SO HOW ABOUT MIRACLES?

This question of miracles has completely occupied my attention during the last week. I haven’t been doing too much art lately. All I seem to do is read, have a little nap to let it percolate, and then read some more. Why haven’t I come across this stuff before?

 “A Return to Love” is amazing. It is so simple and so profound and somehow indubitably true. Williamson is commenting on A Course in Miracles (by the Foundation for Inner Peace) and the course can be summed up very simply, she says.

“Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”

She further translates this for us: “Love is real. It is a creation by God and nothing can destroy it. Anything that isn’t love (like its opposite, fear) is an illusion. Remember this, and you’ll be at peace.”

Fear is illusory. Other people teach us how to feel fear. Hollywood creates movies about fear. Fear was not created by God – there is no need to feel it – it is not in the world with us. If we all believed and lived by this there would be no war, no competition, no greed, no starving children, no planet damage, and we would all live in peace. Period.

I talked to an old friend (a youthful friend of long standing) after a funeral yesterday, and she told me that my old spiritual advisor had come back to this province. How extraordinary that I should see her, (and that she has a new computer and actually gets e-mail again) and that she should tell me out of the blue that he is back again, when I have been thinking how much I would like to see him.

He was once asked by a child whether dogs go to heaven when they die, and while I can’t remember all of his answer, this is what I took away with me: 

   1. Heaven is all about love. It’s not a place but rather an awareness of peace and being surrounded by that love. We are not judged there – just loved unconditionally.

   2. Dogs give us that kind of love: even when we get angry at them, or shout, or feed them late, they still love us, and wag their tails and want to be with us.

   3. If they already know that kind of love, they don’t need to go to Heaven because they are already there - here, with us.

We have been babysitting a friend’s dog. She is gentle and obedient and she licks your face if you put yours close to hers. All she wants is to be in the room with you, and if the sun is shining, or the fire is on, she doesn’t fret – she just finds the best spot available and is at peace. I could learn a lot from this dog.

So, what does Williamson say about miracles? Well, for one thing she doesn’t believe that they can be directed (e.g. “I pray that your broken leg will instantly heal”), and I am not so sure I agree with that now. But she does believe that if you are in perfect peace, miracles can occur. Miracles reverse physical laws.  Time and space are under His command and he can break the rules when He wants. 

And being in perfect peace? How do you do that? I haven’t got there yet, but will let you know when I do!

HOW PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED

As I mentioned, I have been reading the books of Gregg Braden. In The Divine Matrix, he describes a visit to the abbot of a Tibetan monastery, whom he asks "What connects us with one another, our world, and the universe? What is the "stuff" that carries our prayers beyond our bodies and makes a difference?" The answer he got was "compassion".

Braden then asks another question: "How can that be? Is this compassion a force of nature (like some sort of energy or magnetism), or an emotional experience?"

The answer was "Compassion is what connects all things." Braden had gone half around the world, had an intensive dialogue through an interpreter involving the deepest elements of Tibetan Buddhism (as he describes it) and that's all he got.

So he goes on quizzing the interpreter (also a monk) and asks the same question "Is compassion a force of creation or is it an experience?" And the monk thinks for a long time and then says "it is both." So finally Braden understands something about what connects us to everything in the universe, as well as the quality that makes our feelings and emotions so powerful - they are one and the same.

I believe this is what was happening when Christ performed his healing miracles; it was the power of his compassion that rearranged the molecules (or whatever) that made the blind see and the lame walk and the leprosy disappear, and in his deep compassion, he was able to do this instantly. I also think that it was his training of the disciples that allowed them to do the same – and that it explains other modern “medical miracles”.

I think Braden is right when he says that this knowledge was known to the early Christians, but "tremendous liberties were taken over the centuries with the ancient authors' words and intent" (when translating the writings into our modern day Bible). The example he gives is the “ask and ye shall receive “ passage from John 16:

“Whatsoever ye ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full.”

In the Essene gospel (of Thomas?), however, there is more: "All things that you ask straightly, directly … from inside My name … you will be given. So far you haven’t done this … [here is the bit missing from John] - So ask without hidden motive and be surrounded by your answer - be enveloped by what you desire, that your gladness may be full".

I have found one other reference to prayer already being granted as we pray, and that is in Mark's gospel. Translations vary slightly, but in my Standard Revised Version, Mark 11:24 reads: "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Other translations, like the American Standard Version read "Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."

I am less certain that the last meaning was what was intended, because this clearly doesn't happen. I believe Christ wanted more from us when we pray than just giving him a shopping list, and I also believe that some of us are better "pray-ers" than others. If we knew how powerful we could be and were able to empty ourselves of all our personal agendas and other emotions, and fill our hearts totally with compassion, I think we could do it too.

(This reminds me of that passage by Marianne Williamson:

 "Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.' We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles", Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3)

As I am writing this, I have just received Williamson’s book from Amazon. All this may be already known to many who read this, but I am learning how much I need to learn.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Well, if it doesn't turn out to be a happy one, then at least it will be a significant one.

