Month: July 2021

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Are You Investing Or Burying Your Treasure

The Parable of the Talents

The parable told by Jesus found in Matthew 25 is commonly referred to as “the parable of the talents”. To give a rough outline, this is the parable about the head of the estate preparing to leave on a long journey. He left the estate in the hands of his servants. Not wanting to leave his assets lie dormant, he chose three servants and gave each of them a substantial amount of money to invest for him while he was gone. The amount of money entrusted depended on the demonstrated skills of each of the servants. The largest denomination currency of the day was called a “talent”. One talent equalled 6000 denarii. A day’s wage was around one denarus. So you are talking about a huge chunk of change. Eventually when the household head returned, he found that two of the servants had invested wisely and were able to yield good profits. The third servant was not willing to risk any type of investment with the funds entrusted to him. He looked upon the household head as a hard and cruel man who would punish him if the results were not satisfactory so he merely buried the talent where nobody would get it. He thus provided zero profit to his master. The first two servants delighted the household head and were invited to enter into his joy. The third servant was soundly rebuked for his action and chastised for merely burying the gift of the household head and not doing anything productive with it.

Sunday School Discomfort

When I first heard this parable as a child in Sunday School, I was troubled by it. I felt at that time that the third servant was being treated unnecessarily cruelly. After all, he had kept the talent entrusted to him safe and sound and duly returned it to the household head upon his return. Yes, he could have put the money in a bank and at least gotten interest on the money but what if the bank was robbed or failed. Then he could expect severe punishment. The Sunday School teacher explained that the money entrusted to the servants could be likened to skills, abilities, and opportunities that we possess. If we bury them, we are not being good stewards of these skills, abilities and opportunities. I responded with a “yeah, ok, but” that expressed my discomfort at the severity of the punishment of the third servant – the taking away of everything from him and giving it to the two servants who already had plenty. At that time I noticed the other kids in the small group were looking at me disapprovingly so I decided to just keep my mouth shut. Inside however, I was still not totally satisfied with the teacher’s answer.

Use It Or Lose It

In time, I developed resolution to this dissatisfaction by continuing to search for an answer that was acceptable to me. That answer is this: every human being on the earth whose mind is capable, has been gifted with the limitless Kingdom of God through Imagination. Imagination is our union with God. Imagination, the ability to see and feel yourself already in possession the object of your desire, which culminates in creating a reality, is the treasure that all are freely gifted with. How is this treasure being used? Many choose to bury this treasure by worshiping the things around them – all the facets that make up a society or culture.

Whatever your desire may be, it can and will be yours if you persist in imagining it as your reality and dwelling in its fulfillment (also called “living in the end”). With regard to this, be forewarned – refrain from imagining with hate or malice in your heart. That never, ever turns out well for you.

To the servants, five talents were given to one, two talents to the other and to a third, one talent. Then one day came the accounting and those who used their imagination and expanded the talents were invited to enter into the joy of their master. And the one who was afraid to use imagination, the one who refused to even try, was rebuked and the knowledge of the true power of imagination that was his, was taken from him through atrophy.

The talent referred to in the parable is God’s free gift to you of Imagining and Creating Reality. It is entrusted to you for your use. Use your talent or lose your talent. The choice is always yours to make. You have been gifted with Free Will. Use your talent tonight by falling asleep in the assumption that you are right now – not tomorrow, not some time in the future – but right now, in the circumstances you desire to be in. Persist. Regardless of the rate of speed of the manifestation – persist. Persist in your imagined assumption as your reality. Persist as you fall asleep every night in the “reality of your Imagination”. Although your human reason will deny your assumption, if you persist without backsliding, your desire will, in time, harden into fact, as a result of stepping aside and letting your Imagination “run the show”.

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Absurdism……….What Do You Think ?

Proponent of Absurdism, Albert Camus

What Is Absurdism?

