There was an article last year, in Tricycle magazine, in which Matthieu Ricard, a French Buddhist monk, gave a wonderful interview on science, meditation and happiness. In it, Ricard, who was a scientist before entering the monastery, states quite lucidly, “Thus Buddhist science is not just an intellectual pursuit for the sake of unraveling the mystery of nature, but it also has a therapeutic aspect that gets to the very basic cause of suffering. In this context, a rigorous pursuit of science is not to hold a blind belief in anything but to honestly and eagerly pursue the investigation of the mechanism of happiness and suffering.”
Today, our Spiritual Mind Treatment from Rev. Ernie Chu focuses on allowing the numenal reality or Love to support us in every aspect of our lives. Once again, framed in a much more theistic context than most of my readers might generally find relevant or useful, the underlying message is, nonetheless, applicable — that you and I are Love expressing Itself, and that we, as creators of our experience, have the limitless potential to create a new and better world.
One of the reasons I like to employ Dr. Kennedy Shultz’ and Dr. Noah St. John’s approach — asking questions as a means of furthering the manifestation process — is that when a particular affirmation or treatment comes from a context that might be foreign or less “familiar” to our own preferred context, we have the opportunity to reframe the affirmations in our questions.
Today, I thought I would share with you my own journal entry, so that you can see how I use this process personally. First, we’ll begin with Ernie’s Spiritual Mind Treatment:
I Let Divine Presence Support Me
I celebrate and acknowledge the One Infinite Presence, which is all loving and present in every part of my life.
I know this as my Source of All Good and Support, for Divine Love fills my life with richness, abundance, creativity, joy and a loving zest for creative enterprise.
For I know that it is through the gift of Love manifesting as creativity in my life, (that) I joyfully express myself as a wondrous aspect of God, through the opportunities I create, and the enterprises which come into form through my relationship with the Infinite Presence.
I create a prosperous, creative and joyous life expressing as ventures, companies, ideas to be developed, and other businesses, fully knowing that I create these as part of my wholeness with Spirit and my personal expression of Universal God Mind in action.
I give great thanks knowing gratitude also as Love.
And release this to become a part of my experience, and God’s support and Love.
And I let it be so.
Now, let me share how I used this particular treatment, and some of my journaling with you. I’ll note that my initial reaction to this treatment was disappointment, because I just don’t find all the god-references as useful from my non-theistic perspective. So it felt a little “overtly religious” and I was tempted to discard it and go to the next affirmation. But that’s when I decided to use this as an opportunity to share how we can turn around such things to become part of a more inclusive, expressive and useful process of manifestation and demonstration in our lives.
Take a look:
Why do I let “divine presence” support me?
Divine Presence? I know that what we imagine to be a “divine presence” in our lives is, in reality, Emptiness… that pervasive and all encompassing, creative reservoir of energy from which all things manifests. I choose to use Love as a more suitable metaphor and frame of reference in my life.
I let Love support me, because it is, as Buddha taught, “the eternal principle”. For this reason, I celebrate Love, and recognise it as my Source of all Supply.
Why do I express myself through the opportunities I create, and the enterprises which come into form, as a Perfect Manifestation of Love?
If love is the eternal principle, and indeed the only “reality” then I choose to see beyond the dualistic ideas and perceptions, and know that at any given moment, I am exactly where I need to be, expressing and manifesting this Love in my life.
Why do I create these opportunities and enterprises?
I create these because it is my nature to continuously express Love, for the ultimate purpose of awakening, so that I can alleviate suffering in all sentient beings.
This was a wonderful experience, in which we had the opportunity to learn how the mind works in its creative process. You see, simply repeating a Spiritual Mind Treatment that might contain words or ideas that we disagree with or cannot relate to will never yield the kinds of results we want. Thinking otherwise is simply illogical.
You see, our subconscious mind never, ever, ever, responds to statements. That is the domain of the conscious mind. The subconscious mind responds only to questions. And that is why we take this two-fold approach, speaking to our conscious and subconscious minds simultaneously, so that the subconscious can begin creating the ANSWERS to the questions, and the conscious mind can begin acting on the realisation of our True Nature.
This is what Arthur C. Clarke meant, when he commented, “I don’t pretend to have all the answers. But the questions are sure worth thinking about.” That is the realm of genius.
When you ask yourself a question, your mind automatically begins looking for an answer… and that unlocks the creative impulse within you. So, as Dr. St. John puts it, “Rather than making a statement you may not believe, why not ask yourself a question that can transform your life?”
Today, let’s celebrate the realisation that we create our reality by the statements we make and by the questions we ask of ourselves and others. Knowing this, let us choose to become more conscious, more mindful and more aware of what we are saying (the Buddhist precept of Right Speech) and of what questions we are asking of ourselves and others (Right Thought).
Now it’s your turn… what kind of experiences are you noticing in your life? Are you actively and mindfully employing the strategies we’re sharing? What would you like to share with others on this journey?
Namasté
khenpo gurudas sunyatananda
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“Chenrezig, Treasure of Objectless Compassion;
Manjushri, Lord of Stainless Wisdom;
Vajrapani, Destroyer of all adversarial forces;
O Je Tsong Khapa – Losang Drakpa –
Crown Jewel of the Sages of the Land of Snows,
Humbly at Your Lotus Feet I ask your blessing.”
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Drawing on the essential teachings of the great spiritual teachers, philosophers and freethinkers throughout time, Khenpo Gurudas Śunyatananda (retired Archbishop Francis-Maria Salvato, O.C.) has been regarded as a provocative, revolutionary “voice of reason” within the field of religion and spirituality, since 1983. Having the distinction of being one of the few openly non-theistic, openly-gay and post-denominational thinkers ever to serve as Bishop-Exarch and spiritual leader of the autocephalic Eastern Catholic Franciscans in North America, Gurudas is the author of more than 600 articles, eight books and currently serves as the spiritual advisor for a non-theistic, intentional spiritual community, The Spiritus Project. He can be reached at:http://dharmadudeunplugged.com
Copyright ©2011, Khenpo Gurudas Sunyatananda (The Most Reverend Dr. F. Francis-Maria G. Salvato, M.Sc., O.C.). All rights reserved. This material may be reproduced, blogged, quoted or distributed, provided the entire copyright including contact information remain intact. It may NOT be altered in any way, without express written permission.”