Leo Tolstoy on God

LEO TOLSTOY ON GOD: "When you look inside yourself, you see what is called 'your own self' or your soul. You cannot touch it or see it or understand it, but you know it is there. And this part of yourself--that which you cannot understand--is what is called God. God is both around us and inside of us--in our souls.

The more you understand that you are at one with God, the more you will understand that you are at one with all His worldly manifestations."

Monday, March 28, 2011

"He's Got the Whole World...In His Hands, He's Got the Whole Wide World..."



Rec'd above photo in an email from a friend. Here's the attached note, from Bob F., that came with it:


"I took this picture on Int.20, traveling to Leeds , AL . It has given me strength in the times of trouble. I feel I should share it with the rest of the world. I hope it is an inspiration to you. It just goes to show what we already know...We have a God, and he's watching over us.

I e-mailed this picture to News Channel Fox6. I was contacted by Meteorologist James Spann. He said that this picture of the sky is showing up in all states and around the world. He wanted to know where I was from and where I took it. He saw a similar picture taken in Texas . He said this is amazing to him.

Would you look at this picture? It reminds me of that song 'He's got the whole world in his hands.' He is definitely in control. I needed this today more than ever. Enjoy and pass it along!"

A mirage?

We will look for "signs," and we'll see them!
Namaste',
Che'

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Beyond LIFE: A Postcard To My Sister

EDITOR'S NOTE: R.I.P. Linda XXXXXX-3.27.46 - 10.10.01.  
UPDATE 5/2013:Please note that last name has been removed out from this document to block  search engines.  

Hi Linda:

I'm just dropping by today to say, "hello," and ask you how you doing?

Today, you would have celebrated your 65th year! You certainly would have been having a big party to celebrate today! Soon, too, you would have been planning your retirement from the job you loved doing at the State of Illinois!

I think of you often, but something special begins to happen when March rolls around:

Aside from now being "Women's History Month," March is significant because Mummy died on March 19. (R.I.P. Valda E. XXXXXX: 6.9.16 - 3.19.93.) But even before her death, March was special to us all because it was the month of your birthday, and we would start thinking of getting you a card and a gift and calling you.

So naturally when I was purchasing cards for my March friends' birthdays, I thought of you ...and the void.

I'm sure you can see the void you've left in this place, don't you?

Yes. There is a hole that no one else has been able to fill...and ...no one else ever will fill.

I know that you see now what you didn't know then ...that you'd come to Earth to do a very special job.

There was a hole that only you could fill in God's Grand Design for Planet Earth and the Universe. So when God sent you on March 27, he was thrilled that this piece of his design was being filled!

I hope you can see so clearly now all the things you may not have known when you were here...like how much we all really, truly loved you, though not everyone gave voice to their feelings.

I hope you can see so clearly now that you brought a certain tranquility and JOY to our world. As the fifth child, you were the perfect "middle" child, holding the balance between four above and four below you!


I hope you can see so clearly now that you brought hope on cloudy days... when you picked up the phone and called, just to share a thought or a laugh.

I hope you can see so clearly now the lessons we all learned from you and the many, many memories you've implanted forever in our Souls.

I hope you can see so clearly into our world NOW...

I hope you can see so clearly now the special things I remember about you...

...whenever I look at the cocktail globe you'd so lovingly put together for me when you visited my home...

...whenever I look at the special scroll you gave to each of us five sisters, talking about "Sister Love."...

...whenever I remember the collection of nine dolls you'd so painstakingly collected to represent each one of us children in the family.[Three boys and six girls.]

We remember so much! So much of you is still so alive...

You lived life and gave love...and truly, that is a gift!

You were LOVE!

As I write this, I'm reflecting on the many aspects of you I observed as a child...

I'm looking for signs to see if we could have known you would be the first one to leave us and to discern your specialness even then.

You know, as time passes, I don't think it really matters, "The last shall be first and the first shall be last. Many are called but few are chosen." -Matthew 20:16
[Wonder what this bodes for me being the "last child" of the nine children?]

What I'm learning is that the world is what it is...

We are who we are...
We can't fight that...
We can't fight our destiny...

What I'm learning about the world is that...
We are all special and unique and there's a
special force within us...
This is the force that leads us through life...
that we so often overlook and don't appreciate...
Our EGOs take credit for all its hard work!

I know you know that now!
I know that you knew it just before your death...
when your life took off almost on its own...
and you started sharing things about your life...
as IF you knew...
you would soon be gone...
[But...how could you? You weren't sick...you
were in great health. Then, bam, overnight you
were gone from a heart attack, two days,
after I'd returned from visiting you.]


