Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

“Courage means telling the truth of ourselves from our whole being.”  Patrick Cameron

Yep, it’s another quote from the Integration Conference, spoken in the seminar on leadership held for ministerial students.   About the same time as I heard this quote, I heard another concept from one of my teachers, also in a leadership class.  She said that we should not use “expressing our truth” as a means to bully others.

So…I’ve been thinking some about this truth and courage stuff.  I know that in the past I have been guilty of expressing my truth to try and control and manipulate others.  Setting boundaries is another concept where there is a very fine line between attempts at control, manipulation and bullying, and taking care of ourselves.  The line is drawn in that area between speaking in the first person (“I” statements) and speaking in the second person (“you” statements).  Yet it has been my experience that even first person statements can sometimes be  a thinly veiled attempt at bullying, or attempts to control and manipulate.  I’ve seen relationships destroyed because one person disguised attempts at control as setting boundaries.

So what is the answer?  How do we know our own truth, and express it in such a way that we honor ourselves without venturing into the land of attempts at control, manipulation and bullying?

If you have been reading this column for a while you know the answer:  do your spiritual practices!  In this case, going within through the practices of meditation and journaling seem to be the most effective.  When we go within on such a deep level, we know what our truth is.  And we will feel the difference between courageously expressing that truth or venturing into that fearful place where we try to control, manipulate or bully others.  On some level, it does not feel good when we go beyond simply expressing our truth.

Another part of the answer comes from that ancient wisdom expressed in the Course In Miracles:  there are really only two states of being, love and fear.  We are either in a state of love, or a state of fear, and we will always react from that place.  Learn to recognize what fear looks like for you, so that you can move back into a state of love when it happens.  Learn the spiritual practices that work best for you to move from fear to love.  Love means we do not need to try and control or manipulate any situation or bully anyone.  Love means we can rest easily in our beingness and KNOW that all is well, no matter what.  Love means we can simply honor ourselves, and take care of ourselves.  Love does indeed conquer all.

Today is January the 5th, in case you haven’t checked out your calendar yet.  We are three days into the first business week of the year, and most of us are back to the same daily routine that we  had before the holidays.

How are you doing on all those good intentions, new year’s resolutions and great goals?

Are you finding that they seem to be fading into the background a bit, lost in the shuffle?  Especially since you probably have added in the annual “rites of paperwork” that we must all do to prepare for the tax season? Are you perhaps feeling a bit overwhelmed?

Fear not.  You need not lose sight of those commitments you made last weekend.  You made them for a reason.  Even if you weren’t aware of it, Spirit was calling you to think those thoughts, to make those commitments, to set those intentions.  You can still honor them, and be “in the groove” of the daily routine.

It’s all about the being, not the doing.  Everything starts within.  If you made a resolution to lose weight, that’s ok.  If you decided you wanted to exercise more in 2011, that’s good too.  But instead of counting calories and keeping track of your workouts, how about coming from within and being a healthy person?  I don’t know about you, but counting calories, making lists, organizing those lists and doing all of the other stuff that is recommended for the achievement of a goal is ok….but just ok.  I’ve always had the sense that something has always been missing with that scenario.

What has been missing is the spiritual component.  I’m not talking religion here.  I’m talking a connection with that deep inner part of you that Knows. I’m talking about that Great Reality Deep Within that is the source of all good.  I’m talking about that piece of us that is part of the One, that One that makes anything and everything possible, if only we connect with It and allow it to flow through us, in us, as us.

Instead of making lists and diligently doing what’s on them till you really just want to through out all those lists and give up, try going within and connecting with that Source and knowing.  For it is in that knowing that we are allowed to Be what it is we want to achieve.  And once we Are that which we wish to achieve, nothing can stop us.

I wish you complete Beingness in this new year!

“If you don’t go within, you’ll go without!”  Karen Linsley, RScP

Yep, that’s my own quote at the top!  I like quotes.  I get a boatload of them emailed to me every day.  (if one is good, a boatload is better!)  My email goes to my phone, so I can access my daily quotes any time I want.   (A practical note here:  I have my quotes emailed to a box I use for nothing else, that way my phone isn’t plugged up with other stuff that can wait.  I just want my quotes on my phone.  You can get a free email box at Yahoo, Aol or Gmail.  And I bet there’s a bunch of other sites where you can get a free email too.)  My quotes help me to set the tone for my day, they remind me of who and what I am.  And they are part of my daily spiritual practice.

Here are some resources to get some quotes:

www.alancohen.com Alan sends out a one sentence quote each day.  He has written a couple of books which are an easy read.

www.MaryMorrissey.com  Mary Morrissey sends out a blurb each day, which she calls her Dream Builder.  It is usually a couple of paragraphs, and is one of my favorites.

