Tag: Spirituality

All Systems Go

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

All systems go . . . is a phrase that was popularized during the space race of the 1960s.  It was a specific person, actually, who used the phrase — John Powers, the public information officer for the U.S. Space Program —  and then it just caught on and became an idiom meaning that everything is ready. 

There is another quote about systems often attributed to W. Edwards Deming of the Deming Institute, but it’s of disputed origin.  Regardless of who said it, it goes like this: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the outcome that it gets.”  It assumes a kind of Z to A way of analyzing efficacy.  So, first you have to identify the outcome you are experiencing. Once you know that, you will know what kind of system you have in place — the system that would create this particular result. 

Many spiritual seekers have done at least some work around the idea of setting intentions, the A to Z way of attempting to create specific outcomes. Current spiritual wisdom tells us that if we get clear on our heart’s desire, set an intention, and then affirm it regularly, we can create the reality we want — the results we want. But what is going on when we set an intention and it doesn’t pan out. Are we doing it wrong? 

Or could it just be that all systems aren’t quite on go? 

I don’t have any ground-breaking answers regarding the intersection of intentions and results. But I do think that if we want to understand the connection between them, we need to first explore the system.  And in this instance, the system is us. 

I find that the more time I spend in communion with my higher self, my divine nature, whatever you want to call your true and unchangeable self, the more my intentions arise naturally, on their own, from a pure place, and present themselves to me.  They are no longer clay that I’m attempting to shape, wet and formless clay that I’m pulling from the mud in handfuls and trying with everything within me to make into something at least presentable. No.  From the place of my beingness, my intentions become like doves that fly down to the ground and land at my feet. They aren’t made by me so much as they arrive and present themselves to me.  In time, they start to fly right into my hand, and then they even begin to alight right on my shoulder when I’m not even paying attention.  As my communion with my higher self continues and deepens, the dove can even become a hawk or an eagle.  In other words, the more I simply focus on my divine nature, the more my intentions create themselves.

My suggestion, and it’s only a suggestion, is to stop trying to figure out your life’s direction or what you should be affirming.  Stop trying to carefully word your intention.  Just for a little while. Instead, go inside.  Go deep inside. Check under the hood, so to speak.  Meditate.  Read Mooji or Michael Singer or Caroline Myss. Do whatever it is you need to do to commune with your true self. If you’re not sure what that is, ask.  Let the asking be your first intention. And when all systems are go, you’ll know the direction to take.  

Just a thought from here at ground control. 

Judging from the looks of things . . .

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

I may be sent to New Thought hell soon, so, well, it’s been nice knowing you.

Here’s how it happened. Last night I decided to once again attempt to reduce my judgmental tendencies. Every so often I become aware of this inherited trait of mine and decide to wrangle it into submission. I use the word “wrangle” to evoke the imagery of a rodeo so you might leap to the correct assumption that my success in this regard has historically lasted about seven seconds. Roping judgment is a lot like riding a bull.

I’ve done the deep dive into the difference between good judgment, the laudable ability to make excellent decisions, and being judgmental, the act of priggishly asserting your illusory superiority over another and often by assessing grotesquely minute characteristics. I am talking solely about the latter.

So last night I once again felt compelled — got convicted, as we used to say in the fundamentalist church — and determined that I would withhold all judgmental tendencies for 24 hours. I’m sure that was my problem. Making the leap from seven seconds to 24 hours is guru-level enlightenment.

And so I failed. But I didn’t just fail.

I JUDGED DEEPAK CHOPRA.

I’m going to New Thought hell.

Now, I don’t know Deepak Chopra. I want to make that clear from the start. But I follow him on social media, and this afternoon I saw a post of his that included a question someone had posed to him along with his response. The question was from someone who had felt guided to open a spiritual center, become a Reiki practitioner, and help heal the world. A noble cause. But this experience was a financial trainwreck for the person. Their home was foreclosed. Their credit rating went into the toilet. This person believed, visualized, positively affirmed, cleared past energy, and set intentions, but nothing seemed to work. The question to Deepak was clear: “What did I do wrong?”

Now, let me make it clear that 95% of Mr. Chopra’s response to this writer was spot on as usual. But in the first paragraph, he said, “Where you fell short was the depth of consciousness from which you set your intention into play.”

And in under seven seconds, I popped into his comment section and wrote this:

“With all due respect, sir, I don’t believe you can assess the writer’s ‘depth of consciousness,” and your attempt to do so feels blaming. The rest of your response resonates with your usual brilliance. But the bigger issue not addressed here is the degree to which some spiritual teachers advocate a throw-caution-to-the-wind approach to visioning for one’s life and the idea that all will be fine if you are aligned, and if it’s not fine, then you were somehow lacking. Stepping out in faith is beautiful, but that step should be balanced with other elements (planning, thoughtfulness, training, prayer, saving, an appropriate support system, and also, of course, personal consciousness-deepening work). I’d like to see a spiritual teacher who doesn’t just blame, but who also recognizes that spiritual teachers may have some culpability in encouraging folks to leap before they might be ready.”

