daleblackford: Getting Down & Dirty With the Truth

daleblackford: Getting Down & Dirty With the Truth: In the midst of all that happened Wednesday, one thing stood out for me. Not the shootings at the ball field or in San Francisco because ha...

Getting Down & Dirty With the Truth

In the midst of all that happened Wednesday, one thing stood out for me. Not the shootings at the ball field or in San Francisco because hatred projected through bullets and bombs is becoming commonplace. What struck me is that President Trump said that the proposed GOP Healthcare Bill was "mean". That is a new conversation for him. The bill has been mean from the get-go, throughout his support of it. But honest, rational, compassionate feedback about it now from him? Even if it's to cover for a potential defeat of the bill, it was refreshing to hear our seemingly 24/7 mean-spirited president say something honest and compassionate.

I have not been a political fan of Trump. In fact, my ego has railed against him, however, I am seeing why it is appropriate that he is in office now. There is no difference in Truth, Reality or Conscious Effect between the words and manner of someone who says "I hate people like that because of their race, beliefs, gender, sexuality, etc. and someone who says, "I hate people who think and act that way." Oh, yes in society and the world there certainly is a difference where the rules are painstakingly clear. But in Truth what is being projected by both from WITHIN to without is intolerance toward the other. And intolerance backed by education, sensibility or any other good intention, still has mostly one effect ... separation.

Trump represents millions of voices whose opinions and ways may appear to be coarse, selfish, impersonal and even cruel to violent. And many of these people with these voices have been ignored or denigrated through isolation and PC shaming. Yet these characteristics are ones we all know too well, whether by affirming & projecting them, turning away and burying them inside or courageously facing and passing through their blustering messages.

We are now at a time where shootings, bombings, killings and other violence has escalated to an often multiple times daily occurrence. And believe me, without a transcendent change of course, it's going to get worse. A lot worse.

And still supposedly sane, intelligent people keep shouting out the repetitive bullshit that we will not tolerate any more of this from "them" as if that's a plan tried over millenniums of human experience that has ever worked.

Well, "them" has got to turn into a conversation about "us" through the willingness to believe that it's not what someone believes, but who they are that matters. And if it takes wrestling together through a mountain of what we don't agree about to get to the heart of who we are, rather than who we think we should be, well, then that's the new Plan B. And yes, no matter how seemingly ugly, inappropriate or unacceptable the package containing you and me is, it's a sane course. In fact, the more we are together, disagreeing about the worldly stuff, the better the chances are we will both desire to see what we can agree on--the heartfelt stuff. Could there be a cost to this? Yes. Some have participated even unto death, but look around friends, death is already in full play.

"But Dale, this seems like pie-in-the-sky thinking."

Well, We aren't going to be able to contain or sustain these global levels of increasing isolation, hatred and pain. Look around you. We aren't communicating and we're getting more and more vulnerably unavailable through our technologies. We either work together towards healing through outrageously open models or we drown in the tidal wave of increasing separation & denial--which will then force collapse, thus stripping and empowering us to work together in outrageously open ways towards healing. Because there are no laws, law enforcement, noble expectations, magical thinking, social actions or societal pressures that will influence us to abandon our prejudices. We let go when we see the necessity to do so and the Universe will help us through inspiration and by bringing to bear the escalating cost of our maintaining the status quo.

So President Trump said something seemingly true and compassionate, i.e. that a plan to take away health care benefits from millions who most need it, is mean spirited.

Here is where it begins for me. In spite of all the resistance I have felt for you, Donald Trump, I accept you as our president because I am a committed part of the whole who, like it or not, has brought you into leadership.

Thank you for saying something real and objectively compassionate. I applaud you and hope that you will follow through with more honesty and compassion. Yes, I know you feel you need to fervently support the interests of those who elected you, but you also represent me and those who didn't elect you. As a representative of the latter, I will do my best to see you in the light of your Spirit, not just your personality flaws and political intentions, with faith that Spirit knows what It is doing through you (as It does in all of us). Again, thank you for standing up (if only in words) for those who need your support. It is a part of you that I and many others can appreciate and support.

