The Open Door Moment

The 'open door moment' is a moment of interactive possibility with another person or situation where an invitation is present to allow healing or love to go to a deeper level. The perception of possibility must be gained through intuition, since the outer self of another may not themselves recognize the new possibility emerging. Prayerfulness in general and in particular about allowing oneself to become an instrument of healing awakens intuition toward these moments. However, they also require the putting aside of personal needs and fears so that a true perception of what exists for the other can take place.

The world of possibility and of new life exists all around us in nature, within ourselves, and in relationship with others. To recognize new life emerging one must pay close attention. Then, the choice is present to align with that new life through some form of expression, or to close down around it due to fear or self-doubt. At times one's response can involve both opening and closing simultaneously. Then trust must be strengthened so that only the response of openness remains.

Trust yourself and your prayers. Trust God and the soul within all that is always seeking a way to come forward. Trust your inner wisdom to know if the moment is now.

Standing at the Threshold

    Standing at the Threshold

Two Days of Silence

There are, within each life, moments of deepening awareness, moments of recognizing a more profound sense of one's inner being than normally occurs. These are the moments of contact with one's center - the place within which the deepest identity resides, the place that gives ultimate meaning to one's life. In these moments of greater awareness one doesn't need to pursue a spiritual life. It is already there. And each person has within themselves the point of access, the inner map that leads to that place of deepening.

It is with this in mind that I listened to a radio interview with a woman who had just written a book on the virtue of silence. This woman was not a practicing Buddhist or a practicing anything that had a spiritual name. Rather, she was one who, for sixteen years, had found the merit of setting aside two days each month in which to be completely silent.

Her journey was not spectacular or glamorous. It did not produce spiritual fireworks in any of the ways we typically speak of these. Yet, it fulfilled the quest of her heart and soul to find a point of greater contact with herself, a point of deeper truth. In the stillness, she found herself to be more and more at home. And even though after each day of silence she went back to fully and actively participating in the verbal affairs of life, her two days of silence per month had a profound effect on the rest of her days.

Each embodied soul has, at their disposal, similar choices that can be made. Each can make a choice for solitude, a choice for going within, a choice for establishing contact with inner truth. The world is now ready to discuss the value of such things on mainstream radio broadcasts. It is ready to think about the meaning and value of an inner life. Yet, it is up to each one to find that value within themselves. Such a value defies the temptation to feel one is "too busy." "Too busy" may be a standard for activity for many, it may even be commponplace. But it cannot be a standard for life. For life asks of us something different than activity. It asks us to engage in a relationship of the heart, one in which we involve ourselves with the meaning of each moment - one in which we engage in a dance with both the Giver and the Gift.

Understanding Others

Understanding others does not depend upon having had an identical experience to what another is feeling, nor does it depend upon a course of study that develops conceptual knowledge, though each of these can contribute to understanding.

More than anything else, understanding others comes from living in a clear space where one's own needs, fears, and concerns no longer obscure truth. For the reality of what is shines with a light of its own when it is not covered over by darkness. Then, the truth of another can emerge clearly, be seen, felt, and appreciated.

It is in this way that peace in the world can be born - not through each seeking their own advantage and finding a fragile compromise that may or may not work for a time, but by each developing the capacity to come together in a clear space, in trust, and in the willingness to pursue truth.

Voices of Hope

  VOICES OF HOPE

When peace flows like a river
then I will be at peace.
When love flows till forever,
My heart will find its ease.
When truth is everpresent,
and falsehood no longer preys,
My heart will know the Earth has found
its home in God's embrace.


Artwork: Peace Mandala by Corinna Zubin-Lyon

How to Have a Conversation - Listening in a Clear Space

A real conversation takes place in a clear space without expectations or projections. This is difficult to do for most people, since fear and need-states occupy a prominent part of what we accept as the basis for speaking with others.

To hear clearly, one must be willing to hear and not afraid to hear. Then, only truth will emerge.

To speak clearly, one must be able to remain connected with one's center and the center of feeling that lies in the heart. Then it will be possible to know what to say.

Listening with openness and without projection is an act of love. It invites reciprocity. It nourishes innocence. It allows Divine love to infuse the conversation. Then, all can emerge that love makes possible.


See the earlier articles on 'How to Have a Conversation':

How to have a Conversation
Being Vulnerable
Letting Go of Defenses

The Art of Life or Life as Art

When we speak of 'art' as a subject, we tend to solidify it so that we call to mind things that have been made like paintings, sculptures, pieces of music or other forms. This is a content or 'outcome' approach to art that does not address the deeper level of the creative process.

The creative process of art and the creative process of life are the same. They emerge from the same flow and originate at the same Source. They both have as their motive the need to express the essential self. Art-as-process in its most fundamental sense is a Divinely ordained process - the inner being or soul wanting to express on the physical plane. Here, the question is not whether one has talent or what the ultimate form will be that gives shape to that expression, but what the inner drive or longing is to communicate what needs to be said. This will-to-express can take any form or no form. It is the drive of the inner being that creates beauty, that creates relationships that are loving and that creates the shape of a life itself.

We need to find a new language in which to speak of this so that art and life no longer seem so separate. Thinking of both as emanating from the inner wellspring that wants to live fully helps our understanding. Both art and life are expressions of our will-to-live, and not only our will-to-live, but God's will to live and to express through us.

More about this subject can be discovered by ordering the CD called "Art, Spirituality, and the Choice to Live," a Dharma talk given by Julie Redstone recently. For inquiries contact information @lightomega.org.

Letting Go

You may be afraid to let go of something because you fear nothing will come to take its place.

You may be afraid because you've been holding on for so long that you've forgotten how to let go.

You may be afraid to let go because the one who has been holding on is who you have been, and who will you be if you're not that?

All questions about letting go have to do with fear.

All answers have to do with love and trust.

The Unknown is not empty. It is a vibrant, alive, full Unknown, filled with love that comes from God and is God.

Instead of picturing an empty space where something was, picture a space that is alive and pulsating. Now, it is covered with a veil. When you enter it, the veil will be lifted.

Then, a new empty space will be created as you continue to move into the future.

This is the path of new creation. It is how one becomes free. It is how humanity will learn to flow with the Divine movement of life.