Have you ever heard of the term absurdism. No it has nothing to do with an instructional school for clowns. And speaking of clowns, no, neither does it have anything to do with our politicians. Absurdism is a term coined to reflect the writings of the twentieth century French author and philosopher Albert Camus, shown in the image above. It is the belief of absurdism that human beings exist in a purposeless, meaningless universe. Thus, according to the absurdism philosophy, there is something intrinsically “absurd” about the ongoing strivings of a human being to find meaning in their life. The absurdist remedies this tension between universal meaninglessness and the human desire for meaning by revolting against this meaninglessness through “constructed passion” in their daily chosen activity. One could generally say that absurdism is in the middle ground between existentialism and nihilism.

The Fork In The Road

According to absurdism, humans, in some manner or form, attempt to find a meaning or purpose to their lives in some way. Usually this search follows two basic paths…..the fork in the road. The first path is the conclusion is there is no Supreme Being from whence we came — a-theism. The universe has no deeper meaning other than…..it just exists. That is the whole ball of wax so to speak. Each of us must take what he or she is presented with in life and then construct their own meaning, even if that meaning is ultimately pointless. The second path that you can take is that your life has a true purpose established under the auspices a higher power – theism. This requires that you step off the road of logic and take the proverbial “leap of faith”. Camus called this leap of faith “philosophical suicide.”

You Make The Choice Of Which Road You Take

At some point along the road of life, every single person in the world that has the ability to make a choice at that fork in the road, will in fact make a choice. This choice is always made, either consciously or unconsciously, but make no mistake, it is made.

First Choice

Perhaps your life experience has led you to conclude that with all the pain and suffering and violence and avarice and greed and indifference and ignorance in the world, that there is no underlying inherent meaning to any of it. The whole thing, the entire universe is a rudderless ship chaotically bobbing along. When one or more of those things that cause suffering keeps slapping you or a loved one in the face, it is only natural for a human being to wonder……….why? And if nothing has any intrinsic meaning, all that you can do in order to make it through another day is to focus with passion on whatever life activity you are doing because you do in fact exist, you do have life and suicide as an escape or revolt from the pointlessness is simply not an option. The choice of absurdism can be described as human freedom through a “self constructed meaningfulness”.

Second Choice

The other choice that you can make as a soverign being is to go ahead and take that “leap of faith” that there is indeed a Divine Power and that your life has a definite purpose in line with a master plan of this Ultimate Intelligence. Every ripple your life creates is part of “the long game”. Every single event, every single person, every single happening, every single breath, has meaning, regardless of whether you are able to perceive it or not while you live on the earth. If you choose this belief, then when the body finally shuts down, your life continues on in the realm of spirit and your perception becomes clarified.

So what do you think? Is this life truly absurd? Or Is there underlying meaning to it all?

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Synchronicities……….Hello, You Have An Important Long Distance Call

Synchronicity

Sin-kro-NIS-uh-tee. The word rolls off the tongue with a flair, doesn’t it. Just what is a synchronicity anyway. Let’s go to the writings of Carl Jung for a little clarification. He actually provided two good definitions for the word. The first is ” circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack any causal connection“. The second is ” a meaningful coincidence of two or more events where something other than the probability of chance is involved“. I will add my own humble definition to the mix – a sign, signal, person, or event, either requested or unrequested, representing communication to you from the dimension of the Unseen. Even an a-theist will confess that things do occur in the realm of “physical reality” that cannot be explained via our current knowledge of the physical laws of science. The spiritual-based person will agree but will state that the unexplainable circumstances are an intertwining of the physical world and the spiritual world. Thus, a synchronicity can be described as a “long distance phone call” from a totally different dimension – a dimension of spirit rather than our physical world constructed of atoms and molecules.