The bottom line is that love is love and it heals. And prejudice is prejudice, which poisons, even when it's used for noble reasons.

Moving to Cuba to Get Closer to My Ego

I recently watched the movie Arrival and was surprised with my experience of it. It's a movie I wouldn't recommend for those wanting to escape into a story. It challenged my thinking in ways that were very perplexing, frustrating and exciting. Won't say more about that. No spoilers.

I will address one scene, though, that got me to thinking about thinking. In the film, Louise, the Amy Adams linguist character, tells her colleague, played by Jeremy Renner, that immersion in a new language, rewires your brain, i.e. re-patterns how one thinks within their experiences.

So I looked it up on the internet and sure enough, there's a lot of research that has been done on that subject with similar results. It immediately got me fantasizing about moving to Cuba and immersing myself in Spanish for a few months. Seriously, I'm thinking about it. But even more so, it got me thinking about the language that I have grown up within, English, and how it has affected how I process experiences and information.

It's been happening all along, but I first noticed that I was noticing it in a song that has been a staple within the ministries I have served and attended. Some of you know I was ordained a minister by the Unity School of Christianity over thirty years ago and you may have your own experience with Unity churches as well. At the end of the services, the congregation gathers in a circle and sings "The Peace Song".

The song has evolved (PC) through the years. "Our Father" has become "Creator". "With every step I take ..." became "every breath I take" and other changes too. But in singing the song a few weeks ago, a very glaring observation occurred. Near the end the lyrics are "... let this be my solemn (or joyous) vow. To take each moment and live each moment in peace eternally. ..."

Suddenly I realized that the words "each moment" would not do. It needed to be "this moment". Because to futurize the word "moment", i.e. sing of each progressing one, was to say nothing with any meaning at all. The moment is Now and never beyond it. "Each moment", is a plan, not an entry point. It's the ultimate cop-out to push anything into the future. Once projected there, it's safe to say I don't have to deal with it Now. I can postpone it to the fantasy of the next moment instead, which never ends ... until ... Now.

It got me thinking further about our language of futurizing. It's the language of our ego actually, the loudest, most compelling voice in the world, the noise of our collective repetitive minds driving us with what to do.

And what do we hear? "You should ...", "find this ...", "what will happen if ...", "how can I change this ...?", "what's missing?", what do I want/need?", etc. What these messages have in common is a reliance upon and impetus toward "what's next?" and "what will or won't I do about it?"

It's the noise of the world that compulsively drive us to keep pace without taking the moment to seriously question whether any of it means anything more than a drum beat to continue marching to.

Oh, but Dale. What would happen to the world if we didn't keep trying to solve the world's problems? How about no problems? How about a shift in global perception that changes how we function from seemingly isolated doers forming billions of problematic gaps within our doings, into collective realizers who together accept the prosperity of harmony within and all around us? But then that would take away, "the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat". That's a pretty powerful teat the world, its leaders and most of its citizens are sucking on. But it's like a wise soul once said, "Sometimes a majority simply means all the fools are on the same side."

Relax. I'm not writing this as a plan. It wouldn't work as a plan. More like a wakeup call that can emerge through inevitable collapse. And we are most certainly headed for psychic collapse. I'm certain of that. Because insanity can be very exciting, but it's still batshit crazy, even and especially when it's the norm. And the cost just keeps increasing. Sanity might look at first boring or impossible, but really, it's just an excuse to hide our fear of having no control over it. However, it's all that's left when insanity becomes too much and gives out. And I have to say, I am a realist. I don't think we have a ghost of a chance of maintaining the illusion. It's wearing us down into freedom. We're running out of time and space to distract ourselves from the pain of living so decidedly meager, while simultaneously pockets of secular realization are emerging.

That's all for now. In one of my next blogs I hope to address in detail, a powerful tool. How to facilitate sane, loving and conscious dialogue with one's ego that can release us from the insane drama of fighting, shaming and attempting to overcome and change our egoic thinking, while accepting how to love and appreciate the ego's precious role in helping us to survive in the insane world that we have imprisoned it within. I am just Now looking at this anew, within the insights of addressing sane and insane use of language--not the content, but the intention with how it is expressed. Because it is projection, not content which corrupts pure, loving intention.

