LIVING AUTHENTICALLY IN CHALLENGING TIMES

“Whatever happens, stay alive. Don’t die before you’re dead. Don’t lose yourself, don’t lose hope, don’t lose direction.

Stay alive, with yourself, with every cell of your body, with every fiber of your skin. 

Stay alive, learn, study, think, read, build, invent, create, speak, write, dream, design.

Stay alive, stay alive inside you, stay alive also outside, fill yourself with colors of the world, fill yourself with peace, fill yourself with hope.

Stay alive with joy. 

There is only one thing you should not waste in life, and that’s life itself.”

~Virginia Woolf

Lots to be concerned about in the world today. While I don’t want to minimize any of it, I do want to remind you that it is more important that you not minimize yourself – your wisdom, your strength, your grit – during these times.

As far as I know, there has never been a time in human history when there were no challenges, no difficult people, no people who saw things differently, no natural disasters, no storms.

What makes these times different is our access to nearly instantaneous information about most, if not everything on the planet. This abundance of information is available on devices we carry with us throughout our day. We don’t have to go to a special place to access this information, or wait for the morning or evening editions of the newspapers, or the network television news, or for our neighbors to fill us in. It’s all streaming in the present moment.

Now, I know that a fair amount of this information is not accurate, sometimes because all the information is not available yet, sometimes because of innocent mistakes, and sometimes because of deliberate withholding or falsification. So, some of what we get isn’t true.

Of course, it has always been the case that false or mistaken information existed, and in each technological era there have been challenges in determining what is accurate and true.

“What we see depends mainly on what we look for.”

~ John Lubbock 

Which brings me to the topic of the post – how do we live a good and positive life in challenging times?

I think the answer is pretty much what it has always been, do your best to develop a healthy self-concept – to see yourself with radical honesty and to experience your own inner genius. Then, bring that awareness to the challenges the times.

Finding and living from that authentic center happens emotionally:

“Emotional intelligence is about so much more than recognizing, naming, honoring, feeling and expressing your authentic emotions. It also consists of alchemizing and transmuting them, releasing the heart wall, healing the emotional body and developing emotional regulation skills.”

~ Mary Amhasnaa

It happens in recognizing the validity of your own story:

“Never for the sake of convenience or acceptance give up the authenticity of your journey.”

~ Bishop Yvette Flunder

The authentic center brings with it your authentic voice:

“The voice of doubt, shame, and guilt blaring in our heads is not our voice. It is a voice we have been given by a society steeped in shame. It is the ‘outside voice.’ Our authentic voice, our ‘inside voice,’ is the voice of radical self-love!”

~ Sonya Renee Taylor, The Body Is Not an Apology

And the realization of the authentic self carries us through our suffering:

“Jung observed that a neurosis is always found in the flight from authentic suffering. Naturally, no one wants to suffer, but Jung’s observation suggests that there is a distinction between authentic and inauthentic suffering.”

~ James Hollis

When I am centered in the realization of my authentic self, I find qualities such as love, courage despite fear, clarity of purpose, the ability to see people as they are, and the recognition of what is mine to do. It brings me into my own power.

“Power is about presence. It’s the energy of knowing that you are who you are and speaking and acting from your authentic self. It doesn’t matter what your work is; it is your presence that’s the power…the expression of who you are.”

~ Marion Woodman

We are called in these times, in our times, to be immense. To face our fears and demand that humanity become The Beloved Community. Perhaps not in this time, or even our own lifetimes, but the seeds which have been planted by countless ancestors need to be nurtured and kept alive even as we plant more seeds day by day.

The point of this essay is this:

SPIRITUAL BELIEF WITHOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH AND STABILITY IS DANGEROUS TO YOURSELF AND OTHERS.

We must develop our emotional intelligence along with our spiritual growth, doing this by beginning with our inner work, our spiritual practices, to recognize and call forth our inner power, wisdom, and love to be applied with clarity to the challenges we face. And by seeking psychological and emotional development, if not via our spiritual community, from other trusted sources.

From this place of realization of who we authentically are, we speak truth to power; we stand for fairness, justice, and equality; and we act in accordance with what we know to be right.

“The question is not why are we so infrequently the people we really want to be, but why do we so infrequently want to be the people we really are. Living a life of fulfillment that offers something of value to the world starts with radical self-knowledge, self-awareness and self-acceptance. Our task is to be who we are at the deepest level of being.”

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance

As always, your comments are welcome. Please share with others who may be interested.

Copyright 2026 – Jim Lockard

ON INTEGRITY

Integrity is a shared process.

Integrity is interrelational.

Integrity is contextual.

Integrity is integrating.

Integrity is unscripted.

Integrity is a kind of super-attention.

Integrity is watching for the cracks in what you thought you knew.

Integrity is willingness to learn together.

~ Nora Bateson

Integrity is an important word and concept. It is critically important in spiritual and religious circles. Without integrity there can be no real spiritual growth in an individual or group. You can say that integrity is integral to attaining true fulfillment as a spiritual student.

The revelation that spiritual guru Deepak Chopra is mentioned multiple times in the email files linked to the Jeffrey Epstein case is, at a minimum, disturbing (LINK). A deeper dive into the situation, including how often so-called spiritual celebrities have difficulty maintaining integrity is here (LINK).

“My intent is to be generous of spirit and live with total integrity every day of my life.”
~ Deepak Chopra

“There is no such thing as a minor lapse of integrity.”
~ Tom Peters

I have often considered some spiritual celebrities as conduits to New Thought for many people. Author Wayne Dyer was such a way shower for me, leading me to being open enough to explore the Science of Mind in the 1980’s. I am grateful for that, and for much of the wisdom that Dyer shared over the years, even though he had his own lapses of integrity, including this (LINK).

One of the most disturbing factors of the crimes associated with Jeffrey Epstein and his wide circle of influential friends and clients is the extent to which such horrific behavior went on and was widely known (and therefore condoned). The victims numbered in the hundreds, and almost all were children at the time. The perpetrators number in the dozens, perhaps even the hundreds, and include world and business leaders. What all of this says about our society is worthy of deep reflection.

