That In Which We Live, Move, and Have Our Being

Month: August 2022

Life Is About Balance – Supplements for Health and Equilibrium

BALANCE IS THE KEY TO LIFE – WHAT SUPPLEMENTS DO DOCTORS TAKE TO RESTORE OUR BODIES EQUILIBRIUM?

The Wisdom of the ancients regularly talked about balance. The Greek philosophers spoke of the Golden Mean and living life in balance, the Biblical wisdom literature speaks of balance in life and living, as do the Vedas, Tao, and many other ancient sources. It would seem that every society has recognized this Life-Truth…except ours. One of the ways our society has lost its balanced is our food and medicines.

This ancient wisdom included “magic” like potions such as willow-bark tea which was brewed in Ancient times and the Middle Ages to fight aches and pains. It was only in the latter part of the last century that science finally “discovered” that this “magic witch’s brew” produced acetylsalicylic acid which is the chemical composition of what our pharmaceutical companies market as “aspirin.” I have watched with amusement as our governments spent millions of dollars to prove radical knowledge such as “when you have a cold chicken soup is good for you.” The knowledge that society has known for centuries that we have only embraced in my lifetime because “science” has proved it. It’s not funny anymore.

There is a big difference between believing what science has proven is true than believing that nothing is true unless science has proved it. The latter view has characterized our society, turning away from knowledge proven over thousands of years of practice until we can “re-prove” it in scientific experimentation.

Our modern society and governments continue to be at war with nature and natural processes and today as I write even more articles are popping onto my screen about our government bureaucracy closing down Amish farms and other natural food production denying us healthy options and defending the great monopolies of food mega-corporations rather than allowing us freedom of choice to live and eat as we choose. This is not new and if we don’t act quickly and decisively we will lose the option to seek our own food. And it is not the laws that are closing these down (although it is “law-enforcement” doing it.) Instead, they are enforcing regulations written by bureaucrats with an agenda that is un-elected, and untouchable in our current government system. If you explore their membership you will find the leadership of our government bureaus and agencies are largely a collection of corporate shills and people hoping to retire to a higher paying corporate job restricting our options and over-regulating everything from our food to what kind of light bulbs we use. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) leadership looks like a who’s who of corporate executives from big pharma and mega-corporations that control the majority of our food supply. Is it any wonder that they are closing down natural foods?

The research of these corporations have revealed that to meet their profit-based goals cannot be met if even 14% of us eat natural food. Is it any wonder that our government, manipulated by corporations, is cracking down on natural foods not only in the US but throughout Europe? This has gotten out of hand and neither party stands effectively against it because both parties are funded by these same corporations that are controlling our bureaucracies.

One of the things that has lost its balance is our nutrition. In today’s society 80% or more of our food is over-processed, filled with preservatives, and factory produced. Even natural foods have suffered a massive decrease in nutritional value as we have turned to fertilizers instead of the traditional view of crop rotation and the periodic renewal of minerals in the soil produced by flooding and the natural processes of creation. I will share with you the supplements that doctors and scientists agree are necessary in our “modern” world to help restore our health.

I have always endeavored to augment my food supply with my garden and also draw on natural foods purchased directly from local farms in my area. It is not as convenient but it is better. Recently, I noticed a difference as I cooked with both farm fresh – free range chicken eggs bought at the Farmer’s Market and using “farm fresh” eggs from the supermarkets in the same meal. As I made quesadillas for breakfast I noticed that the eggs from the farm had thicker, healthier shells than those from the supermarket. That has to be an indicator of the health of the chickens.

We know that the big restaurants and “exclusive” suppliers of the rich buy up the best foods and meats and give us what is left over. When I was a pastor in a small country church I had parishioners who brought me bags of meat. They said, “This is just to help you out pastor. I know you don’t make much. I apologize, it is our old meat that we had from last year’s fall slaughter. It’s been in our freezer for a year but we need to make room for the meat this year as we thin the herd before winter hits.” What he called “old,” “tough,” meat was much much better and tastier than what we were buying in the store. It was then I realized that the meat in the supermarkets was the inferior to what we could have if we raised our own or bought directly from farmers/ranchers.

