Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

Meditation.

Study.

Contemplation.

Journaling.

Visioning.

Those are all spiritual practices, listed in my own personal order of preference.  When I take the time (make the time) to do those on a consistent and persistent basis, I feel happy and content.

When I don’t, I don’t.  It’s that simple.

I must not be doing enough spiritual practices lately, because lately I’ve found myself wondering why on earth so many people absolutely refuse to do these simple things that work.   Lately I’ve seen death, despair, judgement, criticism, blame, anger and worry, and no small amount of fear,  in the lives of the people who have asked me to help them, and in the lives of others who aren’t clients, but are people for whom I care about.  I’ve seen absolute refusal to do any of the inner work that would allow a ray of sunshine to beam into the darkness, dissipating that darkness like a light illuminates a dark room.  I’ve seen absolute insistence on destructive behavior, fixation on outside fixes, immersion in the latest pseudo-scientific fad “guaranteed” to make one feel better.  I don’t think I will ever know why people insist on doing things that don’t work, and on not doing things that do work.  It makes me sad.  So I breathe, I meditate, I study and journal, and I feel better.  And I feel better able to help those around me, because for some reason I have been called to do so, and sometimes it still boggles my mind that I have received this calling.  And I continue to suggest the spiritual practices and inner work necessary to allow people to be happy and content.  Some listen and heed the advice, some don’t.  The ones that don’t experience serious disruptions to their lives, sometimes even death, and when that happens I grieve.  I grieve for all the loss, the waste, the void of a life when it didn’t have to be that way.

And I go to do my own grieving in private, and do my spiritual practices, and get in touch with that Isness that is All, that Essence of Peace and Power and Beauty, and I once again feel at peace, and then I return to the land of the living, refreshed and energized, to try and fulfill my calling once again.

So today I will be spending more time than usual in spiritual practice, and add gratitude to the list with which I began today’s blog, because I have a quiet place to go to commune with my higher self, and because I have the time in which to do it.  And while I am there I will also do some treatments for those whom I know are feeling pain right now.  As well as for myself.  In fact, I think I will close this blog post with a treatment:

I know.  I simply know without doubt that there is only One.  One Power, One Presence, One All, One most magnificent Energy, Light, Beingness.  One All that is the perfect embodiment of Love.  And I also know without doubt that this Love Essence is everywhere present.  In fact, I know that  myself and every other human and every other thing, the Earth itself as well as the galaxies, were created so that this All could experience the physical in all it’s wonder and glory.  I was created so that God could experience the physical, pure and simple.   God is in me, through me, as me.  I am the perfect embodiment of God.  And it is in this embodiment that I  know that Power and feel that Power and experience that Power and use that Power and say with complete conviction and knowingness that I am at peace.  I am happy and I am joyfully fulfilling my calling as a teacher and spiritual leader.  I feel compassion and empathy while at the same time knowing the Truth for those with whom I come into contact.  That Truth is that they are now at complete peace.  They are experiencing all the good that there is to experience.  They are open to the good that is but theirs to claim, and they have claimed it.  They are happy, contented, and joyous as they go about their day to day activities.  They now know beauty.  They now feel peace, joy, happiness, contentment, and are experiencing a lightness to their steps, a smile on their faces, and an enthusiasm in their lives.  It is with the Power that I am that I claim this for them, and for you reading this, and it is with that Power that I release this word, back into the ALL POWER THAT IS, where the work is already done.  And so it is with gratitude that I close this treatment with those wonderful words of completion:  AND SO IT IS!

“We believe that heaven is within us, and that we experience it to the degree that we become conscious of it.”

This is the fourth statement in the Philosophy of Centers for Spiritual Living.  If you are just tuning in, I’ve been doing a series of posts on this statement which is distributed as a sort of informational statement in Centers for Spiritual Living throughout the world.  This statement was originally written by founder Ernest Holmes and is called “What We Believe.”  Before I get any further with this post, please know that the statement is a guide, sort of an informatory handout for people who want to know what we are about.  The reality is that everyone I’ve ever met in any Center has their own beliefs, including me, and that sometimes we have the same beliefs and sometimes we don’t, and it’s OK.  This is what I like about CSL:  we are free to believe whatever we wish. The bottom line is that we are in alignment with our own truth, and all of our classes and teachings are designed to help you with finding and keeping that alignment.  In terms of this third statement, what we teach will allow you to find heaven, right here, right now.

So… heaven is within.  I’ve always felt this.  I’ve never identified with the “heaven as a separate place” philosophy, just as I’ve never identified with the “God as a separate entity” philosophy.