But our own house in spirituality and religion is far from perfect. The victims of failures of integrity by religious leaders number in the millions. This has been compounded by the repeated failure of those responsible to demand accountability by transgressors. And even when accountability has occurred, the results are often kept confidential allowing the perpetrators to relocate and offend again. Such violations of trust drive people from spiritual communities.

“As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can’t see how it is.”
~ Ram Dass

We in spiritual communities and organizations have an interest in thinking of ourselves as good people, and we have an interest in being spiritual, which often means to be “nice,” no matter what. I have seen spiritual leaders who were toxic (LINK) protected by congregants, boards, and organizations. This was done for reasons including personal loyalty, a desire not to have a scandal revealed, or a sense that accusations must be proven beyond a doubt.

We in New Thought are nice people as a rule. We tend to think that we live in a friendly, even moral, universe and that people are basically good. We often pay a severe price for these beliefs.

“The opposite of reflexive niceness is integrity.”
~ James Hollis, Jungian analyst

Let’s look at these beliefs:

Our universe is not friendly or moral. It is evolutionary and amoral. We exist in our current forms because of violent collisions of planets, stars, and galaxies which allowed more complex elements to be formed and spread over wide distances. We exist in our current forms because of biological evolution, whose processes toward greater complexity and adaptation have resulted in the extinction of over 99% of all the species which have existed on earth. And we know that we are a transitional species, just as all others are; we will either evolve to more complex and well-adapted beings or become extinct as an evolutionary dead-end. Evolution is careless of the individual and of the species by nature.

Morality does not appear in our universe except as a human invention. Other species may and do cooperate, but they do so as a survival mechanism. Humans are capable of moral thought and actions, but it is something which must be learned and reinforced in the social structures around us. It too, is an evolutionary adaptation.

People have the capacity to be good and moral, but any number of things can limit that capacity, sometimes severely. We know scientifically that psychopaths have little or no ability for moral action or regret due to brain injuries, often occurring when in childhood. Research has shown that most psychopaths and sociopaths are incapable of regaining a sense of morality through any known treatments.

Of course, everyone who commits a violation of integrity does not have a physical condition limiting their capacity. In most cases, people simply decide to act out of integrity, usually by using rationalization. Everyone has done something out of integrity; most of us just about every day in some minor or significant way. It is important to remember that such actions are the result of a divided self, a self which is not integral.

Spiritual study and practices are in large part about realizing one’s wholeness, one’s integrity. To be in integrity means to be in your deepest truth. As that truth is realized more and more, it means to refuse to participate in behaviors which are out of integrity. It also means to speak out for integrity and justice and love in every community to which one belongs.

The Beloved Community does not tolerate behaviors which are out of integrity. Therefore, it requires people who are compassionate to fulfill their potential. We cannot be truly compassionate if we are out of integrity in our own lives; our communities cannot be compassionate if members are silent or complicit in behaviors which are out of integrity.

Our spiritual gurus know this yet often fail. We know this yet often fail. Our compassion is the only thing that can lead us to the realization of our true spiritual potential.

“Contradictions, whether personal or social, that could once remain hidden are coming unstoppably to light. It is getting harder to uphold a divided self….The trend toward transparency that is happening on the systems level is also happening in our personal relationships and within ourselves. Invisible inconsistencies, hiding, pretense, and self-deception show themselves as the light of attention turns inward….The exposure and clearing of hidden contradictions brings us to a higher degree of integrity, and frees up prodigious amounts of energy that had been consumed in the maintenance of illusions. What will our society be capable of, when we are no longer wallowing in pretense?”
~ Charles Eisenstein

Copyright 2025 – Jim Lockard

THE UNCERTAINTY OF BEING

“So, the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs then, because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe.”
~ Isasc Asimov

“The research literature has identified three factors that universally lead to stress: uncertainty, the lack of information and the loss of control.”
~ Gabor Maté

“When the Body Says No“

Many of our problems and issues come from an inner need for certainty. This need leads to fear, addictions, belief in conspiracy theories, codependency, and so on. Spiritual growth is largely about coming to terms with the uncertainties of life and of being human, for mystery is at the heart of reality. Spiritual growth is coming to terms the nature of reality as it is.

“Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.”
~ Hugh Mackay 

We live in uncertain times, but all times have been and will be uncertain. It is our challenge in becoming healthy, mature, functioning people – to learn to survive and thrive in uncertainty and imperfection. The wonderful book “The Spirituality of Imperfection” speaks to this:

“To be human is to be incomplete, yet yearn for completion; it is to be uncertain, yet long for certainty; to be imperfect, yet long for perfection; to be broken, yet crave wholeness.”
~ Ernest Kurtz & Katherin Ketcham

“The Spirituality of Imperfection“

In New Thought, we are often encouraged to be certain. “First at home, in the silence of our own thought, let us heal ourselves of fear, of doubt, of uncertainty.” ~ Ernest Holmes, Observations (LINK)

We do want to be certain about the nature of God, about living in an abundant universe, about there being unlimited good in potential. But while all good may exist in potential, none of us can have all of it. A mature view would say there is little certainty about how to go about realizing our good to fully experience it.

This is often where our spiritual faith conflicts with the knowledge of the world around us. Science tells us that the universe is impersonal while religion often says it is loving and beneficent. Science says that we are subject of physical laws while religion says that we can literally raise the dead or move mountains if our faith is sufficient.

“My scientist friends have come up with things like ‘principles of uncertainty’…But many religious folks insist on answers that are always true. We love closure, resolution and clarity…How strange that the very word ‘faith’ has come to mean its exact opposite.”
~ Richard Rohr

Perhaps one reason why our spiritual communities are losing members is that too many of us insist on a degree of certainty which is counter to the lived experience of our students. We assume that if something good happens or if something bad happens, it can only be the result of some set of beliefs within the person or group affected. That not only is cause and effect the sole way the universe operates (it isn’t), but that the principle of cause and effect is both linear and identifiable as it functions.