I somehow believe that "you" called
me to the Chicago area
to share the things you did...maybe your conscious
mind didn't...but your SOUL knew what you didn't,
so it called me.


Do you remember what you shared?


You told me how happy you were with your job...
You reflected on how you used to be as a younger woman,
but then, you said, "Look at me, NOW!"


You were so proud of yourself in that moment! I
laughed with you then, and I'm still laughing now.

I remember the woman-child you tried to be
as a young woman, then how you grew to be this
loving, thoughtful, giving personality.


I know you can tell we miss you terribly in all
your ways
...but I know you can see the smiles
memories of you still bring us!

Your joy of LIFE...that is SO lasting!

I remember at that last dinner... again...as if you knew:

You told those who were present that we should "live each
day as if it is your last!"


Do you remember that?

Why did you tell us that...IF...you didn't know?

I'm looking up now...at the special angel I bought in
memory of you and sewed on her banner, your name: "Linda!"

Yes. I'm looking up at her, where she stands about 18" tall above a cabinet...
wand in hand, always ready to protect me.


I know you see her!

I wonder what you think...

So much in the world has changed in the almost 10 years you've been gone.

Now, there's social media, which have taken over our days.
I wonder if you would have been part of that...?

You so loved your digital camera...I know you would have been
uploading lots and lots of photos to Facebook, as you so loved to share.

So much in the world has changed in the almost 10 years you've been gone.

So much is still the same in the almost 10 years you've been gone.

People still don't recognize the TRUTH about Life.

They don't seem to appreciate how very special they are and that they
were placed on this Earth for a very special reason and for a certain time.


They don't seem to recognize the reflection of themselves in another.

They don't seem to understand that they can hate and fight and worry and all those things...but it doesn't add to or shorten their time...

Are they making the best of their lives?

We'll continue to look and see...

As for you on this special day, sis, I just want to wish you...

Happiness...in the state of beingness that you now are in the Universe...

I know you've moved on ...

I know you probably don't stick around us to see how we're getting through
"all the ups and downs in life..." because I know...that you KNOW...It's all "nonsense"...from where you are in the Universe.

How puny...very, very, very puny...we seem, huh?
As puny as we are, sis, I want you to know that in our world...
in our limited universe here on Earth...

You have become "larger than life!"

Gosh, how I wish, it didn't take your leaving...
for us to know ...and appreciate that!

Happy (Posthumous) 65th Birthday, Linda XXXXXXXXXX: Forever in Our Hearts!

Namaste',

Che'
NOTE: Linda XXXXXXX was the fifth of nine children parented by Ivan XXXXXXXX and Valda E. XXXXX. I was the ninth child. Linda was married, divorced and had no children.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Climb the Mountain to TRANSCENDENCE!

EDITOR'S NOTE: With the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we have a solid reason during Lent to keep praying for restoration of order in our world! Please stay prayerful!



Wednesday, March 9, was a very significant day for Christians throughout the world. That day was the beginning of Lent, a period of 40 days, excluding Sundays, when they begin fasting and renunciation of some habits and normal practices.

For most of my life, whenever I've thought of observing the Lenten Season, I've done so with a feeling of foreboding, having to "give up" and deny myself of something I normally valued.

I was about to feel the same way this year...except TRUTH intercepted.


I don't know where the interpretation started that Lent should be about self denial.

During Lent, Christians meditate on the great paschal mystery -- "the salvation God won for us 'sinners' by the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ," is one interpretration.

Before his suffering, which culminated on Good Friday, Jesus often went up to the mountains to commune with God. Scripture doesn't state specifically that during the period immediately before his "trial" he went up, but it is clear that going to the "mountain" was Jesus' way of coping with life on Earth.


Let's assume that he did go up to the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights, prior to his death on Good Friday. Who says that this was perhaps not the richest time in his spiritual life?

From the human perspective, we dread death, because it signals the end of LIFE, as we know it.

Yes. Jesus was going to be crucified.

Yes. Jesus knew it. He knew the truth so well about the upcoming events that he predicted it to his disciples, trying to prepare them. When Peter refused to believe it, Jesus strongly rebuked him, telling Peter, "Get thee behind me Satan. Thou art an offence unto me for thou savored not the things that be of God but those that be of men."

In reading about the events leading up to his trials, Jesus seemed to welcome the test. By succeeding, he not only would fulfill the Scripture but he could fully claim his Divinity and heritage as the Son of God.

Let's think on this!


Let's suppose that you had a calling on your life. You've prepared, trained and acquired certain traits and behaviors. Wouldn't the day ultimately come when you'd want to be tested?

Jesus foresaw all that he had to go through, and he still was willing!