The truth is that our modern society has spent the last 150 years at war with natural law believing, incorrectly, that humanity was not a part of nature. Finally, science is starting to prove that hubris is wrong. The world is an organic whole and we are part of that whole – although the society we have built lives completely cut off from it. [ See also: https://sabersedge.online/the-world-built-in-the-last-150-years-is-broken]

Because of that, we have to reconnect with the natural balance for our health to combat the proliferation of inflammatory diseases, mental health, and so many things that are produced by an imbalance not only in our society but within our bodies.

Scientists and doctors were asked what supplements they would take to combat the imbalance encountered by most people eating modern products. Granted, if you eat right you don’t need supplements, but I would venture to say that you probably don’t eat right – and even if you are trying to you are hampered by over-farming, over-processed, and industrialized food production that is not good for us, not good for animals or nature, and a problematic in so many ways.

The most common recommendation from doctors and scientists seems to be Zinc and Vitamin C, but Vitamin D, Turmeric, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Probiotics, and Pre-biotics are also included in surveys of doctors and scientists about what they and their families take.

supplements scientists and doctors take –

zinc – was regularly taken by my mother-in-law who was a nurse and has been recommended by more doctors that I can list here as one of the best supplements you can take to help your immune system. It also helps balance many aspects of your health.

Vitamin C – is a powerful antioxidant, boosts immunity, and is required for the biosyntheses of collagen, neurotransmitters, and our metabolization of protein. It benefits our hair, skin, cell repair and health, tissues, muscles, gums, and even brain health. It has even been called a super vitamin.

turmeric – anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, healing and repairing intestinal skin, liver function, moods, etc. – an experiment found that turmeric/black pepper combo can boost other valuable food benefits by 2000 percent. Can increase stem cells and telomeres – but only if you don’t take too much. Indians take one teaspoon a day with a touch of pepper – scientists were amazed at the low instance of cancers and other ailments in these traditional communities.

Vitamin D – Anyone north of Atlanta in North America doesn’t get enough sunlight to naturally develop enough Vitamin D from sunlight. Promotes immunity and blood balance. When you get your blood tested you want it between 50-80 nano-grams per milliliter; then take 1000, 2000, to 4000 to keep it there, depending on where you live and your lifestyle. Sheep get vitamin D from licking each other, we can eat organ meats or other food, lick each other, or sheep, or we could take supplements.

Probiotics – modern food processing sterilizes food of both harmful and helpful bacteria “bugs.” But the truth is we need these bugs to help with digestion and the natural processes in our bodies. Without “good” bugs in our bodies, we would die because they work with us and not against us. Modern over-processed, mass-produced food destroys this balance by killing all bugs both good and bad. If you must consume these industrialized foods then you need to take probiotics and since industrialized production accounts for so much of our support it’s probably good for everyone. As I write this we see the trend of the last decade continue as the Biden Administration and Government Bureaucracies in the Western World continue their war against nature and natural foods by shutting down Amish Farms in the US and across the pond then restricting European Farmers. If you can take colonizing probiotics you don’t need to take them constantly but if you take modern medications that interfere with internal bugs then you probably need to renew them regularly. Others need to take them periodically.

Pre-biotics – help coat your intestines and internal tissues with a coating that protects it from all the hazards we face day to day and imbalances resulting from eating too much of any one thing or the wrong things for the season that we were in. Traditional societies have their food tied to the cycles of nature and naturally consume the right foods in the right seasons to help their own gut health and bodies nutrients. Our modern society strips many of the pro-biotic and pre-biotic resources from our processed foods.

DoTerra includes a probiotic and pre-probiotic that are essential for health in my opinion and they have definitely made a difference in my life. These Pre-biotics help coat your gut and innards to protect you:

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/retail?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&35160001=1&60209480=1

FISH OILS – Fish oils contain Omega 3 fatty acids and it has long been known that traditional diets of Meditteranean, Pacific Islands, and other coastal communities have a natural health that those dwelling inland often miss. It has been traced to fish oils – as traditional coastal communities have a larger part of their diet containing fish with fatty oils. The lipids and good fats are important for your heart function, brain function, mental health, cognitive health, anti-inflammatory benefits, your skin, and your blood health and they are very different from the Omega 6 fatty acids (that are not so good for you) and that are contained in our processed cooking oils. (I do most of the cooking in my house and I use Olive Oil and natural fat from bacon and meats we drain off our food when cooking. It worked for my parents and grandparents and it works for us. As Sam, the Cooking Guy says on YouTube, “Fat is flavor.”) Dr. John Douillard who runs the LifeSpa website says that in the past 40 years the ratio of our consumption has gone from a one-to-one ratio and balance of the two to a 20-to-one ratio of Omega 6 over the healthy Omega 3’s.

