The Gift of the Anonymous Question

Posted on February 18, 2011 by nrosanoff

Those with an interest in spiritual living are aware that all sincere questions are answered. But does it matter who asks the question?

This years PAGL conference is all about asking questions.

When I first heard that there would be an opportunity to ask “anonymous” questions, some personal issues I had been struggling with immediately popped into awareness.

Simultaneous to the full awareness of the issues came the answer, followed closely with release from the heavy burden of the problems I had seemed to be living under.
These were questions I had been asking for some time. So, who asked the question in a way that allowed the answer?

When a question is not anonymous, it’s personal. There is someone who wants to solve the problem, who, at the same time, is self-protective. It seems that there is something “personal” about the question – that both the question and problem “belong” to us.

Consider, for a moment, that what makes a situation a “problem” is the personal identification with it. “There is something going on that is difficult for Me, and I don’t like it!” Paraphrasing a well-known Zen Koan we could say that the “person and the problem are one.”

Metapsychiatry suggests that it is not a person, but the spiritual quality of radical sincerity that is open to hearing truthful answers. “Anonymity” neutralized the “personal” allowing the underlying quality of being to be fully present.

So, what is the difference between a “person” asking a question and the “quality” of radical sincerity?
The “person” asking a question is attached to the problem. While the agitation and suffering experienced from having a problem may bring the “person” to ask the first intelligent question – the answer can only be understood when the person/problem duality is transcended.

Radical sincerity is the quality of being that is committed to seeing the truth, regardless of personal embarrassment and spontaneous new responses to habituated situations that will surely flow.

Radical sincerity already exists as a quality of God, Divine Wholeness. It can be appreciated by each individual being. We can each be committed to being sincere, recognize when we are not quite there yet, and pray for the transcendent moment when the “person” with a “problem” disappears and all that is left is the glorious truth.

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Witness to Transformation

Posted on February 5, 2011 by nrosanoff

Witnessing Cairo

Are you interested in supporting those who are demonstrating and standing up for a more democratic government, yet confused and distressed by the potential and actual violence? Are you having difficulty knowing who or what organizations to support?

Do you think you have to take a crash course in Mid-East/North African history to understand enough to be articulate and helpful?

Are you in danger of tuning out the situation from hearing too many opinions and fearful speculations?

Be at peace. There is a truly helpful view that transcends the immediate conflict, and opinion spouting while staying present with the unfolding events.

The truth is that none of us know what individual leaders, spokespeople, and citizens need to do at any moment. But we can be very interested in governance that allows and supports education, expression, and opportunity.

Even though none of us know the best path to freedom for any individual, group or nation, we can know that every individual, group and nation has the capacity and potential to receive intelligent, loving, wise ideas that will be just right for their moment.

Every individual can look for moments of intelligent, loving and wise ideas, no matter how tiny or few. Every time a moment of wisdom is appreciated by even one individual, that attention to the wisdom increases the potential for that wisdom to be seen by others.

This is the transcendent approach – to know that wise ideas are always available, and rejoice when they appear in actual events and watch them as they unfold.

Of course there will be many moments that may be frightening in their ignorance and disregard for real solutions. These can be seen for what they are – ignorant, self-serving, narrow-mindedness. To fight these, or get angry only feeds them. But keep looking – and keep open for the specks of light, seeds of inspired solutions and individual transformations to a more healing and helpful awareness.

The global evolution of consciousness is fed and directed by what we pay attention to.

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“Our Hearts are Broken”

Posted on January 14, 2011 by nrosanoff

President Obama opened his heartfelt speech in Tucson, Arizona with this phrase.
And, it is true. Our hearts are broken by what happened this past Saturday in Tucson, Arizona.

This confirms a universal Truth – that what happened is wrong. We agree on that. There is nothing good about a disturbed individual shooting innocent others.

On the other hand, the individual responses to the violence, and to those who were hurt by the violence, is recognized by all as good.

These two self-evident truths sum up our purpose in life.

The recognition of what is good and the healing of what is not. In every moment of our lives, this is the task.

God did not plan this tragedy, nor was it anyone’s destiny to be hurt or killed in this untimely violent manner. Neither was it anyone’s goal to heroically charge the violent attacker or in anyone’s dayplanner to sacrifice themselves in an attempt to save the one they loved.

Yet, the choice between violence and peace, fear and love, happens everyday in an infinite amount of ways, large and small, and this is our purpose – to choose love over fear; to respond to real needs over reacting out of personal frustration.

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New Year’s Resolutions:

Posted on December 31, 2010 by nrosanoff

Certainly committing to health, prosperity and happiness is good. Yet, what happens along the way that turns New Year’s resolutions to dust? Is there a solution?

