Charred Sutra

This final Sunday in August, 2025, hopefully brings an end to the extreme heat in Los Angeles, County. I've been exchanging thermometer readings with friends along the Pacific coast, from Portland to San Diego. The heat has been difficult, but we've adapted. Here in L.A. County there has been quick responses to erupting fires, and welcomed evening cool-downs. The Public service announcements remind us: "Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay informed." Staying cool can be a reminder that navigating heat, traffic, and other people involves patience and care for others; staying hydrated, includes being aware that water is necessary for your cognitive functioning and awareness of what is happening around you and others. Staying informed, is more than the weather report--we live in complex times, high heat is a call to simplify your movements for the day. It means adapting your day to our shifting environment. To me, "informed" also means following the inner directive and a spiritual perspective. While the West Coast is in a heat wave, the East Coast faces flooding, brooding storms, and the need for similar vigilance.

This week, someone sent me a brief story of the "Charred Sutra." Sutras are ancient and medieval Indian texts revered in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. These condensed "truths" open to deeper interpretation and meaning. I don't know the original source; there are many stories of Sutras lost, or partially burned in fires. In this tale, it was dawn when a novice monk found the sutra fragment; the rest had burned in the night's fire. As he lifted the burnt page, ashes fell everywhere. "Master," he pleaded, "how do I save this wisdom?" The master blew at the fragment, watching it as it scattered and dissolved in the garden. "Now," he said, "read it in the cucumbers growing through the soot."

This struck me as an ancient tale of living teachings in the midst of changing times--of fires, floods, and seasons, of Nature's return, and what we consider sacred. After January's destructive Eaton fire, we were warned not eat anything from the backyard garden for a year, except for the thick-rind citrus fruits. Chemical analysis had shown the ash contained potentially harmful chemicals, and it would be safer to wait for next year's crop. The charred sutra tale felt particularly significant in 2025, a time of changing climate. We can't eat the cucumbers this year, but they will return.

As I mulled over the story, I met layers of meaning. Is an ancient sutra as wondrous as a living garden bringing forth food? Well, it depends. I considered the times when I am seeking some spiritual understanding or guidance. I might flip through my books--that could include the Bible, or other religious texts, or poetry, and an idea, an answers, a spark, grabs me. Sacred Sutras are sparks of ancient wisdom and insight that can ignite us thousands of years later. But they also, like all religious teachings, can crystalize, become rote and empty ritual, and even blind us from seeing what Life offers us now. There is another kind of ancient wisdom in every garden. And not only the way of cultivation--the way of food, clothing, shelter, companionship, and creativity can be found in contemplating the living, natural world. Read it all, "in the cucumbers [in the whole of Nature's story], growing through the soot." Consider this week, that Life is urging You to adapt. Life is urging You, to recover awareness and sensitivity of this Natural world as it shifts. Yes, it is a collective task, but we begin with ourselves. (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://spiritoftrees.org/poetry/woods

https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RilkeRainerM/Silentfriend/index.html

https://intrinsicheart.com/the-seven-of-pentacles/

Silence

"Listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world." —Jack Kerouac

Today, I invite you to return to silence.  You may have a lively social day ahead, or you may feel the need to hover around the latest shifting news, or a long "to-do" list, but regardless, of whatever commitments, consider some time for silence; if not today, then during the week ahead.  Recently, someone wrote to thank me for the Hillside Source website's recording of my 2018 talk on The Harvest , including "harvesting silence".  The email triggered my own need to return to this particular spiritual practice. Today, I offer it to you.  

My early encounters with spiritual silence came through my exposure to meditation; silence is often an aspect of meditation.  Over the years, I learned many "techniques"--not all are silent. Meditation is more of a quieting, a quieting that includes the body's relaxation, the breath softening in slow rhythm. As emotions and thoughts settle, the focus can suddenly "shift gears" into a infinite, nameless field.  Mantra's, or prayer, or images, can be part of the stream of awareness.  Stillness and silence can be a kind of background for contemplation, or alternatively, the stillness, the silence, simply take over.  To me, every meditation is different, is movement, is "live" and unpredictable.  