Balance is the key to health and, according to the Wisdom of the ancients is the key to nearly everything but our modern society is imbalanced in almost everything it does. If it finds something healthy it pursues it to extremes that make it unhealthy (like its efforts to purge bacteria in industrialized food and filling it with artificial preservatives to make it last, also destroying the good bacteria that we need for health.

The key is making a balance between the good and the bad and to maintain the Golden Mean in our life, exercise, and food consumption. Because we don’t do well at maintaining this mean and because our government seems to be at war with natural food producers our health will get worse and worse and we will be more dependent on supplements – which by coincidence are produced by those same mega-corporations that are behind the annihilation of our natural food choices. Is this a coincidence?

Ayurvedic Knowledge and Wisdom are discussed here and in SabersEdge.Online

These Life-Truths/Natural Laws/Wisdom are a unity of both intelligence and intuition, science and revelation, tradition and modern thought that recognizes the universe as being a coherent unity. A universe in the deepest sense of the word. Wisdom is universal and ancient and reflected in every ancient society throughout the world whether it is drawn from the Bible (Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Sirach), ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian sages, the Viking Havamal, the wisdom of Tao, Confucius, Greaco-Roman Philosophers, and Tibetan Monks. All this wisdom is remarkably similar and the message is substantially the same. It is past time we reconnect with the Ancient Wisdom and a more natural way of living. Not to go back but to truly be able to go forward in a healthy and vibrant future.

https://lifespa.com/herbs-supplements/supplements-scientists-recommend/

A Life Hack for Pain and Cleansing

[I added an edit after the link about the anointing oils about Clove that I was unaware of when I wrote this. ] I have a broken tooth that is giving me some trouble. I do not have the hundreds of dollars the dentists want to take care of it. I am looking at options but have not found them except this. There is oil of anointing in the Bible that consists of Myrrh, Cinnamon, Cassia, and either sweet calamus or cannabis. (translation of herbs in the bible is difficult as translators often substituted plants they knew for those mentioned in the text even if the herb they chose did not grow in the original area where the text was written). I have found that a half juice cup of water, with a good bit of salt, a drop of Myrrh, a drop of Cassia, a couple of drops of cinnamon, and a drop of On Guard essential oils. I don’t like the taste of the Cassia as much but I like cinnamon and cinnamon has many natural healing properties. This combination has given me relief from the pain and helps irrigate the wound.

Beware of Essential Oils in Shops That are Not Safe to Swallow

I MUST point out that please do NOT use essential oils available in most New Age shops. ONLY oils that are cleared for dietary use may be used. I have included a packet for the oils I use. Surely, some will note that these have a price that is high enough that I could get dental care. However, I bought them over a year ago when our finances were better off. Since I had them on hand I was able to use them now that my finances are more challenging. Anyway, if it helps me perhaps it will help you as well (again, most essential oils you buy are not safe to drink but doTerra products generally are and each of these listed is. Still, I don’t drink it but use it as a mouthwash whenever the pain afflicts me.

Here Is A Kit for A Healing Oil That Goes Back Thousands of Years

Here is a kit that includes Cinnamon, Myrrh, Cassia, and On Guard to which a drop or two of each coupled with some salt makes an effective rinse and relieves my pain. To use as an oil for anointing leave out the salt. Obviously you are better off with proper dental care but I many not be the only one who is incapable of paying for it. Again – and pease nlote this – most of the oils available in New Age type shops are not suitable for dietary use so please do not use them. Most of DoTERRA’s products are. If you would like to get these products at 25% as a wholesaler dealer you may use the second link to sign up.