1. New Year’s Resolutions are futile.

New Year’s resolutions fall apart due to the frustrations inherent in their pursuit. Pursuing personal goals often sets up a “no win” situation. In order to reach a goal we must deprive ourselves of activities we enjoy, yet when we enjoy these activities we suffer the consequences to our health, finances and happiness and judge ourselves on our failure. Either way there is frustration and anxiety – from either deprivation or remorse – a “futility duality.”

2. It is possible to transcend the “futility duality.”

To transcend this duality it is helpful to recognize that each behavior we are interested in changing means something. The unhealthy habits of eating, spending and behaving are each expressing an inner conflict.

3. Seek to see the meaning of the inner conflict and. . . .

The conflict is often some thought about who we “should” be and what we “should” do. “Should” thoughts are an attempt to impose an external standard and automatically set up a climate of rebellion.

4. Know that there is authentic wholeness.

Conflicts and the inability to make ourselves “better” is actually indicating that a more authentic self is waiting to be seen. There is a perfect Wholeness waiting behind the “scene” of what we think will make us feel good.

5. Take the journey by asking questions you cannot answer.

How can one stop doing something enjoyable, even if it is recognized as unhealthy, without feeling deprived? As they say in Maine: “you can’t get there from here!” A consciousness in conflict cannot heal itself. Good questions can lead our awareness out of the conflict and into a more loving, understanding awareness.

6. Neither do, nor not do – be receptive.

The stillness of mental chatter necessary to ask a question and wait for the answer to emerge is neither active nor passive – it is receptive. Receptivity is a spiritual capacity cultivated through a sincere interest in healing and understanding.

7. Let the holy healing unfold.

Each individual journey from conflict to transcendence is unique and holy. As we undertake this journey, the emergence of wholeness flows into awareness. Wholeness is our true nature. It is not something that we create, imagine or will. It emerges into receptive awareness as the conflicting feelings and thoughts are seen more clearly as not the real good-in-life that we are seeking.

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The Communion of Saints

Posted on December 23, 2010 by nrosanoff

The “Communion of Saints” is a beautiful phrase that has seemed like something that occurs up in some more refined part of the universe – where choirs of angels spend their days singing Hallelujah!

But it is actually much more available.

During a recent visit with a friend with whom is shared an interest in enlightened life, we sat together in reflection. We were both immediately elevated to a clear awareness. With the elevation came joy and lightness of being. From this state, all problems dissolved in the recognition of their root in small-mindedness.

This moment of shared elevation of consciousness brought to mind the phrase I had sung and prayed in church as a young girl, yet never understood. The “Communion of Saints.” In the presence of an elevated consciousness, all are elevated. A mutual interest in enlightenment results in what Christ referred to as “. . . when two or three are gather together in my name. . .”

Within the holiday exchange of greetings I am also finding the “communion of saints,” with friends, colleagues and acquaintances sharing and wishing the best of life for each other.

We are “gathered together” in the name of enlightened living – ratcheting each other up to live the best life available through mutual affection and love – regardless of the time and space differences.

In the “communion of saints” or the “communion of enlightened being,” or in the most basic of modern form – “hello!” the basic message of joint beingness in the midst of human expression shares love and affection with the capacity to lift and be lifted.

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Letting the Holidays Unfold

Posted on December 16, 2010 by nrosanoff

It seems clear in the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus that God functions outside the boundaries of conventional thinking. An illegtimate child is born in unsanitary conditions without social connections.

What was God thinking?

Perhaps the message from God is to appreciate the value of “letting be.” In the Christmas story the issues that often seem so important turn out not to be important at all. It was a blessed event, as it is whenever a child comes into this world, regardless of the circumstances. Yet how often we miss this.

And, perhaps all the events in our lives are blessed, regardless of whether it conforms to what we think it should be or shouldn’t be, whether we like it or not.

“The most important things in life cannot be done and it behooves us to learn to let.” So says Dr. Hora, the founder of Metapsychiatry.

And, as the bible says: “. . . the battle is not yours, but God’s” (II Chronicles 20:15)

When we demand, will or attempt to make something happen we are “battling” and missing the perfection of what is, rolling right over it with intentions to do what we think good and right.

“Letting” allows each moment be what it is, without doing or distorting. And, as the awareness of what is becomes clearly seen, we respond as participants in the unfolding journey of life, as did the shepherds and the wise men in the Christmas story.

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Angels

Posted on December 8, 2010 by nrosanoff

Angels we have heard on high. . .

Angels have appeared to many of the Hebrew Prophets as well as to the shepherds of Bethlehem and to Mary, the mother of Jesus. But what are angels? and what do they mean to us today?

In Metapsychiatry we recognize angels as messages(not messengers) from God. We can be aware of the love, peace and guidance of God, and in these moments we are inspired.