Our desire or need to be certain about things in an uncertain reality leads us to demand to know why bad things happen to good people and vice versa. So we attribute a proficient or deficient “consciousness” based upon our external observations of someone’s experience (or of our own). We feel that we must believe we can be certain of the outcome we desire and must follow a specific path to attain it. It is one of our greatest errors.

“Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later.”
~ Bob Goff

“To stay with shakiness — to stay with a broken heart, with a rumbling stomach, with the feeling of hopelessness — that is the path of true awakening. Sticking with that uncertainty, getting the knack of relaxing in the midst of chaos, learning not to panic — this is the spiritual path.”
~ Pema Chödrön

“When Things Fall Apart“

Spiritual growth is always away from an excess of self-regard and toward a true sense of humility. We do have a powerful capacity to set the direction of our lives by the way that we think, but we ought not to develop the hubris to believe that power to be absolute. We are subject to many things, many forces in our environment, including physical laws, the collective intelligence of the beings around us, and our own unknowable unconscious drives and repressions. To be humble is to know that and recognize that the life we craft is always a collective effort in a largely unknowable realm of consciousness. It is to know that I am not a victim of life, but a participant in an ongoing experience of becoming.

Affirmations:

I learn to expect the best and to remain in balance when something different manifests.

I let go of the excessive burden of the false belief that I am completely responsible for what happens in my life.

I release the assumptions that something is wrong with me if my life is not manifesting perfectly.

I am more and more comfortable living in the mystery, the uncertainty, and the adventure of life!

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”
~ Isaac Asimov

Copyright 2025 – Jim Lockard

GRATITUDE IS PROACTIVE

“. . . for all tomorrow’s good
May rest today upon your gratitude,
For he who gives thanks before the wine
Is pressed from grapes still clinging to the vine
Has shown a faith above, beyond the present hour
And his thanksgiving holds the future flower.”
~ from “The Voice Celestial” by Ernest and Fenwicke Holmes

Ernest Holmes, the developer of The Science of Mind (LINK) philosophy and the founder of Religious Science/Centers for Spiritual Living, was largely a synthesizer of ancient wisdom and modern psychology. He did not originate most of what he wrote and spoke about but put things together from various sources in a way which created a practical approach to spiritual realization. He was eternally curious, seeking out new wisdom throughout his life.

One thing which is unique to his teachings, as far as I can tell, is seeing gratitude as a proactive expression – in other words, when we are deeply grateful in advance for what we seek, we bring more energy into our manifestation – we create a strong consciousness of positive expectation. While it is easy to leave a focus on gratitude behind as we move from November to December, we do well to remember our New Thought principle of gratitude as an active and proactive element in our everyday lives.

“The feeling of gratitude is among the strongest and most affirmative spiritual energies at your command.  When you feel a deep sense of gratitude…you are actually focusing your creative energy and bringing it to bear on your life.”
~Rev. David Owen Ritz

If my use of mental science is to be most effective, I need to recognize the power of gratitude in advance of manifestation. When I am truly grateful for what I am seeking in advance, I create a stronger consciousness of expectation within myself. Doubts about manifesting my desire are erased as I repeat my spiritual mind treatments with the gratitude step (Step 4 in the Five-Step Treatment Process).

“And the days that I keep my gratitude higher than my expectations, I have really good days.”
~ Ray Wylie Hubbard

It was at this point in writing this post that I had a spell of vertigo and ended up in the emergency room of the Hôpital Croix-Rousse here in Lyon for the rest of my Sunday. Apparently, all is well, but during the 7+ hours in the ER, which was mostly waiting, I did have time to ponder how gratitude can be a creative force, even when appearances are not positive. Or maybe, especially when appearances are not positive.

“When life is sweet, say thank you and celebrate. And when life is bitter, say thank you and grow.”
~ Shanuna Niequist

Rather than catastrophizing thinking, which is easy for many of us to do, I steered my thoughts toward gratitude. Gratitude for the four members amazing ambulance team, one of whom spoke excellent English, for assessing me so well and giving me the experience of riding to the hospital with the siren on! Gratitude for the excellent French healthcare system, and the Croix-Rousse complex which serves the northern half of Lyon so well. Grateful for the ER staff, who despite a heavy workload (an ambulance every 15 minutes or so, plus lots of walk-ins), did their jobs professionally.

And grateful for my own support system – Dorianne and our friends, who were there for me. Finally, grateful for this philosophy, the Science of Mind, which I have worked diligently to embody, and which served me so well in maintaining a consciousness of healing during this event. AND: GRATEFUL FOR MY HEALING WHICH WAS ALREADY PRESENT!

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”
~Meister Eckhart

Gratitude in advance, in order to be truly effective, must be accompanied by a consciousness of positive expectation. And while things do not always turn out as envisioned and there are no guarantees in life, this consciousness of expectation and gratitude is powerful and puts the odds in my favor. Our difficulties show up in life to call forth some quality yet unexpressed, so gratitude in times of difficulty, as difficult as it may be, can speed the process of expressing that quality and to a fuller experience of life. The creation of your life experience does not happen without your involvement in each unfolding instant.

Therefore, while Thanksgiving is past, and we are moving to the end of the “Month of Gratitude” in November, it is really important to keep a consciousness of gratitude active in our daily lives. I will close with one of Ernest Holmes’ more practical quotes:

“Always come to a complete conclusion when giving a treatment. Always feel that it is done, complete and perfect, and give thanks for the answer.…The treatment should be repeated daily until a healing takes place. If it takes 5 minutes, 5 hours, 5 days, or 5 years, the treatment must be kept up until a healing is accomplished. This is the only method we know. It is not enough to SAY that everything is all right. This is true in Principle, but in fact and in human experience, it is only as true as we make it. Treat until you get results. A healing takes place when the patient is no longer sick, and until such time, mental work should be done.”
~ Ernest Holmes

As always, your comments are welcomed. Please share this post with others who may be interested; and if you are so inclined, sign up to be notified when posts are published on this blog.

Copyright 2023 – Jim Lockard 

HOW TERRIBLY STRANGE TO BE 70

“The fates lead him who will; him who won’t they drag.” 