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/retail?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&30030001=1&31100001=1&60221439=1&60213537=1

Here is a link to clove oil. Someone who read this mentioned it as useful for pain. I wet a cuetip, put a drop of clove oil on it and touched it to the gums and the pain immediately was relieved. Wow! I was surprised. So I have added this link for all to have:

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/retail?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&30040001=1

To Sign up as a wholesale customer:

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/enrollment?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&acctType=WC&60221664=1

I have been afflicted with back and joint pain from a service-connected injury I have suffered from since 1984. When I became familiar with DoTERRA products I began using Deep Blue Oil and Deep Blue lotion and with it have reduced my use of medical pharmaceuticals to relieve pain by 90%. And I find that I feel better and my mind is clearer without taking all of the pain pills that the doctors had recommended to me. (I have heard that the use of cannabis oil can help relieve aches and pains when added to the above mix but I have never used it. So that oil would be Myrrh, Cassia, On Guard, Cinnamon, and cannabis oil. Cinnamon in my experience can afflict skin with a rash but if used at the proper dose it could provide a “heat” that helps to heal. However, I have never used this oil and therefore I CAN NOT recommend it. I have only heard about it as a possibility so I share the information). However, I strongly recommend the use of Deep Blue to relieve all manner of pain from sprains, to arthritis, to nerve damage and other uses. It has helped me so much that I would not be without it. If you suffer from pain please stop suffering and try this, it has helped me immensely.

For Deep Blue Lotion and Oil:

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/retail?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&60200143=1&38900001=1

For an Athletes Kit including Deep Blue, Peppermint, Tea Tree Oil, On Guard, Breathe, and Lavender. We have used Lavender to help us sleep and relax and Breathe was invaluable when I struggled for every breathe with Covid and helps me with allergies. Peppermint and Tea Tree Oil have multiple uses.

https://www.doterra.com/US/en/create-cart/retail?OwnerID=3208777&salesOrg=USOTG&20980001=1

I have always believed in living as naturally as possible and have described herbal tinctures as a way to help your body recover and change as opposed to modern medicine which forces your body to change – but only for the duration of the drug. I would never recommend avoiding medical care but I have always preferred doctors who were open to natural remedies, when possible, over pharmaceuticals. I prefer health and wellness over drugs and chemicals that suppress symptoms but do not cure them.

But that is just me and you must find your own way in the world. May God be with you and may you grow in peace and health as you come into closer relationship with the Source of All Life.

A Place For Prayer and Meditation

We are creatures who evolved and grew in dangerous circumstances. Our very instinct is to be on alert when we are not in a safe place. It is then not surprising that where we choose to pray or meditate should affect our success and ability to concentrate. The more comfortable we are the better it will work.

Being in Nature activates the same parts of our brain that are activated when we meditate.

Last time we discussed a time for prayer and how having a regular prayer time is significant and can aid us in our Spiritual Growth. Today we will look at how our place of prayer and meditation is equally significant. Nothing here should ever keep you from praying or meditating because you are not in the “proper” place or at the proper time. The proper time and place are when and where you are moved to do so. However, if you have trouble in prayer or what to expand your prayer life and experience in meditating then read on.

First, I would like to discuss a scientific discovery that has been known for many years but still seems new to a lot of people.

When we are in the woods walking, siting, or simply being it activates the same parts of our brain that are activated when we meditate. Therefore the same benefits of resetting our bio-rhythms, the deep relaxation, the rest, and the blood cleansing and health benefits that are obtained in regular meditation can be obtained by being in nature. One doctor even mused that meditation was developed as a life hack to reconnect us with the Source of All Life after we had severed our link to the natural rhythms of the world by living in cities.

There Are 74 Forests in Japan Medically Certified As Having Health Benefits

In Japan, they have medially certified, through studies, that just walking in these forests has health benefits. I don’t think it is only forests in Japan. I think that Ayurvedic beliefs are true we need to reconnect with the natural world. And being in nature is one of those ways.

