Rev. Ann Robben Dott

Talk

You are spirit and you have a body. The aspect of you that is spirit and one with all is eternal, vibrant, luminous, unconditional love, all those qualities that we name as aspects of God; what is true and real, unborn or un-manifested. The body is born and operates in time and space. Deals with gravity. Has many emotions, wants and desires. Some we judge as good and others as bad. You create as spirit through the body. You, the spiritual being, get to be the driver of the vehicle. The easiest place to do this is in the center of your head. It is hard to drive your car from on top of the roof or at least it would affect your sense of depth perception. When I am not very well synchronized in mind/body and spirit it effects my depth perception and I am more likely to graze the door jam on my way through or set down a glass a little off thinking the table to be lower than it is. Or when I mindlessly put down my key in an unusual place and can’t remember because I literally have no idea where they are because as I did that physical act I or my attention was somewhere else entirely.

In Mindfulness practice like Jena was leading last week we practice being one pointed. We have an object of meditation like the breath and as thoughts and emotions arise we notice or when we notice we have gone off from the breath we return to it. We are going of all the time. We are chasing our thoughts and desires here and there. We have memories and fantasies and many emotions. A traditional analogy is that of training a puppy to walk with you at first it is running all over the place checking out every scent left by others no possibility of a straight path. Latter the amount of tension on the leash or the need to pull the dog back to you

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lessens till the dog heals and walks easily with you. The body is complex busy here and there like the puppy or two year old. We sit and pray or meditate to still the body and the many voices that draw us away from the silence, where we here the still small voice that calls quietly from within. The tradition of mindfulness that I have studied uses the word Shamatha which means calm abiding. It is that place where the mind begins to settle after the body has calmed down and settled in to a routine of practice and the mind has been tamed. The mind rests gently on the object be it the breath or God or peace. You remember what you are doing and you can stay with it. It is practice for the rest of life when we are more easily and thoroughly distracted. There is a little space and we simply remember. It is in that moment that we are awake. We come back to breath, God, love, or peace and we free ourselves. We invite it in through our breath, our pores, the top of our heads, and into every cell of our being. For me it is the wave of the unknown that Jena talked about crashing in. We breath out and it flows and circulates through every one and thing around us. Simple unity, we are all one and the trees feed our in breath and we breath the trees with our exhale. Calm abiding, feeling connected, mind quiet, No thought, direct experience.

Then there is process and the getting to that place of quiet.

What you may encounter as you begin or return to having a spiritual focus may include: Joy, resistance, anger, fear, peace, bliss, and / or clarity. You are spirit and you have a body, the body maybe or may have been use to being in charge. It may be angry at you the spiritual being showing up and taking more control or it may feel relief and gratitude. You may experience some loneliness from the body for when you as spirit have been absent or not paying attention and out of alignment.

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Often we have been operating on automatic pilot in various aspects of our lives. Some of these are necessary in that we don’t want or need to think about our blood circulating or various cells reproducing or how we digest food. These are all very complex systems that for the most part function and do a good job all on there own. There are times though that we may want to challenge our familiar patterns whether it is a roll in the family or how you are in your work relationships. Are you in the present moment in how you relate to your spouse or significant others in your life? It is challenging to see the other person fresh and new. Can you leave room for the unexpected? When you change expected routine behaviors fear may arise. The fear may be a reaction to the unknown, the basic feeling of no ground to stand on. Or it maybe from programming and ethics of family and society. The fear maybe of being bad, or not fitting in. Doubt may come up if the form of questions like, How am I going to know what to do or how to act if I quit living by all the rules and ethics?  If I give up my ambition and my business will I get anything done? My sense of self worth based on my accomplishments goes out the window as I give up what I want to get done with the demands of mothering. Often the immediacy of the moment takes over and brings me along, which simplifies everything.

When you have alot of attention on trying to be good or to do the right thing several things happen to make life more complex. We tend to get intellectual about the whole problem or process. We try hard to figure it out. Very different form the spiritual perspective of being still and knowing. Another thing that happens is we go into effort and try harder. Effort is a great body energy for moving bricks and building garden walls but it slows the flow in creating as spirit. In the bible we are reassured that if we are in alignment with God we will be given what to say in any situation. From Numbers 22 The initial request from Balak to Ba laam goes like this, “Behold, a people has come out of Egypt; they cover the face of the earth, and they are dwelling opposite me. Come now, curse this people for me, since they are too mighty for me; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed and he whom you curse is cursed.” Ba laam received the messengers when they came to him for divination. He had them spend the night as he talked to God. 22:12 God said to Ba laam, “You shall not go with them, you shall not curse the people for they are blessed.” What he said to the messengers was, ”the Lord has refused to let me go with you.” Not the part about the people being blessed. Ba lak still wants what he wants and like most people in the world persists in asking again with more people of greater status. This time he promises to do whatever Ba laam says, but ends with “come curse this people for me”. This time God says he may go and only what I bid, you shall do. So in the face of knowing he’s not going to tell Balak what he wants to hear he goes. 22:38 Ba laam speaking to Ba lak “ Lo, I have come to you! Have I now any power at all to speak anything? The word that God puts in my mouth, that must I speak.” So they do the alters and burnt offerings and Ba laam goes off to talk with God. He comes back and says “How can I curse who God has not cursed? “ This is not the answer Balak wants so he tries two more times. Stuck on a body perspective he tries changing the physical surroundings and the part of the people that can be seen at different locations. Thinking of how to get around this problem and using effort are common strategies, but not effective. So instead he gets the people blessed three times by Balaam the seer. When we don’t like what God tells us we often try asking the same question different ways but God’s not going to change. What is is.