A True Life Example…..251

I will present to you a true real life example of a synchronicity. There was a person that I know well who was grieving the death of his mother. He and his mother were very close. At the end of her life his mother spent ten days under twenty-four hour hospice care before she passed on to the next realm. This man was also at that time experiencing several very trying and challenging problems that had to be solved, not the least of which was a lack of sufficient funds. As the many challenges were pressing in on him at a time of profound grief over the end of the life of his beloved mother, he felt overwhelmed one day and just dropped to his knees to pray. He asked his Creator with all his heart and soul for some type of sign or signal, anything, that would let him know that he was not all alone. When he finished praying nothing different happened except he felt better by voicing his concerns to Divine Presence. He went about his business of everyday activities. A few days later, he was stopped in traffic at a red light. On the license plate of the vehicle in front of him were the numbers “251”. He took notice of it because that was the room number of his mother’s hospice care room. About an hour later, he drove by a large billboard advertising a business and noticed the telephone number xxx-xxx-x251. Still later he stopped in a convenience store and made a purchase. His change came to $ 2.51. He felt it was more than a coincidence and that his prayer had been answered. He was not alone. Pursuant to an inner urge, he decided to purchase a lottery ticket for that evening for the number 251. He had fifteen dollars in his wallet and purchased the ticket in the amount of ten dollars. The odds of winning were one thousand to one but sure enough the ticket was a winner that evening, paying off a total of over four thousand dollars on an investment of ten dollars. If he had had more faith in the synchronicity, he would have gotten more money and purchased a ticket for a higher amount. Nevertheless, he used the faith he did have, and received the sign that he had prayed for. If you have not already guessed, that man was me.

Stop. Look. Listen. Act. Thank. Receive.

Ignore synchronicities at your own risk. There were many aspects to the above happenstance. Taking the time and effort to be aware of my surroundings. Acting on what I observed and perceived. Being thankful, even before learning of the winning ticket, that somehow just continually seeing the number 251 meant to me somehow that I was not alone. Receiving the windfall with humble gratitude. You do not need to walk around like Sherlock Holmes with a large magnifying glass closely inspecting everything around you. You do however, need to pay attention to what is going on around you. You may be in the middle of a synchronicity that you need to act on but the window of opportunity may be short.

Use Your Connection

You have your own personal wifi “hot spot” to synchronicities. It is called true prayer. An earnest and unrelenting indwelling on Divine Intelligence, Original Source, the Almighty, God, Jehovah, whatever name you choose to ascribe. It is yours…..free of charge. You are invited to use this connection. You are expected to use this connection. You were created to use this connection. If you do so, your lifetime here on this earth plane of existence can manifest all manner of good things for you. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

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Flipswitching 101 – Magic Magnet For Things You Want

Flipswitching

In the world of consciously manifesting your reality, have you ever heard of the concept of “flipswitching”? It is a manifesting technique introduced by author Lynn Grabhorn. It is elegantly simple in concept. It is totally free. It can be done by anyone, with any level of education, at any level of society, anywhere in the world. As in most manifesting techniques however, the “catch” is that it requires total commitment on your part to the process. It also requires your patience, your perserverence and your determined self discipline in order to for you to produce successful results. It is not for those who dabble in it, then flitter off to something else when they hit a roadblock or become impatient. If you decide to get onboard with it, it can be a fun and enjoyable activity that you look forward to each day as opposed to a chore that you have to do in order to get something you want.

A Way To Break Free

Whenever a detrimental thought infects your mind, like a virus, if you allow it to settle in, you have just made the choice to go backward. And you will. When a negative thought comes in the door of your house so to speak (your mind), immediately flip your switch. By this is meant, immediately think of something that makes you feel good, something that you are or that you have experienced or are experiencing now that you appreciate, that you enjoy. It could be a person or group of people, a past or future event, something about your personality or your body or a skill that you have that makes you feel really good. It could be something that has occurred in the reality of your innner mind but has not come about yet in the physical realm. It could be…….whatever. Once you decide on about a minimum of a half dozen items in whatever category you choose, then practice holding each thought (and the accompanying pleasurable feeling) for between fifteen and thirty consecutive seconds. Train yourself. It sounds simple and it is but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. It will be difficult at first to do it for more than a few seconds but just keep working on it. Keep the “feeling good” thought fully occupying your mind and no other thoughts will have room to barge in and take over.