During those early years of meditation, I attended and led retreats that usually included a meaningful day of silence.  But the full force of what I term spiritual Silence opened 15 years later with my early encounters with U.G. Krishnamurti, and extended to 17 years, often spent in deep silence.  We sat in silent chairs next to a crackling fire places.  We sat in silence in parked cars in parking lots, waiting for others as they ran the day's errands.  There were silent drives through eerie forests with crystal ice branches and piled soft snow in stunning stillness; silent drives on spring-time roads, lined with vibrant flowers, bursting with color and sunlight; miles and miles of drives through empty desert silence, the mental chat stream of thought finally giving way.  

Even though it was difficult to leave each visit, in retrospect, I see that it was necessary.  Each return home brought a new appreciation of silence in general, and a deepening need to enter it, and hold it.  But I rarely had the time. Then silence opened the door--and I discovered it everywhere, and most available in things around me. By things, I mean the inanimate world.  Listening to the silence of things, brought an atmosphere of silence.  Moments of silence accumulate.  Each time of turning to the immediate silence of a thing, or a room of things, even if overlaid with "noise", brings a connection to the silence at the core.  The practice of silence then, is a giving way to stillness and the absence of not just sound, but the absence of separation. Silence extends to the natural world, including the problematic world of people.  You can find that silence anywhere. Take the time this week to listen beyond your world of thought.   (Susan Nettleton)

Listen, my child, to the silence.
 An undulating silence,
 a silence
 that turns valleys and echoes slippery, 
bends foreheads
 toward the ground.

—Federico García Lorca

for poetry:  https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/H/HsuanChuehof/22Ihaveent/index.html                                                                                                                                                      https://predmore.blogspot.com/2021/05/poem-r-w-thomas-but-silence-in-mind.html                    https://sacredpoetryproject.com/silent-friend-of-many-distances-feel/

Beauty

This is a good week to re-discover Beauty! Despite the turmoil of the world and whatever weather conditions you maybe facing, Beauty remains an ever present aspect of Life. As individuals, we have our differing and unique ways of nurturing ourselves. One of them is our awareness of Beauty in its varying forms. Neuroscience and psychology tell us that perception of beauty involves the interconnection of our senses (including color perception) and our emotions, thought, and culture. We respond in different degrees to scent, texture, shape, hue and intensity, tenor and pitch. Some people find beauty in symmetry; some in asymmetry. Sometimes Beauty arises from complexity, sometimes from simplicity, partially based on our cognitive preference! I like the definition giving in the Free Dictionary: The quality present in a person or thing that gives intense aesthetic pleasure or deep satisfaction to the mind or the senses. I would include "the happenings" as well. Happenings are events that bring pleasure/satisfaction to the mind or senses. and (I also add) our hearts. Ultimately, our perception of Beauty belongs to the Spiritual Realm. What is Beautiful to your heart?

A friend of mine recently wrote me that she had been seized with a sudden and intense need to de-clutter her house, to set the house and herself free of the unwanted past, the excess, and the unnecessary. This sudden onset of need propelled her into a whirlwind of release, and then, after car loads of dispersion, the pressure receded again. Layers of 'too much' were gone, and rediscovered Beauty reigned again. The process of release doesn't have to be total to be healing. The idea here is release and rediscovery uncover the Beautiful.

That rediscovery, or renewed awareness, can surface in different ways. When my grandchildren ask me, "What is your favorite color?", I usually answer yellow. They are now old enough to protest that I never wear anything yellow. True! I own very little of anything that is yellow. "Ah", I explain, "yellow is the color of the sun, and that yellow, shines as the dawn, and gives us daylight, so that we can experience the Beauty all around us." "That yellow gives the right tone of beauty to oranges, peaches, apricots and tangerines in the yard, and summer dresses, and swimsuits and beach shirts, whatever their color."

We also meet Beauty as ongoing discovery through the world of ideas and in our sense of belonging to this Life, Like Grace, Beauty is a gift. Yes, the world struggles, all forms of life have their time of struggle. Creativity itself is often struggle, as new Beauty arises, in its' infinite forms and manifestations. Yet, Beauty is a balm; it soothes and uplifts. Take a Beauty break, away from the news, squabbles and scandals. Right where you are, is something Beautiful. It may even reveal to you, the Truth. (Susan Nettleton)

“Beauty is truth, truth beauty”— that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know. John Keats

for more poetry: https://www.sharonsinger.ca/poem-of-the-week/august-federico-garcia-lorca

https://www.kayebarleymeanderingsandmuses.com/2015/04/welcome-morning-by-anne-sexton.html

https://readalittlepoetry.com/2023/10/09/a-blessing-by-james-wright/

Wake Up!