He was willing because he knew that if he succeeded he would establish a new world order for man. He also knew that once and for and all times, he would establish for all mankind the knowledge that we can transcend any condition in life, indeed even death!

Yes, our humanity suggests that the worst thing that can befall a man IS death.


But Jesus was NO ordinary man!


Jesus came to Earth for a reason. For the journey and trials of death, he was prepared from birth...until, indeed, the moment of his death!

Throughout his ministry, Jesus spoke of the "father within" him doing the work.

"...the words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." John 14:10


He spoke of trials and overcoming them throughout and said, "I have overcome the world," even before his death.

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world, ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world."

This is a transcendental man...a man who is not limited by his humanity!


Taking the assumption that he did spend 40 days in the "desert," I view that as the time it took for him to fully get ready.

So when Jesus descended from that mountain, I truly believe he already was at the transcendental level.

I believe he came down from the mountain only when he was ready for the test. While on "the mountain" he knew that he'd already transcended life on Earth.


So, during the period it took for his crucifixion, we witnessed the body of the man who no longer walked in that body as an ordinary man!

When he hung on the cross on Good Friday, the body of the man Jesus was there, but it felt no pain, as the Spirit of God in the man, Jesus.. The Christ... already had taken over.


"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me." John 14: 6

"Verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my father."John 14: 12

So, we look at Lent as a period of sadness and "giving up" something we cherish.


I know many Catholics will be observing The 14 Signs of the Cross every Friday during Lent. They will reflect with sadness on the journey the man, Jesus, took before his death.


If we continue to view Jesus from the human perspective, as I did for so many years, we, too, would grieve and be sad.

TRUTH is, though, we need to be observers of the Spirit of The Christ that inhabited the man, Jesus, for the entire period leading up to his death.

Instead of grieving and fasting this next month, we can begin to get to a place within ourselves where we can connect more deeply with the SPIRIT within us. It can guide us, too, to transcend the limitations in our lives.



"We are all agents of transfiguration," Retired Bishop Desmond Tutu told a 1,000-person audience at Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, during its March 6, 2011 Sunday morning service. "Go forth and transform your personal relationships, your community, your world, so it becomes hospitable to joy, to justice, to freedom, to peace."

Were we to use the 35-plus days until Easter Sunday, wisely, as Jesus did by going to the "mountain," at the end of the period, we may find ourselves a new and "resurrected" man!




"What one man can do, I can DO," Anthony Hopkins' character, Charles, told Bob, played by Alec Baldwin, in the movie "The Edge."

Charles was urging Bob to think and know he could kill the bear that was hunting them down in the wilderness.[FYI: Charles did end up killing the bear]


Were we to closely read Jesus' messages to us, we would see that he, too, so often urged us in his words and actions to know, without doubt: "What one man can do, I can DO."

Jesus always will be one of the greatest teacher we can ever have for our humanity.



He taught us all we need to know.
He demonstrated all we need to know.

No man who ever walks the Earth ever has to demonstrate again the great feats Jesus accomplished by fully embodying "The Christ" spirit.

I imagine Jesus proclaiming in his frustration as he did with the disciples who could not heal the sick child, "O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you, how long shall I suffer you?"as we approach and celebrate another Lenten Season with dread and darkness.



"How long shall I have to be with you?" How long does it take you to learn!?

Most especially, I can almost hear Jesus asking, "Who do you think I am?"

If your answer is "The Christ," then his next question would be,"Then, "Who do you think You ARE?"

This Lenten Season I look forward to celebrating the TRUTH of The Christ spirit.


I look forward to recognizing and extracting more and more of the transcendental spirit within me over conditions in my life.

I'm dreading nothing. I'm giving up nothing. I am adding my faith and my connection to the within. I'm looking forward to the next month.

On Good Friday, I will celebrate the death of the "old man" that I was...the spirit that no longer lives in fear, anger and defeat.

If I enter into my "mountain" experience with the right intentions and attitude and truly connect to my "within," on Good Friday, I will know without a doubt that my Easter will soon be at hand.


Like Jesus...I will know and look forward to Resurrection Day!



"Who do you Think I am?" I ask of you.

"Who do you Think YOU Are?" I ask of YOU!

Get to know WHO you are...during Lent!

Knowing this truly is the reason for the season!

Now go climb up to the mountain!


"You are in the ceaseless flow of transcendent life."
- Eric Butterworth


Affirm and Know:
"I am in the ceaseless flow of transcendent life!"

Happy Lent!

Namaste',

Che'

Personal Authenticity: "To Thine Own Self Be True"...

"To Thine Own Self Be True and it must follow as the night, the day, Thou canst not then be false to ANY man."
William Shakespeare.