I have had three acupuncture treatments so far, and you know what? They are making a difference. My acupuncturist’s name is Jason, and he trained in acupuncture after doing martial arts as a boy. Which actually I think is rather cool - it’s not such a stretch, when you think about it; the vulnerable points on an opponent’s body are also the sensitive ones, and those are the ones when the chi energy is apparently the most accessible. He showed me a tai chi move called (I think) Rolling the Ball, and when he prepared his stance, you could see the martial arts warrior!

At our first appointment, I told Jason about my heart problems, and what western medicine so far had revealed - the underperforming left ventricle, the bundle branch block, the shortness of breath, etc. Then Jason checked me out and said it seemed to him that it wasn’t the heart that was so much in trouble as the pericardium (which Chinese medicine considers an organ, but western medicine does not). It’s the sheath that surrounds the heart, and Jason said it seemed very hard and he wondered if it was actually constricting the heart. He also said that maybe we should begin by treating the spleen, where the fluids seemed very turgid. I think that was the word he used – it didn’t sound very pleasant, anyway, and he clearly felt this needed attention. Okay.

The spleen filters the blood and does other useful things like help to fight off infection. So there is a connection to the heart, and if the spleen is in trouble, the heart and liver have to take over some of its duties. That it should need some TLC makes sense to me, especially since while I never felt any pain or twinges in my heart, when I was really sick I did sometimes get little stabs under my ribcage on the left side. And wouldn’t you know, that’s where the spleen is.

Now, I try to be a compliant patient. So I asked about diet, and what I can do to help the spleen. “Congee” says Jason. What? It’s slow-cooked rice, like cooked all night in a slow cooker. You eat it as often as possible throughout the day, warm, especially first thing in the morning. Cut out the dairy products (which I know from experience causes phlegm to collect in your throat). Cut out the extremes of hot and cold. (Oh boy, there goes ice cream AND cheese!). No vegetables or fruits eaten in a raw state. (No salad, no nibbling while I am cutting up veggies, no apple a day! This is going to be harder than I thought.) No “over consumption” of animal products. Well at least I have a bit of latitude here – that means I can still have chicken (it’s a bird) and fish. I ask tentatively about chocolate, with warning in my tone. Jason considers this, and says a little a day is okay because it’s good for the spirit.

So, I am now trying to restore balance to the spleen. I go home and since we don’t (or didn’t then) have a slow cooker, I cook a cup of long grain rice as slowly as I can in a double boiler, and store it in the fridge. Each morning I sprinkle it with slivered almonds and raisins and zap it in the microwave for 30 seconds, have it for breakfast, and this I proudly tell Jason at the next session. WRONG. It seems that zapping it damages the chi. Okay then for the next week I carefully warm it up in a small bowl in water in a saucepan instead of nuking it (I am still working through that first cup of rice].

I am missing the point, says Jason. I need to eat warm food that has been carefully prepared for my spleen and not just warm it up in a hurry and get on with my busy day. You can get a slow cooker in Zehrs for $14.99, he says. I give in (in spite of the fact that my husband has said he’s not going to bed to sleep for 8 hours while there is a electric kitchen appliance doing its thing all night, especially if it’s only cooking some minute quantity of rice) and go to the biggest Zehrs in town. There indeed is one slow cooker sitting on the shelf, priced at $14.99. So I get it. In both senses of the phrase. Congee isn’t that bad, and I can cook it first thing in the morning and then eat it throughout the day.  And I can vary rice with oatmeal, which I can probably get my husband to eat. And I can add it to soup which His Lordship will eat as well.

Well, things are getting better. I do have less phlegm. And the other day I was able to run up the 10 stairs from our basement without stopping. And I can walk down the slight hill into the river valley and then up the other side without breaking my stride. I wasn’t able to do either of these things two months ago.

Here’s a picture of the meridians than govern the spleen. I noticed when I first saw this diagram that they are shown from the right side, and this brought me up with a jolt. Every major injury I have ever had is on that meridian, on my right side: the big toe I am always stubbing, the ankle I injured on stage, the knee cap I broke in a car accident, me appendectomy, and this little cyst thing on my shoulder!

Which brings me to something else that happened on Wednesday. Jason put a ring of needles around this little lump (which my doc has said is harmless, and just a little fluid filled cyst) and after 20 minutes about half of it had disappeared! This is something I have lived with for about a year and a half. He called it circling the dragon. I am becoming a true believer. My baby sister, who knows it is hard for me to do what I am told, says she is sure Jason will fix me one way or the other – either with the treatments, or with a martially artistic blow if I misbehave.

A couple of days later I went to see a friend who asked after my health. When I told her, she asked if I had “vented my spleen”. I was a little taken aback (it sounds so rude!) and then I thought that if that means being really angry about something and getting rid of it by totally losing control, yes I have often lost my temper in the past. Oh dear, do I now need to see a shrink or do more meditation to figure out what I am so angry about? More reading, more work! I am still thinking about this - more soon.