It's all about love and the most unloved is that noisemaker in our minds that we hardly pay attention to, less actually hear. We formed the ego eons ago, as a thought entity to insure that our intention to protect ourselves was consistently enforced. And it is faithful. We need to love and respect what it has done for us. And so free it from the fears of the future that we have bound it to, so it can speak to us anew of the great love (us) that it has found so worthy of working endlessly to save.

Too Sweet To Stomach

A friend texted me this poster a couple days ago querying me as to what I thought of it. First of all, I treasure my brother who sent it. He is always sending me material that somehow looks good but feels a little bit off and asks me for my take on it. He playfully challenges me to see if I'm awake. I love it.

It's a beautiful shot with the words, "You must find the place inside yourself where nothing is impossible." It is attributed to Deepak Chopra.

At first reading, I found myself wanting to agree with what was said, but the more I tried to say, "yes", I kept running into a part of me that wouldn't agree. "What is this?" I thought. "Why can't I just pass this on?" I found this dialogue fascinating because consistently when it comes to truth, my picker is a clear on-off switch. And though I wanted "yes", it was clearly saying "no".

Then it hit me. The quotation was a powerful example of the core flaw that underlies most present, pop spirituality and human potentiality thinking, i.e. a platitude that seems so delicious, yet is impossible to swallow.

The lie lies in the very first words, "You must find ...". "No. This is an act of will." And in fact, no matter how you try, you cannot will yourself into that place inside where nothing is impossible. It's already your natural state. It's not missing, nor a quest. And it's not hidden. It's right before you now and you know it. You just don't want to know that you know it, because you intuitively know how accepting this will impact your efforts to stay busy sustaining your place in your world. It will collapse it.

And rightly so will it dissolve away, because what would you do with this unlimited power if you were able to claim it? Turn it over freely to be used as is It's Nature, in meeting the needs you face all around you, without a shred of resistance, spontaneously, for the immediate good of all led by Divine Wisdom? Come on. Maybe after paying off debts and manifesting a new car, house, relationships, life and a better world according to how your mind with its thimble-full of experience would pattern it. Keep in mind that this means letting go of all your pre-conceived ideas that exclude Wonder and Beauty flowing equally out of utter seeming Chaos as well as Order.

And another point. To find something, you need time and space with which to find it in. Spirit, that place inside, is a Present Moment experience that shows you there is no space and time. This is nuts, yet we continue to talk about the future as if it exists. Here's what's true. If something has to happen in the future, you can be sure it won't ever happen. Why? Because it's the pure fantasy of what's next. Everything happens now. Describe to me what it's like to live anywhere but Here and Now. (Microphone drop.)

The thing is we are all, in this Present Moment, complete vessels of manifesting anything, everything without limitation. All we have to do is surrender and LET THE MANIFESTATION BE AS THE SPIRIT LEADS. But as long as we look to use this Power as our own personal strike force, delivered in some future time and space, well good luck in finding it.

Chopra's saying is very subtle, but it is at the heart of what I would call White Magic or Furniture Moving. Yes, it appears you can tap this force to make what you want to make until you can't make it anymore. For those of you who are still happily engrossed in making things, you don't know what I'm talking about and that's OK. And for those of you who are experiencing the progress of your personal impotence in the world ... I know ... let's just say, ease up on yourself. It's hard to be much of a kite when you've started seeing that your also the wind. It's kinda distracting.

More to come. Love questions & feedback
and thanks for the poster Sal.

Truth Talks and Bullshit Walks

I have to say, the words spiritual practice hold little meaning for me anymore. They've become a cliche--something beyond the norm that a person does to either get what they want or make them feel special about missing out on it. More deviously it's a form of magical thinking that covets unique worthiness unto spiritual reward for thinking and behavior that is prejudicial, repetitive and superstitious. Throw in a miracle, the Divine Lotto for the chosen and that mostly covers it.