SpiritAsJeff.com Rev. Jeff Anderson sends out what he calls Snips.  It’s a series of three quotes that he has gathered, always from different people.  I’ve always wondered how on earth he gets these, and he never misses a day.  I love the quotes that Jeff sends out!

http://practicethepresence.wordpress.com/author/edwardviljoen/   This is the emailed version of the daily reader called Practice the Presence, by Rev. Dr. Edward Viljoen and Rev. Chris Michaels.  Another of my favorites, plus my spiritual community is also following Practice the Presence so I can spiritually  join with my gang when I internalize the reading for the day.  This link will take you to the blog, where you can sign up for the email delivery.

Getting the quotes every day is the high tech version of using a daily meditation book.  And reading a daily meditation book is one of the ways in which you can go within, it’s a valuable daily spiritual practice that will help you move from a life lived outside of yourself to a live rich (there’s that word again!) in all the wonderful things life has to offer.

We are halfway through the Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life class.  Can you believe it?  It seems like just yesterday that I was writing all about beginning metaphysics in preparation for the class: things like affirmations and visualizations.  I even got a very nice letter from a Unity minister who was concerned that I was sending the wrong message about our belief system by talking only beginning metaphysics in my posts.  But there is a method to my madness!

In the class, the students have learned that the bottom line is that it all starts within.  This is where  the meaning of life part of the title comes in:  everything comes from within.  ALL outside conditions begin within, and it is within where we must make the changes if we wish to change our outside.  This is what our teaching is all about.  And the key to changing our insides is changing our beliefs and changing the way we feel about things.  We’ve discussed this a bit in class.

Now, we are moving on to another bottom line in the class, and this is where we move a bit beyond beginning metaphysics.  It’s about giving.  For it is in the giving that we receive, just like all the ancient wisdom and traditions tell us.    But just like everything else, it is the feeling behind our giving that gives meaning to the action.  If we just give because we are told to do so and our sole motive is to receive, then we are defeating the purpose of the Law.  We are simply activating more of “what’s in it for me?” syndrome.

Giving is a profound spiritual way of living that truly does allow us to receive all the good that there is.  I’m not talking about simply giving money, or tithing.  I’m talking about giving of ourselves.  And I’m talking about giving because it gives us joy to do so, not with an ulterior motive in mind.  I’m talking about giving at work:  instead of showing up late and leaving early and thinking in terms of pay and benefits and what you can get out of your job, try showing up early and leaving a bit late and being fully present for the job and giving totally to it and being grateful for the work and thinking in terms of what you can contribute, not only to the job but to the team with which you work and the organization you work for.  (I realize that’s a run-on sentence, but if Thomas Troward can do it, so can I!)

I’m talking about giving fully in  your relationships.  Do you hold back a bit?  Not give totally of yourself to your loved one, whether from fear or from something else?  You will truly get what you give in a situation like this.

I’m talking about giving fully in your spiritual community.  I’m not talking about tithing here, although that is an important part but subject to a whole ‘nuther post on it’s own.  I’m talking about being a part of your community.  Not just showing up on Sundays and getting what you can out of the message and then leaving.  If that’s all you do, then that is all you will recieve.  I’m talking about being a part of a spiritual community, just like an extended family, and helping out in much the same way as you would help around the house at home.  You DO help around the house at home don’t you?

I’m talking about coming from an attitude of gratitude and givingness in ALL of your affairs, all the time.  When you do this, you will receive the Stars and the Moon.  You will experience all of life’s joys and treasures and abundance and every wonderful thing that is possible.

This is the true meaning of life.  The meaning comes from within us, and we can give that meaning whatever we wish:  either taking and resentment, or giving and love.  I prefer the latter, what about you?

John Randolph Price, in his Abundance Book that we will be using for the Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life class, explains that the shift in consciousness from within to without began very early in the history of man, as early as A.D. 180.  At that time, religious leaders began to attack independent thinking and persecute those who believed in a Source within us.  They wanted the populace to be dependent on them, not on an all powerful being within that anyone could access anytime.

What does this have to do with abundance and prosperity?  Everything.   Just like everything else in life,  prosperity starts within.  If you are manifesting anything unlike that which you feel you deserve and want in this world, you must look within to your thoughts and beliefs, for it is there that it all begins.

“Change  your thinking, change your life” is the teaching.  It does not say go into guilt and shame for having negative thoughts or beliefs, it simply says change them.  And in order to change them, we must be aware of them.  This kind of self exploration and going within to find your power and strength is recommended by all spiritual traditions, and has been since the dawn of human kind.  The ancient teachers of this wisdom simply went underground when they began to be persecuted, but in the 1800s a groundswell of New Thought began to grow, culminating in where we are today: benefactors of all of that past sage teaching.  We have books, classes, workshops, entire international organizations devoted to teaching of the old knowledge.