Old Habits Will Strenuously Object

Warning: If you decide to dive into the pool of “flipswitching”, your addiction to negative emotions (fear, worry, doubt, panic, etc.) will strenuously object to this manifesting technique. You are evicting them and they will not go quietly. Just like the junkie who is hooked on drugs, your old habits of thought and feeling will tell you life can’t go on without a fix. You may start flipswitching, see nothing happening after a while and give up telling yourself that it’s just a bunch of baloney. If you really and truly commit to the process, you will most assuredly ultimately begin to see good things happening. That should give you incentive to perservere. At the very least commit (no matter what) to thirty consecutive days (no days off). Another warning: negative feel goods (ie., hurting others, imagining harm to others, etc) won’t work to bring you what you desire. The Universe will give you something but it will not be what you want.

Backsliding Will Turn Off The Flipswitch

Everyday responsibilities and chores can be overwhelming. They can squeeze the juice right out of you. You might have three or four (or more) things at once to deal with. You may find your inner focus swerving over to a multitudes of “if I don’t do this, then this bad thing will happen to me” and “I don’t have time to focus on anything but my problems.” Once you allow your focus to change, the flipswitch gets turned off and the good stuff that is on its way to you comes to a screeching halt. In my own experience, I have found the toughest part of the flipswitching “feel good” experience is staying there once you get there. Also, I have found that the manifestation usually comes much slower than I desire, causing impatience, causing switching my focus to other things. All of us humans have faults and frailities that tend to trip us up. There are a number of ways to approach flipswitching. Experiment. Search for the way that works best for you. Then, stick with it and reap the rewards.

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It’s Halftime…..2021. Time For You To Get Real.

It’s Halftime

OK, now where did you put those New Year’s resolutions that you wrote down back in January? It’s time to dust them off and see how much you’ve been conning yourself these past six months. Whether it was one resolution or twenty-one, now is a good time to assess precisely where you stand. In the parlance of a football game…..it’s halftime 2021. In halftime of a football game, while the marching band is performing on the field to entertain the fans, the teams go to their respective locker rooms to rest and re-evaluate. Rest up for the final half of the game, hydrate, attend to any injuries suffered in the first half, and generally prepare for the second half. Led by the head coach, the team reviews what happened to make the score what it is at halftime. The team will be advised by the coach what they need to do in the second half to either maintain their success or remediate their failures.

180 Days: July Thru December 2021

You are in life’s locker room now. It is July 2021…..halftime. Your coach is the Holy Spirit of God. Deep prayer is your method of evaluation. Ask. Seek. Knock. Expect. Receive. Thank. If you really desire it, guidance will be given to you. Thoughts will enter your mind. Situations will unfold before your eyes. Someone may say something that is exactly what you needed to hear. Something may bubble up to the surface from your deep intuition. Stop, look and listen. Then it will be up to you to act. Act according to whatever guidance you receive. If things are going well for you, the guidance will be how to sustain it. If things are going poorly, the guidance will be how to improve your situation. If things are just going “so-so”, ideas or avenues will present themselves to you to allow you to bust loose to the “things are going good” plane of existence. Ask. Seek. Knock. Expect. Receive. Thank.

This Game Called ” Your Life”

In 1925, the author Florence Scovil Shinn wrote a book entitled, “The Game of Life and How To Play It”. It is interesting reading and is available to you free, as it is in the public domain. Agreeing with what you need to do is never enough to fulfill those resolutions and change your life circumstances for the better. You need to do. You need to do. Allow the eternal I AM to work through you by you actually doing what you know you need to do. It is halftime 2021 my friend. Time for you to play the second half of the game. If you are ahead in the game, be aware that the other team will come out ferociously in the second half to reverse your position. If you are behind, take stock, put the non-essential aside and come out of the locker room with a calm ferocity to win the game in the second half. If the score is tied, it means you have done some things right and some things wrong. Now is the time to double down on your winning game plan. For the next six months, twenty-six weeks, one hundred and eighty days, live and breathe winning the game through sustained right action. Embrace the guidance of the Holy Spirit and proceed accordingly. If you make the choice to do this, the year 2021 will end with you as the winner and you will enjoy the wonderful fruits thereof.