Planting Seeds Spring 2009

Planting Seeds

The springtime is the season for planting seeds. Let’s look at the metaphysics of this. Seeds are a metaphor for divine ideas, so when we talk of planting seeds metaphysically we are talking about investing in divine ideas.

Many New Thought teachers suggest that their students set an intention and then also establish a due date by when their divine idea is supposed to manifest into being. This is like planting a seed and then telling Mother Nature when it is supposed to sprout and blossom. I disagree with this approach because it looks to me like someone is suggesting that we can dictate to God when our good should arrive. If adopted, then this teaching leads to an expectation that is likely to result in disappointment and disillusionment.

Imagine someone wants to manifest a new job or a new relationship by a date certain. The only way this can occur is through the interplay of their consciousness and Divine Order or through self will. If it is through their consciousness, then they are committing to a path of self awareness that may or may not be in parallel with the timetable they set to manifest their good. If by self will, I am sure you can see that it is likely to be manifested only through force and not through ease and grace.

When we plant seeds in the garden, our job is to prepare the soil and provide water and choose a location with the right amount of sunlight and so forth. We thus create conditions for Mother Nature to do her work on her timetable. The seeds sprout and the buds bloom according to Divine Law and not on our timetable. So it is with Divine Ideas.

I have the lifetime dream to be a friend, mentor and confidant to both my children for their entire lives. This dream needs to be cultivated just like any garden. I call my kids, and return their calls with great intention. I spend quality time with them each year entering their world and doing things that enhance their lives and sense of well being.

What I want to point out, however, is that the seeds coming to fruition in this Divine Idea now were planted some decades ago, when my children were very young. There were many years in between where this dream of mine did not look like it would ever bear fruit. I could not dictate to my children and in fact to be a friend confidant and mentor, I needed to allow them to co create a relationship that worked for them.

Here is a recent example of a Divine Idea coming into bloom in its own time. When my children were very little, my ex wife and I divorced. Consequently, they spent a few days a week at my house and most of the time with their mom. When they would visit me, I would take them into the yard and have them look for new flowers that had bloomed or bulbs that had come up or whatever had changed in the garden. They loved finding new things in my garden and showing them to me. Then as they grew older they seemed to loose interest and finally when they were in their late teens they rarely came to my house to visit.

My daughter now lives a thousand miles away from me. She has her own condo and Debbie I recently went to help her plant a few flowers bordering on her patio. One would hardly call it a garden. We planted some bulbs as well and this spring they began to come up. My daughter was all excited and called to give me for daily up dates. (I would typically expect to hear from her perhaps once per month which was a substantial up grade from a long while of only hearing from her a few times a year). Then when they bloomed she would send me digital photos, of each color of flower blooming.

What is important here is that as far as I can tell, she does not remember at all when she was very little and would tramp around my garden when I had visitation. For her, this is all new and all her idea and all about her little patio garden. Only I know it is answered prayers for God’s guidance on a Divine Idea that took 20 years to bear fruit.

So my suggestion is to plant the seeds in soil well prepared and let Divine Mother manage the timing.

April Prosperity Thoughts - The Wisdom in the Tomb

Affirmation: Be Still and Know that you are God.

As Easter approaches, Christians and non Christians alike can benefit from remembering that everything which happened to Jesus factually -as reported in the Bible -applies metaphysically in our own lives. Here is an application of a portion of the Easter story that few teachers focus on.

First, for those who are not so versed in the details of the Bible, here is a quick summary of the last week or so of Jesus life. At this juncture, Jesus is at the height of his powers and has just raised Lazarus from the dead. Word spreads quickly and he now knows that he must come in from the hick towns and minister in the capital of all Judea, Jerusalem. When he arrives, he is treated to a hero’s welcome while at the same time, he knows his fame and power makes him a threat to both the Roman Empire as well as the Jewish Religious Establishment.

He has many followers including a dozen or more committed disciples. He knows he is facing a show down with the Jewish leadership (when he arrived in Jerusalem he went to the high temple and confronted the entrenched practices of the priests and temple officials for their corruption and dishonesty), and on a high holy holiday (Passover) he has a lovely banquet with his key followers. He knew then that he would have to surrender all the glory and power that he had amassed and so afterwards went to a nearby garden, Gethsemane, and prayed deeply for reassurance and peace.

