Health and Prosperity Sore Ankle- pt 3

So here I am; in my dream job and enjoying my ideal romantic relationship. My Universe is all good. My life is better than it has ever been and gets better each month. And I have a sore ankle from gout. I understand there is a mind body connection. Intuitively, it just doesn’t make sense to me to be feeling so good in my life day to day and then hold the perspective that stress is causing my body pain. (See the prior posts on that topic)

There must be another way to understand these physical symptoms that appear even when things are flowing smoothly. There is. Some in Unity call this process “chemicalization”. It means the stored toxins and body memories located in our body begin to be released from our cells as our consciousness becomes more aligned with spiritual truth and less aligned with material goods and worldly matters. The natural and healthy result of transformation on the spiritual path is thus occasions of physical symptoms that we typically would deem undesirable and perhaps even bad.

This idea of chemicalization was so uncomfortable to folks at Unity Village that for decades they deleted this subject from one of their best selling books. There are those who want to present a dogma that prosperity consciousness leads to good health and thus, any experience of bad health is a symptom of unhealthy consciousness. But dogma itself is not the Truth, it is the attachment to a certain idealized concept in spite of the truth.

So let’s look at my gout and my life situation more fully. I sold my home in California at the height of the real estate boom. Its value went up over $100,000 between the time I decided to sell it and the time I could get it on the market. I put the vast majority of proceeds into short term treasury bonds, and so while everyone in the stock market got hammered with the current financial meltdown, my assets held their value. I have all the money I will ever need. I am so well off that I can offer to increase my own tithe to Unity just to make the lives of others I care about easier.

My relationship with Debbie is better than it has ever been and it is growing deeper and more intimate as we work together in co ministry. She is a gem and I love her dearly. After so many years of being single and failing at relationship after relationship I feel so utterly blessed to have her as my sweetheart. Our home life is good, our garden is flourishing, I am eating for optimum health more and more consistently. My relationship with my adult children is likewise better than it has ever been. My son is in college and I am supporting him in many ways to become the young man he always wanted to be. My daughter and her boyfriend plan to take an extended vacation with us soon.

Over the past year we have grown our ministry in a way that is very satisfying to me, in that we have focused on depth of relationship rather than numbers. We are solvent or nearly so each month and are more fully aware of our core values concerning prosperity as we make decisions. We have aligned our services with the intimate connection we crave rather than in a fashion that might appeal to others but is unauthentic to ourselves. Debbie and I are taking vacations together now, trusting that the church will thrive even when we are gone for a Sunday now and then. My job satisfaction is higher than it has ever been- and I have been working for almost 40 years now.

My men’s team had a recent retreat that I helped lead which was exceptional for the gentleness and kindness that we shared. My work in the Unity Association has been immensely fulfilling and has brought me into deep companionship with other ministers in way that I had not imagined a few years ago. The healing here is truly astounding.

So, all of this good keeps flowing into my life and yet I have gout. I think it is more than just chemicalization, I think it has to do with breaking the trajectory that my ego saw for me when it had a vice grip on my life. My ego’s first and foremost job is to keep me safe- safe according to its immature understanding of safety. It is amazingly scary to my ego for me to love my job, to be doing what I love in a way that I love doing it.

To my ego, it feels vulnerable to have a loving relationship and friendships based on authentic connection. As I live more fully each day by building supportive and authentic relationships it brings up the insecurity of rejection. Each supportive friendship takes a little power away from my ego’s grip on my thinking. Each moment of success on the spiritual path diminishes to some small extent the deeply embedded attachment I had to the unconscious thought that I did not deserve a good life. This idea that I am not worthy of success and enjoyment is utterly false and the more I release it, the more chemicalization occurs.

Even writing about my success here feels scary, like a jinx will take it all away if I am not careful. But each day that I claim my good, and live well, then I am breaking that trajectory that held me in the grip of scarcity and fearful living.

Thus, perhaps this gout is a form of retaliation from my old thinking. My unconscious fear-based conditioning is trying to hinder me as I move toward authentic thriving. It is trying to pull me back into victim thinking and away from co creative empowerment. It is trying to slow down my turbo-charged success and make me doubt the truth of who I am. My exponential growth is leading to more and more good flowing to me as I connect more fully with my spiritual center and that undercuts the power of the ego to run my life.

Today, I am more determined than ever to allow my good to flow into my life. I will find the blessing in every situation and circumstance. I will be my Christ Self. I am alive to possibility today and willing to feel all the feelings associated with being truly prosperous.

