The biggest challenge was remembering the password. Why now? One thing that I know for certain is that I don’t have a clue about anything. Yes, that is correct. I just relate an experience that I seem to be having. Is it true? How can it be?

I had an e-mail exchange with an old friend, Lisa Natoli of Gorgeous for God, the other day. (I would include a link to her site but I forgot how and I have come to the realization that forgotten knowledge is a good thing. So if you need a link then check out the links on old posts. I suggest that you do.) I mentioned to her of an invite that I had gotten to a silent retreat and my thought that, “Being around a bunch of people TRYING to be silent is louder that a heavy metal concert.” She agreed. So I got really exited thinking that I may know something. Well, I don’t but there is nothing wrong with feeling exited.

That exchange brought up the whole idea of the “retreat” thing. A while back someone mentioned retreat in an e-mail and I typed, “The only retreating that I have ever done is from the truth of who I really am.” I read it and I thought, “Now that is really cool.” It happens all of the time. I may be speaking to someone or writing to someone and something just comes out. It is like an involuntary burp of words. I have told people that it feels as though I am planting seeds of understanding. Like Johnny Appleseed but I know that these little snippets are meant for me. They are from my Self, for my Self to be ingested, pondered, meditated on, whatever you want to call it. So that is what I do. I say from my Self, to my Self because that is all there is. You can call them different things but that doesn’t change the reality of it, if you can see that.

So what did I do with this snippet, “The only retreating that I have ever done is from the truth of who I really am?”

Something that I have discovered is that the world I seem to travel around in and even the thing that seems to travel around in it is always the exact opposite of the truth. Really! It is like a mirror image of the truth. I raise my right arm and the world raises its left arm. The things I have come to believe about the world and about myself are exactly opposite of the truth. So, look again. You have to see it to believe it if you are willing to just look and examine from a place of pure ignorance.

Retreating is a withdrawal from or an escaping from something that we believe we don’t like to something that we do like or feel that we want. We go to other places to look for something that we feel that we can’t have or attain where we happen to be now. So say we are looking for peace. Low and behold in this calm ocean setting we find it. No shit! And we think it is amazing. When we return “home” it goes away and we can’t wait to get back to that retreat place to find it again.

Now I don’t know about you but I read a Course in Miracles and on every page I am told that I am Peace. I am unwavering, eternal Peace. I mean like, right now, always was, always will be can’t possibly anything else. I am also told that I have mistakenly believed that I could be something other than that. So when I go to that retreat thing I am actually bringing what I am, Peace, with me and pretending to find it there. Then I pretend to lose it on the return flight. It’s like putting on a pair of pants and finding a ten dollar bill in the left front pocket and feeling like I have something that I didn’t have before. Yes.

So we spend most of our time retreating from the peace that we really are. Why don’t we call getting away to a beautiful oceanic area to experience the peace that we always are, “Stop retreating?”

That, like everything else, is a mystery and to revel in it, swim in it, be immersed by it, be transfixed with the incredible wonder of that mystery and only that mystery is heaven. Care to join me? I’ve got news for you…………………..

Why not just be that Peace that you are wherever and whenever? Seriously!

In order to simplify this discussion I am going to limit it to one perception, or misperception as that can be.

Section 1 of the bill requires the governor to issue a proclamation, each year, proclaiming the third Thursday of the year “no name calling day.” I must admit that I got quite a chuckle out of that when I first read it.

Let’s just concentrate on the name calling thing. Have I felt like a victim of name calling? Yes, by all means. For some reason, a long time ago, I decided that I didn’t like feeling like that. It also, at that time, seemed futile to think that I could prevent someone from calling me a name. Well, I can’t, but I can and it all is just a matter of perception.

What transpired was a long arduous trip into the nature of victimization or the thought process behind my belief that I can be victimized. This did not occur instantaneously but it grew over a number of years.

See, I realized that I actually had a choice in how I reacted to a person calling me a name. First I had to have defined that word, or phrase as “bad.” If I hadn’t defined that word or phrase as “bad” it had no effect.

Next I realized I had a choice in how I reacted. This realization took a while to develop. At first it came after the fact. After I had stopped freaking out over being called a name I would realize that I had indeed done that and I had an understanding that I really hadn’t needed to react the way I did. I could have changed my reaction but I didn’t because the reaction came too fast. So my next step was to learn how to catch myself in the process of reacting. Which I did over a period of time. The end result was that the need to feel bad vanished. When that happened I realized that I, alone, had the choice over whether I felt victimized or not. If I felt the need to feel victimized it was my choice. If I didn’t want to feel victimized it was my responsibility to change that, in me, within my thought process, not in that which I mistakenly believed was the cause, namely the name caller.

