The Now of Goodness

Part of the spiritual path is being willing to look very carefully, within the being and the body of one’s own physical presence and intelligence, at what the spiritual part consists of. 

I need to develop a clear discrimination between that which is of this world and that which belongs to God.

They're not the same thing at all.

We live with in the midst of very coarse and approximate forces which achieve much of what they achieve through coercion of various kinds. The use of this kind of force, a force that demands and compels, is routine for humanity; yet it doesn't emerge from a compassionate essence. It's born of our egos, which insist on playing God and trying to run everything. Ego thinks it knows everything; it thinks it can achieve everything; and in many cases, it insists that God is telling it what to do every minute of every day. 

It is a liar that takes us away from our spiritual presence and replaces it with corruption.

The only way to get some distance from this and to begin to come into relationship with a finer quality of Being that's inspired by the Holy Spirit, we need to quiet down a great deal. One can be certain that anything that is driven by great passion and accusations, yelling and fighting, is not of the Holy Spirit. It is of man. It will only lead to more accusations, yelling, and fighting. 

The least taste of spiritual sobriety will immediately make this clear; the life of the spirit is infused first with love, before anything else happens. There is an essential goodness available to us that can flow into our lives from this spirit of love, which is a material presence, a substance that flows into Being within us. Its action can be physically felt when it is present.

Essential goodness does not come from what we think up, the plans we make, the opinions we have. It begins in this inflow of Divine Love. We are responsible, as representatives of the Holy Spirit on earth, for receiving this love quite quietly in the innermost and most essential core of our Being, which is quite close to where God touches the soul. 

When we receive it, we then become responsible for doing our best to live from the center of gravity it creates in us, expressing love as the fundamental condition from which all other action takes place. 

This is a terrifically difficult task, because everywhere we turn within ourselves, ego wants to co-opt these conditions and turn them to its own purpose.

Human beings are unable to craft some future goodness. Goodness that springs from the eternal and divine quality of the spirit can only ever be crafted now, in this moment, in the actual moment in which I manifest. If goodness is manifest within the moment that I live, right now, then goodness will be more present. It is only present to the extent that each person takes responsibility for this action in the present moment. 

Goodness must, in other words, be perpetually renewed as a principal from which to live now.

I speak of goodness not as a moral code which dictates how others should behave, but an inner code of Being which naturally infuses me with the intelligent behavior of love. I'm highly resistant to this process, but as I spend my life watching how I behave, experiencing myself, seeing how I am, I gradually soften in such a way that this Divine Love can influence me more deeply. It's a natural process that achieves its best results when allowed to act naturally. My chief participation begins in my own mindfulness.

I’m speaking about this this morning simply because I watch the chaos and anger seizing the world today and I realize that we, as a species, are beset with various powerful kinds of insanity. The intensity of ego and selfishness is concentrating in ways that destroy. 

The only thing that can be brought against it is a deeper commitment to the Holy Spirit; anything that comes from me will simply be a doubling down on the original problem. 

I need to open my heart to God more and more.

One recalls the words in Isaiah 58: “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” This simple fact of the relationship between the spirit and the world is so easily forgotten. Much of our behavior is characterized by an arrogance that dismisses this essential passage.

As I come into relationship with this energy of the Holy Spirit this morning, a bit more of its presence speaks within me. It touches every molecule; and I realize that the soul is connected to God in subtle ways that cannot be appreciated by any approach that goes by my own way. 

It is our duty as human beings to seek a better and deeper connection with the essence and the spirit of love, not later, but now; to infuse ourselves as best we can with that essence by quietly attending to our connection with it; and to mindfully act from the goodness that flows into being as a result. 

The only time this can ever have an effect on the conditions on this planet is now. If I’m not responsible for setting an example of my own, nothing can be improved. 

I need to do that now. 

I wish to do that now. 

I will not make excuses for myself and wait until later when I think conditions are better.

This is where I plant my hope today.

Regards,

Lee