Health and Prosperity- Sore Ankle-2

Sore Ankle- part 2

This evening I have a very sore ankle. I am thinking about my good fortune and prosperity and believe there is a golden nugget to share with you about this. Prosperity is often understood by many to mean having all the money you can spend. An expansive view of prosperity might include having all the money you can spend and the good health to enjoy all of your wealth. It might even include having money, health and all the good friends that money can buy.

I think prosperity is something different. I believe that prosperity is having the consciousness to manifest all of your good with ease and grace. “All of your good” includes constructive and supportive relationships, it includes having all of your physical needs met on time and abundantly, and it includes an evolution of soul that is often hard to see in the moment as good.

My ankle is sore because I have gout. I have gout because my body produces more uric acid than it eliminates. Even with modern medication to impact uric acid production, I still have symptoms of gout. Why might this happen? My brother has gout too, so it is likely an inherited trait. Still, my gout only flares up periodically. My activity and exercise do not change radically. My diet is good and is stable. Why would gout flare up now and not at other times?

Traditional mind body metaphysical thinking suggests that stress can impact our immune system and produce reactionary physical symptoms such as gout. Stress is caused by a consciousness that is attempting and failing to predict and control outcomes and dictate events. We get attached to a certain strategy for a period in our life. The emotional response to our perception that our strategy is not manifesting correctly (to our specifications) is grief. But rather than feel this grief, we choose to believe that if we worry and struggle harder we can change the outcome to be more in alignment with our preferences.

That worrying consciousness is fear based and leads to stress. It is a sign of resistance to our good. The energy expended in resistance depletes our immune system and throws our body out of optimum balance which then manifests physical symptoms such as gout. The solution here is to release our resistance and allow the fear to wash over us into grief. As we do this, we naturally surrender more and more fully until we reach a state of peace. In this condition of peaceful surrender, our body has the optimum conditions to replenish itself and thus heal itself. The basic premise of this approach is that the physical ailments are unhealthy. They are seen as symptoms of a problem and are a signal that we are off track.

This may be very true, but there is also a catch. Seeing physical symptoms as a warning is still a fear based approach to living. Reacting with fear to a health challenge is not a consciousness of surrender, instead it is still a symptom of trying to predict and control outcomes. It is a consciousness focused on managing our health care. This is not to say that a proactive response is not called for when we feel illness or pain in our body. Many times this is exactly what is being signaled and is exactly what is needed.

I once worked in a job where I had a very sore back. I was a new hire and had been given a very old and broken down chair. I complained and they got me a new ergonomic lumbar support chair. The symptoms went away for a week or so and then they returned. I thought that perhaps I was not getting enough exercise and began to swim every day during lunch. That did little to alleviate my back pain. I thought it might be stress related and so began to relax more and meditate more and work less hours and so forth. The back pain lessened but was not entirely alleviated.

I finally, against my will, left that job and went to work for myself. My back pain promptly disappeared. Obviously, I was under stress in my former job- it was not the right situation for me and my body’s pain was communicating this to me. The pain got my attention, but I did not have the willingness of my own accord to take the steps to alleviate my pain. It took me getting fired before I realized what was causing my back pain was my attachment to the security of working for others rather than co- creating my own life.

If prosperity is about security and a good paying job then I have nothing to teach. I think prosperity is about allowing our good to flow to us in every situation. Following my true nature and soul’s calling healed my back pain. No amount of lumbar support, stretching, exercise, meditation and relaxation would be any help in the face of me not living my own life.

Prosperity is not about money

As we consider our thoughts about “prosperity” in these times of economic turmoil, it is a good idea to remember that money and prosperity are not correlated. I know this sounds radical to some readers who believe that prosperity and money are directly and 100% correlated, but let’s look at it more closely.

Jesus bluntly taught that prosperity as it is commonly understood is an absolute barrier to entering the kingdom of heaven. One day a seeker came to him who had been careful to follow all of the commandments and asked how to manifest the kingdom of heaven. Jesus said to make his move the seeker would need to sell all his possessions and donate the money to the poor. The seeker heard this guidance and walked away in dejection because he possessed a fortune. In one of his more famous quotes Jesus said “It was easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it was for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Mathew 19:1-24.

Jesus further taught that material wealth was worth nothing in comparison to the joy and peace that come from spiritual living. In another teaching couplet that is perhaps a little more subtle he described the kingdom of heaven as treasure buried in a field, and one who comes across this treasure sells every last possession in order to buy the field with the hidden treasure. Jesus then says the kingdom of heaven is like a rare pearl and a wealthy merchant sold all his goods in order to purchase this single priceless pearl. Mathew 13: 44-45.