I can attest to the benefits myself. I have always loved being in the woods and felt the stress and strain of life drain away when I was there. When meditating at Pioneer Park in NE, I would enter the Nature Center area, walk into the forested area, and walk about ten meters off the path to sit on a bank overlooking a brook. I always had the best results meditating there and it was very renewing. At the time I was going through a difficult divorce (as if there is an easy one,) and trying to reconcile myself to my two dreams of an army career and a wife and family was all crashing down around me due to the divorce and a back injury. But there, in the woods, my soul and mind quieted enough that I could actually meditate. So I went there every day to do so.

One day when I was sitting cross-legged and meditating I opened my eyes and there, about ten inches or so from my right knee was a snake. It was not coiled but stretched out about two and a half feet at an angle to my right. It was raised, not to strike but at what looked to me like curiosity. I know that snakes don’t see like we do so I have always wondered what it saw, and how long it had watched me. To add to the oddity there was a bird about the same distance from my left knee that had also been looking at me. Both the bird and the snake, sitting together looking at me meditate when they are mortal enemies of each other. It was astounding. I opened my eyes and watched them and suddenly they both left in haste.

Meditation Changes Our Energy Field and Can Reset Our Natural Rhythms Disturbed By Stress

I had read that meditation changes the energy field that surrounds us and the Ayurvedic teachings about meditation had preceded the scientific discovery by thousands of years through the teaching of Chakras and meditation. Could they sense the differing energy fields? Could they see them? Or was it something else that attracted them? But I never would have had such an experience without finding a spot in nature to regularly meditate.

The substantial health benefits of prayer and meditation have been proven in multiple double-blind studies but they are only verifying Life-Truths that have been known for thousands of years. Science didn’t make it beneficial. Science only now finally verified things that spiritual leaders and people have known for over 50 centuries. It is nice that it has finally caught up.

But if meditation is truly a hack for those who can’t get into nature. Like those who live in large cities. Then we need to discuss options. To this, I would like to add that I had trouble meditating in my tank. I don’t know if it was the electronics and steel that surrounded me but if that was the case then modern cities would also pose a bit of a difficulty. But it’s not impossible.

Say A Prayer Of Blessing Of Your Sacred Space

One of the things you can do is bless the area before you begin. Pray a prayer to cleanse and purify your area as light a candle, ring a bell, smudge sage, light incense, or burn holy water. The other thing you can do is have a set area in which you meditate. Then when you get to that place your body will begin to open up to the Divine. Getting into your place of prayer and meditation will alert your body and subconscious of your intention.

My wife made a “prayer closet” under the stairs. She had a small table she could kneel at and had her candles, incense, and prayer book there in that room where she could meditate and pray. No one else entered that room. Most of us cannot spare a room for each person but in a previous house we had a small bedroom that we used as a prayer room for all of us. In this house we are preparing the attic as our spiritual library and temple as we have stairs that lead up to it and it is floored as a room.

Preparing A Place To Pray Has the Same Benefit As A Regular Time of Prayer

Preparing a place to pray, study, and meditate has the same advantages as having a set prayer time. The atmosphere of the place begins to change and it just “feels” holy. You can place whatever reminds you of your spiritual life and your connection to the Divine, the Source of All Life, the Ground of Being.

If you cannot set aside something for only prayer-time place by your chair or common seat, kitchen table, or wherever, a cross or other symbol, a candle holder, an incense burner, and/or a bell, or any other symbol that reminds you of your spiritual life. You can also set them on a tray or in a box and pull them out at prayer time, especially if you use a kitchen table you may not want them out all the time. When you sit in your seat of prayer then take a deep breath,say a prayer of blessing and presence, light your candle, burn your incense, ring your bell, or whatever you need to do to signal to yourself and your subconscious that we are entering a sacred place and a sacred time that is outside of and protected from the myriad cares of the world. No longer is it your TV chair or the kitchen table but your own sacred space and table.

The story I told in the YouTube Video A Time Of Prayer that was interrupted by a knock on the door was in my chair in the living room, where I had a cross on my end table, lit a scented candle in front of me on the coffee table, and began to pray. It was the same chair in my living room that I sat in to watch TV, play games with friends, or just visit with family and company. But, when I lit the candle it became my place of prayer. In the next blog, we will discuss centering and grounding.

