Compassion

January 10, 2016 – A Compassionate Life

by

Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
A Compassionate Life

Compassion doesn’t mean that you should climb down into someone’s pit of despair and wallow in it with them, but that you should hold the ladder for them to climb out of their despair. To have compassion for or “suffer with” is to bear with the other person as they move through their experience. We stand in our passion to guide and lift them up until they can acknowledge who they are.

We are now being called to compassion because we are on the threshold of a shift of the energy on this planet. The conflict and violence that now come up do so that they can be revealed and seen to be healed.

Our elder brother, Jesus, taught the parable of The Good Samaritan. Our first look at it tells us when we see someone suffering we either see them as being different from us or as the same as us. Metaphysically, the man was going from Jerusalem (the consciousness of spiritual peace) to Jericho (the intellect, external consciousness). Leaving his peaceful state for the human experience, he was subject to having things taken from him (being robbed). The priest and the Levite passing by on the other side of the road explain religions are not always spiritual. The Samaritan, considered the least of people, was the most compassionate.

First we forgive and shift our perspective (we clean our window to see clearly) and then we show up as God, as compassion, as Meister Eckhart said. We are called to live life in a way to shift as the planet is shifting, to add compassion as it shifts.

When we criticize, condemn, or judge we do so from our erroneous perception, from how we see the world. We need to clean the window. We need to renovate, to restore the child’s heart that has not yet taken on erroneous perceptions. Remember, “every attack is a call for love” (A Course in Miracles). Wounded people wound people. Something happened along the way. What could possibly cause them to do the things they do, i.e. ISIS? We are all one. There is no difference. We are in this together. We need each and every one of us to survive. ‘It is God’s will that every need be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive.’ (From “I Need You To Survive”, by David Frazier.)

Affirm, I live each day with a compassionate heart. Use it where ever you go, whatever you see. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I love you! I need you to survive!

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January 10, 2016 – A Compassionate Life

by

Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
A Compassionate Life

Compassion doesn’t mean that you should climb down into someone’s pit of despair and wallow in it with them, but that you should hold the ladder for them to climb out of their despair. To have compassion for or “suffer with” is to bear with the other person as they move through their experience. We stand in our passion to guide and lift them up until they can acknowledge who they are.

We are now being called to compassion because we are on the threshold of a shift of the energy on this planet. The conflict and violence that now come up do so that they can be revealed and seen to be healed.

Our elder brother, Jesus, taught the parable of The Good Samaritan. Our first look at it tells us when we see someone suffering we either see them as being different from us or as the same as us. Metaphysically, the man was going from Jerusalem (the consciousness of spiritual peace) to Jericho (the intellect, external consciousness). Leaving his peaceful state for the human experience, he was subject to having things taken from him (being robbed). The priest and the Levite passing by on the other side of the road explain religions are not always spiritual. The Samaritan, considered the least of people, was the most compassionate.

First we forgive and shift our perspective (we clean our window to see clearly) and then we show up as God, as compassion, as Meister Eckhart said. We are called to live life in a way to shift as the planet is shifting, to add compassion as it shifts.

When we criticize, condemn, or judge we do so from our erroneous perception, from how we see the world. We need to clean the window. We need to renovate, to restore the child’s heart that has not yet taken on erroneous perceptions. Remember, “every attack is a call for love” (A Course in Miracles). Wounded people wound people. Something happened along the way. What could possibly cause them to do the things they do, i.e. ISIS? We are all one. There is no difference. We are in this together. We need each and every one of us to survive. ‘It is God’s will that every need be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive.’ (From “I Need You To Survive”, by David Frazier.)

Affirm, I live each day with a compassionate heart. Use it where ever you go, whatever you see. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I love you! I need you to survive!

November 22, 2015 – Flowers Protect Us

by

11/22/15  Rev. David McArthur
Flowers Protect Us

For several days recently I was out of touch with the world, didn’t even have wi-fi! When I got back I learned about the Paris bombings. The news kept focusing on command and control; the focus was on fear. I felt that I was alone. When I feel that way I pray, “Please help me see what is going on here.”