~ Joseph Campbell

The famous line from the Simon & Garfunkel song “Old Friends” has finally come upon me (LINK). I was 18 or 19 the first time I heard it, on the “Bookends” album on 8-Track cassette as a student at the University of Maryland. Seems like yesterday, or earlier this morning, to me now.

We are funny about aging in our culture. We deny it, ignore it, fear it, loathe it, and sometimes, we long for it. When it comes, as it inevitably does, we are surprised by it, as I was at the number of old men who attended my 50^th high school reunion two years ago. I was even more surprised by the twenty percent of the graduating class of 1969 who were on the in memorium board. I looked it up and the statistics were about right.

We are funny about a lot of things in our culture, as Lillian Schneider points out below. While we have our individual quirks, preferences, and tendencies, we tend to be more a part of the collective than we may want to admit.

“Single people want relationships, settled people wonder if they’re missing out on something, traveling types miss stability, stable ones are restless, old friends want new friends, new friends miss old friends, and basically almost everyone my age has some dangling worry trailing around after them everywhere that they’re somehow not doing everything, that what they’re doing is not altogether the right thing, that they are missing out. … Do not be ashamed. The doubt is natural, and everyone you know – yes, even that person – carries it sometimes too. Allow yourself to be peaceful. Allow yourself satisfaction in what you have. If you really don’t like it, allow yourself permission to make changes.”

~ Lillian Schneider

If I have any wisdom to impart due to my longevity, it would be to pay attention to what Joseph Campbell said in that opening quote. The fates he speaks of are our own inner fates – who we came here to be as Dr. Gary Simmons puts it so uniquely and so well. When we fail to be who we came here to be, either because we never really discover who that is, or because we do discover it and resist embodying and expressing it for some reason, it makes for an unhappy life. Campbell speaks of living joyfully in the sorrows of the world, and he is right about that, too. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can learn to live in joy – not by ignoring the suffering, but by realizing our own worth and making ourselves able to do something about it. That’s a tall order, but an increasingly essential one.

The main influences on me, aside from relatives and friends, have been Joseph Campbell, Ernest Holmes, and Carl Jung. I would include the branches which have emerged from each of them, so others as well. They helped me to realize my own power and my own limitations and gave me ways to heal what needed healing within me (still a work in progress). For me, the greatest healings have come via teaching and writing, ostensibly for others, but for myself most of all. We do teach what we need to learn if we are wise enough to realize that path. An elder once told me that the purpose of the Science of Mind teaching was to learn how to die. He said that the teaching did that by teaching us how to live fully by realizing our divine nature and that we have everything we need within us.

“The great secret is to embody something essential in our lives. Then, undefeated by age, we can proceed with dignity and meaning, and, as the end approaches, be ready ‘to die with life’. For the goal of old age is not senility, but wisdom.”

~ Anthony Stevens

Now, at 70, I am very healthy for my age, on no medications so far, fortunately. I am noticing general aches and pains on a more regular basis, my memory is becoming a bit less dependable than it was earlier in life, it’s time to get new glasses, I wear hearing aids, and I have never been happier. Well, I was pretty happy as a young boy, blessed with imperfect parents who were perfect about letting me know they loved me. But I know that my memories of those times are selective.

Ernest Holmes wrote that there is no such thing as a mistake, an often-misunderstood idea. What he meant, I believe, is that every choice we make has consequences and that we are always at choice to move in a different direction. This idea was reinforced in the book “The Power of Decision” by Raymond Charles Barker. We are always in the flow of life and each decision is a choice as to how to move forward. Also, to know that indecision is a decision to stay in place (which is actually impossible). We are best served by combining being decisive with the deep inner work necessary to support making wise and compassionate decisions more of the time.

I have come to believe that if there is a secret to a fulfilling life, it is to find ways to live authentically, in joy, AND to be a force for good in the world. To live joyfully in the sorrows of the world is to find your inner, authentic sense of self and to develop meaningful ways to contribute to the greater good. When we sacrifice ourselves to too great a degree or when we live selfish, detached lives, we are out of balance.

Another bit of wisdom from Joseph Campbell which has also been misunderstood, is to follow your bliss. Joseph defines bliss as that inner authenticity, the divine nature at the depth of our being. When we bring that forward and live from it, our lives have meaning and purpose. It takes lots of inner work to find and follow your bliss.

“You will evolve past certain people. Let yourself.”

~ Mindy Hale

I hope that you continue to evolve – to grow in your capacities for wisdom and compassion. That is the goal, if there is a goal in this life: to be fully expressed as an authentic version of yourself, living from a being state of connection and a healthy self-concept. That has been my path, imperfectly trodden to be sure, but my north star has been what Holmes, Campbell, Jung, and others have described. You will know when you are on the path and you will know when you have strayed or gotten stuck. Pay attention to those signals, which come from your soma (body) and your emotions.

“One great thing about growing old is that nothing is going to lead to anything. Everything is of the moment.”

~ Joseph Campbell

How terribly strange to be 70. How terribly wonderful to come to terms with the aging process; to learn how to die by learning how to live fully. To release the striving for money, fame, respect, attention, or anything else. To be in what Carl Jung called the second adulthood – a place of being, not a place of striving.

As always, your comments are welcomed. Please share this post with others who may be interested.

Copyright 2021 – Jim Lockard

A MATURE SPIRITUALITY REQUIRES A MATURE PERSON, PART 4

“We do not grow absolutely, chronologically. We grow sometimes in one dimension, and not in another; unevenly. We grow partially. We are relative. We are mature in one realm, childish in another. The past, present, and future mingle and pull us backward, forward, or fix us in the present. We are made up of layers, cells, constellations.”

~ Anaïs Nin

In Part 1 (LINK), Part 2 (LINK), and Part 3 (LINK) of this series, we have looked at what spiritual and psychological maturity is and why it is important, both for our individual development and mastery and for us to be able to contribute more effectively to the greater good. In this final post, we explore how we develop that maturity.

As practitioners of New Thought teachings, we learn that we think into the Absolute and, when we come to trust that process, we manifest consistently at the level of our trust. What I am describing as spiritual maturity is just that – coming into alignment with our deepest truth through spiritual/psychological practices. By alignment, I mean an integral connection and realization based on the development of trust (faith) over time.