I did find the more familiar quote I was looking for in Matthew 10:19. When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you in that

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hour (for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.) But I’m glad I found the other story because it illustrates both the body and spiritual perspectives when they are in conflict. It also shows how stubbornly we will try to get the answer we want.

When traveling on unfamiliar roads you may know the feeling of needing to be more present, a bit more open, taking in all kinds of information, road signs, new landscapes, being really awake and alert behind the wheel. I drove to Jewel recently for the first time in many years. It is a very curvy road and I had to be really present. I was surprised by how attentive I had to be to my speed and how my car was handling the curves.

Bodies like familiar and routine. It is what makes us feel safe. It takes constancy and repetition to know our boundaries and learn new things. As any two year old will tell you when they find a favorite story and say read, read, more read for the same story 5 or twelve times. Or any activity like a tickle game or upside down or climbing the pole. More, more, more please, please me mama, more. Until you are bored. Boredom is an interesting challenge. Somehow, somewhere, you’ve decided you have somewhere better to be or something better to do and that showing up for this activity one more time is not it. But it is your life so come back. What is it I need to clear or let go of to have fun again? How can I make it fresh and be present and enjoy my being with my two year old? Where has my mind been stolen? What did I get stuck on? Not that it needs to be identified but to notice my irritation, boredom or angst, drop it and come back to being present. In that moment, if I can also generate loving, kind and generous thoughts and feelings, then in addition to being a good parent by showing up again, and again, I am also being God in the world by being a channel for that love.

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Part of Simplicity for me is to stay open to the new, not living so much by the rules. We can use routine and form to make life flow more easily but not as a reference point for judging good and bad. Simplicity is the neutrality that let what is being, be. Let it be. What is, is. We don’t need to project any judgment on it.

Our bodies are small and separate distinct individual places for us to focus and bring our unique vibrations as spirit into and through our physical manifestation. The higher frequency of spirit with its vast potential and unlimited qualities are being brought through the eye of the body. Your body is the place in this reality where you as spirit get to focus. It is when you are in present time, grounded and focused that you have your power and ability to create in clear and conscious ways. Have fun with your creations and when you find something you created that you don’t like or is no longer useful, change it. It’s that simple.

Sometimes I really like my creations but don’t think I need to recreated them. The door on my meditation room is an example. I love the three color design I did using the two trim colors and a bit of the cream from the walls. But it takes a lot of time to paint in that detail so the closet door got a two tone treatment on the inside and by the time I painted the front is is a solid color. The front side got a lot of time and attention on refinishing, because someone played mumbletypeg with a knife on it. This gives you an idea of the people who had the house before us. But five years earlier it was owned by a family that really loved it and took good care of it. I had a friend who lived across the street at the time and I would admire the gardens and how nice the house looked. Some days we create that simply. I remember thinking how nice the flower beds were and a manageable amount of work compared to what I had created in Brownsmead. Like my 3 color door, I really liked all the flowers and shrubs I had planted in Brownsmead but it was more work than I 7 wanted to keep up or do again. When we were looking to move to town and saw the house I remembered thinking that would be a very nice house to have from across the street may years earlier. Sometimes creating is as effortless and easy as that thought released to the universe. Little did I know on that sunny day that I was creating my future.

Meditation

So close your eyes for a few moments. Feel your body on the chair and your breath going in and out, relax your shoulders and feel your feet on the floor. Feeling your feet on the floor and connecting with the earth can be a great way to bring yourself back to the body. Ground by sending a flow of energy to the center of the earth from just above the base of your spine. Be in the center of your head, slightly above and behind your eyes. This is your drivers seat and gives you of a clear view. Run Earth energy. Tune into the aspect of you that has mass, density, lives in time and space, in this world of physical reality. Breath and let go. Give your self a moment to just be aware of your body. What is the main emotion you are experiencing now? What is the flavor of your experience today? Is your body humming or cranky? Imagine a pool of water in your pelvis allow it to cascade over and flow down to the center of the earth, helping you to ground and let go. Feel or see that water flowing away from you down to the center of the earth where it collects and creates a pool way down there. You can use the flow of the water to carry away any tension or confusion or anything else you are ready to let go of.

Next bring your attention to above your head. Allow a ball of your energy to collect above your head. Where ever you focus as spirit you will be

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there. Let yourself be above your head. This gives your body an opportunity to experience you the spiritual being and your unique vibration. From above your head be aware of yourself as spirit, you may see yourself as light or a color. You are spirit unbounded, beyond time and space, eternal, a bright spark of God. (Give space)

“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men.” (Matthew 5 14 -16)

Now begin to bring a thread of that energy into the center of your head. Bring in only as much as is comfortable in the present moment. You’re are a higher vibration than the body and it takes time for the body to adjust to the increase in energy from having more of you present. You are spirit and you have a body. Be in the center of your head and feel yourself surrounded by your body. You have a right side, a left side , a front and a back, your feet on the floor and your head on your shoulders. Allow your self to take up space. Fill your space with your presence.

You are in this world and not of it, enjoy both. We will sit for a while in silence bringing the light into the world.

Open your eyes bend over and dangle your head and shoulders to release energy. Sing this “Little Light Of Mine.”

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