As an answer, I saw that video clip where Parisians laid flowers and lit candles, and a little boy talked about the terrorists. “Those people are really bad. They’re so mean. Daddy, we have to move.” Beside him, his father said, “No. France is our home. There are bad people everywhere.” The boy: “They are so mean and they have guns!” “But,” his father replied, “we have flowers”—a beautiful response of compassion and love by so many. The flowers and candles were brought to heal. “Will the flowers protect us?” the boy asked his father. “Yes!” his father said. Millions and millions of people have gone to that video. They understand that’s what heals us. That’s the ONLY answer—not bigger guns. What heals us is when we reach out to that greater consciousness of connection.

I had waited in the Albuquerque airport for my flight home. I saw a young woman dressed like a Muslim. She walked with such confidence and centeredness in a time when the world was being judgmental and critical and all such people are feeling blamed. My heart was opened by this young woman. Peace was the way of her. It triggered lots of feelings of how women are treated in the Muslim world. Then I remembered one smart man at the Conference of World Religions last month saying it has nothing to do with “Muslim”, that everywhere there is a militaristic patriarchal society they must suppress the feeling, feminine part. It came to me, then, what will end all this need to command and control others—GIRLS READING BOOKS!

And I recalled Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” They ALWAYS fall. Flowers are ALWAYS more powerful than guns.

At holiday time families come together. We return to relationships where we have judgments we have practiced for many years. But it is our chance to heal, to feel the gratitude that they cared enough to show up and give us the chance to bring a flower. We are at a time when the question is no longer “Will we make it?” We will—there are so many millions and millions of people who go to their hearts, go to compassion. The news won’t tell us about it much, but it is there. At this time join with me. The people of Paris, when they gave flowers, gave them to all of us throughout the world. They care. Send them that beautiful thought. Thank you for caring! What a beautiful thought to send the world! Thank you for caring! Give that Thanksgiving to the world, to all those beautiful beings! Thank you for caring! Truth and love ALWAYS, ALWAYS wins!

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November 22, 2015 – Flowers Protect Us

by

11/22/15  Rev. David McArthur
Flowers Protect Us

For several days recently I was out of touch with the world, didn’t even have wi-fi! When I got back I learned about the Paris bombings. The news kept focusing on command and control; the focus was on fear. I felt that I was alone. When I feel that way I pray, “Please help me see what is going on here.”

As an answer, I saw that video clip where Parisians laid flowers and lit candles, and a little boy talked about the terrorists. “Those people are really bad. They’re so mean. Daddy, we have to move.” Beside him, his father said, “No. France is our home. There are bad people everywhere.” The boy: “They are so mean and they have guns!” “But,” his father replied, “we have flowers”—a beautiful response of compassion and love by so many. The flowers and candles were brought to heal. “Will the flowers protect us?” the boy asked his father. “Yes!” his father said. Millions and millions of people have gone to that video. They understand that’s what heals us. That’s the ONLY answer—not bigger guns. What heals us is when we reach out to that greater consciousness of connection.

I had waited in the Albuquerque airport for my flight home. I saw a young woman dressed like a Muslim. She walked with such confidence and centeredness in a time when the world was being judgmental and critical and all such people are feeling blamed. My heart was opened by this young woman. Peace was the way of her. It triggered lots of feelings of how women are treated in the Muslim world. Then I remembered one smart man at the Conference of World Religions last month saying it has nothing to do with “Muslim”, that everywhere there is a militaristic patriarchal society they must suppress the feeling, feminine part. It came to me, then, what will end all this need to command and control others—GIRLS READING BOOKS!

And I recalled Mahatma Gandhi, who said, “When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” They ALWAYs fall. Flowers are ALWAYS more powerful than guns.

At holiday time families come together. We return to relationships where we have judgments we have practiced for many years. But it is our chance to heal, to feel the gratitude that they cared enough to show up and give us the chance to bring a flower. We are at a time when the question is no longer “Will we make it?” We will—there are so many millions and millions of people who go to their hearts, go to compassion. The news won’t tell us about it much, but it is there. At this time join with me. The people of Paris, when they gave flowers, gave them to all of us throughout the world. They care. Send them that beautiful thought. Thank you for caring! What a beautiful thought to send the world! Thank you for caring! Give that Thanksgiving to the world, to all those beautiful beings! Thank you for caring! Truth and love ALWAYS, ALWAYS wins!