Ironically and paradoxically, such maturity cannot come via a path based on the certainty of fundamentalism, or certainty. Our psychological and spiritual development depend on an enlargement of our consciousness which can embrace ambiguity and uncertainty. As a religious scientist, the only thing I can feel certain about is that the Law of Mind works perfectly. Everything else is subject to change, growth, misinterpretation, or the fact that I can’t possibly know everything about anything.

“To live authentically, we often have to leave behind the reasonable, sensible option, and learn to live with the pervasive uncertainty and, sometimes, the seeming madness of the unique path and calling presented to us.”

~ Keiron Le Grice

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”

~ Voltaire

Doubt is not pleasant, but it is essential. Our ability to question everything without losing our center must grow if we are to mature spiritually. We must let go of our fear of pushing the boundaries of what we believe to be true or of what we have been told by others.

So, what do I have to know and do to develop spiritual maturity? Here are a few things:

1. I have to know that I don’t know, and will never know, everything, or, really, much of anything. But that I can know enough to live my life more fully by tapping into the inner wisdom which lies deep within me and seeks expression through me. I can know that Spirit/God is already fully present within, through, and as me.
2. I have to know and come to terms with the reality that suffering cannot be avoided. The journey to maturity will take me through some difficult experiences and realizations. I have a lot of repressed stuff or shadow to reveal and heal and that is both very rewarding, and very unpleasant.
3. I have to know that my spiritual growth is an individual journey, but that I require others – as teachers, mentors, disruptors, foils, supporters, etc. to help point me to what I need to know and experience. This will come in forms both clear and helpful and also confusing and hurtful. I must learn to discern the difference.
4. I have to know that I am a being with existence in both physical reality and spiritual reality and that spiritual reality is not bound by the boundaries of my skin nor by time or space. I need to hold a space in consciousness for the mystery and magic of Spirit, and to trust that my spiritual aspect contains everything I need to live fully in my physical aspect.
5. I need to know that if I am to develop spiritual maturity that there are many pitfalls along the path:
   • As I develop, I may be seen as a threat or a disappointment to people important to me.
   • As I develop, my values will change, sometimes radically, shifting what is important to me.
   • Many if not most other people around me will not take the journey to become spiritually mature.
   • No single spiritual teaching or pathway is likely to meet all of my needs as I grow and develop.
   • My ego is sneaky as long as I have a lot of shadow; it will try to trick me into behavior which is out of alignment with my Soul’s agenda.
   • Conversely, until I have invited my intuitive knowing into my experience and accepted it, my Soul’s agenda will seem contrary to what I currently believe, or as too much for me to accept.
6. I must do regular spiritual practices, deepening them over time.
7. I must do shadow work, ideally with a Jungian or depth psychologist (LINK).
8. I must develop a sense of self-compassion, never letting myself “off the hook,” but doing my work from an increasing sense of self-love.
9. I must take a disciplined approach to this work, recognizing that it takes great courage, and commit to my own well-being as I work to bring my unconscious and conscious minds into alignment with my Soul’s agenda.
10. I will find that as I progress in my development of spiritual and psychological maturity, I am less likely to feel the need to defend my opinions or to “correct” the opinions of others. I will come to take such things lightly, recognizing that the need to correct others is usually a way of not looking at my own limitations. Not feeling the need to correct is a sign that my ego is shifting to a more mature consciousness; it does not mean I do not care, it means I am growing up.

In closing this series, I trust that I am inspiring you to open and deepen your own personal inquiry into self-exploration at depth. We are talking about deep work, so it will not be for everyone (this series of posts has so far had a low number of readers compared to others I have done). You will know if it is for you. If you are unsure, give this approach a try and see how it resonates with you. If you feel increasingly uncomfortable, but know there is a purpose to the work, then it is for you.

“Do not seek illumination unless you seek it as a man whose hair is on fire seeks a pond.” 

~ Ramakrishna

“God is closer to us, the mystics say, than our breath. Closer than we are to ourselves. St. John of the Cross says, ‘We are in God like a stone is in the earth . . . already in the Center.’ There is no way to get any closer to God than we already are. The spiritual life, then, is not about actually coming closer to God but rather the realization of the communion and union that already exists, and always has, and always will, forever.”

~ Gerald May

As always, your comments are appreciated. Please feel free to share this post with others who may be interested.

Copyright 2021 – Jim Lockard

HERE AND NOW – REMEMBER THE BASICS

Americans are dying

We cannot travel anywhere

Our infection rate is catastrophic

We have no coordination among states or our federal government. 

We are isolated. 

We are sick. 

We are the laughing stock of other countries. 

We are broken. 

This did not have to happen.

@SarahBCalif

I have not written a post for a while.

Like many, if not all, of you, I have been trying to process what is happening in the world currently, especially in the United States. As the words above illustrate, we are in a time of major challenges across a wide spectrum, from the pandemic, lockdown, and its health crisis; to the protests and government response; to rising warnings about climate change and ecosystem collapse – all subject to being misrepresented for ideological and economic reasons. Add the degree of political conflict and the ongoing issues of racism, sexism, gender bias, and classism to the list and you can see how this is both the result and secondary cause of a growing mental health crisis – with more and more people seeking solace in conspiracy theories and acting out in sometimes violent anti-social ways. Add to these things a Federal government which has no idea how to encourage higher social and cultural development while actually working to make some things worse.

One reason why I have not written a post for longer than usual is that I keep seeking some “bigger” wisdom: something more appropriate for these times. I do not want to retreat into platitudes or “feel-good” spirituality, because those seem somehow inadequate for the moment. As I write these words, my inner voice speaks up and gently reminds me that there is no big or small in Spirit. And, of course, that is true.

“There is One Mind, that Mind is God. That Mind is your Mind now. This Mind is always inspired with Confidence. It has no fears, no doubts, no uncertainties. God in you leads, directs and governs you at all times. The Spirit is never hurried, never worried, never afraid. Infinite happiness and Joy belong to the eternal Spirit in which you move and have your Being.”