“And when we say God speaks to us, what do we mean? We mean that divine ideas ‘obtain’ in consciousness. 
We become aware of receiving intelligent, loving, creative ideas, and these ideas 
are messages from God. We call them angels.”
-Dr. Hora

We do not need to think of angels as something supernatural – occurring only to a chosen few – or as something that is a fantasy. We can recognize that all the images and songs and scripture about angels are referring to moments of conscious union with God and that is something available to anyone.

Santa Claus is similarly an image of a quality of being that is loving, generous, and joyful. These enduring, vital qualities are expressed in poetry, literature and scripture as images. As we mature spiritually, the image is replaced with individual understanding and the capacity for conscious union.

“Conscious union with God implies a conscious awareness 
of guidance from God in the form of inspired ideas or messages, commonly called ” 
angels,” which speak to us, saying: ‘This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn 
to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left’ (Isaiah 30:21).”
-Dr. Hora

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Giving

Posted on December 6, 2010 by nrosanoff

This is the season of gift giving. When gifts are given and received there is often an underlying dynamic that boils down to the formula: Giving = Getting. In giving there is often something wanted in return – even if it is a “thank you.” When a gift is received there is also something expected to be given – at the very least, appreciation of the gift.

When we give, we want to get – and when we get, we are expected to give.

The underlying “wanting” expressed in the giving/getting drama is not peaceful or joyful or grateful. These are transactions that take place between persons. Dr. Hora has referred to them as “bribes.”

In Metapsychiatry and other enlightened teachings, it is impossible for people to give or receive. Giving is a gift of God, as is receiving. Neither can be done. It is a holy process that takes place in consciousness.

God gives continuously and freely the gifts of life which in human consciousness is recognized as intelligence, love, creativity, prosperity, harmony, joy, and more. It is the nature of God that this giving occurs. These gifts are received in consciousness as individuals become aware of the grace of God.

As this awareness fills individual consciousness, true generosity becomes possible – one individual can responds to manifest needs with no strings attached.

A man can receive nothing except it be given to him from heaven.
John 3:27

You cannot ‘do’ generosity. Dr. Hora

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Joy of the Season

Posted on December 5, 2010 by nrosanoff

Join me on a journey of joy through the holidays using some of the healing concepts of Metapsychiatry as our guide to going beyond the flurries of fears and frustrations that are constantly tempting us to succumb to the holiday frenzy.

Rejoice in the joy that comes from understanding the spiritual meaning of the rituals, traditions and texts of the season.

During the month of December I will be sharing spiritual concepts and applying them to some of the common issues of the season. May these ideas be received, lived with, tested, and understood, and grow in consciousness like the star of Bethlehem, guiding you to the truth of your glorious being.

1: “For God is the author of peace, not of confusion.”(1 Corinthians 14:33) In other words, what is harmonious and good cannot flow from a confused state of being, yet flows freely from a state of peace. When there is an inner stillness we can live and move within the holiday frenzy without being influenced by it.

Without inner stillness we are susceptible to confusion and distraction wherein it is not possible to make good, clear choices.

So, whenever we find ourselves stressed, confused, or tired – STOP and know that what is more important than anything is inner stillness.

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Does The Squeaky Wheel Get the Grease?

Posted on November 11, 2010 by nrosanoff

I grew up hearing my mother use this phrase often. She offered up many examples confirming it through her encounters with school administrators, health bureaucracies, etc. But, is it a guide to harmonious living? Is it a right idea?

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that there are more and more “squeaky wheels” in the media and in politics. While they may or may not get the “grease” they sure seem to take up space while generating agitation.

Yet, if one doesn’t “squeak,” will needs be met?

When the overriding concern is “having my needs met,” whether it is stated loudly or silently, there will be conflict, agitation and frustration. The mental climate becomes a stage where the needs of one struggle to dominate, or subvert, the needs of another.

The healthy alternative is to see our selves not as independent people struggling against each other, but as individual expressions of an infinite larger whole. Do the leaves of the tree struggle with each other for resources?

The truth is that each unique leaf, engaged in being, is part of the health of the whole tree – with no drain on its individual wellbeing.

I can hear the question right now: “This sounds very nice, but, where is this infinite whole and where do we plug in to have our needs met?” “Has God ever sent me a check?”

The Infinite Whole is invisible to the eyes, ears and brain. Yet we can become aware of it. We cannot see harmony, intelligence, or honesty, yet we can be aware of their presence.

Just as the mental focus on “getting my needs met,” will manifest tension, conflict and frustration, the interest in wholeness, harmony, intelligence, benevolence, honesty and other spiritual qualities will manifest effortless harmonious living where all needs are met.

Fine Print: There is a “catch-22.” If one attempts to be interested in wholeness, harmony, etc. with the idea that then their needs will be met – it won’t work. As the bible says: “God will not be mocked.” The Infinite Whole is a Truth system – only when there is complete recognition and appreciation for the truth that we are here to “be” not to “get,” will we open to the true blessings of existence.

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