Comment by Deborah Hart Yemm on September 21, 2012 at 12:35pm

I felt like the Daily Guide in the Science of Mind magazine for Thurs, Sept 20th by Katherine Saux, RScP added contest to this video with Abraham.

True Freedom

You shall be free indeed when your days are not without a care

nor your nights without a want and a grief,

But rather when these things girdle your life,

and yet you rise above them naked and unbound.

~ Kahlil Gibran

This is not a process of saying "Peace"

when there is no peace.

~ The Science of Mind, page 175

There is a prayer by the Indian Brahmin Rabindranath Tagore that begins, "Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them."  The quote I drew from the Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran leads us down the same spiritual path of not avoiding our human trials.  Have you ever heard the term "spiritual bypass" ?  It is when the challenge of facing something unpleasant is too scary, so we close our metaphysical eyes, wave our hands in the air, and declare, "It's all God, and it's all good".  Then, we try to pretend everything is okay because we have taken the higher road.  Does it help ?  Maybe.  Sometimes.  And sometimes maybe for a little while.  But this approach does not free us from the truth of what is happening; it merely throws a dust cover over it.

True freedom is being willing to stand openly and fearlessly in the midst of conflict, discord, or injustice; call it like it is; and be able to walk -- not run -- away.  We can name what we see without anger or judgement, but with compassionate truth.  Buddhists call this "right speaking".  It frees us from falsehood and evasion, and it lets us stand in integrity.  Jesus himself said, "Speak the truth, and the truth shall make you free".  If the great spiritual masters are in agreement with this principle, maybe we should try it.

~ affirmation

I stand in witness to my world and my place in it,

knowing that living in freedom calls me to live in truth.

With God as my source, there is nothing that I am unable to transcend

and release with integrity and calm recognition.

Comment by Ben Roberts on September 21, 2012 at 6:03pm

Alright--I'm gonna get a little goofy and irreverent here!  The idea of not "saying peace when there is none" reminded me of this Daily Show segment from last Monday on the anti-US protests in the Muslim world.  Hilarious bit that ends with John Stewart asking if the idea that Islam is still a "young religion" means that when it grows up (in a few hundred years) we will have peace.  John Oliver replies "Of course not!   It means that we can go back to fighting about the things that really matter: natural resources and arbitrary lines drawn on maps!"

Oh, and thanks for this thread, Deborah!  I really liked your video clip too!

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Comment by Deborah Hart Yemm on September 21, 2012 at 6:51pm

Thanks, Ben.  Serious stuff can feel so heavy, as to weigh our Spirit down.  I am deeply appreciative of Jon Stewart and I appreciate your sharing this here.  I actually have a blog at A New Gaia about the Muslim situation.  I think I'll share this there as well - if I can figure out how to do the embedding. 

I LOVE that joke - "we can go back to fighting about the things that really matter: natural resources and arbitrary lines drawn on maps!".

Highest regards,

Deb

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