~ Ernest Holmes audio recording on Confidence

We are clearly in a time of great upheaval, a turbulent time of change for human societies. When added to the challenges of everyday life, it can seem to be insurmountable. Big can seem very big, indeed.

“There is a longing that burns at the root of spiritual practice. This is the fire that fuels your journey. The romantic suffering you pretend to have grown out of, that remains coiled like a serpent beneath the veneer of maturity. You have studied the sacred texts. You know that separation from your divine source is an illusion. You subscribe to the philosophy that there is nowhere to go and nothing to attain, because you are already there and you already possess it.
But what about this yearning? What about the way a poem by Rilke or Rumi breaks open your heart and triggers a sorrow that could consume you if you gave in to it? You’re pretty sure this is not a matter of mere psychology. It has little to do with unresolved issues of childhood abandonment, or codependent tendencies to falsely place the source of your wholeness outside yourself. The longing is your recognition of the deepest truth that God is love and that this is all you want. Every lesser desire melts when it comes near that flame.”

~ Mirabai Starr, “Longing for the Beloved”

There is much soul-yearning today. Some yearn to return to an earlier way of being where there is more peace or certainty (or at least the illusion of these things). Many seek to break free of the restrictions and unfairness of the current social order, wanting to create a more equitable and sustainable society. While this may seem like it ought to be a straightforward process, it is happening in a time of information overload, siloed media, increasing complexity, and serious imminent threats to our ways of living. The pathway of cultural evolution becomes more complex and as a result, people grow angrier and more frustrated. There is clearly a significant mental and emotional health crisis happening. This has led to many of our current challenges, and, sadly, has all-too-often defined our reactions and responses to them.

“As bad as this virus is and as invasive as it has proven to be, what it’s exposed about us is far worse. It’s going to be a long haul to get well.”

~ John Pavlovitz (LINK)

So how are we to respond? Social media, which I do engage in, is increasingly frustrating. I feel like I want to keep reminding people to have a sense of compassion, and a sense of humor, while trying not to be triggered by some of the posts, tweets, memes, etc. We are in a time of too much information from too many sources for us to adequately comprehend and evaluate, making discernment (which is essential) increasingly more difficult. I will not withdraw, but I recognize the need to amplify my spiritual practices so as to be more available an empowered.

In my confusion I seek clarity, in my fear I seek courage, in my anger I seek calm, in my insecurity I seek strength. In all of these, I seek the realization of Spirit As Me in each unfolding moment. I seek to know the Oneness we share as I see others who are not being their best selves. Where I see injustice, I seek to bring a consciousness of justice, compassion, and equality.

I do these things though attention, intention, practice, forgiveness, and gratitude. For me this is taking more time, focus, and effort than usual. There is a wide spectrum of challenges, many of them with great depth, and I must attain and maintain a sense of equanimity so that I will come to know clearly what is mine to do (What Is #MineToDo – LINK).

As always, it begins within – how am I seeing myself, who am I being during all of this? And does that compare with who I would prefer to be? Spiritual practices are about our being nature – becoming the kind of person who naturally behaves as we would aspire to behave. BEING compassionate makes acting with compassion automatic. BEING forgiving makes forgiveness automatic. And so on.

There are no “Five Steps to a Perfect Society” available to us. We must each do our own inner work and then seek to contribute to the greater good, each in our own way as one among many. All the while, we need to avoid being drawn into the fear and negativity of those who are wounded, lost, and angry to the degree that they are incapable of being present. They may not be available to help right now and arguing with them does no one any good. I suggest taking another path. We need to be firm in our intentions and actions without losing an inner tenderness.

Affirmation: I stand strong in my deepening awareness and authenticity. I stand clear of those who are unable to contribute positively right now. I say YES to the unfolding realization of Spirit as me and I seek connection with others who share this pathway of awakening. I support justice, equality, fairness, and compassion. I bring these qualities with me wherever I am. I stand firm, but with an open heart.

Here’s a thought. Go to your bookshelves and pick up an inspirational book that you have not read in a few years. Read some of it. I think you will find that you have known what to do to BE your best self for some time. Today’s work is to realize this essential truth. These are times when it’s good to review the basics.

“The great need of our time is for people to be connected to spirit.”

~ Harold Stone

Finally, here is a list of positive ideas for the upcoming election and the ongoing “election season” to help us to stay clear, centered, and focused.

 As always, your comments are welcomed!

Copyright 2020 – Jim Lockard

 

ANNOUNCEMENT: CSLGeneva Global Connection Conference –

SAVE THE DATES!

BALANCING CERTAINTY AND HUMILITY – A PROFOUND SPIRITUAL CHALLENGE

“Our ignorance is invisible to us.”

~ David Dunning (Dunning-Kruger effect)

Sometimes in New Thought we get mixed messages. One the one hand, we are told that we need to be certain about the truth of our affirmations; on the other hand, we must learn to be humble, to admit that there is always much that we do not know. A result of this is sometimes, our teachers seem harsh in that they refuse to allow for a healing not to occur – or we do this to ourselves. And yet, we get that it is the development of a new belief, based on our ability to convince ourselves of something new – something that we want to believe (I am healthy) replacing something that we do not want to believe (I am sick).

Does humility come into the picture?

Humility: modesty, humbleness, modestness, meekness, lack of pride, lack of vanity, diffidence, unassertiveness; “he needs the humility to accept that their way may be better”

~ Dictionary.com

In an interesting article on Intellectual Humility (LINK) aimed primarily at scientific researchers, there are some good tidbits of truth for all of us. For one thing, a lack of humility is often the result of a poor self-concept. People who lack humility often brag about their accomplishments or status and have little to no tolerance for contradiction. Humility is actually about being open to truth – sometimes the truth that we are limited in our ability to know things. By accepting the fact of our ignorance, we can do something about it – we can seek to learn what we do not know, but more importantly, we can avoid acting like we know everything when we do not.

“Here’s the deep lesson to draw from all of this: Much as we might tell ourselves our experience of the world is the truth; our reality will always be an interpretation. Light enters our eyes, sound waves enter our ears, chemicals waft into our noses, and it’s up to our brains to make a guess about what it all is.”