One last thing. I have found that any part of my body completely surrounded by metal reduces effectiveness. I hold chains that I wear with my medal of St. Joan of Arc and my wedding ring in the palm of my hand when I meditate. Any necklace on a string or leather doesn’t seem to affect it. It makes sense to avoid conductive metal if you are dealing with energy fields but do what seems right to you. Nothing is effective if it makes you very uncomfortable to do it.

Do what seems right to you but be open to growing and trying new things. – Namaste

A Time For Prayer and Meditation

Prayer and Meditation, Orienting our Hearts and Minds to the Divine

When we think of prayer many of us think of Christian prayers that are either written out or extemporaneous. I believe both are valuable. But every religion has prayer and meditation. It is an act of striving to communicate with our deepest selves as well as the Living Force, the Ground of All Being, the Source of All Life. Every religion from the Far East to Rome to the Bible Belt of the Midwest has references in their scriptures to ‘prayers rising like incense‘ as well as to the importance of meditation. I hope you will join your intentional prayers, meditations, and light to ours by keeping the prayer list from ofNaturesGod.com in your heart and mind.

In this blog, I will give a very brief introduction to prayer and the importance of having a regular time of prayer as part of our Spiritual Discipline and practice. In future blogs, we continue a brief series focusing on prayer and how to “listen with the ears of our heart.” Then we will look at Centering and Mediation. However, because of the nature of blogs, we will only be able to scratch the surface here but we will go into much more detail, for those who are interested and join the ofNaturesGod community through Patreon. We cannot do that here unless that was all that we did here and there is much for us to discuss and many facets of our spiritual lives to cover here.

Indeed most religions have practices that include lighting candles and/or incense during a time of prayer and meditation. This symbolizes that the prayers rise to heaven even as the smoke rises from the candle or the incense. Although I am clear about the Divine Presence is everywhere about us and within us, and that it is the presence in which we live move, and have our being I still light a candle and incense on my home altar each morning. I do that not for God. Not to appease some Divine overlord or make an offering to keep him from smiting me. I do it out of love to help orient my thoughts and my actions for the day to the Divine Presence. As I go about my morning and day seeing the candle or incense burning reminds me of where my heart draws its strength from and that we are not alone. As I light them I say a quick prayer to the Trinitarian Presence as I understand it:

Queen of Heaven,* Lord of Light, Eternal Holy One be with me and guide me this day, strengthen and guide me as I go about my business, and defend and sustain me against all trials.

(or something similar).

For many, prayers of this sort coupled with a quick prayer at bed, rising, and/or before and after meals is the extent of their prayer life. It was the extent of mine when I was a child. My life changed when I was 12 and had my first religious experience and my heart turned more to God. I would like to say I have served th Lord of Life faithfully since but my spiritual life has been ups and downs rising to the gates of heaven and wallowing in the muck of swamps that were largely of my own design.

I want to talk to you about taking your spiritual life deeper.

First, you must understand that we are creatures of habit. Because we are physical creatures ritual is important and has a powerful effect on our spiritual life. That is one thing I like about Catholic services. They are deep in ritual. However, because we are physical creatures we run the risk of going about these rituals habitually without thought and without engaging our hearts or emotions in the actions. Rituals practiced in this way are worse than useless. I say they are worse because following these rituals of prayer or whatever we may do, even attendance at Mass or Worship and service to the poor IF they are done without engaging our hearts, or if they are done as a slave seeking to avoid the master’s punishment, they can give us the illusion that we are doing something “spiritual” and that we are right with God when we are not. However, if we perform the ritual as a way of moving our hearts and consciousness toward the Divine Source they are very powerful. Scott Cunningham, a Wiccan, to be sure has described Wiccan Ritual as Prayer with props. These rituals are powerful as a way to give our body something to do as our mind and heart orient upon the Divine. Similarly, I found that praying the Catholic Rosary sometimes “got my mind out of the way” so my heart could pray directly to my Creator. The Bible says when we are distressed sometimes the Spirit intercedes for us with “sighs to deep for words.” Indeed, it was reading his books on Wicca that made me realize he had directed his heart to that Creative Force that controls and created the universe. A Force that I knew, among other names, as Yahweh or Elohim.