Today's post is a section of this morning's Zoom talk. If you would like to be on our mailing list for future Zoom talks by Dr. Susan Nettleton, email us at: hillsideew@aol.com or the contact box of our website: hillsidesource.com

This morning I am encouraging you to Wake Up! It's August, the solar mid point of summer is August 7, on Thursday. The rhythm of summer as a season though, is often condensed by Labor Day or school schedules that initiate our awareness of Fall. I begin with this to remind us that our cultural reframing of the seasons can be a subtle disruption of the natural rhythms of Life. And that in turn impacts our awareness with a conflict between our ideas and concepts, and the way our bodies developed in response and rhythm with the natural world. One theme to consider today is "wake-up to the mid-point of summer." Yet, that too is complex; climate shifts are also creating change, in what is now called "season fragmentation", adding another piece of change to awaken to and absorb. Admittedly, the title "Wake Up", actually came to me as a need to break the spell of the political pressure of these times--the unrelenting news flashes of policies, court rulings, outrage, fear, sadness, pain, helplessness and loss--and recover a larger sense of life. Wake UP! Wake up to Nature, to healing, and to new ideas and new understanding, new and renewed goals, creativity, discovery. Wake Up as a living, spiritual being, contributing to this unfolding, wondrous life. Wake up the Good.

Waking has a range of definitions in our current culture. We can talk about Waking Up from physical sleep, the sleep/wake cycle. We can talk about being awake and alert and recognize we go through midmorning or mid-afternoon slumps, We have various factors in that--tea or coffee, food, our ability to move around, health regimens, cortisol levels...there is a rhythm of alertness, and sensory awareness. Be aware of yours. Waking up can apply to deepening awareness of physical reality and the natural world. It can also apply to society, including the idea of being "Woke". Waking up also refers to experiencing something that supersedes physical, mental-emotional, and societal self-awareness to spiritual awareness. Spiritual awareness is a recognition of a connection to that beyond this physical, defined planet, felt in various ways as something transcendent, intangible-and often, a sacred source. Awakening can bring a sense of personal or collective potential to grow into more than what we seem to be, or recognition that we are already far more than we realize. Various philosophers offer humankind's creative principle, with a vision of latent human potential that has yet to express, or is currently coming into expression, that we can nurture and expand.

Spiritual awakening in Christianity is a profound shift in one's awareness of transformation in relationship to God and the mission of Christ. I love the description of 20th century Rabbi, Abraham Joshua Heschel used in the description of awakening in Judaism as "radical amazement". Heschel noted that as "civilization advances, the sense of wonder declines". We can consider our sense of wonder and amazement with the "advancements" and struggles of the 21st century. In Islam, awakening is a path of inner transformation and deepening of a personal connection and devotion to Allah. Ancient Hindu Upanishads' texts instruct us of 4 states: waking, dreaming, dreamless sleep, and turiya. "Waking Up", in essence, applies to all of those divisions. We commonly understand waking up from a dream or from deep-sleep, but here, spiritual awakening implies also waking up from our usual state of waking. Actually, waking and dreaming are like 2 poles of the same activity: waking is perceiving the external world, dreaming is perceiving the internal world, and dreamless sleep is closest to pure consciousness, i.e., without awareness or sensory perception--no thought, no ego or individuality. We know Turiya, the 4th state, is bliss. Turiya is the Self. Turiya is ultimate Reality. May this week bring some new awakening. (Susan Nettleton)

https://sacredpoetryproject.com/to-learn-the-scriptures-is-easy/ https://mywordinyourear.com/2019/02/07/why-i-wake-early-mary-oliver-a-tribute/ https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/R/RumiMevlanaJ/InnerWakeful/

Unplug

Today, and/or in the week ahead, I invite you to consciously, purposefully "unplug". It is ironic, of course, because to read what I am writing you need to use some electronic device! But I am suggesting experimentation in our collective dependency on electronic media. I confess that this post came to the forefront for me, when my computer refused to turn on one day. I had had a specific time-window to tackle my "online tasks", including sending out email reminders of my Zoom talk for next Sunday (August 3), several online projects, a meeting, and research scheduled for the following day. I charged the computer the night before so all would be up and ready to go in the morning. But that morning--nothing. I went through the checklist--wifi was ok, so I tried the charger--nothing. My first sense was urgency! Time pressure! Then, I realized I still had my phone for a quick search of options, but first--meditation. Meditation erased urgency. Meditation reminded me, that I would have to make some decisions, take some action, probably face delays, but this was not a crisis. Emmet Fox* popped into my head reminding me, "The only thing you have to heal is the present thought...Get the present moment right." There was nothing urgent about the present moment.

