Living Consciously April 16, 2009

Dear friends,

Have you ever been lonely? It is a strange feeling to be surrounded by a sea of people and feel marooned on your own private emotional island. With 6 billion human beings on this planet, it would seem impossible to be lonely. The advice therapists often give to alleviate the problem is to reach out to others, volunteer to help someone else. Giving of your time can be a positive reminder of our value, there is some wisdom in that prescription. Even though keeping busy has been used as an antidote for just about anything we want to avoid feeling, it does not heal the root cause.

The deep sense of being cut off from good, watching through a dark lens while others play in the light, is rooted in perception. It has to do with thinking that the world out there and the world in here are separated irrevocably. It is a feeling of isolation that comes from not knowing that we are one with everything, not just other people, but the Cause of happiness! Chronic loneliness is a kind of giving up on oneself, looking away from cause into effect and allowing oneself to be shaped by it.

So many people are walking around sad and lonely, depressed and hopeless, simply because they are ignorant of the truth that we ourselves, are the source of every good thing we seek and back of that is a more universal Source out of which we are drawing our very breath. The very same power that is behind all physical reality is alive and well as our own imagination and creativity. For those who are feeling chronically lonely, I recommend a wonderful old book. It is “This Thing Called You” by Ernest Holmes.

Rev Carol Carnes

Living Consciously April 17, 2009

Dear friends,

There is a video on the internet of a woman auditioning for a well known talent show. She was, by the standards of movie star beauty, rather plain and unadorned. She wore no makeup, her hair uncoloured and without style. She was not young and seemed older than her 47 years. The judges and the audience were rolling their collective eyes, whispering to one another, clearly embarrassed for the poor dear and expecting a terrible audition.

They got the come-uppance of their lives when she opened her mouth and began to sing in the most beautiful, young, powerful, professional voice. The audience cheered throughout the performance, the judges had tears in their eyes. Afterwards one of them had the grace to own up to their previous judgement and cynicism.

Arrogance and ignorance are twins, one cannot exist without the other. Arrogance assumes to know what ignorance has given it to believe. By ignoring the simple truth that what lies within us is always greater than what is seen on the outside, we presume to label people before they utter a word. In the case of this lovely lady, she was ridiculed merely by walking onto the stage.

Prejudices of all kinds are rooted in ignorance and defended by arrogance. Wars have been fought with these two as the commanders in chief. The Buddhists have much to say on this subject. They caution us to approach everything with a kind of beginners mind, not with the attitude of oh yeah I know how this is going to go, but ah so, I wonder what mystery will reveal itself here. It seems that the more we know, the more we realize how much we do not know, how vast the mystery of life really is.

We all make snap judgements. Let us make a real effort today to open our minds to the surprise of discovery, and attempt to see the greater within all people while being receptive to what we learn about ourselves in the process.

Peace and Blessings,

Rev Carol Carnes