August 9, 2015 – No More Guilt

by


08/09/15 Rev. David McArthur
No More Guilt
 
It’s time for guilt to end! When we were kids learning good/bad, right/wrong, guilt was helpful. Then as we grow spiritually and awaken to who we really are, we learn of God the Compassionate, of God the Merciful (the Q’ran). What if we were compassionate and merciful to ourselves?! Rumi: “But listen to me for one moment. Quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.”

From the Book of John: “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman… ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.’ Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger…and said to them, ‘Let anyone one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Those who heard began to go away one at a time…until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus …asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one accused you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I…”

In our awakening, our journey, the woman symbolizes our feeling nature, the part of us feeling guilty; the Pharisees, head thinking (polarized, dualistic perception) rather than oneness. Jesus is the Christ Self, the Atman, Buddhist Mind, the I Am, our capacity within us which puts us in touch with the One Mind. “Stooping to write” shows the highest touches the ground when we have our life challenges. Jesus then sends us into self honesty, (“those without sin”), into our capacity to perceive and understand ourselves, the compassion of understanding. We gain wisdom, what life’s about. It is not pass/fail.

Sometimes we gain the most when we really blow it badly. For years we can be “weighed down with the knowledge that it was my fault.” Wisdom is the result of compassion because love always contains intelligence because love is God. That brings wisdom, and that brings peace.

Peace. Guilt. There’s always someone who will invite you into guilt, or something past will come up. In that moment we can choose compassion. Sometimes it’s easier to start with compassion for someone out there. Then we can bring it to ourselves. Compassion to understanding to peace. I choose compassion. I choose compassion. I choose compassion.

“But listen to me for one moment. Quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.” And you will!

August 9, 2015 – No More Guilt

by

08/09/15 Rev. David McArthur
No More Guilt

It’s time for guilt to end! When we were kids learning good/bad, right/wrong, guilt was helpful. Then as we grow spiritually and awaken to who we really are, we learn of God the Compassionate, of God the Merciful (the Q’ran). What if we were compassionate and merciful to ourselves?! Rumi: “But listen to me for one moment. Quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.”

From the Book of John: “The teachers of the Law and the Pharisees brought in a woman… ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women.’ Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger…and said to them, ‘Let anyone one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Those who heard began to go away one at a time…until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus …asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one accused you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I…”

In our awakening, our journey, the woman symbolizes our feeling nature, the part of us feeling guilty; the Pharisees, head thinking (polarized, dualistic perception) rather than oneness. Jesus is the Christ Self, the Atman, Buddhist Mind, the I Am, our capacity within us which puts us in touch with the One Mind. “Stooping to write” shows the highest touches the ground when we have our life challenges. Jesus then sends us into self honesty, (“those without sin”), into our capacity to perceive and understand ourselves, the compassion of understanding. We gain wisdom, what life’s about. It is not pass/fail.
Sometimes we gain the most when we really blow it badly. For years we can be “weighed down with the knowledge that it was my fault.” Wisdom is the result of compassion because love always contains intelligence because love is God. That brings wisdom, and that brings peace.

Peace. Guilt. There’s always someone who will invite you into guilt, or something past will come up. In that moment we can choose compassion. Sometimes it’s easier to start with compassion for someone out there. Then we can bring it to ourselves. Compassion to understanding to peace. I choose compassion. I choose compassion. I choose compassion.

“But listen to me for one moment. Quit being sad. Hear blessings dropping their blossoms around you.” And you will!

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July 12, 2015 – The Perception Trap – The Projection Game

by


07/12/15 Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
The Perception Trap –– The Projection Game
 
If your eyes are healthy [your perception is true], your whole body [your body of affairs, your life] will be full of light [illuminated, aware of truth].” (Matthew 6, 23-24). If our perception is unhealthy, it is darkness within. So we see events in the moment erroneously, and are triggered by past pain. That’s the Perception Trap. We then project the past pain into the present and into the future. That’s the Projection Game. Until we heal that core negative belief, we react from that belief, and it gains energy over time. We update our pain with the Perception Trap and the Projection Game.

