Everyman's Journal 2011 # 70 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord November 7 The most honest acknowledgement of grace that I know of is continual gratitude. _______________________________________ As an artist, I participated in a publicly promoted large-scale big-city event this past weekend that had extremely disappointing attendance. Therefore, many of us 'vendors' had to face the reality that the projected and hoped-for results of the time/money investment were not materializing, and I listened often to both my mind and other minds 'complaining'. It is such a waste of a moment of life… to use it complaining, but it is a standard operating procedure of our minds. As I live committed to being surrendered to 'what is', and to 'allowing and accepting' as a practice, it is fair for the universe to test me occasionally. What I am grateful for is the way this process ultimately confirms and strengthens me in my knowing of my knowing. All seeming breakdowns contain gifts, clearly visible if we are quiet enough to see them. Of course, complaining is not 'being quiet'. Thank God, by grace of long practice my detours into 'non-present mind' now have built-in boundary triggers that generally go on alert and wake me up when I start bumping into them. So it was this past weekend. As I listened to other complaining minds, I found myself recognizing how blessed and lucky I am to have been led to the life I have… a life of service (albeit with numerous disguises operative). Just listening to the world's complaining conversations for a while, it became quickly obvious that for many people life is full of intensely pressurized suffering, sourced in the breakdown of unfulfilled expectation. And most people do not know that this world is not real. Especially, most people do not know that they have any choice in the matter of how they experience this world. Yet we absolutely do, and in fact, I experience that our world occurs to us exactly as is needed by our core being for its growth. If this simple perspective is used as a view, nothing has the same power to disturb us, upset us, or create fear within us. This simple perspective shifts the moment from one of being attacked by life to one of being given a gift…. a gift leading to only our best growth outcomes, even if we cannot see where the path we are upon is going. To continue upon the Way is then our conscious action of choosing to trust. So the summation of my lesson from this past weekends event is this: When the world seems 'not right', the right thing to do is: STOP…. and let it slow down. As we release our personal struggles for control over the world and allow the Divine Goodness to replace it with its order, peace and mental quietude are again accessible. Therefore, in all that we do, let us acknowledge that Great Spirit that gives us Life, lest we forget. Forget? Yes, lest we forget our true Source, and in that forgetfulness, suffer the inevitable consequences of believing in the impossible, the 'separation of God and Man'. Inevitable because 'believing in' is creative, whether true or not. To restate the opening, the most honest acknowledgement of grace that I know of is continual gratitude. Such gratitude is also powerfully creative. Namaste, David *********************************** My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you. *********************************** Rev. David Seacord Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag david@davidseacord.com www.davidseacord.com (my fine art website) www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com (archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004) www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com (archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles) www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com (archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal) www.thelovedeclaration.org (info on The Love Declaration) To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window. http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Everyman's Journal 2011, #69 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord November 1 Being 'fully present' and 'having no prejudices' (pre-judgements) are exactly the same thing, for the absence of either makes the other impossible. _______________________________________________ Returning late last night to Yuma after a 19 day walkabout/workabout in New Mexico, I awoke this morning in an 'integration' mode. I saw that the theme of my personal curriculum continues to be 'the radical unlimitedness of Love'… and that this New Mexican journey had been chock full of expanding and learning opportunities along the lines of this theme. To me, the spiritual journey is like a spiral circle ever ascending, so that while the views continue to return with familiar regularity, they are seen from a heighten perspective each time they come around again. This gives us/me the opportunity to reexamine the learning previously assimilated, and add in the richness of recently honestly earned depth of being to them. Take spiritual prejudice, for instance. In one of my recent conversations an old soul friend expressed that he had never known me to be a spiritually biased person, and I agreed that in my general self-view, I am not. Yet when I add in the growth theme of 'the radical unlimitedness of Love', I see that in many ways that are not even all that subtle, I have been prejudiced towards various other communities of faith. No openly, not verbally, but simply by limiting my willingness to participate or be involved. A prime obvious example is 'fundamentalist Christianity', where I have held little hope of finding deep affinity with being holding those views. But less obvious are many other faith views… prejudices which have been hidden from my own view. I am integrating that my experiences in New Mexico have been about breaking all these hidden