Mind clear, I decided the most likely problem was a broken charger. Using the phone, I found and bought a compatible one, to be delivered the next day. In the meantime, I rummaged through shelves and found a notebook that still had blank paper. I thought about the skill of the pivot, and the power of computer-tech skills that include an essential capacity to unplug. Just before my scheduled online meeting, the charging cord arrived. I was still not certain it would work and had put my backup plan in place (download Zoom on my phone), but sure enough, in a matter of minutes I was set to go!

Why the skill of the pivot? I know 'pivoting' is now used in various business and motivational techniques, but to me, it's still associated with basketball. Basketball is a fast moving game, requiring endurance, focus, and dexterity. When you pivot with the ball, you are quickly shifting direction; your mind and body coordinate to maintain balance while you turn. It is related to my previous post on a focal point. Here, you are quickly shifting direction, again and again, as the spontaneous game unfolds. I couldn't use the computer; I had to pivot to meditation, then to my phone, then to paper and pen, sprinkle more meditation in there, and then pivot back to a computer.

We are not living lives of monastic isolation and rigor; nor is there cause to turn our lives and thinking capacity over to technology, or Artificial intelligence. The political/societal scene is generating one shift after another; the climate and natural world is fluctuating and unsettled. Sometimes technology is the solution; sometimes it is the problem. We nurture and secure both our educated intelligence and our instinctual and intuitive brilliance by periodically pulling the plug on technology and rely on Beingness. Try it this week. (Susan Nettleton)

*Emmet Fox was a 20th century New Thought Minister and writer.

for poetry: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/53133/things-56d2322956d0a https://allpoetry.com/poem/18353011-Unplug-by-Steveniskf https://pollycastor.com/2015/10/04/new-poem-unplug-it/ https://letterpile.com/poetry/Addicted-to-Technology-Without-a-Phone

Peaches

"Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him." (Psalm 34:8)

Maybe it was the undercurrent of contemplation. Maybe it was last week's practice with a spiritual focal point. Or maybe it was just the grace of the day that began with a morning of interruptions and texts, as I tried to get to my morning meditation: Someone sent a reel on Ramana Maharshi, which started a text chain discussion, then my computer became feisty as I checked the calendar, and my phone spilled out news updates not to be ignored, bringing an atmosphere of agitation. When I finally was able to get to my cereal and coffee, I grabbed a peach that had been sitting on the counter for a few days. It smelled lovely, and felt ripe, so I opened it to add to the cereal bowl. I just had to eat the first slice. The taste was summer in it's ripeness--perfection! It was, without a doubt, the best peach of my life. Exquisite. Summer in a peach. Somehow in this mess of July with all the twists, turns and tragedies, summer had never really arrived, until this moment.

The tension of the morning melted as I slowly ate the peach and simply looked out the window at green trees, white clouds, blue skies. And I considered timing. The timing of the peach awakened my senses. I considered patience. The Eaton fire 6 months ago contaminated the local plants and the county advised not eating the produce from nearby gardens for a year, except the oranges and tangerines with thick rind protection. Patience is needed, because healing and repair, take time. And ripening takes time. The bananas bought for school lunches often ripen and over ripen, too quickly. Yet, the avocado on the counter (that I had been checking daily), still won't give way to softness, while the peach was perfection. Ripening also involves variation. It struck me that deepening our understanding of timing and variation are keys to living with climate change. A line from the I Ching popped into my mind, "All that matters is that things happen at the right time."

