Jim Palmer's Blog, page 49
December 17, 2013
Standing free like a lotus
“The lotus flower is an aquatic plant. The roots of the lotus are planted in the soil of the pond or river bottom. It grows in muddy water until it rises and blooms above the murk. Consider your journey to be like this. Your roots are firmly planed in the soil of this world, and yet you have grown and rose above the surface, and stand free. You are part of this world, but you have also transcended this world because you know the truth and see things as they really are. You are in this world, but not of this world.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
December 16, 2013
Enlightenment is not an escape from reality
Enlightenment is not an escape from reality. There are joys and sorrows. When we cling to them, we suffer. We want the joys to always be there, and to avoid the sorrows altogether. But there will be both. Feel them, accept them, and let them go. Don’t get too attached to what has shown up in the present moment, remembering that there’s a new moment awaiting. Be happy. Be sad. It’s the nature of life and our feelings to cycle through many joys and sorrows. Press through them deeper still, and know that all is well in a way that never changes and is never diminished. At last, peace.
Compassion… step by step
You can cultivate compassion and loving-kindness in the smallest ways. Start with someone specifically that you know and care about, and wish for their happiness, well-being, and freedom. Then think of a person you know only casually, someone who is neutral in your life, and wish these same things for them. Then work up to a someone you would consider an enemy, and have these thoughts for this person as well, wishing for their happiness, well-being, and freedom. Cultivate compassion and loving-kindness by focusing your thoughts and wishes for one specific person at a time, and eventually you will see that your compassion and loving-kindness will become indiscriminate and universal for all people.
(Photo by Darla Winn)
The wound that religion leaves
It wounded my heart that after enduring an abusive childhood and youth, I turned to religion, and was told that I was disgusting and repulsive in the eyes of God. To who or what do you turn once you discover that God rejects you? Believing, accepting, and embracing my worth has been the fight of my life. It hasn’t been an easy thing to believe that I am deserving of love. Right now in this moment I feel deep compassion for those who question their worth and goodness. If I had a magic wand, you would know and feel that you are deserving of love. You would look in the mirror, and see a beautiful human being looking back at you, and you’d smile. You would feel the heart of God emanating pleasure in who you are.
December 15, 2013
Correct beliefs are the Booby prize
“You must rethink your entire way of approaching the matter of Truth. Currently you have it framed in the idea of having “correct beliefs,” and you think this is what matters. But how would you even know if you achieved having “correct beliefs”? Who decides? For the Christian, “correct beliefs” to one denomination or church are “wrohttp://jimpalmerblog.wordpress.com/wp... beliefs” to another, and both will argue that their interpretation is the right or “biblical” one.
Forget the heady and ego-gratifying search to “know Truth.” Divest your energy from the drama of being right. Correct beliefs are the Booby prize. What you are after is the end of your suffering.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes from (Over) the Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
You don’t have to be special to be free
A person comes to know the truth and they are free. But this is not about being special. And it is not about a continual state of bliss. It is about walking a normal human life with normal human beings, doing normal human things. What made Jesus extraordinary was his love and compassion. These are the most observable characteristics of a person walking in truth.
December 14, 2013
You don’t have to be perfect to be enlightened
“I often see people get tripped up over their concepts of “perfection” and “imperfection.” We impose these concepts on our lives in so many absurd ways:
1. I am not perfect. Therefore, I am a sinner and fall short in God’s eyes.
2. Jesus was perfect and I’m not, and this means I am not really anything like Jesus and could never be.
3. If I was more enlightened, my imperfections would dissolve.
4. My imperfections are a constant reminder that any way you slice it, I am not truly okay and never will be.
5. I’m supposed to be perfect.
6. Imperfections are indicators that something is wrong with me.
7. My lack of perfection… my imperfections… always puts a little distance between myself and God because God doesn’t like and can’t accept this about me.
8. God can’t look upon me as I am because of my imperfections and so God instead chooses to see Jesus as me because Jesus was perfect, and this fixes it well enough for God to accept Jesus as a substitute for accepting me.