It is possible to “go through the motions” and never orient your heart to this Divine Source. To just do the ritual with your body and mouth while your mind and soul go elsewhere and worry about grocery lists, your project at work, what to feed the kids, or any of billions of questions we could consider instead of touching the Source of Life. Jesus said, many will come to me on that day (when they die and on the day of judgment) and say “Lord Lord!” in joyful greeting and he will say, “Get away from me you doers of iniquity! I never knew you!” Unfortunately, I think many who attend our churches, as well as many who don’t, may be in that group who are rejected. In other words many who follow rituals or religious practices but never engage their hearts or enter into a living interacting relationship with the Divine may believe they are being spiritual because they are doing the right “things” but its like turning on a lightswitch that has no power to it. You can flip the switch all you want – you may do the right thing but the light will not come into your life. You need to complete the circuit and activate the power. The power of our heart, our intention, the emotion and not just of our mind.

I often qoute a diddy that Fr. Hoolighan, an Irish Catholic, once shared with me:

Mr. Business went to church; he never missed a Sunday; But Mr. Business went to hell; For what he did on Monday.

Saint Benedict told us the most important aspect of prayer was not speaking but learning to listen with the ears of our heart. How do we do that? While I will go into more detail in future blogs this question of how do we live, breathe, and pray in the prescence of the Divine is vital to all of us? We will cover that two blogposts from now and go into even more detail in our community. Indeed, that is one of the things I created the ofNaturesGod Patreon community to help with but I will strive to help everyone here in a general way, as I am able: www.Patreon.com/ofNaturesGod

Because we are creatures of habit if we can resist doing things habitually. Doing them without thinking and without engaging our heart or intention and keep our whole existence focused on the Divine then the rituals can actually help us get in touch with our Creator, that Creative Force that brought forth life and ordered all creation.

Time of Prayer and Meditation

If we have and keep a regular time of prayer and meditation our body orients its internal clock toward the Ground of All Being. If you create such a regular habit and you miss your time of prayer and meditation you are likely to have your subconscious remind you, “Aren’t we usually praying or meditating about now?” Similarly, when we enter our regular time with this Living Force, our body, our consciousness, and our soul all naturally orient toward the Source of All Life because doing so has become a living ritual. If we get it into the “habit” of doing so at a particular time our body and consciousness adjust. This does not preclude us from doing so at other times as well for the Divine Presence is always with us. But because we are physical creatures having a regular time in which we are not interrupted, when we consciously turn our hearts toward that Presence in which we live, move, and have our being, is very valuable to us for our spiritual development, our health, our balance, and our resilience in life.

I learned from one of the Saints of the Church to put up a sign to salesmen and people who come to our door (or maybe even to tell family members,) that you are in a time of prayer and not to be disturbed.

“Please Be Quiet and Do Not Knock on the door. I am at my regular prayer time and I will not answer. Please come back later.”

A note like this or something similar can reduce your interruptions. Shut off your phone and shut off the notifications on your computer or go where you cannot hear them to ensure that your full heart and attention can be oriented toward the Divine Presence. If you are distracted by noises outside play soft music without words (that is important because words will distract you – even if they are holy songs.)

I was in deep in prayer and struggling with an issue that I had not talked to anyone but my wife about. My prayer time had actually become kind of a time where I was arguing with God and telling the Creator of the Universe that He/She/It had made a mistake and that I was really not the person to do the job that I felt the Lord of LIfe was pushing me to do. (Yes, I will argue with anyone.) During that time I had a knock on the door! Didn’t they read the note? I usually ignore it but something made me answer this time.

“May I help you?”

“Hi, you probably don’t remember me. My sister brought me with her to your church once last year to listen to your preach and we met briefly after church.”

“Yes, I do actually remember you. How can I help you.”

“Well, I don’t know what you believe about Christianity. I know people have different ways of thinking…”

“Yes,” it was clear to me whatever it was was difficult for her so I thought I needed to say something to help her get out what she was trying to get out.

“Well, I was praying and God told me I need to come here and tell you something. May I tell you his message so God will leave me alone and I can get back to my regular prayers?”

“I think I know what you mean,” I smiled. “Yes, you may tell me what message God has for me.”