Yes, the political drama of tariffs, and the overwhelming loss of farm workers through immigration raids continue to create chaos, ultimately affecting food supplies. These are serious challenges, but today, and into this next week of July, I encourage you to savor nature's gift of summer. Within summer fruit is an essential principle of timing, of ripening processes, of abundance through adaptation, generosity, and creativity. Don't wrestle and push understanding; just taste and see. (Susan Nettleton)

https://allpoetry.com/poem/14108093-O-Taste-and-See-by-Denise-Levertov-by-Denise-Levertov https://poets.org/poem/peaches https://yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/2011/11/god-is-ripening.html

Focal Spot

Where is your focus, your focal spot today? Life in 2025 continues to be a dizzying array of change and unexpected events, "trials and tribulation". If the larger field of the nation, world events, or sudden shifting weather patterns are disrupting your plans and overloading your emotions, it's a good day to stop and re-orient, and find a point of spiritual grounding. Consider the parallel of dancers who learn to spin and leap by keeping their eyes, their visual focus, on one fixed spot in the room. As they spin around, they quickly turn their head to find the same visual spot again and again. Amazingly, this focal spot keeps trained muscles sturdy and balance secure. Similarly, in the practice of yoga, a focal point is key to sustaining balance and concentration in holding a pose. In meditation practice, a repetitive mantra, or a visual image, becomes the steadying anchor to the wandering mind. Is there a spiritual focal point in your day? Or are you wobbly, spinning from one feeling state to another, from one wave of worry, or fear, or anger, or sadness, to another. You may have a specific time of spiritual practice like meditation, prayer, or spiritually-based exercise that has a built-in focus, but what about the stretches of daily life and all our interactions in between? Life often offers us a spiritual return-spot to maintain equilibrium, a gentle return of awareness of the spiritual life, embedded in everyday events.

Last night I was cooking a late dinner after a very busy day. It was a simple noodle dish, but it did require boiling the noodles. As I grabbed the pot to rinse them, a cord caught on the edge and the pan flipped, spilling water and noodles everywhere--floor, counter, other ingredients, in a massive mess. I managed to save enough noodles to throw into the meal, but first there was the cleanup. When I finally got the last bit wiped up, I saw that somehow a piece of lettuce had settled on the floor. With a deep sigh of fatigue and resignation, I reached down to pick it up, and suddenly, I remembered a Zen story. There are variations to this gem, but this is the one I recalled: Three Zen Masters were wandering by a river when they saw a perfectly good lettuce leaf floating by. They were quick to critique the wastefulness of the local monastery's cook. Then, they heard movement in the bushes along the shore, and out burst the cook, who exclaimed: "Gotcha!" as he reached into the river and grabbed the leaf. Waving it at the Master monks, he returned to kitchen. The three critics could only bow. And I smiled.

The Zen tale has layered meanings that include the significance of mindfulness, the careful and respectful use of resources, and the inherent value of "This", the true nature and transience of all things. In the mess of my evening, I recovered my 'spot' of larger awareness. Don't let yourself get swept away by the ongoing sensational announcements and heart sinking tragedies of these times. This is not to say we ignore events; we are part of this whole that grapples with shifts, celebrates what we perceive as success, and grieves with losses we cannot fully comprehend. I am saying, though: Don't lose your bearings, stay oriented, shift your focus--in the moment--to that spot of spiritual vision, or that spot of Faith in an over-riding Good, that grounds you. Your focal point, as your find your bearings again and again, nurtures and stabilizes Life around you. Peace is contagious. (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91718/balance-584ad1d11ff6e https://larrygoodell.blogspot.com/2011/08/focal-point-six-directions-poem.html https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2024/2/12/every-day-as-a-wide-field-every-page-by-naomi-shihab-nye

Independence and the Machine

As the July 4th holiday comes to a close today, I am still contemplating the larger theme of Independence--not independent nation but what independence means in terms of individual functioning, choice, and common sense. In particular today, my thoughts have turned to the looming growth and power of Artificial Intelligence and human dependency. That' a huge, but fascinating topic, in unchartered psychological and spiritual waters. I just want to dip our toes into considering an Artificial "thinking" machine and living, humans with independent thought. Human history, of course, has moved through many eras of both evolutionary and revolutionary changes, and faced conflict and fear in the process. Never-the-less, Life is not stagnant. My purpose today is to simply encourage you to trust and sharpen your independent choices, the innate capacity of your inner guidance, and your own, personal spiritual intelligence.