I like the more accurate description of  the kingdom of heaven which comes from Unity founder Charles Fillmore in his Metaphysical Bible Dictionary.  He says the kingdom of heaven is “a state of consciousness in which the soul and the body are in harmony with the Divine Mind.”

What does that look like?  What does it feel like when our souls and our bodies are in harmony with the Divine Mind?

For me, it looks like freedom and feels like peace.  It is when I am comfortable in my own skin, fully aware and accepting of who and what I am.  There are no doubts, no fears, no hesitations, and I am able to listen to that still small voice within and know….simply know.

Can I do this and be this all the time?  No.  And this is the beauty of what we teach in CSL, because I have tools to get back in alignment when I get out.   All the spiritual practices:  meditation, journaling, introspection and others are designed specifically to help us remain in alignment.  And when I can’t remain in alignment I go to a coach to help me.

If you don’t feel like you are experiencing heaven in your life, consider taking a class at your nearest Center, or take advantage of one of the online classes, or hire a coach to help you.  In Centers, we have Practitioners which are licensed to do just that.  You are worth experiencing the heaven within.

We all experience some sort of limitation in our lives, something that we think prevents us from doing what we want to do.

Here’s some examples of limitation:

I have a chronic illness.  I don’t drive in the dark.  I don’t make enough money.  I don’t drive in the snow.   I can’t do relationships.   I seem to spend more than I earn.  Bad things always happen to me.  I can’t do that.   They aren’t doing it right.  I can’t.  They won’t let me.

What is behind any limitation in our lives is a way of thinking that is manifesting  the limitation.  There is a direct relationship between our thoughts and what happens in our lives.  What has a tendency to complicate things at times is that there is also a direct relationship between our beliefs and what happens in our lives, and sometimes it is difficult to even know what our beliefs are.   But here’s a formula that might help you to figure it out:  thought plus feeling equals belief.  Put some feeling behind that thought and you have a powerhouse of….well…power, working to create what you just thought.  See, the Universe always says yes, and when it  hears a thought with emotion behind it, it gives you what you’ve asked for.  So put some feeling behind any of those limiting thoughts and BINGO!  You’ve got it.

Why not turn it around?  What have you got to lose by trying?  Here’s some steps to ridding yourself of limitation in your life.

1.  Change your thinking. Every time you have a limiting thought, change it.  Replace the limiting thought with one of no limits.  Affirmations are very good for this.  Put some feeling behind the affirmation and you get that bingo effect I was writing about earlier.

2.  Do spiritual practices…every day, consistently and persistently.  This should probably be first.  A bunch of really good stuff  happens when you do a regular spiritual practice.   Meditation is the most powerful of the spiritual  practices, but there is also quiet time, introspection, journaling, reading of spiritual  literature.

3.  Consider that changing a life long pattern of thinking might be difficult, and be willing to ask for help.  Spiritual coaching is great for this.

4.  Don’t sit around waiting for the new thoughts to manifest.  Do your spiritual practices and your affirmations, then release it and go do what is in front of you to do.

5.  Don’t judge.  Judgment only hurts the one doing the judging.  Consider that when you judge, it’s really more of that old way of thinking coming in to prevent you from freeing up your life.  Look underneath the judgment.  Chances are pretty good there is a fear there that needs addressing.

I would love to hear about a pattern of thought that you are changing in your life, or one that you have changed.  How did you do it?  What made  you willing to make the change?

Did you know that there is no such thing as sinning?

Yep, you read it right:  no such thing.  At least, not in the way that the word is currently used.    As it is currently used, it’s a source of shame, blame and guilt.   It’s a major manipulation tactic with many religions:  you were born in sin, you are inherently sinners, and need to be saved or else you will burn in hell for all eternity, and the only way to not burn in hell is to be saved.  And the only way to be saved is to become a member of the church and do what they tell you to do.  The ironic thing is that by doing this you are still a sinner.  You never get over that, because it simply is part of the human race.  But it’s ok now because you are saved.

But consider something:  much of what is espoused as the wisdom of the Bible today is based on many generations of inaccurate translation, and that the Bible is a series of metaphorical stories.  It was never meant to be taken literally, even if the stories had been translated accurately.

So, here’s a new way to look at the concept of sin.  The word comes from the Greeks, and refers to what they used to say when they missed their target in archery.  Remember back then that the bow and arrow were one of the ways in which they survived.  They used the bow and arrow to catch their food.  So when they missed their target, they didn’t eat.  It was a pretty big deal.   But I can imagine that when they sinned, they simply tried again, and practiced more, so that they didn’t miss the target anymore.

This is a valuable lesson for us.  When we miss the mark, we’ve simply made a mistake.  We can try again, we can practice.  We can use the tools that are given us such as  introspection, journaling and  using our mentors  to find out why we missed the mark and to change our behavior.  There is no shame in this, and it really isn’t all that complicated.  This system is beautiful in it’s simplicity.

