The Spirituality of Fear

It seems that lately many people I know are living in fear. Mostly they are in fear about the future, particularly their economic future. Right now, I seem to be one of the few people in my "crowd" that is not worried. Maybe I should be, but I truly do not think it is necessary. Fear is a consciousness that one chooses into, or not. In truth, fear is a spiritual lesson.

In my experience, there really only is love or fear. We fear what may happen to us in the future or fear that something from our past may be haunting us. This consciousness interferes with being in the present moment. The present moment is really all we have. We are unable to return to the past to change or redo anything we might regret. And we do not really know how much future remains. Worrying about either totally drains our energy and keeps us from enjoying life as it exists for us in the "here and now". This process seems to move us away from our connection with God and Divine Love.

How, then, can fear be spiritual? It would seem that I am saying if we are in the fear consciousness, we have distanced ourselves from the spiritual consciousness. Fear is an emotion. When we feel the energy of fear, it usually is not a pleasant sensation. Something feels off or wrong. This means that fear is also a signal telling us that something is amiss. Fear is telling us that we are drifting away from our spiritual centers. We are choosing to turn away from love. If we are open spiritually, we are capable of listening to this signal or warning sign that our spiritual anchors are loosening. So, while being in a place of fear is not particularly desirable, if it serves the purpose of redirecting us back to spirit, then it most definitely serves a spiritual purpose.

From that realization, we can now see that events happening in the outer world that are causing us to react in fear are actually serving a higher purpose. Although it may seem that our "world" is crumbling around us (particularly economically), it is all an illusion - nothing in the physical world is real The only reality is our oneness with God and it is Fear that can serve as the catalyst for our moving back to Spirit and our innate connection with our spiritual selves.

Namaste!

Spark of the Divine

A few years ago, the phrase “Tikkun Olam” came into my consciousness. It is a Hebrew phrase that means “repairing the world”. I decided to investigate this a bit more and this investigation led me to an interesting realization and an “aha” moment.

During my search for the meaning of Tikkun Olam”, I was introduced to the teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria, a 16th century Kabbalist. Rabbi Luria taught that God created the world by forming vessels of light to hold the Divine Light. As the Divine Light was being poured, the vessels shattered into countless shards that were scattered into the “world”. Each shard contains a spark of the Divine Light. Humanity’s task then became to help God free and reunite the scattered Light, raising the sparks back to Divinity and by doing this, restoring the “broken” world.

What came to me, upon being introduced to this concept, was that each and every human being contains the Spark of Divine within. We are all those broken shards and once we release the trapped Light, we come to know our Divinity. We release the trapped Light by repairing our own individual worlds. We come to know Love. We heal ourselves and become whole. When this knowing becomes our consciousness, we are then accomplishing our own individual Tikkun Olam.

I found this to be very exciting because, having grown up Jewish, I was never able to accept that Jesus was the messiah. In Judaism, we are taught that there will be peace in all the world when the Messiah comes. What came to me upon digesting this piece about repairing our own individual world is the thought that if we all were in touch with our own divinity, how could we. in our Divinity, possibly wage wars and kill others. Taking this one step further, I came to understand that once humanity as a whole awakes to the awareness of the Divine in every single being, then the Messiah is here. We are all messiahs who collectively are The Messiah. And, since I believe the consciousness of knowing the divine within is the core of Christ Consciousness, then The Messiah is Christ Consciousness.

So, now when I say Namaste to you, not only is the Divine in me recognizing the Divine in you, but the messiah in me is recognizing the messiah in you.

Namaste!

Getting Unstuck

I have been wondering lately how people get "stuck" in their lives. I used to be stuck in the sense that I hated my job but did not feel capable of finding another. A little over two years ago, I realized that I was keeping myself in a box. My box looked like this: I started in an entry level position, moved up because I was capable of doing much more than entry level work, found that the place I was working was not nurturing to me, stayed where I was because I did not believe I could do any better. I attributed this pattern to the fact that I never pursued or nurtured a career. I married while still in college, worked a short time until my oldest daughter was born, and stayed at home raising my three daughters until I was divorced at age forty. It was a convenient excuse!

My "awakening" about how I keep myself stuck coincided with my realization that the most important thing to me was my connection with God. I began to realize how the job I was hanging onto from a place of fear was not compatible with nurturing my connection with God. My job sucked the life out of me. It left me exhausted and from that place of exhaustion, I found it easy to allow God to slip into the background. As I was becoming more in touch with myself as a Spiritual Being, I found that I was unable to tolerate being in a space where I was not keeping God in the forefront of all I do.