Last week I had planned to attend a dance performance in downtown Los Angeles, directed by a friend. I didn't know the area very well, but I scoped it out the night before on my maps app, got a sense of distance, timing and a place to park. The next day, I headed for the Theater in what I thought was plenty of time, but I misjudged L.A.!  Even though I had my phone Artificial Intelligence, a.k.a. Siri, instructing me, I must have missed an interstate lane change and ended up in a nightmare of traffic. Siri took me over one freeway after another in a weird route that I gave up trying to understand. As the minutes clicked away, I suddenly found the parking garage. By then it was after the start time of the show, but I ventured forth anyway on foot, phone in hand. Siri led me from one street to the opposite corner and back again, then up the street, and back again. It kept telling me, “almost there”,  but numbers on the buildings, were not the address numbers of the theater, and it became clear that I was going in circles. By then, I knew it was too late to be admitted. I stopped, turned off my phone, and closed my eyes to clear my vision and just be still. Then, I walked back to the garage. I easily maneuvered through the massive structure to find my car, right where I had left it, and headed out of L.A. I decided to give Siri another chance--this time to lead me home.  About 10 minutes later, on some random street near another interstate, my phone died. I had no clue where to go next, so  I pulled over to regroup and recharge the phone. The charger didn't work. I sat and watched the continuous flow of traffic, then closed my eyes again, to just sit.

In my years of travel with my teacher, U.G. Krishnamurti, he would repetitively insist while we drove highways, or walked unknown streets, "Use your eyes, not your head!" These days, he most assuredly would add, use your eyes, not your machine! The point is to rely NOT on what you think you know (which is the past, including memory and advanced planning), but to rely instead on the body's sensory input, as Life unfolds in the moment. In this instance, my ideas and emotional state interfered with truly seeing where I was and where I intended to go. My way was further skewed by reliance on the artificial, the manufactured, machine synthesis with an 'assumed intent' connected to 'the standard direction' for that neighborhood. And then the machine, dependent on electric charge, stopped. And again, I stopped, remembering another U.G. quote: "You are lost in a jungle and you have no way of finding your way out. Night is fast approaching. The wild animals are there, including the cobras, and still you are lost. What do you do in such a situation? You just stop. You don't move."

In my own stopping, I reflected on cultural and personal dependency on the mechanical and the artificial, and it's cost to humanity, when we are encouraged to pretend that technology is more than--will become more than--a helpful tool, a machine. In my stopping, I saw the potential price of that pretense. Then, came a realization! There was another charger in the car! I found it, CHOSE to re-charge, and the phone awakened. I ALLOWED Siri to guide me home--this time, on a totally different route. I also VOWED to add paper maps to my car! This week, I encourage you to reflect on your independent capacity to evaluate and choose in this emerging shift of technology. Stop when it's time to stop. Let the stopping be your space of reminder. You are Life, not machinery, you are Creative Intelligence Itself. As Rilke wrote: "Look, I am living, on what? Neither childhood nor future grows any smaller. . . . . Superabundant being wells up in my heart." (Susan Nettleton)

https://www.thehealingpoems.com/almighty-gut-feeling.html https://digitalcornbread.com/shawshank-redementia-day-341-poem-tech-on-trial-a-frustrated-techies-anti-tech-rant/ https://www.bu.edu/quantum/zen/readings/keepingQuietNeruda.html

Independence Day 2025

Tomorrow is the last day of this stormy June. Stormy weather and stormy politics form the collective backdrop of America as we enter July and its upcoming Independence Day, July 4th, 2025. On Friday, America will be 249 years old. Right now, the banner of "Independence" seems full of contradictions. My intent is to help you navigate this week, and this time of history in general, by supporting your spiritual life. I offer you a reminder: A part of you belongs to the collective backdrop, but the depth of your unique being is centered in God, and blooms from the core of Life.

Spirituality is not about independence from that Center, that Core; it is about being a unique expression of the Center, the Core. But, because you arise from the Core (another way of naming God), you are inevitably in relationship with all other expressions of that Core. Spiritually, you are essential, a unique aspect of Life, woven and inter-connected to the infinite forms Life expresses, including other people. You matter. Your awareness matters. Understanding the weaving of Life is not a simple thing. We can't hold the mystery and understand it with the degree of clarity we use in our daily activities and choices. We inevitably have to bridge our understanding with Faith. We trust the spiritual aspect of our awareness enough to affirm that we are Spiritually and Intelligently directed, that we are guided in a path of Good, even when events darken our light. Even as the faith of others and their understanding may exclude and condemn our personal spiritual path, Faith allows for a higher aspect of Intelligence that ultimately reconciles the Whole.

