Morning Notes. Hugh Prather

another. It's impossible to be enlightened and know it. Enlightenment is awareness of oneness, of which there is no consistent symbol in the world. The monsters of history all lacked awareness of oneness, and my own worst moments have been when I have lost sight of it. My goal today is to be vigilant for feelings of superiority and to correct all thoughts that any personal attribute could set me apart from what is real and lasting in others.

      63

      Today I will do two things: shut up and mind my own business.

      Ninety percent of my relationship problems would be solved virtually overnight if I would just learn to shut up. I simply don't know when someone needs to hear what I have to say. But when I think I do know, I clearly am not hearing the part of me that I should be listening to.

      64

      Is it likely that what God wants will be thwarted?

      The Shepherd returns all lambs to the fold; the Father welcomes home even the prodigal son who has “sinned against heaven.” I will not be arrogant and think I am the one problem beyond God's capacity, that I am the one person who can thwart God's will. As I go through the day, I will be “humble in the Lord.”

      65

      Today I will remember God.

      We have been told that God is love. We have been told that God is always with us. We have been told that even if we make our bed in hell, God is there. We have been told that God's peace has been given to us and left in our keeping. We have even been told that it is God's great pleasure to give us the Kingdom. There may be room for over confidence, but there is certainly no room for confusion.

      66

      Faith is the willingness to rest in the arms that already hold me.

      The bully is usually the leader of the playground, the ruthless often climb the corporate ladder faster, politicians willing to lie routinely get reelected, and mean people frequently live longer than nice people. Goodness is seldom rewarded in the world. But goodness is rewarded. And the reward is immediate, because only those committed to being good experience peace, which transcends the world.

      67

      Faith can be redirected.

      A true and helpful faith is not reliance on something I would expect to happen judging from my past experience. The events of my life don't exactly inspire faith! Yet I always see what I choose to see. I have a sustainable faith only when I extend it. This I do by acknowledging precisely what can be relied on in others. True faith carries with it a state of joining, a state of comfort, a state of Family— provided that I don't search my life for individual “blessings.” I am not special, and this recognition, honestly seen, is the foundation of a new kind of faith.