“God told me to tell you: ‘You need to accept the power that God wants to give you.’ Does that make any sense to you?”

“Why yes, it does. In fact, I was just arguing with God about that very thing when you knocked. I guess I need to listen and obey instead of arguing. I think God would like me to tell you, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’ That was a very important message to me. Thank you.”

She left and I never saw her again.

But I will never seriously entertain anyone who tries to tell me that the Creator, the Universe, the Ground of All Being, the Source of Life, the very Presence in which we live move and have our being doesn’t care about us and doesn’t interact with us. My entire life is an experience to the contrary and I would say if yours has not been it is not because God doesn’t care about you but perhaps it’s because you are too busy or self-absorbed to hear the Divine Force which may speaking in that still small voice heard by the prophet Elijah in the Old Testament. Quietly speaking, and waiting for you to slow down, be still, and listen.

If you haven’t experienced that, if no one has ever taught you to listen with the ears of your heart, follow me here or join me on Patreon and I will help you learn to listen with the ears of your heart so that we may all grow close to the Source of Life.

[Watch for the upcoming blogs on A Place of Prayer and Listening With The Ears of Your Heart.]

Without A Vision The People Perish

I think that an ancient proverb from the Middle East recorded in Proverbs 29:18a is a proverb for our time. Everywhere we look there appears to be chaos and we have been cut off from our roots. Without knowledge of where we came from, we have trouble telling where we are and thence don’t know where we are going. In other words without a Vision the people perish.

It is probable that this means without knowledge of the Divine Will and communication with the Ground of All Being we become cut off from who we are and who we were created to be. We flail about unable to find a course to our life, a purpose in this chaos, or meaning in … well, anything.

Religion has a bad rap these days but I find it interesting that “Religio” (the root from which the word has grown) means “to bind us back.” To bind us back to our roots. This is essential because without its roots a tree doesn’t grow. Similarly if we are unaware of our own roots and foundational beliefs we become lost and confused. Religion, properly conceived should bind us back to the Source of All Life/The Ground of Being/Das Ding An Sich – or The Thing in Itself or as the book says: I am that I am. We humans become too hung up on names and outer trappings like ritual, names of the Divine, and even each others skin color and tend to overlook deeper connection and meaning. The very connection and meaning that religion is intended to help us create with the Creator (or Creatrix if you prefer).

I have a theory about religions and you will find it on the Page: Religions. but I think at their source there is a reality that each religion stumbles toward and that is the Ground of Being. Our language is inadequate to describe it, as anyone who has had a “religious experience” and had contact with the Divine Presence knows very well. The Bible and other sacred works are our groping efforts to describe the indescribable. But it is exactly this experience of the Divine and our listening to its promptings (which the Bible says is partially reflected in our conscience,) that we find purpose and meaning. I will post guidance on centering and listening to this guidance in the days to come but I firmly believe that we are cut off from who we are and who we were meant to be.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations. – Jeremiah 1:5

By forgetting who we are and losing contact with the one who knit us together from the very first we are unable to find our path. Everywhere today we see the consequences of people, society, and religious institutions who have been cut off from their roots. They have lost their vision. We have lost the knowledge of who we are and are disconnected from the Source of Being. It is not surprising that so many don’t know who they are or why they are here. And then, depression sets in.

In my sermons I often said, “Children of the Living God remember who you are and who your father is! And then act like you remember.”

It is by remembering who we are we are guided back into a relationship with our Source and Ground of Being. It is where we find the purpose and vision to weather the trials of life and adversity and make a difference.

As I have said before, spiritual reality is a matter of poetry and song. It is emotion and feeling and not simply a mind thing but a heart thing. Here is what I was trying to say as this song sings praise to “the God of his heart.” I believe we will all find the Divine in the core of our hearts, if we center and look for it. (This one’s for you Chuck):

In thi,s the author praises the “God of His Heart” that Being which he hadthe deep and abidingexperiencef. Listen to what the author was trying to communicate of his experience that was too deep for explanation and could only be expressed in song. I know some have had troubles with people who are in churches and some doctrines. If you are one I ask you to set that aside and listen with the ears of your heart to what is being said.

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