Realistically, multiple "storms" in the social order, disrupt our lives and Faith. (One can argue that is the subversive, misguided intent behind social disruption.) We get worn down and our thoughts and perceptions hover on the negative, the frightening, the insult, the loss. When life is weighted toward fear and and despair, we lose our way. The more we look with dark thoughts, the more we find the gloom. But, there is a saying, "if you can't find God (the Good) who moved?"

If your Faith falters, look for the Good. In the pile of upheaval, the forgotten, the trespasses, the mistakes--yours and others--shift your focus to daily positive events. I guarantee you, positive events are happening in your life right now. That is not an affirmation of social disruption. It is an assurance and a practice to spark your awareness of the positive, expressing Good, right now. Writing a quick list of 3 or 4 positive events in your life each day, resets and balances awareness. Consider a daily chart for July. Name the concrete good as it happens, write it as a reminder, feel it as a tangible expression of Good. And "Gratitude, seals the deal". (Susan Nettleton)

for poetry: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/dont-believe-your-thoughts--582442164341533699/https://wordsfortheyear.com/2016/06/17/this-much-i-do-remember-by-billy-collins/ https://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/L/LevertovDeni/OnlyOnce/index.html https://leonarddurso.com/2014/04/21/life-by-juan-ramon-jimenez/

2025 Summer

Summer officially arrived this weekend, but the freedom of summer dissolved with last night's announcement. America began bombing Iran in the darkening shadow of war. Now we wait, and the world waits, for whatever comes next. The immigration upheaval continues, along with the federal vs. state conflict in L.A. over the local presence of the National Guard. Summertime as "free and easy" seems postponed, if not relegated to the past. Nevertheless, Earth continues it's path around the Sun, and the great light of the solstice has arrived. Where do we put our focus, this first week of summer: The vast uncertainty of human culture, or a stabilizing faith in the Greater Order of Life?

One can argue that this stabilizing faith is but a sliver of a dream, clutched by a minority of human culture. But one can also argue (as aspects of Hinduism and Buddhism offer) that the whole human drama is a dream. Or, one can affirm that the stabilizing faith in a Greater Order of Life, adds to that Order, and enhances its manifestation. In other words, we bring the world into being by our faith in It. The sum of nature, human thought, cosmic physicality, Transcendent Awareness, and, as New Thought philosopher Alan Anderson used to say,"then some", is God. "God is all there is, and then some."

There are many other views of life and religion, but my purpose today is two steer you away from the fear and gloom, long enough for you to pray for Peace and in that Peace, re-focus on living more fully. Prayer is a dynamic force. Prayer is about living in Peace, with Peace of Mind. Prayer in a time of war, means we find our way to affirm Peace for All of Life, including Peace for our "enemies", who are also of this Life, this World. That kind of prayer is seemingly a koan, a spiritual enigma--yet the only way to achieve Peace is to grant it to all, first finding your own place of Peace of Mind. Even though that may dissolve with the next news report, you found it, and you can regain it with prayer.

One way to live more fully in this unsettled time, is to set yourself some summer goal(s). Goals are one aspect of the human dance between the present moment and an unfolding future. The practice of "being in the moment" cultivates a sharper awareness and participation in the present--no question about that--but life is not a "frozen" moment. It's a stream of moments, and an unfolding story. Goals propel us forward. Goals give us a personal structure for action, so that we don't lose ourselves in the unrelenting bombardment of social media opinions and unsettling news. Goals reinforce our sense of agency. As human beings, we have the capacity to initiate action. As we commit to living from a spiritual perspective, that agency becomes more and more an inner directive. Our spiritual practice becomes the well-spring of new awareness and new goals. Summer goals may be very simple, short-term, and enjoyable. Or, they may re-orient your life path. Listen to your heart, and set your course with renewed Peace of Mind. (Susan Nettleton)

For poetry: https://gladdestthing.com/poems/the-rules-of-evidence https://allpoetry.com/poem/14326594-Unharvested-by-Robert-Frost https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/150995/dreams-5d767850da976 https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/peace-wild-things-0/