I am not advocating not taking responsibility for our behaviors.  When the early Greeks missed the mark, I don’t think they had the option of going to their parents or the government and demanding to be fed.  They had to practice and change, or die of starvation.   They may have relied for help in the form of archery lessons from a teacher, or perhaps they enlisted the aid of someone to practice with.  Today we would pay a teacher or coach to help us learn some new behavior, or join a support group.

We take responsibility for our mistakes, without shame and with full knowledge that we are inherently good, not bad, and work to change our behaviors.  We get help to learn to behave in different ways so that we no longer make the same mistakes.  And we do so without a sense of shame that we’ve made a mistake, but instead with an attitude of gratitude that we have the opportunity to correct the mistake.  The empowerment that we get from viewing sin as a mistake that can be rectified is wonderful.

So today consider that you are a part of the One, not conceived in sin but instead made so that Source could experience the physical.  And that when you behave as a human behaves and miss the mark, you can go back to that One Source and know your truth, and then make some changes in your life so that you can be more accurate next time.

The title is another quote from Patrick Cameron, who said this as part of his opening remarks at a panel for ministerial students on leadership at the Integration Conference in San Diego.

He was referring to us, as future spiritual leaders of our movement, doing our spiritual practices and keeping ourselves “in bloom.”  However, I think this statement applies to everyone, in all situations.

If we want to attract love into our lives, we must first be loving.  If we want to attract abundance into our lives, we must first be the abundance from which it can flow.  If we want to attract a new job into our lives, we must first be a good employee.

Every spiritual book I read, from the Bible (as you believe, so it shall be done) to Esther Hicks speaking as Abraham (your vibrational energy matches that of which you manifest in your life) to Ernest Holmes , Eric Butterworth, Bruce Lipton (yes, even science is spiritual!), the list goes on and on!

It would seem so simple then…whatever we want to attract into our lives, just be that and it will happen.  However, things sometimes have a tendency to get in the way.  We sometimes have deep seated unconscious beliefs which were formed at an early age which get in the way of our manifestations.  We must first work to change those beliefs if we wish to change the manifestations.  That takes a willingness to look at our stories and  change our perceptions of them.

And this is where spiritual practices come in.  Meditation especially, but also journaling, sitting in the silence, reading spiritual literature, taking classes, all of it can qualify as spiritual practices, and some combination of it is absolutely necessary in order to manifest change in our lives.

There is something that happens at a spiritual level when we do spiritual practices.  It transcends all circumstances.  It allows for the seemingly impossible to occur in our lives.  This is the stuff so-called miracles are made of.

So do your spiritual practices!  Meditate, experience the silence, journal.  Do whatever you have to do to connect with that Source that is within you, and bloom.  Open up like a rose on a beautiful summer’s day, and watch the bees come!

Life is best lived from the inside out, not the other way around.  What this means is that if we base our happiness on outside stuff, that happiness will be fleeting, because the outside stuff comes and goes.  Happiness and peace sticks around if we go within to find it.  This is done with spiritual practices, and I have a list of nine for  you to try out.  This is not a comprehensive list, but it does cover all the basics.  Over the next few posts I will delve into them one at a time, but for today, here are the ten:

1.  Centering

2.  Listening

3.  Meditation

4.  Spiritual Mind Treatment

5.  Visioning

6.  Sacred Study

7.  Sacred Service

8.  Sacred Giving

9.  Silence

10.  Journaling

A foundation of consistent and regular spiritual practice insures a life lived well, happily and peacefully.  You don’t have to do all of these every day, but each serves in it’s own unique way to contribute to peace in your life.  Stay tuned for a primer on each practice!

What would your life look like if you incorporated a sense of the spiritual into every aspect of it:  your work, your play, your relationships, your finances?

At the Centers for Spiritual Living, we are fond of saying that our teaching is not a religion, but instead a philosophy and a way of life.

So what would it mean to make spirit a way of life?  For starters, it means embodying the consciousness of spirit.  This could also be termed as carrying the consciousness 24/7.    For this to happen,  you must have a good idea of what spirit is to you.  This is revealed in meditation and journaling.