We all have core negative beliefs that cause us to react in a way that has nothing to do with the situation, but with something that happened to us when we were young. That young man in South Carolina acted from a misperception; he felt he had to act to protect himself. But what he expected would happen didn’t. Instead people came together in love and compassion. “When… we see as God sees—that all is whole and perfect… we avoid recreating the pain and suffering of the past.” Elizabeth Sand Turner (Be Ye Transformed). That’s what we are being called to do in our world right now.

Anytime we get triggered there’s something else going on. The core negative beliefs come up because they are still there, not to hurt us, just calling for healing. These things come up FOR us; they do not happen TO us. We have to consciously hunt for them and heal them.

The world is calling on us to help it heal. We’re a microcosm of the macrocosm. If a large percentage of us are carrying core negative beliefs the world is going to reflect it. Take an inventory of your core negative beliefs. Write them down. Look at where they came from. Decide to forgive where it was imprinted in the first place and then forgive yourself for carrying it all this time.

Each time we face a situation without letting it trigger us we stand in our power. Keep “tilling that soil” of your consciousness to discover what is in there that is showing up out here in our world. When you see something on the news that makes you say, “Oh my God!” say instead, “That’s a part of me, too!” “That possibility lives within me too.” I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! Lao Tzu said, “The caterpillar sees the end of the world. The rest of the world sees the butterfly.

July 12, 2015 – The Perception Trap – The Projection Game

by

07/12/15 Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
The Perception Trap –– The Projection Game

If your eyes are healthy [your perception is true], your whole body [your body of affairs, your life] will be full of light [illuminated, aware of truth].” (Matthew 6, 23-24). If our perception is unhealthy, it is darkness within. So we see events in the moment erroneously, and are triggered by past pain. That’s the Perception Trap. We then project the past pain into the present and into the future. That’s the Projection Game. Until we heal that core negative belief, we react from that belief, and it gains energy over time. We update our pain with the Perception Trap and the Projection Game.

We all have core negative beliefs that cause us to react in a way that has nothing to do with the situation, but with something that happened to us when we were young. That young man in South Carolina acted from a misperception; he felt he had to act to protect himself. But what he expected would happen didn’t. Instead people came together in love and compassion. “When… we see as God sees—that all is whole and perfect… we avoid recreating the pain and suffering of the past.” Elizabeth Sand Turner (Be Ye Transformed). That’s what we are being called to do in our world right now.

Anytime we get triggered there’s something else going on. The core negative beliefs come up because they are still there, not to hurt us, just calling for healing. These things come up FOR us; they do not happen TO us. We have to consciously hunt for them and heal them.
The world is calling on us to help it heal. We’re a microcosm of the macrocosm. If a large percentage of us are carrying core negative beliefs the world is going to reflect it. Take an inventory of your core negative beliefs. Write them down. Look at where they came from. Decide to forgive where it was imprinted in the first place and then forgive yourself for carrying it all this time.

Each time we face a situation without letting it trigger us we stand in our power. Keep “tilling that soil” of your consciousness to discover what is in there that is showing up out here in our world. When you see something on the news that makes you say, “Oh my God!” say instead, “That’s a part of me, too!” “That possibility lives within me too.” I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! I See As God Sees And My Vision Is True! Lao Tzu said, “The caterpillar sees the end of the world. The rest of the world sees the butterfly.

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June 28, 2015 – A Greater Love

by

06/28/15 Rev. David McArthur
A Greater Love

This place that has been prepared for us by prayer and caring and it’s easier to enjoy the beautiful heart-field we are in when we are here. We do that for our families, too—create those heart-fields.

What’s challenging is when something disturbs this field. For example, when someone is in the pain of addiction it is so difficult to draw the boundary of safety and care for the family and say, “no, you have to take this elsewhere.” Such abuse often ends relationships, but there are times when, for self-care, a person has to say no.