The Buddha says that the fool laughs at generosity. The miser cannot enter heaven. But the Master finds joy in giving and happiness is his reward. He says that the True Master possesses nothing and wants nothing.

From this perspective of giving it all away and not holding on to any attachments, then all things good come to us. The kingdom of heaven is a consciousness that is purely at peace no matter what the outward circumstances. Thus, this teaching is a paradox because if we had this sense of inner peace and harmony with our true nature, then we would not seek or need anything that money could buy anyway.

You might wonder if this teaching holds up in today’s complex mercantile world. I will tell you about a friend of mine, he and his wife had always dreamed of spending springtime in Paris. They went to Paris a few years ago during the spring to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms blooming, and he had a heart attack. They both had been working hard long hours to climb the economic ladder. .He was rushed to a hospital and lived. His heart attack cut their trip to Paris short but it made a great story.

His heart attack might have been a wake up call for my friend to ease off and enjoy life and to take better care of himself. He did some of that, but his consciousness did not really change. He still wanted the good life and believed the way to get it was with money. He and his wife both worked in Real Estate. They owned a million dollar mansion with a pool and landscaped yard. Beautiful furniture and art work graced their home. They had a huge library of books and CD’s, traveled frequently and enjoyed fine dining and entertainment. They had two very upscale cars as they believed this was required by successful agents. All this looked very good from the outside and was very expensive to keep up from the inside.

As you know, the real estate business softened and then collapsed over the past couple of years. My friend decided to get a paying job while his wife kept up their real estate practice. He went from one job to another and then to yet another scrambling to make ends meet.

Finally, he could not continue. He now hated his work, hated his boss and all the wealth and success he had accumulated was not worth another moment of unhappiness. He resigned from this third job and began to surrender his attachment to high wages and all that money could buy. He began to appreciate and cultivate his relationship with Spirit. He vowed to continue on this path of surrendered living no matter what it might cost him in outward treasure.

He and his wife ended up bankrupt. They lost the two fancy cars. They lost their mansion in foreclosure. They gave away all their books and sold their artwork and furniture. They have nothing left of their grand life. Their wealth is gone. Their credit is toast. Today he has a simple sales job. He and his wife have next to nothing in terms of physical possessions; they rent a very small apartment. They have each other. Oh, one detail, the job and apartment are located in Paris, France. So, their dream of enjoying springtime in Paris came true. They are living the good life in the kingdom of heaven and it has nothing to do with money

Prosperity Thoughts – Sore Ankle-1

I am writing this with a very sore ankle. Well, I am writing this by typing on my computer keyboard with my fingers while my ankle is sore. Having a sore ankle would not seem to impact my writing, but today I am grumpy. Since I am blaming my ankle for making me grumpy, then I guess my sore ankle is impacting my writing. Normally, writing while grumpy is not an optimum plan, but I think there is a blessing in this which leads to a point that I think may be helpful to you.

The first point is simply that I am choosing to let my sore ankle impact my mood. That is a choice that I make because I have been conditioned by our embedded human consciousness to blame my moods on things outside of myself. Carrying this one step further, I am choosing to blame embedded race consciousness for my own lack of accountability for how I feel in relation to my sore ankle.

I could just as easily not allow my sore ankle to affect my mood or my writing. Why would I decide to allow my sore ankle generate a grumpy mood and affect my writing? It stands to reason that I would do this only when I perceive that there is a positive payoff. Even if my pay off calculation is entirely unconscious, I must believe that somehow I will be rescued in some fashion. Thus, it follows that my rational short term choice is to play victim, blame my sore ankle on my mood and try and reap the supposed rewards.

If you have read this far, then you know this is not empowered living. This is victim thinking. As I mentioned earlier, I could just as easily choose to be in a good mood even with a sore ankle. I could consciously recognize that the consequences of being in a grumpy mood will create a vibration of grumpy energy that will come back into my life. Faced with this awareness, it only makes sense to choose to be grateful and joyful not matter what my circumstances.

To those of you that might think this is hard to do, I introduce to you Phil Packer. He is about to finish the London Marathon, a 26 mile run. He will come in dead last- about 13 days behind all of the other runners. He is very very sore and not the least bit grumpy. You see just over a year ago he was serving as a military policeman in Iraq. One day sirens went off warning of a mortar attack. He got out of his vehicle and took cover but the vehicle rolled over on him and crushed him terribly.

Phil was paralyzed from the waist down. The initial prognosis was that it was likely Phil would never be able to walk at all. The doctors said he just did not have the coordination to take steps. It takes a huge amount of his concentration to send a message from his brain to his legs because his spine is crushed. He was determined to focus his will and walk unaided. (Phil of course uses crutches). It took him months of hard work, and just a couple of months before the London Marathon he had progressed to being able to walk unaided. A few weeks before the Marathon start date he could walk just one mile per day.