In the next few weeks, before the start of the class, I will be blogging more about prosperity consciousness.  I hope you enjoy the posts!

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

I was trolling on Facebook this morning for ideas and came across a book review for a book called Ten Laws of Enduring Success by Maria Bartiromo.  She is apparently an anchor for CNBC.  I do not watch television news so I had never heard of her before.  She has some good points, and admittedly I am going from a review, I have not read the book.  So I may be wrong when I say that this is all very good stuff, but it’s missing a key ingredient.  Here are her ten laws: 

Self-knowledge, vision, initiative, courage, integrity, adaptibility, humility,endurance, purpose and resiliance.

Like I said, all good stuff.  But where does this stuff come from?  You can’t just pull it out of thin air.  It comes from a place within  yourself.  The review does mention that, but even knowing that this stuff comes from within you doesn’t really help you know how to get it. 

You get stuff like this by consistently spending a period of time, every day, in communion with that sacred piece of yourself  that some people like to call God.  Yep, it’s in the meditation and other daily spiritual practices, where you connect with Spirit, that allows you to develop things like vision and courage.   And self knowledge is very valuable, but when faced with some real life choices in some situations, self knowledge will avail you nothing unless you also have a sense of a Sunlight of the Spirit to partner with.

Again, I could be totally off base here and she might talk about a spiritual connection in her book.  And again, her ten laws are indeed very valuable.  I just wanted to point out that to get to a place where you have those ten things in your life, you must first go to a place of Spirit, consistently, and connect with that, then those ten things will indeed come to  you.

Yesterday I wrote about a non religious interpretation of what Good Friday could mean for you in your life.  Seeing all that happens in our lives as good is a way to get into freedom, empowerment, the solution.  But sometimes it takes a bit of time to get to that place.  We need some time of contemplation and inner  searching.  We might need some time to grieve, we might need some time to heal before we can rise again, to a new beginning.

If you acknowledged yesterday that there were some things in  your life that you could perhaps view in a different way, to give  you freedom and allow you to get to a place of peace, then today would be the day to rest and do the necessary processes to get to peace about the situation.  Think about it:   if you were to forgive, it would make you feel better about  things. 

We all have roads to travel.  And we travel those roads to get to where we are today.  So many times I hear people declare:  “I’m not traveling down THAT road again!  It didn’t work!”  But if  you hadn’t traveled down that road, you wouldn’t be where you are today.  Are you grateful for where you are today?  Are you limiting yourself by buying into a story that happened previously?  These are the kinds of questions you can contemplate during  your time of rest.  Then you can decide how to proceed in a way that best serves you.

Take your time of rest and heal, for tomorrow will be a new beginning with new possibilities!

“…..water reaches its own level.”  Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind textbook

It is a scientific fact:  water does indeed reach its own level.  It’s also a scientific fact that our bodies are made of 90% water.

Then there’s the Law of Attraction, which states that whatever we think, whatever we believe, that is what we will attract into our lives.

Think about these truths in terms of  your own relationships.  I’m not just talking about intimate relationships here, but all relationships.  If you are attracting companions, friendships or intimate relationships that are not serving you well, the place to look is within yourself, not at the other people.   For you are indeed, attracting your own level.  If you wish to change what you are attracting, you will first need to change your level.

This isn’t about judgement. When we judge ourselves or another, we are limiting ourselves.  And if we are judging ourselves or another negatively, we are creating shame.  Remember, we attract our own level, so if we are judging another negatively, there will always be some aspect of ourselves that is causing that. And we will create more of that which we are judging, simply by the act of placing attention on it.  Whatever we are judging the other person for is something within ourselves that we do or behave like also, except that we don’t want to look at it. So instead, we turn our thoughts outward, judging another, paying attention to traits and actions that are negative, and creating more of the same in our own lives. 

Go within.  Look inward.  Look to the level of your own water.  Look to your own beliefs and thought patterns.  View them the same way you view the things in your home when you are getting ready for a garage sale.  Some items you want to keep.  Some you want to sell because you don’t use them anymore.  I doubt there will be any judgement attached to that.  It’s simply a matter of the item not being used.  It served you for a while, but now it doesn’t.  Time to get rid of it, to make room for something new.  It’s the same thing with behaviors and beliefs and thought patterns that no longer serve  you.  Simply remove them, make room for new thoughts and beliefs.  Change your level.

