For Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Hello all, a recent newspaper article brought my attention once again to the amount of saber-rattling occurring around the Korean peninsula. With each side taking a show-of-force stance there can little room left for exploring other options. Open mindedness is lost when the focus becomes a demonstration of resolve.

 

This Sunday may we sit for God's Light to come down on those involved in the situation. May we sit for Thy Will Be Done. May we sit for the highest and greatest good for all concerned.

 

Thank you,

 

Richard

For Sunday, July 25th, 2010

Hello all, there is an Edgar Cayce quote which goes something like this "There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that we ought not judge anyone." I am inclined to extend this to include situations. It's easy to assume that when we are at our 'best ever goodness' there is still more purity and more beauty available, yet to be attained. Also, even in the most humanly tragic of times we may miss that which is being served, being attended to and toward completion.

Even with an intellectual understanding that life on this big blue marble, our Mother the Earth, is for learning and graduating beyond, we may still deal with our human sense of sadness and loss.

This Sunday may we sit for the grace, the courage, the insight which sustains us in difficult times. May dis-comforts and dis-ease be seen through the eyes of a Loving higher perspective.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, July 18th, 2010

Hello all, the phrase "the teachers shall be known by the fruits of their labors" came to mind recently. It's useful when looking for gurus, mentors, helpers, like minded friends, and trusted acquaintances. But more personally, it's useful for checking our own efforts and progress.

The common human frailties of ego, fame, greed, and plain old showing off to impress someone, even internally showing off to impress ourselves, can be obstacles for us. When we reach out to help someone we can have many hidden agendas riding right alongside of the desire to be of assistance. The more pure our desires, the more altruistic, the more pure may be the assistance. Self-honesty is tantamount here, along with feedback from trusted friends.

When done right the process of recognizing our own frailties allows us to see those same frailties when present in others, and it allows us to see their true strengths as well, their inner beauty.

I've just realized that the acronym for 'fruits of our labors' is FOOL. While it's wonderful to be a fool in the world, let's not fool ourselves. This Sunday may we sit for that purity, that clarity which comes from Above when our humanness is not in the way.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, July 11th, 2010

Hello all, I know of a couple in their late 80's, married for 60-some years, who live separate lives inside of the same house. Indelibly married, inexplicably split, they recycle their days and years with little growth. How their situation may fit into the vast karma and chaos of a grand overall plan is not for me to say. I will leave that to God, spirituality, and their individual life reviews.

However, the concept of 'learning from what I see' falls within my personal domain. What is my relationship to those closest to me? Those nearby? Those who share our house the Earth? My hope is to be loving and beneficial.

Doing so requires the excising of personal foibles, the internal growth of what is loving, and a beneficial balance between personal and outward care. This Sunday may we sit for that simple, complex beauty of actions, and their tightly linked attitudes, that are loving and beneficial to all.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, July 4th, 2010

Hello all, this week I was stumped for what to write about until I saw the date. The celebrated anniversary of the birth of something new. Birth is to wrest ourselves from the usual and to launch into the unknown. Sometimes we go with guidance. Sometimes we just go.

This Sunday let's drop everything and "just go". Let's put our trust in providence that it'll all be here when we get back - and it'll all be right. For a simple twenty minutes, not very long in the course of a week, or a life, just let go.

Thank you,

Richard

"The Natural Soul" video trailer

Hello all, Barbara Whitfield has created a new trailer for her book "The Natural Soul". I enjoy her book deeply and recommend it easily. It provides an opportunity, warm encouragement, and a pathway to melt into your heart, into spirit, into something beyond comprehension.

You can find her video trailer here: http://barbara-whitfield.blogspot.com

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, June 27th, 2010

Hello all, if we look at the entire course of human history as if it were the life of a single individual we might see correlations in the growth of maturity. The millions of early known years could be seen as a childhood, where simply existing here was satisfactory and sufficient. The advent and growth of technology, from tools to metallurgy to steam to nuclear and communications, could be the teenage years where we have seen our strengths and realized we can change and adapt our environment to our desires, often without regard for consequences.

The next step, to the mature use of our strengths with restraint and consideration for others and the future, seems to be long in coming. If it's true that we stand teetering on the brink of our 21st birthday, balanced between single-minded selfishness and compassionate cooperation, perhaps it will take only a breeze to tip the scale, perhaps a gale.

This Sunday may we sit for that breeze, for the desire to conduct ourselves maturely, for the loving growth into spiritual adulthood.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, June 20th, 2010

Hello all, Dr. Masaru Emoto is a Japanese Scientist who has done extensive research on how the energy of love changes the molecular structure of water at the quantum level.
You can check out his web sites: http://www.hado.net/ or www.masaru-emoto.net/english.