So when the old argument comes up, "Yes I believe in Spirit but, God needs our help to rectify the wrongs, change what we fear, etc. ...", PUH-LEASE! God doesn't need anything from us other than our nature--the love which is ultimately required to keep the peace. In fact, it's our intentions and subsequent actions that appear to keep stirring the pot and surprisingly enough throughout the history of pro-active human watch-dogging, the Order of the Universe amazingly keeps holding serve.

For existence is simply a state of mind, not a fixed reality and its condition is how we choose to make/see/form it. It doesn't change us, it changes with who we think we are and are willing to express.

Trending for some time has been the Law of Attraction, aka The Secret, The Law of Visualization, etc. Some eighty years ago, the author Napoleon Hill rose to fame by distilling it into a formula. "What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve." In my tradition of ministry it's known as the Law of Mind-Action: Thoughts held in Mind, produce after their kind. Or in other words: What you you see (in your mind) is what you get (in your experience).

This is the fundamental law of existence, i.e. of how each soul's world comes to appear. For conception and belief linked to will (as Captain Picard would say) "make it so." And no one is held hostage to another's thoughts or actions, unless they make the idea their own and even then, they still retain the power to release it.

How can you say that Dale? People have been victimizing others throughout history? Are you saying that people can't take away our freedom, our power, our lives unless we let them?

Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Others can only appear to take away that to which we're attached. Now if you believe, as many do, that you are the person, the body, the circumstances and the drama that can affect and be effected by all of these, then I can see how my statement could seem absurd. However, to avoid these absurd truths and continue making it so, you have to ignore a whole universe of conflicting evidence.

Like God, Order or whatever you want to call It. If you think there is no such Order, fine. Just tell us convincingly, how the human body with all its intricacies from blood flow to neural response, brain, heart and all other organs and the interconnected systems that succeed in animating and renewing the body, tell us how this came about and continues. Our spiritual-psycho-biology just showed up, a fluke of existence? Or how supported upon this planet, we can assert the truth of our thoughts and actions while taking for granted that the earth somehow consistently rotates on its axis, orbiting a star 93 million miles away at such a distance, that moderate radiation keeps a tight temperature range that neither freezes nor incinerates us and our plans. Just lucky huh?

So if this is your position, then well, you've got me. Because if my explanation is a whopper, yours is the whopper of all whoppers--ridiculously ruling out the Real possibility of a Higher Order based on whims of doubt in the face of mountainously uninvestigated mysteries?

Each soul is the full channel of manifestation, at one with the energy that moves in and through its whole sphere of witness and beyond, seemingly limited only by the perception and judgment as to what one is experiencing. This includes all form including our bodies, our experiences, our minds and our world. We see what we want to see, what we're accustomed to seeing, what we're used to believing in and holding onto. And we are pressured by those invested in the illusion to keep maintaining it at all cost.

These false ideas that we communally share are the thoughts that produce after their kind. For example, "We won't stand for incivility." Well, incivility exists because people believe in it--fer it or agin it, as well as in the rules and reactions each deem appropriate for dealing with it. And whether one resists or embraces incivility all that ever changes is our adjustment to incivility while its being acted out, repulsed or lying in waiting.

Ideas produce after their kind. They don't stop when we resist them because to resist them is to engage them. They stop reproducing when the idea is no longer tenable, believable, i.e. not existing in the MIND of the person who once held it. What would a world without incivility look like? Possibly spontaneously uncertain, loving, wild, uncomfortable, unpredictable and alive, just for starters. Instead of reacting from script to address behavior that appears uncivil, people might be exploring the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that come up from beyond the norm of dealing with it. In other words, we'd be like small children bouncing off each other on the playground. They have a lot of fun doing that.

If there is spiritual practice, for me it's thinking-outside-the box while committed to a Faith in ORDER at work in and around me. Trusting that what makes my heart beat and keeps the sun shining is the same Force that keeps the Real Eternal Me mysteriously on course as well. Jesus called this process forgiveness (the no-harm, no-foul kind), the precursor of healing. It's also known as Grace, the Order which unerringly guides, insures and awakens us.

So to wrap up, when others rally to move the furniture in order to better the world, defeat the bad guy or entertain self and the masses, I'm all in. It's good theater and can bring us closer.

