From the beginning of my Spiritual Quest that God set me on, my spiritual practice was driven by necessity as well as a spirit of scientific inquiry. Necessity was the crises I found myself in from my late teens on, driven by the emotional/spiritual pain. The scientific spirit of inquiry was my determination to know the absolute truth about life and its ultimate meaning.

When I met Mother, she taught from a state of realized truth that was a result of her Spiritual liberation. Far from asking me to be a blind follower based on faith—that asked me to check my reason at the door—all she taught was logical, it made sense and promised this goal: I could directly realize that same truth and experience that same level of liberation that she and saints around the world describe. Sign me up!

From the beginning Mother was transparent about the difficulties entailed in realizing this truth—it would not be a cake walk. It was the “Pearl of Great Price,” and it included a process of transformation she called “The Mystical Crucifixion.” That we must be prepared to give all in order to receive all. If I had not been driven by an inborn necessity my natural entropy may have eventually exhausted itself and I would have sought what would appear to be an easier life of simply living in the world, as many others satisfy themselves with. Fortunately, I say now, the inner pain would not allow me to rest in this way—now I consider that painful crises I lived in a result of transcendent grace.

Through many years of undergoing the Mystical Crucifixion and the gradual transformation that resulted, I could observe the results of following this journey that God and Guru had set me upon. Throughout it all I was determined to stick to only what my experience taught me and not add layers of philosophical speculation—I was only interested in practical, realized truth.

One of the things we are taught by the world’s great spiritual masters: this world is filled with opposites—for every high there is a low, and with every pleasure comes pain—and that only by attaining transcendent God-consciousness can we know a state of being that is proof against opposites. As Swami Satchidananda stated it, “Bliss has no opposite.”

I think anyone following these posts over the last four years could agree that my life has had its challenges—some pretty big ones. Putting on my scientific inquiry hat—fact, no fluff—I have observed that what Mother and the great masters have taught is true. This quote from Mother from this morning’s Message from Mother:

If you will put your full attention upon God, He will open up whole new worlds for you. He will take you places that you never even dreamed of. He will actually help you to rise above these limitations, which are keeping you in the consciousness that you are the body. He will show you what you should do for the future so that you may become a radiant, successful being, filled with the love and the truth and the bliss and the glory of God. This is possible. I promise you it is. I know that it is.  – Mother Hamilton

Throughout the challenges of these past four years the Divine Presence has been constant and abiding. Whether I was in a sick bed recovering from sequential operations or rehabbing from repeated states of paralysis, God’s bliss has filled me to overflowing. In addition, His spiritual abundance of love and light has overflowed and given itself to all those around me. His direction has guided me through the maze of decisions, and throughout radiation and multiple medical procedures I have had a bedrock of peace—exactly when there was much that was uncertain in the world of opposites. In short, the Divine Presence has been a constant source of what is good and right without interruption, and that has made all the difference—it has been proof against the opposites, and proven what my Guru taught is the absolute truth.

We, all of us, have carried expectations for how life should be. However, if we really analyze it, where did these expectations come from? Now, there are expectations that can work for us, but many do not. For instance, you are optimistic and look for good things to come. For some, if something untoward occurs, it does not dampen their positive optimism. But, for others who cling tightly to their expectations, disappointment will sink their ship in a vortex of doom.

You can really take a look at what you anticipate happening and see, “Does this propel me forward in life, or does it hold me back? When expectations give you feet of clay—or make them set in concrete—you must break free of them if you are to progress.

We can expect others to fulfill us, our work should be different and more rewarding, maybe even self-aggrandizing, life should be easier, God-experience should come without effort. These can be secret expectations we do not give voice to, not even to ourselves; however, they work in the background of our minds and will rob us of life-energy and joy and take us out of the rhythm of life.  Here is a letter to a devotee who was struggling with just such expectations:

My dearest One,

When the world does not fulfill us, then we must turn our attention to God as our all and all. By staying focused on the world, we look to see how it falls short of our expectations and then we feel sad, lonely and betrayed. This is a burden and an expectation the world cannot fulfill.

