|
|
THOUGHTS FROM DR. JOHN
SKOWRONSKI
As mentioned in Awakenings E-News,
Dr.John Skowronski sent this article in reply to the Question of the
Month, which was:
To paraphrase Jesus
"as ye think, so shall ye be". This simple and elegant
summation of life holds tremendous truth for me. I believe that if I
had to select one and only one spiritual quote, this would be it.
The quote is a reiteration of early biblical truth..."In the
beginning was the word..." which implies that all of creation
began with a word or thought. For me, this couldn't be any clearer.
You create your existence by your thoughts. Your words, written or
spoken, are extensions of your thoughts.
This simple concept, when embraced, is much
like having a key to an ancient warehouse of treasures,
free for the taking. If you think "I shall be happy",
happiness is offered to you and you find the blessing of moving
closer to god, with the peace and joy that follows. If you choose
anger, or spite, or greed, or hate, you will be given the blessing of
owning these thoughts and subsequently will feel the pain of moving
farther away from god. If you notice, I have defined happiness
and hatred and greed and anger and spite all as blessings. It might
seems that hatred is hardly a blessing, but it truly is. It is a
painful blessing, but it is simply a tool to assist you in moving closer
to god, if you learn it's use. All good tools have instructions
attached. Here is the instruction, "When you find yourself
thinking thoughts of hatred, recognize it for what it is, a tool to cause
you enough pain to move back closer to god, where you will find peace and
joy." Accept hatred as an inevitable part of what
"we" are. Don't fight against hatred, accept it as a tool
to move you closer to peace. An analogy would be a hot stove.
When a child grabs a hot stove and she suffers pain, we don't condemn the
stove. We teach the child that she is free to grab the hot stove,
but that it is in her best interest to not repeat that behavior. The
same is true on a spiritual level for every belief that we entertain.
One of my favorite contemporary quotes
regarding thoughts comes from Caroline Myss.
Again to paraphrase one of her comments "every thought is a
prayer". This is contradictory to what many of us have been
taught as children. The belief we have been offered is that god only
listens when we bow our heads and identify a particular thought as a
prayer. (How many times have we attempted to barter our way out of
pain? Ha!) Rarely does this work, and I believe it fails because we
have launched so many contradictory thoughts or "prayers" that
we find ourselves stuck in the place where we started. If we truly
want to move toward a place of greater peace, I believe that we have have
to monitor our daily thoughts, recognizing that many will be thoughts that
ultimately generate pain. As we become conscious of our
thoughts, we have the opportunity to modify them, moving us closer to
peace.
Notice, please, that in the previous
comments I have attempted to avoid any condemnation of any particular
thought. This is very deliberate. It would be extreme hubris
on my part to state that any thought was "bad" when I know that
god has offered me that thought. Why would a god who loves me offer
my anything bad? God doesn't. God simply offers you choices.
It is our job to recognize that our choices will either bring us closer to
"all love" or farther away. The closer we are to "all
love", the less pain we will feel. The farther away...well, it
reminds me of a space traveler floating in the intense cold of space with
a beautiful, well-lit earth beckoning on one side and the cold solitude of
space on the other. Every little movement or use of his jet blasters
modify his position. If he fails to keep his eye on the beauty of
home and gets entralled on some faraway star, the
journey could turn very long, cold and lonely indeed.
As ye think, so shall ye be. Think of
me with love. Think of me often. Forgive me moment by moment for I
know not what I do. Join me in tolerance, peace, joy and gratitude.
Love me for I am you.
CLICK HERE
to return to the July Newsletter.
|
|