In this pain when your love cannot care for the other there is a movement in spirit which shows there is a greater love. Dr. Emilie Cady, in How I Used Truth, tells of a time when someone in her life struggled with alcohol addiction. She went to Spirit and asked, “What do I do?” It took hours of surrender, but the answer was clear: “Lose him. Let him go… God is leading your friend in a way you cannot know. The Christ presence at the heart of every soul is working just as hard to bring your friend to it.”

I worked to heal a situation here with someone who was increasingly angry with me. My guidance said, “This is not yours. Let it go. Any more you do is co-dependancy. Lose her and let her go.” This raised my vision to that greater love/presence. Then the husband threatened my life and that of a board member. The board and I sought guidance and I have been so impressed with their care for me and particularly their love and compassion for these two people. That’s what we are here for, and it is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to care for our community. We called the police.

These difficulties call us to love and trust beyond what we see or understand. They open the door for us to step into forgiveness and go forward. It is so freeing. When these things happen my head wants to figure it all out, but we are being asked to step into that greater love for someone who is in conflict with himself.

The Prodigal Son “came to himself” and remembered he was a son of the father. That awakening is within each of us. When we touch it the judgments, right/wrong and the need to figure it all out just fades away. Who knows what is good and what is bad?

What we know is there is a presence, a greater love, in that person’s life and in ours. Know that. Keep opening to the awareness that “God’s goodness fills my life right now.” It’s beautiful, powerful, the very fabric of our lives. There are families here who have had to draw boundaries with someone caught in that pain. Hold for them, “God’s goodness fills your life right now.” We discover it in our lives and in others’ lives, and in those who don’t know. We discover it’s everywhere. “God’s goodness fills our lives right now.” Let that awareness fill us. Create a field which uplifts all of us way beyond what we know. For that I thank you!

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June 28, 2015 – A Greater Love

by


06/28/15 Rev. David McArthur
A Greater Love

This place that has been prepared for us by prayer and caring and it’s easier to enjoy the beautiful heart-field we are in when we are here. We do that for our families, too—create those heart-fields.

What’s challenging is when something disturbs this field. For example, when someone is in the pain of addiction it is so difficult to draw the boundary of safety and care for the family and say, “no, you have to take this elsewhere.” Such abuse often ends relationships, but there are times when, for self-care, a person has to say no.

In this pain when your love cannot care for the other there is a movement in spirit which shows there is a greater love. Dr. Emilie Cady, in How I Used Truth, tells of a time when someone in her life struggled with alcohol addiction. She went to Spirit and asked, “What do I do?” It took hours of surrender, but the answer was clear: “Lose him. Let him go… God is leading your friend in a way you cannot know. The Christ presence at the heart of every soul is working just as hard to bring your friend to it.”

I worked to heal a situation here with someone who was increasingly angry with me. My guidance said, “This is not yours. Let it go. Any more you do is co-dependancy. Lose her and let her go.” This raised my vision to that greater love/presence. Then the husband threatened my life and that of a board member. The board and I sought guidance and I have been so impressed with their care for me and particularly their love and compassion for these two people. That’s what we are here for, and it is the responsibility of the Board of Trustees to care for our community. We called the police.

These difficulties call us to love and trust beyond what we see or understand. They open the door for us to step into forgiveness and go forward. It is so freeing. When these things happen my head wants to figure it all out, but we are being asked to step into that greater love for someone who is in conflict with himself.

The Prodigal Son “came to himself” and remembered he was a son of the father. That awakening is within each of us. When we touch it the judgments, right/wrong and the need to figure it all out just fades away. Who knows what is good and what is bad?

What we know is there is a presence, a greater love, in that person’s life and in ours. Know that. Keep opening to the awareness that “God’s goodness fills my life right now.” It’s beautiful, powerful, the very fabric of our lives. There are families here who have had to draw boundaries with someone caught in that pain. Hold for them, “God’s goodness fills your life right now.” We discover it in our lives and in others’ lives, and in those who don’t know. We discover it’s everywhere. “God’s goodness fills our lives right now.” Let that awareness fill us. Create a field which uplifts all of us way beyond what we know. For that I thank you!