So, put aside the things of this world—take your grief to God and surrender it at His feet.

Oh Lord, if You will not fill my heart by those around me, then fulfill me by pouring your Self directly into my heart and soul. Be the balm of Spirit that heals my lacerated Soul. Only You can make me feel whole. You have put me on this Spiritual Journey of oneness, and only You can make my happiness complete. I cancel my expectations for this world that I have carried for so long and I give myself to You, heart, mind and Soul.

Spiritually free yourself from this burden. It is the material mind that thinks, “If I only had a different situation, then I would be happy.” But, is it so? God is with you in infinite Joy—why not find Him here and now?

With eternal love and blessings,

David

 

Matthew 16 ¹⁵ He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?

¹⁶ And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

¹⁷ And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.

¹⁸ And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

In this exchange between Master and disciple, Jesus immediately recognized the Truth Peter articulated came from the power of his heavenly Father. This Truth is more than thought, more than the reasoning mind can conjure up. It is the kind of direct revelation that charges body and soul right down to the cellular level and its clarity lifts the whole being of the devotee into higher realms.

It was the power of this Truth that Jesus was to build his church of Self-realization. As the Master gathered his disciples to himself, he was bringing constituent parts of the whole man together and revealing higher Truth to them so that they would become active conduits for realized thought and service to this world—bringing Christ-consciousness to the individual first, and from them to greater humankind. His work continues to this day in all sincere devotees of Truth.

Renaming Simon Barjona to Peter, which means the unmovable rock of realization, meant Peter was being transformed by his revelation into a higher order of disciple. The fickle human mind will question itself and vacillate, or it sets up a false pretense of knowing what it truly does not know. Only Supreme Truth revealed directly from our Father-God goes beyond duality’s hold and has the power to resist the gates of hell (delusive ignorance), that will not be able to prevail against it.

To have such a revelation requires you go beyond mere human thought. As you deeply meditate you will move through your own thinking world and enter into a perfect calm, a realm of inner stillness—“Be still, and know that I am God.” It is in this still-frame-of-mind that great Truth may emerge from your own depths of connection with God. It will come as self-evident Truth; it may shatter your own closely held beliefs or it may confirm what you have thought previously to be true, only now you know it as pure Truth.

When it comes from God it will be automatically for the highest good of all, though not all may welcome what God has given you. In an oceanic mind a tremendous Truth may rise up and leave barely a ripple, but the power of that Truth will move throughout all creation. You cannot demand the appearance of such Truth, but you can ready your soul to be receptive to it.

Each meditation, when you enter your inner Temple, know you sit on holy ground and all eternity is before you. Great revelations search you out for your receptivity to the Truth that will transform you and the world in which you live into a living Christ-consciousness. There is no greater life to live than this.

Health Update:

Yesterday I took the first step into entering the next phase of my journey to Total Recovery. I have to say, it has been quite the adventure starting March 19 with a large bleed in the brain caused by the growth of melanoma tumors.

Now, I have entered the fourth time of teaching this brain/body to walk again and gain strength. Allopathic treatment has recently focused on the use of steroids and radiation treatment to shrink those tumors. This has been a prelude to the next step, immuno-therapy. The protocol that was suggested to me has just been in place just for this past year, and it was pioneered at my local hospital, who also has one of the top-rated oncologists in this field, and is now my doctor—God is so kind.

I am scheduled to receive a port for infusion to be done once every three weeks for at least the next year. Immuno-therapy ramps up the immune system to seek out and destroy tumors. It is also can attack some of my own healthy organs/glands, such as my thyroid. There are a lot of hypotheticals here, and while “This could happen…and that could happen…” I feel this is a clear opportunity for moving into the future, and my claim for Total Recovery.