~ Brian Resnick on Intellectual Humility at Vox.com

Some have said that to accept your ignorance – that you do not know – will increase doubt and, therefore, make it more difficult to accept healing ideas into your belief system. I would counter that the greatest Truth we can entertain – that of a Creative Intelligence, Spirit, God – is itself a mystery which is ultimately unknowable to the human mind. I can expect healing to occur as the result of affirmative prayers creating a change in consciousness without knowing the actual process by which the healing occurs – in fact, I must do this because the actual process is unknowable!

Our openness to spiritual healing is not dependent upon our ability to analyze. It is dependent on our ability to have faith in a Mystery which works beyond our ability to know. We can know the input and the output of the healing process: multi-dimensional prayers (thoughts, feelings, intention) go in and a changed physical condition comes out. We cannot know what happens in our subconscious mind, nor how the Universal gets involved – these aspects are not available to us. Attempts to analyze them are futile and can lead to doubt in the healing process. We must learn the necessary degree of faith to have in an unknown so that It will work in consciousness. Our analysis stops with the determination of how best to do affirmative prayer (Spiritual Mind Treatment). The rest is beyond our ability to control.

“Faith is not in conflict with reason, nor is it a substitute for reason. Faith chooses the grade of significance or Level of Being at which the search for knowledge and understanding is to aim. There is reasonable faith and there is unreasonable faith. To look for meaning and purpose at the level of inanimate matter would be as unreasonable an act of faith as an attempt to ‘explain’ the masterpieces of human genius as nothing but the outcome of economic interests or sexual frustration.”

~ E.F. Schumacher, A Guide for the Perplexed

We walk a fine line between the need to be analytical in aspects of our mental life and the need to trust in the mysteries of consciousness. If we give ourselves wholly to magical thinking where it is not effective, we lose ourselves in the tangible world. On the other hand, if we take a compulsive need to analyze into the realm of consciousness, we lose ourselves to that much larger realm. It is a middle path that is needed here, giving each realm its due and approaching each properly – one linear, one non-linear. Along this line is the realm of the mythological concept of The Fool – the force of “inappropriate” impulse and behavior which can aid us in traversing the realm between our two basic realities.

“I must learn to love the fool in me—the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries. It alone protects me against that utterly self-controlled, masterful tyrant whom I also harbor and who would rob me of my human aliveness, humility, and dignity but for my Fool.”

~ Theodore Isaac Rubin 

This middle path in a sense straddles the two realms and overlaps them, sometimes awkwardly. A healthy Fool is willing to look, well, foolish in service to the essence of each realm. The healthy Fool must have done work on his/her Shadow (LINK) in order to be fully available to both the tangible and the mysterious – both are needed to access the transcendent, what Jung called the numinous.

“As Jung has argued, it is the encounter with the numinous that is the true goal of therapy. So, not adaptation, not happiness, not statistical normality, but encounter with the numinous. In such encounters we are restored to our proper place in the larger order. Our journeys are reframed and repositioned. Awe and humility – the twin attitudes necessary for religious or psychological truth – bring new life to each of us, if we can bear them.”

~James Hollis, PhD, Jungian analyst, On This Journey We Call Our Life

Humility is the capacity to accept that we will know some things and not other things. It is the capacity to function well despite our ignorance. It is the ability to live in the realities of both realms of existence – the tangible and the mysterious. It is the ability to use our analytical function where it serves us best and to come to rely on faith and trust for the realm of mystery. It understands that certainty is often a way of clinging to ignorance out of fear. Humility is an essential trait on any mature spiritual pathway.

“While true understanding brings power, it brings humility. There is no feeling of mastery one over another, only over error. True words are all of love, and if I speak any other words I do not speak at all, for they are not the utterance of truth. We do not speak true words until the mortal is put quite away-hushed.”

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

As always, your comments are welcomed.

Please feel free to share this post with others who may be interested.

 

Copyright 2019 – Jim Lockard

 

EMMA CURTIS HOPKINS – NEW THOUGHT PIONEER

I will be in Budapest for the next two weeks, attending and presenting (LINK) at the Integral Europe Conference 2018, so this will very likely be my last post until I return. When I do return, I will have exciting news about a collaboration I will be doing with the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT – LINK). For now, amidst all the crisis fatigue that many of us share, let’s visit a New Thought pioneer, Emma Curtis Hopkins (September 2, 1849 – April 8, 1925).

“All your affairs, as you now look at them, represent your former way of thinking. They are held together by the glue of your former ideas. Now if you withdraw that glue, what can you expect, but that your affairs will all fall to pieces to let new affairs, representing your new way of thinking establish themselves.”

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma Curtis Hopkins (LINK) was known as the “teacher of teachers” in New Thought, for she had connections with many, if not most of the founders of the various New Thought denominations. A former protégé of Mary Baker Eddy of Christian Science, Hopkins went out on her own and began a seminary in Chicago to teach New Thought principles and spiritual healing. She firmly believed in the power of the mind to heal any condition, and her writing clearly states that conviction. I find it helpful to revisit her work often to reacquaint myself with the strength of her consciousness.

“The world will persist in exhibiting before you what you persist in affirming the world is. ‘The man who molds the vital ethers of omnipresence by right thoughts about its bounty brings forth bountifully.’”

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

Overcoming fear and doubt is the key to the development of a consciousness powerful enough to manifest whatever we seek in life. What we persist in affirming (positive or negative) brings our consciousness to a state of acceptance for that thing, and we attract it into our life by the Law of Mind. There are no exceptions to this Law.

“If the Truth makes free when it is told, and we are not free, then the Truth has not been told. The Truth that the Good belongs to us is greater than the idea that we might give our time, our labor, our life, and all we are to the Good, and still never satisfy it. To tell how impossible it is for us to give enough to God breeds rebellion at existing orders. To tell that the Good asks nothing of us but to receive its substance, will rest and comfort the people.”

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

Emma was not one to affirm a victim consciousness, because she knew that such a consciousness was voluntary and, when affirmed with powerful emotion, just as creative as a consciousness of empowerment. Regardless of circumstances, she instructed her students and readers to think positive, empowering, and uplifting thoughts – no excuses!