prejudices up, about exposing them within myself to myself, about deepening my own self-honesty. And then to allow in the radical unlimitedness of Love, which naturally includes ALL expressions of Love, without limit. I was guided to and revisited my 'somewhat distanced' relationship with Sufism, and found my heart filled when I attended a lovely Sufi retreat, meeting a new teacher of that way who inspires me to relook with new openness. I discovered new space within me for Catholicism as I listened recently to a friend testify of his growth gained by joining a Benedictine Monastery. I worked in a new intimacy and openess with the LDS communities that I was providing service to, and discovered that Love would have me Be Love there also. As the Zen teaching writes, I found everywhere the opportunity to 'move among and intermingle withoutdistinction' (ie, without judging), and in so practicing, received in return a greater fullness of Love. Remember a while back when I wrote "if God allows it, can I?" This is a corollary of Love's radical unlimitedness. Another is the simple practice of appreciation…. of intentionally looking for what can be appreciated in the expression of other. Godness allows us amazing, infinite space to be individualized expressions of Him/Her. What creates Heaven Here is our honest appreciation of each other, our willingness to see the Godness Principle active in each others lives, no matter the apparent disparities. Such willingness is the foundation of all peacemaking, both in ourselves, and by extension, in the world. Namaste, David *********************************** My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you. *********************************** Rev. David Seacord Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag david@davidseacord.com www.davidseacord.com (my fine art website) www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com (archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004) www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com (archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles) www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com (archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal) www.thelovedeclaration.org (info on The Love Declaration) To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window. http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Everyman's Journal 2011, #68 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord October 26 The essence of wholeness is best found in the radical unlimitedness of Love. ____________________________________ In a world of boundaries and limits, authentic Love knowns none. That is its power…. that is why it is the Supreme Power…. because radically unlimited Love is capable of being fully Itself under any circumstances. There is no denying that in our world of illusions we have created an opposite to love, and that while in the world, we all swim to some degree in the daily experience of that opposite, for that is the standard content and curriculum of this world... if fact, in a way, it is the purpose of this world (as a soul maturity training ground). Yet to the truly self-honest being comes the certainty and knowing that only the Love is real. Here the mind can rest and become unified. And it then becomes our daily opportunity to examine our beliefs and feelings rigorously, and to tell first ourselves, and then the world that gives us 'listening', the truth about the illusions that have been using our lives. This is the path of 'the truth setting you free'. This is how a being becomes known as a person whose word is straight, a person who does not bow to false gods. This is what true integrity is… to honor and know yourself as true to your being, and to honor and know your being as One with your Source. Namaste, David *********************************** My partnership request.... Please consider yourself an important gateway this message is passing through on its way to others. Please do 'send it on'. Thank you. *********************************** Rev. David Seacord Fine Art Painter / Sufi Cherag david@davidseacord.com www.davidseacord.com (my fine art website) www.davidseacord-everymansjournal.blogspot.com (archived writings and poetry, circa 2002 to 2004) www.davidseacord-acimcommentaries.blogspot.com (archived 2010 writings on the lessons of A Course in Miracles) www.everymansjournal2011.blogspot.com (archived entries of this years Everyman's Journal) www.thelovedeclaration.org (info on The Love Declaration) To subscribe, simply click on the code below to open the subscribe window. http://davidseacord.us1.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=306aba00e6959c604de750bcc&id=62a1ee7045

Everyman's Journal 2011, #67 © Rev. David Seacord October 23 The easiest way to empower and encourage another is simply to appreciate them. _______________________ Our lives are meant to be happy experiences, full of innocence and joy. Whenever it is ever anything else, something has 'gone wrong', and illusions that are not real have appeared, hypnotizing our minds, claiming to be real. Becoming grounded in being present requires each of us to develop an ever more accurate ability to discern between what is true and what is hypnotic illusion. The only fully-trustable standard of discernment I know in this self-education process is 'selflessness'… in other words, (minimally) recognizing that another's worth is equal to our own. This recognition allows us entry into the halls of humbleness and humility, and we can gratefully leave our delusional burdens of arrogance at the door. On this floor of lightness, of equalness, the discovery of each others beauty is precious and thrilling, and also deeply fulfilling. For this is the actual purpose of the Divine Plan in creating our individual soul rays… that we, in selfless maturity, could in-Joy the endless beauty of each other. This is life as the dance of God. And here is the only requirement to have this be ALL the time: That we see that everything is part of this dance. For how can there be any exclusion of the application of truth that does not invalidate truth? There is no way it is possible. As the ancient Zen master wrote: Simply cease to cherish opinions. Make a single separation and Heaven and Earth are set infinitely apart. As our hells are all built of our separations, our Heavens are all built of our Unity. May the practice of seeing Oneness guide us this day to the happiness which is our natural state. Namaste, David