I told the doctor, “I am here to get well.” He liked hearing this positive attitude and felt it definitely contributed to better results. He said, “You are a minister?” I said, “Yes, and God is a wild-card which makes all things possible.” This he also readily agreed to. So, we start out on solid footing into this next stage of the journey. It is so lovely to have you journey with me—your loving support has made all the difference.  Om Sri Ram Jai Ram Jai Jai Ram!

We are all under a barrage of information from others that can appear to be from credible sources of expertise, and we can choose how we receive it: as simple information or whether it defines reality and who I am. For instance, being involved with the health care system I have been told many things—quite often what I am told by one is different from what another “expert” has said before.

I remember just such a moment in Mother Hamilton’s life, a night she verged on leaving the body. The doctor told the family that he did not expect Mother to make it through the night. Mother’s son Gari, said powerfully, “You don’t know my mother!” and indeed it was true, Mother not only continued through the night, but for years after—the doctor had delivered information based on his experience and training, it was not a definition of who Mother was.

Sri Yukteswarji, when speaking of astrology, gave this wise counsel to Master (A/Y page 105):

“The message boldly blazoned across the heavens at the moment of birth is not meant to emphasize fate—the result of past good and evil—but to arouse man’s will to escape from his universal thralldom. What he has done, he can undo. None other than himself was the instigator of the causes of whatever effects are now prevalent in his life. He can overcome any limitation, because he created it by his own actions in the first place, and because he has spiritual resources which are not subject to planetary pressure.

“Superstitious awe of astrology makes one an automaton, slavishly dependent on mechanical guidance. The wise man defeats his planets—which is to say, his past—by transferring his allegiance from the creation to the Creator. The more he realizes his unity with Spirit, the less he can be dominated by matter. The soul is ever-free; it is deathless because birthless. It cannot be regimented by stars.

“Man is a soul, and has a body. When he properly places his sense of identity, God is harmony; the devotee who attunes himself will never perform any action amiss. His activities will be correctly and naturally timed to accord with astrological law. After deep prayer and meditation he is in touch with his divine consciousness; there is no greater power than that inward protection.”

Replace here astrological law with any natural, or man-made law, rule or principle with the superiority of Spirit. Let man-made limitations arouse your innate spiritual dynamics, a challenge to God to rise up in pre-eminence—a superior Creator to His creation.

I have been watching a series in which they describe the great inventions and inventors of the 21^st Century. Time after time these inventors of revolutionary ideas, that we take for granted today, were told that what they had thought was impossible to do. They took an idea and would no let go of it, sometimes for years and years they stuck with it in endless experimentation, then the doors opened and the answer came; the world was improved.

We have all come with a unique spark of God that cannot be replaced by another. It may be an invention, insight into Divinity/Truth, a simple service to another, raising your family, performing at work—it may seem mundane to you, but that is only the limits of your vision. Sacred forces are at work in your life, the more you consciously access that fact the greater God will reveal what you have come to express of His Light, Love and Intelligence.

The veil of Maya can lower like a curtain and make you believe there is only so much, and not more. In your response you let that limitation arouse in you unlimited Spirit. It is then you have set yourself a new course with open-ended potential. It is true you may find that you are immediately surrounded by those limitations. But, each limitation only arouses greater focus on God for more Light, Love and Intelligence and a determined will—to propel you to seek out and consciously connect with the Creator of all that we see, and much, much more; then you have taken the first steps to free yourself of the tyranny of man-made limits.

When Gari said, “You don’t know my mother!” He set off a revolution and touched on the Divinity in the form or our dear Mother whose Light continues to embellish the heavens and emblazons a trail to Spirit’s vast potential.

 

 

Your Ally in God–Durga Ma Comes Ready for Battle and Blessings

What tremendous upliftment in Consciousness is ours when we keep the mind on God. This is the real secret for ultimate happiness. As I sit here, I feel the indistinct boundaries around me dissolve and expand out into an ocean of bliss and purity of Spirit—centered everywhere, circumferenced nowhere.