Think about it.  What if, instead of reacting to a change at work with fear (which is what most of us normally do), we reacted with love?  Fear creates all sorts of problems, for behind fear we do all sorts of destructible behavior such as controlling, manipulating, lying, cheating, stealing, shutting down, going crazy, addiction, micromanaging, controlling, denial, justification, yeahbuts,  complaining,  oh, and did I mention controlling? Behind love we react with all sorts of cool stuff like allowing others the dignity to make their own decisions (and live with the consequences), being of service, knowing that all is well, all the time, and so we don’t have to control anything, but simply take responsibility for our lives.  Behind love, instead of complaining, we get into the solution and find a better way to do things.  Behind love, we can be honest.  Behind love, we can be polite.  Behind love, we can be open to the seeming miracles (they are really miracles, but simply a natural result of embodying the consciousness) that happen to all of us, every day, in our lives.

What would it take for you to react with love instead of fear?  In all areas of your life?  This is the key, this is what it means to live from within, this is where life starts.  So what’s it gonna be for you today:  are you going to come from love, or from fear?

There’s a reason why folks like me are always telling people to do daily spiritual practices.  The time we spend in meditation, or simply sitting in the silence, and journaling, and reading spiritual literature, is invaluable in many ways.  But today I want to talk about just one of those ways.

Are you as busy as I am?  Probably.  We are all busy.  We fill up our lives with fun stuff, places to go, people to see, things to do.  But what if what we fill up our lives with isn’t that fun?  What if, in our moments of silence, we hear a voice that tells us we need to be different, or do different?  What if, as we go through our day, we experience moments of “what on earth am I doing?”  and “why am I doing this?”

Those are gentle nudges from Spirit.  You may choose not to call it that, and that’s ok.  The point here is the nudging, not what we think is doing the nudging.  If you are getting nudges, listen to them.  It’s a wake up call.  And the nudge will grow into a push if you don’t heed it.

It’s a call to something bigger and better and brighter in your life.  Listen to it, and don’t allow fear to control your actions.  Follow the call anyway.  It helps to have support during times like this.  Someone who will listen to you as you talk about those nudges, someone who will listen to your stories as you respond to the nudges.

Today, get quiet, and listen.  What do you hear?  Write it down.  Talk about it.  Then honor the call.  I can’t wait to see what develops for you!

How do you measure success?

It is not in outside stuff:  toys, relationships, belongings, what you do.   Those things come and go.  If we used those things as a barometer of our success, we would be like the proverbial yo yo:  up and down, up and down.  I realize that most of us have been brought up to base our happiness and sense of self worth on how many things we have, how good looking the arm candy is, what we do for a living.  But if we base our success on outside stuff, we base our success on the transient, the fleeting, the temporary.

Life is not an outside job, it’s an inside job.  Everything starts within and everything comes from within.  It is for this reason that in New Thought we advocate living a spiritual life:  going within on a daily basis through the practices of meditation, journaling and other daily spiritual practices.  When we do this, the insides are beautiful.  And when the insides are beautiful, the outsides are too.

If your insides are not as beautiful as you would like them to be, you can begin now to change that.  Start with a daily practice of some sort of quiet:  contemplation, reading, journaling.   Do that for a while, and see where Spirit leads you from there.  It’s a wonderful journey!

What happens in our lives today is a result of our choices yesterday, so if what is happening today is not to our liking, then it behooves us to make better choices.  The questions then becomes, how to make better choices?  Here’s a few tips:

1.  Do not make choices from your head, make them from your heart.  When you make choices in anger, fear or even excitement, you are coming from your head.  Anger and fear is an altered state of consciousness that will lead us to make wrong choices.  Better to move from head to heart first by calming down, then doing some spiritual practices.  Meditation, journaling, visioning, even sitting in the silence will move you from your head to your heart.

2.  Come from a place of love, rather than a place of fear.  If you are making a choice because you think that’s what someone else wants, or because you think you will be able to control something or someone by your choice,  you are coming from a place of fear and this choice will not serve you well.  Come from a place a love and your choices will always serve you well.

3.  Examine your motives.  Why are you considering this choice?  Wrong motives can make for disastrous choices and manifest ikky things in our lives.

4.  Sometimes, in the heat of a moment, even if we aren’t in fear, we haven’t had time to properly consider a choice.  If it is possible to wait before making the choice, then do so.  The other option is to do things on a daily basis that will keep you spiritually grounded, so that when opportunities for choice come up you will be in a better position to make a better choice.  Staying spiritually grounded involves daily spiritual practices and embodying the consciousness of Spirit, 24/7.

Daily spiritual practices are things like meditation, visioning, journaling and reading spiritual literature.  If you are a religious person, add prayer to the list.  Embodying the consciousness means that you remember that Spirit is a part of you, surrounding you, within you…IS you in physical form.  When you are conscious of this, you are embodying it.  The more you remember this, the more peaceful you will be and the better your choices will be.

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Karen Linsley, RScP is a licensed spiritual coach. Questions about life coaching services can be directed to karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com or by calling 530-906-9336