He has proposed a simple prayer for the Gulf of Mexico:
To whales, dolphins, manatees, pelicans, seagulls and all aquatic bird species, fishes, shellfish, planktons, corals, algae and all ion creatures in the Gulf of Mexico,

I am sorry.
Please forgive me.
Thank you.
I love you.

Unity Church of Venice, in Venice, Florida, is inviting Churches to gather their spiritual communities on Sunday, June 20, 2010 and surround the Gulf of Mexico waters in love and prayer at 3:00 pm Eastern time. I pass this on as an offer to join in the 3pm prayer and our own 9pm link-up as well.

Humbly offered,

Richard

For Sunday, June 13th, 2010

Hello all, as I understand it ship builders had fairly denuded European forests around the time of Columbus and his travels. The invention of steel ships, creosote to make railroad ties last longer, and the mining of coal for heating, took much of the burden off the forests of the New World.

The whaling industry started with off-shore jaunts of three weeks and became three to four year trips, searching for whales all over the world. By the mid 1800's the petroleum industry stepped in to replace an insatiable consumption of whale oil.

The advent of new technologies has fed our desire for consumption so often, in recent history, that it has become an expected promise. However, we live on a ball floating in space, with enormous distances between us and the next available thing to be consumed. Perhaps it would be wise to treat our resources, and indeed our home, with a bit more respect, or even reverence.

This Sunday may we sit for the care of Mother Earth, our home, our sustainer. May we treat what we find here kindly, lovingly, for ourselves and for those who come after us.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, June 6th, 2010

Hello all, I've just received this note from Barbara Whitfield about her appearing on the Biography Channel of A&E. She is asking that we dedicate our meditation of Sunday, June 6th to her taping session of the following day. I've watched Tom reach out to people many times, to those who are interested and those who are reluctant, in incredibly beautiful ways. May we sit for Barbara to be gifted in the same loving way during the taping of this show, and afterward as well.

Thank you,

Richard

Here's Barbara's note...

Dear Richard,

I am being flown to Miami next Sunday afternoon June 6 for an interview to be done by the Bio Channel/ A and E the next morning

June 7th starting at 9 am EST. It will take approximately two hours. This is going to be shown in the fall and will be repeated over and

over on a new series called Beyond and Back. Bio Channel is already showing the pilot which is excellent. I will have one third to one half of a full hour airtime as there will be either two or three of us telling our stories: what we were like before our NDE, and then how we are now.

When I was on Donahue many years ago, I was debunked by the president of the national atheist society and a cardiologist who had a book out saying that the Light in the NDE was Lucifer in disguise and I was naive! At that time I had a whole order of nuns praying for me and I was the strongest I had ever been!

So I just thought, wouldn't it be wonderful if our meditation group could think of me this coming Sunday night and send me energy for Monday morning?

Please send it for Monday Morning so I can sleep through the night on Sunday! And this isn't for me personally, but for me to relay this message that Tom and all of us want to relay -- that there is no death and dying is safe!!

Thanks, Richard,

Love,

Barbara

Barbara Whitfield

www.barbarawhitfield.com

www.cbwhit.com

bw11@mindspring.com

For Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Hello all, in 1964 the 'Gulf of Tonkin Incident' was used as justification for what became the Vietnam War. It can be argued that everything which occurred in the following 9 years can be traced back to the phrase, "...some kind of discharge" from a North Vietnamese boat, although the nature of the discharge was never determined.

The incident is controversial and research into it now brings up many questions about the desires of the leaders and how the events were 'spun' into providing what they wanted. The beginnings of nearly all wars look uncomfortably alike.

Today the world deals with an incident between North and South Korea. What are the desires of the leaders? Are their thoughts and actions motivated by purely political and industrial concerns? Are they listening for guidance from a Higher Source? We can pray they listen, and listen well.

This Sunday may we sit for a spiritual resolution to the current crisis, that the leaders, and everyone involved, listen Above for guidance. And if you happen to give it a moment or more between now and Sunday, that's good too.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Hello all, most of us who knew or met Tom Sawyer did so because of his NDE, which occurred on this day in 1978. The work he became aware of within that NDE is still ongoing, people still need spiritual guidance, the 'Big Blue Marble' still needs help.

This Sunday may we sit for the continuation of that work, the spiritual up-lifting of humanity, the shepherding of our home the Earth through it's natural course, the strengthening connection to our higher selves and beyond.

Thank you,

Richard

For Sunday, May 16th, 2010

Hello all, the Dalai Lama says our enemies are often our greatest teachers, by bringing our human inadequacies to the surface that we may deal with them. To do so requires the courage to face ourselves honestly and the strength to resist less-than-loving human tendencies, buoyed up by a broad spiritual perspective on life.

These things are not always easy as we struggle with our human-ness. Compassion for our weaknesses, and those who bring them up, is essential.

This Sunday may we sit for the compassion, the strength, and the courage to shape our own lives into the highest ideal we can grasp, into a practical spiritual presence on Earth.

Thank you,

Richard