw to the heart of Life.

“There is but one hand in the universe. It is God’s hand. Whenever you have felt that your hand was empty, it has been because you have believed yourself separate from God.  Your hand is God’s hand. My hand is God’s hand. Our Father reaches out though these, His only hands, to give His gifts. We have nothing to do with the supply. Our part is to pass out the good…” From, How I Used Truth, by H. Emilie Cady (1848-1941)

Over the weekend, I intend to spend some time looking at my own hands as Divine vehicles for passing out Love. I hope that you join me. I am imagining all sorts of hands (paws and claws included!) in a huge unbroken circle of Good.

 *   www.action-craft.com

 

Opulent thought

Which thought will I choose today?!

So much of the talk today, in spiritual circles, says that to achieve wealth, we must think/feel wealthy. And yet, if we currently don’t have money how can we feel wealthy? It seems like a catch 22 situation. We are told to “act as if” you already have the thing/condition/experience that you are seeking, and it will become yours, and yet this can feel almost impossible to do in practical terms.

In, “The Hidden Power” by Thomas Troward  (a series of articles written around 1900) he says;

“We must be opulent in our thought. Do not ‘think money’, as such, for it is only one means of opulence; but think opulence, that is, largely, generously, liberally, and you will find that the means of realising this thought will flow to you from all quarters whether as money or as a hundred other things not to be reckoned in cash.”

I just loved this, kept reading it over and over. Think big, generous, expansive thoughts, about life, about anything and anyone! I know the difference between big and little thoughts. A few days ago, I stopped by my favorite coffee place to get a tea to go. As I stood waiting, and waiting, the woman at the counter called  several times to the man who usually fixes the teas. When he finally appeared he said in a slightly sarcastic way, “What? Are you in a big hurry today Mary?!” I felt instantly insulted and then thought that maybe I would not go back there came. I caught myself. “What is going on with me today that I am attracting this?”, was my second thought, because I had just had a similar experience someplace else, and this type of interaction is really unusual for me.

I know the difference between big (opulent) thought and small (contracting) thought. Small thinking keeps score; never forgets an insult, does not consider another’s point of view, does not say “hi” first; waits to be noticed, gets it’s feelings hurt if it isn’t.  Small thinking is suspicious thinking, cynical thinking. Small thinking punishes by withdrawing love/attention. Small thinking says that to feel better about myself, I should compare myself to others; and someone comes up short. Small thinking is “better than” or “less than” thinking.

And because we are not separate components; body (material world), mind (thoughts) and spirit (All that IS), whatever we do, say, or think, affects ALL areas of our lives, including our finances. When I went to bed last night, I played a little game, in my mind, of trying to think a big thought that I had never thought before. One thing led to another and I eventually fell asleep feeling great. I woke up with a new resolve to clear out all of the small hurts and petty complaints that keep me limited. I am really looking forward to today!