As with all change, there might be a grieving process associated with changing our level.  Contemplating, for example, selling that old piece of furniture in a garage sale might bring back memories of the experiences  you had with that piece of furniture.  It’s ok, desireable even, to go through the process of remembering, and of saying goodbye, and of thanking the ways you were served, and of then acknowledging that its time for something new.  Be gentle:  don’t judge, don’t go to a place  of shame or guilt, just release and move on.

When you change your level, the people and circumstances in your life will also change to match the new level.  This can be exciting, but might also be a bit scary.  This is a good place to acknowledge your oneness with the One, to remember that you are a being of Love and Light, and that all is well.  This is also a good time to reach out and avail yourself of the gifts that are there for you, all you need to do is ask.  Help and support from friends, loved ones, mentors, Practitioners can be invaluable in times like this.

Sometimes we might also need help in the very process of changing our  levels.  Again, a Practitioner can help with this.  Practitioners are specifically trained to  help people change the limiting beliefs and thought patterns in their lives.

Isn’t is wonderful that we have these great minds, and all these tools to use, to change the circumstances in our lives if things are not working for us?  Isn’t it wonderful to be empowered? 

Today, I know for you empowerment.  I know for you that if you decide to change your level, the means to do so will present itself effortlessly.  And when this happens, it’s called a demonstration, and I want to hear about it!

The Course in Miracles says there are only two states of being:  fear or love.  It further tells us that we can only be in one state or another, the two cannot co-exist at the same time in the same entity.

The reactions we have behind fear are very non-productive and don’t serve us well at all: anger, lashing out, shutting down, a certain sort of immobility, indecision, anxiety;  all are symptoms that we are in fear.  And to add insult to injury, acting these ways tends to produce more of the same!

When we are in love, we behave just the opposite:  a sense of well being, all is right with the world, a calm, a sense of our own worth, acceptance, compassion, tolerance, trust, faith, a knowing that all is well.  We are much better able to function in life in a state of love, and the Law of Attraction works here as well, producing more of the same.

So, how do you get from fear to love?  It’s all inside work.  The state of being in love is not based on anything outside of us, although it may seem like the state of being in fear is caused by outside stuff like relationship woes, financial issues, health challenges.  But it really isn’t. Fear is caused by a lack of a connection to Spirit, and love happens when we have The Infinite in our lives.

The question then becomes a matter of making sure we are connected, always…24/7.  In order to be connected we must first define it. Trying to define The Great Stuff is a bit like trying to herd cats, it really can’t be done because Energy is infinite, yet we seem to need a definition.  So go ahead, define it. What is it, what does it look like, smell like, feel like?  What do you call it?   How does it operate in your life?  Where does  it  live?  What do you feel when you are connected, when you are aware of the Presence of the One?

You can change your definition later, for Light does not care what we call it or how we  define it, and as we grow and change, our concept of the Great Reality Deep Within is likely to change as well.

Once you have an idea of what it means to  you and how it works in your life, it becomes a matter of connecting, daily.  We do this by daily spiritual practices:  quiet time, meditation, visioning, journaling, reading of spiritual literature.  Sometimes we need to have a chat with a Practitioner to get past  fear and into love…sometimes several chats. 

Love is a state of being and we can be in that state all day, every day.  It only takes a few moments each day of actively and consciously connecting with The Force.  Being in a state of Love is not dependent on what happens in our outside world; and being in a state of Love will help  us deal better with what happens in the outside world.

So go within today, and make that connection, and keep it, and have Happy Loving!

A fantastic storm came through town yesterday, it snowed all day long.  Today I awoke to several feet of new snow, freshly flocked trees and a winter wonderland.  As I gazed through my window it occurred to me that storms are quite necessary in the over all scheme of things.  They bring the moisture that is necesssary for our region to survive, and they bring snow, which in this area during the winter, is very necessary economically.  We all benefit from the storms that come our way.

Just as our  region benefits from the storms that pass through, so can our lives.  We all have storms in our lives and we can benefit from them.  Or not.  It’s up to us.  I think the temptation is to sometimes use the storms as reasons to limit ourselves.  We take those storms, make them the stories of our lives, and declare that we are never going to do that again.  The only problem with that is that we limit ourselves when we do.

Wouldn’t it be better to examine the possible benefits of the storm and use that to enrich our lives?

Take a look at where you might be today if you hadn’t weathered any given storm in your life.  What lesson would you have missed?  What aspect of the wonder that is you would be missing today if you hadn’t done all you’ve done, and gone through all you’ve gone through?

Examine your storms today,  and see if you can’t extract the lessons from them, release the negative feelings that may be surrounding them, and use those storms to enrich your life.