And you might think that this post is actually about spiritual malpractice or the failings of the prosperity gospel or the dangers of an affirm-it-and-manifest-it spirituality that emphasizes acquisition over being-ness.

But it’s not. It’s about judgment. And before I can engage in healthy debate about spiritual principles with one of the foremost spiritual teachers in the world, I need to check mine.

At least for eight seconds.

Meditation

~ Deb ~ 1 Comment 
Most lessons I have to 
learn more than once.
When they first come,
I see the truth.
I get it.  

And then I 
forget. 

            Judgment of others 
            is a mirror 
            for my own inadequacies.

            Right action is that
            which is not attached 
            to the outcome.

            Insanity is performing 
            the same behavior and 
            expecting a different result. 

I know these things, 
but I forget because 
the world gets busy, 
the noise gets louder, 
and the distractions win. 
I forget because I’m human, 
and humans forget. 

            Do unto others 
            as you would have others 
            do unto you.  

            Fear and anger 
            cannot grow in a 
            garden of gratitude.

            Karma 
            trumps 
            dogma. 

I forget so I can 
remember. 
There is no joy 
in mowing a short lawn
or vacuuming a clean rug 
or washing a spotless dish. 
The satisfaction of the scythe
is in the tall grass.  

            Nothing exists 
            other than 
            right now. 

            The opposite of love is not 
            hate; the opposite of love 
            is fear.

            The path to awakening 
            leads through the heart, 
            not the head. 

Faith is knowing that
what we learned once
is never lost, 
and it will return
when we need it. 

            These three remain: 
            faith, hope, and love, 
            and the greatest is love.

            What we put out 
            comes back to us
            multiplied.  

            Love is 
            all you
            need.


© 2020 Deb Moore, All Rights Reserved

How the Universe Talks to Me

~ Deb ~ Leave a comment

It’s usually through a series of otherwise unconnected but often chronologically proximal events that the Divine chooses to send me messages.  A theme emerges.  A thread becomes spiritually visible.  A connection is made.  And the message is undeniable.

Item 1:  A few years ago, I was part of developing a new theme at the Unity church where I attend and am involved in leadership.  The theme was “authentic transformation.”  It was what I felt I was undergoing and what I believed to be core to the spiritual journey.  Every Sunday morning in my roll as “platform person” at Unity of Music City in Old Hickory, TN, I say something to the effect of “Welcome to Unity Music City, a place of authentic transformation.  It’s who we are.  It’s what we do.”

Item 2:  A year or so ago, I had the privilege of meeting Michael McRay when he was speaking at Unity of MC about his reconciliation work in Israel and Palestine.  I saw him again at a workshop for Narrative4, a story-telling reconciliation practice he facilitates.  I saw him a third time just a couple of weeks ago when he conducted a Narrative4 workshop at the college where I teach.  What strikes me every time I hear Michael is that he is a very young man (28? 29?) who is able to clearly communicate his purpose.  Michael will state in no uncertain terms “This is my purpose, and these are the ways I express it in the world.”

Item 3:  During a recent Wednesday night class at Unity of MC, the idea of purpose entered the discussion.  My dear friend and minister, Denise Yeargin, said, “I know my friend, Deb, is a teacher, and a darn fine one, but I also know that is not her purpose.  Am I right?”  And she looked right at me.  I said, “You’re right.”  It was as if the Universe was saying, “You’ve danced around this for a while now; it’s time to turn it into a declarative statement.”  I hesitated for just a moment, and then I said, intuitively, “My purpose is enthusiasm.  My purpose is to help others find enthusiasm in life.”

Item 4:  I went home that night and looked up “enthusiasm” once again.  I had looked it up before, and I knew that it meant something akin to “God within.”  But when I looked this time, I found a more definitive translation from the original Greek that I don’t remember ever seeing before.  It was “possessed by the essence of God.”  Oh, brother.  That about brought me to my knees.

Item 5:  I posted something on Facebook about a successful teacher moment.  For me, a successful teacher moment is when a student expresses some newfound enthusiasm for their journey because of something that happens in my classroom.  In the comments on the post, one of my former students, from way back in my second or third year of teaching, said this, “You’re a transformational educator . . . always have been.  Thank you for your heart, mind, and spirit!  You are one of the best to ever do it! #thankGodforTSU #freshmanhonorsenglish #myfave #abetterwriterforit”  Okay, so that totally rocked my world, but what really stood out to me was that word “transformational.”

The last meeting with Michael McRay, the Wednesday night class, and the former student’s comment happened within 10 days of each other.

And it all brings me here:

My purpose in life is to teach the transformational power of enthusiasm.  My purpose is to show how transformational it is to be possessed by the essence of God.  I do this through teaching, through singing, through my work at Unity of Music City, through my work in the classroom, through my one-on-one encounters with students, through my work as a chaplain in the pastoral care ministry at Unity, and through every conversation or thought I have.

I do this by living a transformed life with enthusiasm.

And so it is.