But when we let our stories limit who we allow ourselves and the nature of others to be, then I'm staying put in my front row seat to simply watch the show. I return as Divinely called but neither as victim or warrior. I am the Light-Bearer who has the power and authority to forgive, have faith, court bewilderment and release less-than for exploring more. And you can join me if you so choose, or don't. Either way it's completely safe. It's just that insanity produces more of its kind as does love/acceptance too. And we tend to kick against the pricks until we know of and how to flow. The only sane choice then, becomes letting it all go.

Nazruddin was searching around the front yard of his house all morning and well into the afternoon.

His wife came out and said, "Mullah, what are you doing?"

"Looking for my keys." he replied.

"But you've been out there for hours. Don't you remember where you left them?" she inquired.

Nazruddin said, "Oh yes, I know where I lost them. Somewhere in my room."

Shaking her head she shouted, "Then why are you looking for them out in the front yard you crazy man?"

"The light's better."

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God, Well and Alive in Donald Trump

In response to putting out the request for topics to write on, a friend wrote back: "Seeing God in Donald Trump (you never wrote that you wanted it to be easy)".

I have to say I appreciate the topic and also that it appears that for many people it might not be easy. But that's what I'm looking for in topic suggestions--ones that challenge us to inquire beyond the box of our comfort zone and set beliefs.

So here goes.

First of all I live within an idea that makes life simple and without threat. Often it's difficult to embrace, but when I do, I always find the peace of mind that allows me to enjoy life over stressing compulsively in the battle of trying to make it what I want it to be.

The idea is reflected by something Albert Einstein once said, “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe.” This means that the fundamental choice we make as to the nature of the universe we live in, determines all the subsequent laws, circumstances and seeming other choices we will make because of it. Einstein suggests that when we use our minds--our thought expression power to align ourselves with a friendly, i.e. infinitely cooperative and order establishing life arena, all, yes, all subsequent circumstances can be relied upon to reveal previously unseen pathways and resources consistent with the standard of unconditional friendliness. This means a friendliness manifesting that we would otherwise not experience in holding to our expectations of a hostile, flawed, I'm-responsible-for-correcting, world.

For those of you who must insist on believing that what you experience outside yourself has power over you and thus demands your reaction, just stop reading right here. This isn't for you. There can only be a ongoing hostile universe when you insist upon that view. As the Course in Miracles would suggest, you are believing you are under attack and in this world, like it or not, what you believe becomes your experience. That's just how it works. It may not be real, but the experience will tell you that it is and you will subsequently suffer and battle for your sanity because of it.

So as to the request of seeing or experiencing God in Donald Trump (as well as anyone or any situation) one has to begin by accepting that God, Order, Love or whatever you call the Cosmic Milieu encompasses all, including Donald Trump and his presidency. Then the issue becomes one of seeing what you're missing. Rather than using reason to determine what you think you should or should not find.

Now before anyone brings up the rebuttal challenging this belief in the face of such atrocities from Hitler's Germany to child abuse to natural calamities, I repeat, judging hostile circumstance without a willingness, and indeed, the expectation to experience an Order or Beauty that lies beyond one's judgment, will insure that the limit of one's belief in the atrocity or hostility that they are seeing will be all that they will be seeing. Heaven may be issuing from the very embers of hell, but without a commitment towards what must rise from it, all that can be experienced are the smoking remnants of what was along with the urgency to somehow replace it. And on and on it goes within a hostile world, never changing. Until belief does.

I'll discuss this more in a future blog, but for the purpose of this question, how to see God in Donald Trump, one's focus has to change from argument to curiosity.

In an article on "Genius" some years ago, I.Q. was determined to be less a qualifying factor for genius than the manner in which one thinks. Richard Feinman, a theoretical physicist, who was arguably considered a genius in thinking, put forth the process of genius thinking in this analogy.

He shared that if one was given a task to find a needle in a haystack most would either refuse or abandon the task in frustration, possibly doubting that the needle even existed. Some, of strong will would work systematically to prove whether or not the needle was in there and finding it, move on to other things. But those of genius thinking would explore the haystack as ripe for possibilities and once finding a needle would then wonder, "how many more needles or other items were hidden in the haystack". They would expect more and subsequently put themselves in position to find more.

