Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Thought, words and change

A few days before the end of a long silent retreat, my teacher suggested it was time for me to start thinking again in preparation for returning to the outside world.
I cautiously allowed my mind to wander into thought during my sitting meditation and I found myself thinking about hungry children. Within seconds I was writing( in my mind) a huge scenario, of how I would return home and raise billions of dollars to create a healthy eating curriculum in inner city schools,fill lunch rooms all over the world with local organic foods and on and on.
Within a minute I began to question these thoughts. "how many children could I feed? 100?, 1000?, a million?How was I going end hunger for all children?
I sat and sat, quieted the mind, sat and sat.
In the present moment, it became most real to me that the best and most useful I could be to all hungry children everywhere, was to keep sitting and pray.
Pray for loving kindness, compassion, safety, wellness, peace, happiness.
This I could do for all children, everywhere.
Words, spoken and unspoken have great power.
"Words are a form of action,capable of influencing change.'' Ingrid Bengis
I am who I am and do what I do because I believe that the Spirit working through and in me, is the physical manifestation of God's Love in the world.

Jesus told his disciples to feed the multitudes, and their perception was they didn't have enough.
"Look again", was Jesus' reply.

The Love that feeds, heals and is always enough.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Silence to simplicity

My Mind, through the Power of Truth, was in a good degree weaned from the Desire of outward Greatness, and I was learning to be content with real Conveniences, that were not costly; so that a Way of Life, free from much Entanglement, appeared best for me, though the Income might be small. ...I saw that a humble Man, with the blessing of the Lord might live on a little, and that where the Heart was set on Greatness, Success in Business did not satisfy the craving but that commonly, with an Increase of Wealth, the Desire of Wealth increased. There was a Care on my Mind so to pass my Time that nothing might hinder me from the most steady Attention to the Voice of the true Shepherd.

John Woolman