The same is actually true for everything that I feel here in the world but let’s keep this simple. You see, I still catch myself reacting but if there is a blame to be imposed for that reaction it lies solely in me and the correction has to be made there, in me and it really is not a blame it is an understanding of cause and effect. The cause is always me regardless of how it appears. I am getting better at it, whatever that means.

So I can, pretty much, be at peace regardless of what appears to be compelling me to be otherwise.

I have even have friends try to correct me. “That guy just called you an asshole. Doesn’t that piss you off?” “No.” Why not!?” “Because I choose not to be. I don’t like feeling pissed off so I choose not to feel pissed off.” I can choose piece over everything else.

Does it seem simple? It should.

What motivates a name caller? Why does he call me a name? He does it to piss me off. What would be his motivation if I didn’t get pissed off? See? Well, it doesn’t really matter because I wouldn’t notice it anyway.

By enacting a law to outlaw name calling, society is telling me that I should get pissed off when someone calls me a name. It is my right to be pissed off and if I don’t get pissed off my thinking is backwards. By doing that they are giving the name caller the power to victimize me, to make me feel like a victim.

Is this a cure or is it like dumping gasoline on a fire? Whose thinking is backwards? I’ll leave that up to you?

Have you ever noticed that when you transition from sad to happy the change is instantaneous? It’s like a light switch with no dimmer. The only options are on or off. You don’t feel yourself getting happier.

It’s exactly the same with this stuff. On or off are the only options.

Something that I have noticed is when I read the lesson without any effort to understand it I see the genuine beauty of it.

I feel I would be doing you a disservice by attempting to interpret that beauty for your understanding.

I can be of service to you by simply seeing that beauty in you or by seeing you as that beauty.

Then I think, “Wow, I’m beginning to get the hang of this stuff,” and the beauty begins to fade. See?

What I think, I see is exactly what I think I am seeing.

Can I experience that?

Have you ever noticed that being on a spiritual path is like running on a treadmill believing that you will end up somewhere else?

Have you noticed that you have a notion, however small, that you know what you will find in that somewhere else?

Have you noticed that that notion has you experiencing something or something differently?

Have you ever noticed that there is no “i” in freedom?

Why do we seem intent on inserting one?

Let me tell you how I “see.” Yeah, I watch.

My perception (interpretation) of what I see is based on how I believe what I am seeing effects or will effect me. Trust me on this one. It’s all about me.

You too. Maybe I’m just guessing? You’ll have to watch for yourself. How can I tell what’s all about you if it’s all about me? Please?

So we have billions of people seeing something as they believe that something effects or will effect them. All different. It has to be different, doesn’t it? Billions of  people interpreting what each one sees as they believe it will effect their unique, special individual selves.

We even admit that. “I see that differently than you.” We know. It’s not rocket science, after all. That is tough. This is only about miracles. Miracles are easy.

So, we have billions of people seeing something and all seeing it differently.

1. What is it really?

2. Can I “see” it, really?

Are you beginning to “see” how you think you “see?”

Does it seem utterly unfounded and ridiculous? Good. Are you afraid? Good. That is normal. There is nothing to fear. Accept it as nothing.

A great quote that I just heard. I can’t attribute it to anyone.

“Each thing is its own purpose and meaning. Make nothing a means to something else.”

Have you ever noticed that when your friend John shows you his new car you suddenly begin to see those cars everywhere? Where were they before? They were there, weren’t they? They were but you didn’t see them. I know what you are thinking. “I had to have seen them otherwise I would have hit them.” If you really delve into this phenomenon you will realize that what we call seeing is merely our interpretation of a stimulus. The cars had no meaning until we gave them one. Now they resembled John’s car. Once given meaning they suddenly appeared.

Have you ever noticed that when we “see” an event for the first time we pause? It takes time to assign a meaning to something. We may even ask a friend for help. “What did you make of that?” We have to add it to the data base. The next time it happens we won’t pause. We don’t think of it as what is happening now we equate it with what happened then.

It’s the same thing with a new smell. “Do you notice how you keep sniffing?” Like you’ve got to figure it out? Then when we smell it again we know. “Wow, that smells just like John’s new car!”

I could go on forever with this. We associate all stimuli with an experience that has happened. We even recreate the emotions that we were feeling at the time.

EVERTHING! So what does that mean?