So if you want to see God or Goodness or Order in Donald Trump or anything, you have to be committed and prepared to find it. So how big is your sense of God or an Orderly Universe? Big enough to trust in or too small to release your reasons for reacting?

What I will suggest now is just one friendly thinking idea beyond the box of what most see Donald Trump representing. It is still reasoning and cannot be relied upon or limited unto, however it can help show how light can emerge from seeming darkness.

Here's one view of how I see Trump limited to the world stage he presents himself upon.

His rhetoric and actions paint a picture of a leader who willingly exposes, embraces and defends his right to use deceit, condemnation and attack upon any person, position or circumstance that he is content in believing serves him. He appears to believe he is special in a way that allows him to objectify, humiliate, parody, violate and use others without seeming awareness as to empathy or responsibility for the consequences that his self-serving vision limits and defines.

He prefers using one-way communication (e.g. tweets & sound bites) limiting dialogue around what he says. He adamantly denies any failure of his beliefs, intentions and actions, proclaiming blanket success no matter the results. And he makes broad judgmental statements that suit his beliefs, regardless of any evidence to the contrary or support for his ideas.

When it comes to what he wants he acts like an entitled bully.

In a hostile world he most certainly appears a significant threat.

But what about within a friendly one? Again, one that transcends what I've just described seeing.

First of all, in an unopposed friendly universe we ultimately find acceptance of community, realizing intimately that we are not separate, but one. We share the same heart and inclination towards surrender to that which frees us from our loneliness, the sense that we are divided and isolated. Not to experience this is certainly hostile.

So Trump is part of our core, just as are sixty-three million voters, almost half those voting and even more who believe in him but didn't vote. That means that although his character appears deeply flawed, half our voting nation deemed that within what they see as an acceptably hostile universe, his behavior is acceptable, if not appropriate.

I think what frightens us most is this. Donald Trump's candidacy, election and leadership is showing us, that though we would like to believe we are a respectful and civil community, there is a within us a collectively dark and selfish justification for self-service and manipulation as a valid means of survival and as a basis for judgment, incivility and exclusion of our neighbor. And this is not new to us from Trump. These traits have been within humanity from day one. The only question is how we deal with them. And if you've truly never judged, denied or even mentally slighted anyone for their actions, then I may stand in awe of you, but not after some serious inquiry. Trump told and showed millions he would act on these dark impulses. He gave these fears voice.

And he was elected.

A wise soul once said, "You shall know the truth and it shall make you free." Often this is taken to mean that some sort of higher wisdom is the key. But instead of some seeming unrelated, higher wisdom, the most relevant truths are those that free us to see beyond what we cloud our minds with, i.e. the inclinations, limitations and lies we accept as uncorrupted meaning for what we're experiencing. These limited beliefs are what keep us imprisoned, unable to see Greater Order beyond the expectations of our preferences.

Perhaps now is the time for the awakening of a simple, transforming Idea, a powerful truth that can allow us to experience the collective freedom that we have been previously unwilling and even afraid to consider, less accept. All of us, including Mr. Trump, his team members, those voting for and against him, indeed, the whole world now find ourselves in front row seats to clearly witness self-justified, divisively hostile, reactionary intention projecting upon the global community.

It's no accident that Trump, his presidency and those who follow him have been given the authority to release upon the world this dark, manipulative intention and by human nature it will meet an equally opposing force. It's as if our collective ego (for we are one) has now been given opportunity to voice globally our base fears that court separation, condemnation, judgment and alienation as justified response to what we don't agree with. The truth that can free us is witnessing how this genie of disrespect and division has come out of the bottle and no matter how nobly or wickedly we wield it's power, how vulgar and impotent are the results. And from this shared futility, perhaps we can find the willingness to simply accept that in order to find the qualities we seek in others, we must and can commit to finding it in those and their actions that we don't see it in. The alternative is increasingly visible insanity and my hunch is that there won't be enough medication--liquid, solid or digital to numb us into not seeing it.

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So yes, I can very much see God in Donald Trump.