Now, he is able to walk about two miles per day- the maximum that his doctors believe is safe for him. At this rate, it will take 13 straight days to walk the London Marathon. (He should finish Saturday, May 9^th, 2009).

Is he grumpy about this?

No. He feels very fortunate to have any mobility. He has turned this accident into a blessing by using it to raise money for those at the surgical center that helped him recover. He said that while in the surgical recovery program he needed something to motivate himself during some very dark and painful times.

We all, each of us, have the same capability of this sort of grit and determination. There is a choice that we face with every circumstance. We can find a way to turn it into a blessing or we can claim we are victims. If we want prosperity, then we find the blessing in what ever circumstance we face. If we choose prosperity then we trust Spiritual Law to manifest it for us.

In reading about Phil, my sore ankle doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore. In writing this, I can tell that I am not so grumpy. Nothing changed but my attitude. Everything changed when my attitude shifted.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Today, for our May prosperity thoughts, we will look into the metaphysical meaning in the simple ditty “April Showers Bring May Flowers”.

On the surface, this rhyme describes a simple truism, that there is a cause and effect under Natural Law. This is perhaps most telling in the Mohave Desert, a very dry and often barren place that gets a few sprinkles of rain most years. These sparse drops of rain are sufficient to create an abundant display of wildflowers that is world famous. The wildflowers seem to sprout from nowhere in the desert sand and rocks. They bloom and die within a very short season at the lower elevations. They bloom and fade a little slower at the higher elevations, but by mid May the blooms are mostly gone.

Every half dozen years or so, the desert gets a splash of real rain. In those years the entire desert floor and hillsides are somehow covered with beautiful wildflowers. It is truly amazing that such abundance lies dormant year after year until a real rain comes.

This is exactly how it is in our life as well. We are always blooming but sometimes outside circumstances do not look glorious. Metaphorically, “blooming” infers growing and blossoming. When we look at this metaphysically then it would indicate the expansion of our consciousness. This process goes on to the degree we are open and receptive no matter what the weather report says. Rainy season, we are expanding our consciousness to thrive in the rain. Dry Season, we are growing consciousness too, to evolve more highly in apparent dryness.. Cold nights, hot nights, still days, windy days, bright and sunny days, cloudy and overcast days, we are growing in consciousness.

Here is then a key point; outside conditions do not hinder our spiritual evolution unless we allow those external conditions to impede our growth.

What is really going on for us is like the wildflowers in the Mohave Desert. We are blooming in springtime- and in human consciousness it is always springtime—yep, all the time. Yet, because of our egocentric expectations (which are often fueled by unconscious self hatred), we often feel like we are in a deep drought. In truth, we are in fact thriving in the natural flow of life. Unfortunately for our serenity, we cannot often see these dry spells as part of a larger cycle because we are focused on the temporary rather than the eternal.

A deeper awareness of our own spiritual process would lead us to realize that it is in these times of apparent drought that we actually grow the most. It is, for example, easy to be grateful when things seem to be going our way. It is often much more difficult for us to be grateful when things do not seem to be coming our way. So, in order to really learn to appreciate the little drops of joy that come into our awareness we need some dry spells.

Rather than understanding that spiritual growth in an inside job we tend to look at outward conditions and judge our growth by external benchmarks. Thus when we get some May showers, we get a burst of prosperity and selfishly conclude that is how it should be all the time. It follows then that we act like our life is in a drought the rest of the time. When we are not getting the results we crave, compared to those rare desert blooms that occur after the May showers, we often become dispirited.

Here is the second main point. There is a secret of many of those desert flowers. Due to the long dry months the flowers develop deep roots. Their roots are adapted to thrive where they are located and are almost like a carrot in shape. These roots are capable of storing lots of moisture that is efficiently wicked from the dry desert sand during the rainy season and then used sparingly in the long dry spells that follow. If it were not for those long dry spells, the plants would not grow these deep roots- rather they would grow wide and shallow roots during the rainy season. If that were the case, the desert plants would then die off during the dry season.

The roots on these desert flowers are exactly like our own soulful consciousness. If we grow and deepen our consciousness year round, especially during the dry seasons, then it will help us thrive in those times when we do not seem to be in the flow. And, when the flow arrives, we will be ready to burst on the scene in our radiant glory. The desert flowers are growing year round. They bloom in May, not just because of the spring showers, but mostly because they have been growing during the dry spell as well.

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.