What a beguiling Lover God is, the world generally goes by without a second thought for the Fulfiller of our heart’s desires. Rather we lead lives of “quiet desperation,” not truly ourselves or what we are meant to be. Try to convince a worldly man or woman of the extraordinary potential they carry within and they do not have the eyes to see nor the ears to hear. Just a touch of this bliss I am feeling could change indifference into unending awe. God chooses the moment in time to reveal Himself, He plants the mustard seed that grows into a prodigious tree of realization, where the birds of Heaven may find branches of realization to perch upon.

My heart cries out to awaken all to this Mystery of Happiness that heals the world of its woes. There is no greater realization that can be had, words seem so inadequate to the task to hold all I would like to give here—so you must receive this message in the secret of your heart and soul and feel the wings of Spirit lift you to this abode of Bliss in order to know what I am conveying to you.

Health Note: I have received the three-day radiation treatment this past week, geared to destroy the tumors growing in my brain and responsible for the stroke symptoms I have been experiencing. As I lay on a narrow bed with a custom rigid mask on, large square and round panels rotate around me in order to target the powerful X-rays deep into my brain, with some clicking and whirring sound the machine is doing its job. Forty minutes later I emerge from treatment. I have noticed some improvements already and I am encouraged to see this can usher this body into a new era of restoration and renewal. The brain will work to rebuild healthy cells to replace tumor cells, which will likely require additional rest. My plan: to grow stronger, increase stamina and function as I did before this part of the journey began.

God takes us on many adventures in this life, each with their own nuances and for their own particular purpose. To accept it as His will gives us a tremendous advantage in life, for learning and for healing. This is due to the positive, determined attitude God engenders in us and makes us more available for expansiveness—instead of collapsing back into ourselves into a condensed black hole of ego-self.

No matter what role God has you playing in you life, may you sally forth in joy and happy anticipation for what the Infinite has in store for you, knowing that even if you may have some dark moments to face and roaring dragons to slay, you have the greatest Ally possible at your side—at all times and and in all places.

In dance there are steps forward and backward. As was said about the great dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, “Sure he was great, but don’t forget that Ginger Rogers did everything he did…backwards and in high heels.” So, in the dance of life there are steps forward mixed with steps going backwards.

This has been demonstrated in this “dance” I have been engaged with melanoma. For you dear friends, who have remained in this striving for perfect health with me, this past week must be seen as starting with some steps back, then followed by steps forward. I was busy gaining strength on all fronts when on Tuesday a sudden weakness affected my left side. As the weakness grew over a twenty four hour period I realized that I could not get into the car, even with assistance, the call was put into 911 and in minutes the firemen and an aid car appeared at the house and whisked me off to the emergency room. This past week was spent in the hospital with tests and some new treatment—fortunately we have a first-class hospital and staff not far away.

A steroid medication has since shrunk the tumors in my brain that had been the cause of the weakness—I am not yet at full strength, but much improved from when I went into the hospital. Now I have returned to Camano Island for some welcome rest from the hospital regimen of frequent tests and readings, such as an MRI from midnight to 3 a.m.  (rest for Carla too, who as usual was with me 24/7 in the hospital room). The steroid use is a temporary measure as there are increased side effects with longer use.

The next phase will be targeted radiation x-rays that bypasses healthy brain cells and goes after the more deeply embedded tumors in the brain—which I find to be amazing. This procedure is not without risks, which could include new bleeding, but is seen as my best option. And finally, longer term treatment with immunotherapy that works on unbinding the tumor cells wherever they may be found in the body. Implementing these last steps was greatly sped up due to my being in the hospital and this is a silver lining from this newest escapade–a few steps back along with more steps forward.