He then was arrested and tried by the Jewish High Priests for blaspheme against God. Rather than defend himself, Jesus remained calm and assertive of the truth of his being. As part of the Passover tradition one criminal was to be freed, however the very crowd that had adored Jesus a few days earlier demanded the freedom of another petty criminal. Jesus then was brutally beaten, publicly ridiculed and hung on the crucifix to die a terrible death.

During this ordeal, all his formerly loyal disciples abandoned him and perhaps his favorite disciple, Judas, actively betrayed him. He was utterly alone. He refused a quick death or mind numbing drugs and died in great agony with two common criminals along side of him. At his moment of death he is utterly forlorn, asking “Why God have you forsaken me”?

I think that all of us can relate to this experience of thinking that we are on top of the world. Our life looks like everything is coming up roses, that we are truly masters of our universe, and then suddenly, it all turns to black. We loose everything we held dear, we feel alone and abandoned, our heart feels numb. Our whole body and soul ache desperately for any comfort or peace. We may not actually be crucified, but emotionally and physically we feel like we have been crucified. If we can relate to this experience in our own lives, then we can metaphysically apply the teachings hidden deep within the story of Jesus.

This Easter tale of Jesus does not stop with his crucifixion. After his death, he is buried in a tomb and after 3 days in the darkness, he is said to be reborn again. It is this interlude in the tomb that I want to expound upon this Easter. In the tomb, Jesus has fallen to the absolute low point and yet from this he resurrects into an even higher level of mastery. Metaphysically, this explains that we must let go of our attachment to our present level of mastery and go into the depth of the unknown as we prepare for the next phase. Let’s look at this a little closer.

Prior to being crucified, Jesus is betrayed by his closest comrade, Judas. He is abandoned by his disciples, rejected by his more general followers and vilified by his religious leaders. One the cross he even feels abandoned by God. Thus, in the tomb, there is no outside force upon which Jesus can rely. Thus, there is no political or religious power available to him. He is alone.

In the tomb Jesus has lost all physical power as well. It is pitch black, he cannot see anything. His bones and body are broken by the beating he took. His life force is depleted due to the crucifixion. Thus, he has no physical strength to rely on. The tomb is a small cave, there is no room to move or maneuver, he must lie there completely still in the darkness. It is on a remote hillside and a massive stone closes the opening. Even if he could call for help, no one could hear him or soothingly touch him or offer him any other medical assistance. Thus, while in the tomb, Jesus has nothing left; nothing physical or emotional or political.

Jesus has nothing except one remaining item: his consciousness. This represents a place of absolute surrender. For three days (which is not necessarily a real measurement of time anyway since we are looking at this in a metaphysical framework) Jesus is alone with his consciousness and his faith in it. There are no distractions and no other happy endings except what he can manifest through his own consciousness.

I mention faith, because just before Jesus enters Jerusalem he raised Lazarus from the dead. What if this was a dry run and not just an ordinary miracle? What if it was the basis for Jesus’ faith in his ability to master death so that when he was in the cave alone, with nothing, he still had the knowing that he could resurrect Lazarus and so perhaps he too could rise again? I do not know the answer to this, but I do wonder if lying in the tomb, alone with nothing, if there wasn’t a glimmer of hope for Jesus because he had done it before. Maybe not exactly the same, but close enough that even though he did not know how, his faith would pull him through this death experience into a re birth experience.

The Tibetans, as I understand it, believe that each loss and the grief we experience throughout our life, is but practice for the moment of death when we are faced with the ultimate sense of loss. They believe that if one can stay conscious at the moment of death, and surrender completely, then one can transcend the cycle of life, death and rebirth in this plane of existence and move into the next higher realm.

To my mind, we each are going to face some difficult or impossible losses on our spiritual path. We are going to face things that feel insurmountable. We are going to think they are impossible to bear- I know this because I have been right there and I know that many of you have been in your own version of this as well.

In terms of our prosperity, a partner we rely on is going to betray us, loyal customers are going to abandon us, and promising endeavors are going to turn to disasters. Everything that is not God is going to fail us, and in the face of that we are going to thing that God too has forsaken us.

In this moment, we can turn to the story of Jesus in the tomb. He had nothing but his consciousness, and that consciousness transformed in the three days so that he was able to resurrect. In the same fashion, as you know, the problems we face cannot be solved at the level of consciousness that created them. There must be transformation. The stillness and the darkness in the tomb represent this time for focused transformation. When it is complete, when we have mastered our past and surrendered our attachments, then we are ready for the next phase of the Easter story, the resurrection.