Without going into a lot of details, let me say that I am no longer stuck. I have been able to create a life now where God comes first - I can meditate and feel connected to God as much as I want, I feel happy and sometimes even blissful, I feel free and completely alive. I have been able to manifest this simply by trusting that all I need is God. My spiritual teachers use the phrase, "God first and God only" and I am a believer. I found that from the place of God first - or nothing is more important in my life than my connection with God - everything else falls into place. This meant I had to trust that I would be supported by the Universe as I stepped out of my box into the unknown. That seemed like a lot to ask from a person who was brought up in the energy of fear but the call of God and the Love of God turned out to be far greater than the energy of fear.

It really is easy but I believe we tend to make it hard. We make it hard until we realize that the essence of our choice comes down to Love or Fear. When we choose to stand in Love we are choosing God. When we choose to remain in Fear, we are choosing to stay in our boxes. My words to all who feel stuck is to trust the Unvierse, choose Love and God and from this place, everything else will be as it should. Namaste!

Happy Holy Days

Just about a year ago, I posted the following on a blog maintained by my friend and former pastor, Robert V. Thompson. He is the author of a wonderful book called "A Voluptuous God: A Christian Heretic Speaks". The entry was titled "It's Tough Being a Jew at Christmas". I believe it is worth repeating: My youngest daughter, Carrie, now almost 27 years of age, told me this recently. She works as a kindergarten teacher in a day care center at a Presbyterian church in Deerfield. Her frame of reference was receiving a ginger bread Nativity kit as a white elephant gift at her “work” Christmas party. My oldest daughter, Lori (age 33) sent me an “instant message” this Christmas morning which proclaimed: “you don’t know how depressing it is to be Jewish on Christmas morning”. My middle daughter, Jamie (age 30) has not checked in yet. I suspect she will not complain about being Jewish on Christmas since her husband’s family is Catholic and Jamie is determined to raise their year old daughter Jewish. Jamie has plenty of opportunity to celebrate Christmas with her in-laws and their large families and it is up to her to figure out how to navigate their holiday celebrations. I personally spent many years feeling a mixture of relief and separation around not celebrating Christmas. As a child, I naturally felt “left out” and “different” because I did not celebrate Christmas. I wanted a Christmas tree like my friends had, and if not a Christmas tree, at least a Hanukkah bush to decorate. The first time I asked, I was told there is no such thing as a Hanukkah bush. A stocking filled with toys, etc was completely out of the question. As an adult, my feelings of relief revolved around not experiencing the stress that accompanies having to engage in all the hustle and bustle that seems to define Christmas. Along with that relief, however, I was aware of a strong sense of separation and envy. My sense of separation and feelings of envy were not indicative of wanting to be a Christian nor of a strong desire to celebrate Christmas. After all, I celebrated Hanukkah with my family by lighting candles and exchanging gifts. Our celebrations did not come close to the extravagance of Christmas, but we did celebrate. At some point, I realized that my feelings were actually an expression of grief - a grief that I did not have something that I truly believed in - something magical and wonderful that I thought was embodied by Christianity and the Jesus that my Christian friends worshiped. I did not (nor do I now) feel engaged in Judaism as a religion. To me, Judaism is and for a long time has been my ethnic identity and, although, I was not drawn to the practice of a specific religion, I thought this meant something was missing in my life. Quite a few years have elapsed since I deeply envied Christians their devotion to Jesus and the birth of the Messiah I am unable to accept. I spent six years attending Lake Street Church - not trying to be Christian but as a Jew who felt a very strong call to join the spiritual community that exists within the walls of that particular church. I came to know the difference between religion and spirituality. I was introduced to Jesus the mystic, rabbi, and teacher. I learned to accept the Christ that Jesus was and how he embodied the divine light that resides in each of us - a light that transcends any and all religion. I learned that I am a devout person and that the object of my devotion is my connection with God. I now focus my spiritual energy toward more deeply knowing that connection and experiencing unification with all that is - the great I AM. A few days ago I realized that Christmas was almost upon me and I personally was not feeling any sense of disconnection to the world that celebrates Christmas. This is probably the first year since being introduced to Christmas that I have not been feeling at some level that I am missing out on something wonderful because I am Jewish and don’t celebrate Christmas. Even having my adult children complain about how tough it is to be Jewish now has not been enough to cause me to agree, commiserate, or tap into the old grief I used to feel. Their complaints did prompt me to reassess the meaning of Christmas. I found that it is no longer tough for me to be a Jew at Christmas because for me Christmas is a celebration of a very well known Jewish heretic and the message he carried about the reality of God. I have been thinking about it this year, and while Christmas is tomorrow and Hanukkah began on Sunday at sundown, I really do not feel any energy around the holidays - Hanukkah or Christmas. In my personal belief system, every day is a holy day and I celebrate my connection and communion with God every chance I am able each and every day. So, in the spirit of the holiday season for those that celebrate the holidays (and the holy days), I want to wish you all a Happy Holy Day. May the peace and light of God be with you each and every day. Namaste!