“All realization of Good externalizes as Good.” 

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

If the Law works perfectly, and we teach that it does, then why do we often fail to trust it? If you want your car to go forward, do you not put the transmission into Drive, trusting that the car will move forward? It would be ridiculous to put it into Reverse out of a lack of trust. How is it that we often do not put the same degree of trust into the Law of Mind, which we have seen work over and over again? Can we not trust the Law of Mind to the same extent that we trust an automobile transmission? Of course we can!

“While true understanding brings power, it brings humility. There is no feeling of mastery one over another, only over error. True words are all of love, and if I speak any other words I do not speak at all, for they are not the utterance of truth. We do not speak true words until the mortal is put quite away-hushed.”

~ Emma Curtis Hopkins

In other words, when we think or speak anything but the truth, we are wasting our time, and, quite possibly, doing damage to ourselves and others. Let us pay more attention to the teachings of Emma Curtis Hopkins and be more in tune with our Truth, activating the great Law of Mind in our favor!

Back in a couple of weeks!

As always, your comments are welcomed!

Copyright 2018 – Jim Lockard

THRIVING SKILL: DISCERNMENT

DISCERNMENT:

The ability to judge well; perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual direction and understanding.

One thing which has become increasingly clear to me is the almost universal need to develop discernment in these rapidly changing times. Of course, discernment has always been important – it is the ability to see through falsehoods and distractions to the deeper truth. There have always been versions of fake news, including the ways that we delude ourselves and live in denial of what we need to know to thrive. However, these times such skills are particularly important for two major reasons: we are bombarded by information via an increasing number of channels, and there is an increasing level of sophistication in the ability to convince people a falsehood is true.

“The first point of wisdom is to discern that which is false; the second, to know that which is true.”

~ Attributed to Various Authors

Discernment has a spiritual context. We are encouraged to see through the distractions and falsehoods to the deep inner Truth – that we are One. When we get lost in the tangle of warring ideologies, when we lack the emotional maturity to rise above the taunting of the crowds, we cannot see, much less experience, that Truth. We develop the kind of confused consciousness that will use violence to attempt to gain peace. True discernment is knowing when to speak and what to say; when and how to act; and when to stay still in silence.

When we become spiritual seekers who also seek to develop our discernment, then we can move toward the opening of our compassionate heart. We must learn to recognize truth, and its shadings or its opposite, when we see them. As Oriah Mountain Dreamer has written:

‎”Having compassion does not mean indiscriminately accepting or going along with others’ actions regardless of the consequences to ourselves or the world. It is about being able to say no where we need to without putting the other out of our hearts, without making the other less of a fellow human being. There is a difference between discerning & sometimes even opposing harmful behaviour and making the other wrong – less than we are, less a part of that presence that is greater than ourselves – in our own minds & hearts.”

~ Oriah Mountain Dreamer

There is a difference between believing in the power of the unseen and magical thinking. One recognizes the reality that everything in our visible experience of life is a projection of some form of consciousness – a part of the Infinite Mystery that we call Spirit or God. The other tries to identify the elements of the Mystery and give them some form of human characteristics – expecting some entity to redirect a hurricane for example.

When the hurricane turns or dissipates, the causes are a mystery, only explained in a limited way by our scientific knowledge, which itself is limited to what we can observe. magical thinking is a limited way of thinking and being – it may be a step on the path toward the development of discernment, by taking us beyond the limits of purely literal thinking. However, discernment cannot be mastered until the tendency toward magical thinking is released. Discernment requires great clarity and a deep recognition of the harsh truth that most of reality is a mystery – and being satisfied.

“The road to freedom lies not through mysteries or occult performances, but through the intelligence use of natural forces and laws.”

~ Ernest Holmes

At the level of our society, discernment includes the ability to parse real news from “fake news,” and to develop the inner sense to recognize when something is authentic and true or not. It also includes the realization that one will not be able to do that perfectly – so there is always room for some doubt, but the sense of doubt should not be allowed to expand so far that all trust in the world is lost. The too-often harmful certainty of the fundamentalist is due to his inability to accept doubt and ambiguity as a part of the human experience.

“Fundamentalism is authoritarian by definition–it accepts a vision of ‘the Truth’ that is sacrosanct, unquestionable, and, when found to be incompatible with reality, protected through the generation of ‘alternative facts,’ which themselves become unassailable truths within the enclave community that is built up to sustain the fundamentalism in question.”

~ Christopher Stroop

When we lack the skill of discernment, we are very much at the mercy of the reactions of our fear-based ego self to the world around us. Our fear-driven response system will expand what looks frightening or dangerous and shrink our sense of goodness, wisdom, and love. The compassionate heart cannot emerge from such a consciousness; and compassion is what is most needed in our world today.

We must use our spiritual practices to develop and expand our emotional intelligence, inner wisdom, and compassion; and this will lead us to discernment, which is, in essence, the ability to see deeply. From such a level of development, we are freed from the stormy seas of fear-based ordinary consciousness, and we rise above the turbulence inherent in that level of existence. Then we can truly be of value and contribute to the greater good from a place of deep wisdom and compassion. We can become the force of calm amid the storm. That is what is meant by raising your consciousness – that is why discernment is a Thriving Skill.

“One could say that the whole of life lies in seeing — if not ultimately, at least essentially. To be more is to be more united — and this sums up and is the very conclusion of the work to follow. But unity grows, and we will affirm this again, only if it is supported by an increase of consciousness, of vision. That is probably why the history of the living world can be reduced to the elaboration of ever more perfect eyes at the heart of a cosmos where it is always possible to discern more. Are not the perfection of an animal and the supremacy of the thinking being measured by the penetration and power of synthesis of their glance? To try to see more and to see better is not, therefore, just a fantasy, curiosity, or a luxury. See or perish. This is the situation imposed on every element of the universe by the mysterious gift of existence. And thus, to a higher degree, this is the human condition.”

~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Jesuit Priest, Paleontologist, and Philosopher

 

Copyright 2017 – Jim Lockard