9. My imperfections are a problem to fix, overcome and change.
10. I hate myself for my imperfections.
You do realize that these concepts of “perfection” and “imperfection” are things you and I have made up in our own head, and we have turned them into some kind of objective reality. We created the ideas and meanings and applications, and have imprisoned ourselves by them.
Consider this. To be in harmony with God and the wholeness of all things is to not have anxiety over imperfections. To be truly awake is to be beyond the concepts of “perfection” and “imperfection.” These ideas only relate to your ego and false self, which is why Jesus gave so little attention to them. Who you really are is complete, whole and free just as God created you. You were born out of the likeness, image and being of God and in that reality the concepts of “perfection” and “imperfection” have no relevance.
What is imperfection? Point to it. What’s the standard? Where did it come from? Show me. Where is it? A toddler falls, trying to walk. Is that an imperfection? Your human journey is about awakening to what’s real and true. With every realization, there is also the process of cultivation. This was also true of Jesus (Luke 2:52).
Being human is process.
You are sabotaging the process with your ideas of “perfection” and “imperfection.”
So right now, let these concepts ago. They don’t apply in the ways you have been making them. Being awake is not the absence of “imperfections,” it is silencing your anxiety over “imperfections.”
Can you feel the freedom in that? Stop clinging to your ideas and meanings and applications of the concepts of “perfection” and “imperfection.” If you need something to cling to, cling to the truth of being the whole, complete and free person God created you as.”
- Jim Palmer, Notes From (over) The Edge: Unmasking the Truth to End Your Suffering
Things not to worry about
4 things you may not need to be worrying about as your spiritual growth and evolution continues:
1. Figuring “it” out
Reframe what it’s about going forward. There is no “it” to figure out. There is only love, peace, beauty, goodness, life, wholeness, and freedom that is present inside you and IS you. Get acquainted with this… experience this… see, hear, taste, touch, feel this in everything and everyone… give expression to this. Relax, quit striving, be alive… be present… notice.
2. Defining your beliefs
Don’t be a slave to reductionism. It’s mainly a Western cultural phenomenon to insist on packaging up the infinite and unknowable into a system of intellectual ideas, propositions, concepts and beliefs. It’s a bonus if you can reduce it into a short creed or fit on the back of a church pamphlet. Look, if your previous way of approaching the divine had worked, you would not be where you are now. There’s likely a lot for you to unlearn, and the need to define your beliefs may be one of them.
3. Fitting into a label
People feel naked without a label. It’s just easier to have one. We often depend on our labels for a sense of identity and belonging. We all like the idea of belonging to a community or tribe and these are often attached to a label. Consider cultivating a sense of satisfaction and belonging by identifying with all of life and humankind as a whole. There may be no need to classify yourself with any more specificity than that. When someone asks me if I am a “Christian,” I will sometimes say something like, “Actually what I am is a human. And I identify with the humanity I see in Jesus, and the way he threw his lot in with all of humankind. I want to be more human the way Jesus was, and I want to inspire that kind of humanity all around me. I want to see God in myself and in every human being the way Jesus did, and I want to live in the reality that every person is my brother or my sister. I can’t imagine anything more divine than that.” My point is, it’s not necessary to identify or define yourself by a label.
4. Being wrong
God is not something to be “right” or “wrong” about. God is not a math test. Your true Self is as God created – secure, complete, whole, at peace, free, and fully aware of the truth. All that’s left is you giving birth to that Self in the context of human life, human living, and human being. You will never get there in fear, you can only get there in love. There is no fear in love. If you have fear, it’s an illusion you’ve created and has nothing to do with God and your journey here on earth. It’s one of the few rules of knowing God – Fear and God never go together. You will not lay hold of all God wants for you and IS you by carrying the fear of “being wrong” or “messing up.” When a child is learning to walk and they fall, are they “wrong” or “messing up”? You are 100% secure in God, and nothing ever has, ever is, or ever will threaten that.