So, this Wednesday through Friday will witness the radiation therapy, with a possible side effect of weakness afterwards. You will remain in my thoughts and prayers even as I know I remain in yours. God has given us each other to go to Him together; my inmost thought and prayer is not a focus upon this body and its health, but that we should all deeply commune with our omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient Heavenly Father and Divine Mother. My reason for going into these details is that I know you want to be kept abreast of new developments and it is my wish that along with me, you learn to dance the dance of life, taking steps forward or backward with the apparent ease and grace of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

God gives us lessons to free us from the uncertainties of life in the body and to be anchored in His supreme state of Consciousness. He untangles our attachment to this body and makes us focus on His sacred love and upliftment. So, let us join in that superior Spirit that no harm can touch and no separation can ever reach. To be forever one in Him, merged in His bliss and comfort no matter the dance steps being taught by our Infinite Beloved.

 

We are faced with many challenges in life. How we face those challenges determines the quality of our lives. We can be fear factories or engines for success. Once the fear factory is put into action it tends to run on its own recycled energy unless intentionally shut it down. Fear generates fear; only calmness brings the fear factory to a standstill.

Faith in God—that He is in charge of this universe, a loving, caring hand and the mover behind all events—turns off the fuel for fear. To breathe, to focus on the ajna and surrender the results to God brings calm and stops catastrophic thinking; halting thoughts of disaster, loss and embarrassment. We have to take ourselves in hand and really go to work to change our thoughts if we want to see real results.

The mind is very quick and will slip into the familiar worry pathway unless governed and taught to choose a more positive mode. Paint a new picture of yourself, so that when you meet a challenge you automatically access your connection to God, “Lord, what would You have me do? You are the creator of the entire universe and You have the answers I need, You have the supply that is required, I am Your child and You must see to it that I have all I need to succeed.” Then feel that from behind you there is a flow of intelligence and wisdom coming as creative, uplifting thoughts. Life-force is flowing to you to give you unlimited energy and health inducing radiance. There is a pipeline of abundance flowing to you from unknown and delightful sources.

“Though man’s ingenuity for getting himself into trouble appears to be endless, the Infinite Succor is no less resourceful.”

Lahiri Mahasaya

You are not a passive participant here, but you are actively attuning your thoughts, words and actions to Divine Will. You are His instrument and you feel joy at His movement through you. In fact, you are so focused on doing His moment to moment will, fear is now in the distant past. When you are in need you increase your prayer demand that He give you more and you open wider to the idea that you are His instrument. A loving father may test his child in order that he or she learn an important lesson, but a loving parent would never abandon a child; so, your Heavenly Father, Divine Mother may test you to hone your focus of attention to be upon God alone.

Do not waste your time and energy on nervousness, which has never accomplished a good and noble act, rather know God as your ultimate resource, comfort and guide. The quality of your life will change in remarkable ways. There is no greater or effective way to live your life than to be God’s instrument and live with full faith and confidence in His Presence.

Health Update

An MRI examination of the brain revealed a total of five melanoma tumors in the brain. There is a plan being made to use radiation therapy. According to the Mayo Clinic:

Radiation therapy is a type of cancer treatment that uses beams of intense energy to kill cancer cells. Radiation therapy most often uses X-rays, but protons or other types of energy also can be used.

The current plan is that in the next few weeks I will have three treatments on three consecutive days. Each treatment will last approximately 30 minutes and that should eliminate the tumors. There are more details for its preparation—side effects may include fatigue, loss of hair on the spots treated, etc. After this I will be monitored by periodic MRIs.

A biopsy was also taken this last week from the spine, the results will be known this week; if it is more melanoma the material will be used for an immunotherapy concoction that will be created and injected back into the body to eliminate tumors wherever they may be found. Of course, your thoughts and prayers for perfect health are of tremendous benefit—these secret warriors vibrations help to explain the amazement that doctors and nurses have had at the way I have come through all that I have. I feel strong and positive that this body should go on to perfect health. Ever in God and Gurus loving care.