Everyman's Journal 2011, #66 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord October 21 Recognizing our mistakes or blindnesses is the first step to growing beyond them; being willing to share and expose them makes our personal experience valuable to others and invaluable to ourselves. ________________________ The nature of truth is that it is self-obvious, when finally seen. I am a guest in a small community in Albuquerque at the moment. I leave in the morning and do my work all day, and return at night to connect a bit socially, and rest . A couple of days ago another guest arrived, a woman who I had met once briefly a year ago. I knew nothing about her. That was what I was blind to… because I blindly lived like I did, without recognizing my arrogance. Then last night I overheard her having a phone conversation, and in so doing discovered she was well-known to many of my other friends, and in fact had just come from personally taking care of an ill friend of mine in Florida for the last three months. I was shocked that I had been so unaware, and at the exposure of my blindness. I know that nobody else (who knew her) had told me much about her, but I also know I had been self-absorbed in my own world and hadn't asked. I had just made up a story in my head about her 'from appearances' and then lived like my story about her was true. I cleaned-up up at the next opportunity to speak with her, sharing the revelation of my blindness, and thanking her for her service to my friend. She generously forgave me, and we had a good first 'real' conversation. Once again, as is often the case, we teach best what we need to learn most (a quote from Richard Bach). I teach openness and non-judgement. Today, I am grateful to this great and good and loving and fully alive non-accidental universe for bringing me this lesson about actually BEING non-judgmental, again, 'right on time'. My peace this day to you all… Namaste, David

Everyman's Journal 2011, #65 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord October 18 Personal significance is a trap. The path out is always self-less. ______________________________ Papaji often said "If you touch it, it will bite you…". I am sure he was speaking of all our/my holy cows… i.e., the things/events in our world that we continue to make 'special' instead of seeing in them 'more equalness'. In American culture, the most significant personal day is generally our 'birthday'… and it's a day we are supposed to be happy. Yesterday was that day for me, and if it had been 'just another day', it would have been a fine, good day. But all day long, I experienced (like a low-grade fever) a low-grade unhappiness, which egoically, I worked hard to hide from myself and others (basically lying to the few well-wishers who knew…that called or sent messages etc… that I was having a great day). What I was really doing was battling my unhappiness on my supposed to be especially happy day. The grace of all this was the thunderclap of the wakeup moment when I finally remembered myself…. the moment when my memory finally gave me access to the thought that I needed to break the ego-spell. That thought was: "There is only one choice, really, to make in life: do you chose to be happy, or not?" (It's from a book called 'The Untethered Soul' by Micheal A. Singer). The wake up was instant. Euphorically, with a big "Yes!" (and slapping my knee) I choose again to be happy. Period. With everything exactly as it was. And suddenly, like a rainbow appearing, I was very happy. Such is the power of our thought… our correct perspective. It is the gift of 'the trained mind' (as contrasted with the ACIM teaching that "the untrained mind can accomplish nothing"…). As we are led through this life, and the curriculum provides us our testing moments, it is our training that breaks the spell. I am trained to be grateful for it all… otherwise the equalness will never be seen, and blindness would be unbroken. What great good luck to have been led once again into suffering, and to once again re-discover that correct and true thoughts can and do instantly free me. I write these words simply to more completely embody this knowledge in myself. I pray the same for you. Namaste, David

Everyman's Journal 2011, # 64 © 2011 Rev. David Seacord October 17 Blessed by Your Love, I receive this moment as a Gift. Within it I find all my Heart yearns for. For always, You Know me, and by receiving Your Love, I know You. _________________________________ Being full is followed by being empty which is followed by being full which is followed by being empty which is followed by being full. Throughout all the permutations of temporal reality that make up the ever changing content of our lives, the constant Presence of Love is always our/my true Home. It is that place within our/my Heart that always exists, and always accepts what IS in Peace. To know this place intimately gives us/me a foundational rock of sanity… a view that sees the Almighty Hand of Divine Purpose at work everywhere. I trust my life into those hands, and it is my Joy to be in service to them. May your life also be likewise blessed and full (and then empty, and then full :-). Namaste, David PS... As I am busy traveling and working around New Mexico for a couple of weeks, I apologize for my recent and probable future posting irregularities.