Spiritual Solutions

Here’s a great article by Kevin Schoeninger of Mind-Body Training and Spiritual Growth Monthly that I don’t want you to miss, because it highlights so well the difference between assumption and experience. So, I’ll just let your experience of the story speak for itself. . . .

Is It Possible To Move Beyond Judgment?

Have you ever been in the supermarket where you witness a mother or father struggling with their kids and yelling at them? Did you get upset at the “meanness” of these parents? Did you feel that the kids weren’t being respected and cared for? Have you ever been shocked to find yourself being that parent?

Or have you found yourself annoyed at a driver weaving in and out of traffic because he was only thinking of himself and putting the rest of us at risk? Have you also found yourself occasionally being that driver?

Do you get angry when you see wars of religion—one trying to dominate the other with its “right” point of view? Do you find yourself being intolerant of intolerance?
The web of judgment is certainly tangled.

Is it possible to move beyond that?

Let me share a brief story that opened my eyes about this.
 
As I related in last week’s post, my wife and I take an annual trip to Sedona Arizona for our anniversary. On this trip we like to take a hike up onto Cathedral Rock. It’s one of our favorite spots. The lush environment around the base of the rock is so peaceful and serene, while the heights of the perches at the top are simply majestic. Legend has it that this gigantic red rock formation has a powerful energy that comforts you and makes you feel like everything is O.K. It’s even said, as I shared last week, that, if you are open to it, you can receive messages from this rock.

Any judgments come up for you yet?

So, my wife and I are enjoying the two hour climb around the north face to east face and upward to the top. At several points, the rock gets pretty steep and some folks balk at this point. On my first time here, I had serious doubts and had to take a moment to relax and dig for some courage. To an experienced hiker or climber, it’s probably nothing too exciting or dangerous. Nevertheless, everyone seems quite accepting of varying levels of courage when you reach these points. The comfortable ones take a break and wait for the less confident ones. The fearless ones assure the scared ones that everything will be O.K.

When my wife and I reached the top, or as high as you can go without equipment, we took some pictures and then settled into a comfortable spot to rest up and enjoy the “energy” of the mountain. We lay down on the red rocks, my wife in the sun and me with my back against the cool red rock wall in the shade. I enjoyed the silence, punctuated only by the occasional “thunderous” helicopter flying by for a bird’s eye view. As an experiment, I asked the big rock if it had any message for me.

Shortly, there came a blustery, athletic presence storming up the hill, huffing and puffing. He took the top, had a brief look around, made some loud comments to his girlfriend, and then quickly began his descent. “In it for the workout,” came to my mind.

Next there came a middle-aged couple. When they reached the top it was clear that the woman was pretty scared. She stared at the way back down with trepidation. Almost immediately she began her descent, backing down on all fours, while being coached enthusiastically by her husband. “Missed the experience,” I thought.
Soon thereafter, came a barefooted girl with tattoos on her arms. She arrived at the top silently, like a cat, found a nice slab in the sun, and lay down with a smile on her face. “She’s really got it right,” I thought.

I followed suit, closed my eyes, and felt “soooo” relaxed against the soft, cool, red rock. I asked again for a message.

Before long these words came into my head: “Everyone’s experience is valid.”

I instantly felt how this released my judgments against those who “raced” up the mountain, were “too scared” to enjoy the experience at the top, or “too noisy” to listen and feel the silence. As I let this realization soak in, I understood it in a visceral way, in a way I hadn’t before.

Everyone’s experience is valid from their point of view. It makes sense to them given who they are, where they’ve come from, and where they are going. Who am I to judge that? I have no idea about any of those things for someone else.

In that moment, I felt free of judgment toward others and free to be myself. These two fit perfectly hand in hand. I’ve since discovered that, when I carry this phrase into life—“everyone’s experience is valid”—it frees me to appreciate the unique qualities that each of us bring to the table. The consciousness behind this phrase creates a fertile ground of understanding which can be used to resolve conflict and cooperate toward what we all truly desire—which is, at once, different and the same.

Enjoy your practice,

Kevin

Kevin Schoeninger

If you are interested in knowing more about the Mind-Body Training Community and Spiritual Growth Monthly, I can tell you that I have enjoyed several of their programs and the Spiritual Growth Monthly newsletter for several years. You can go to Raise Your Vibration / Core Energy Meditation (Gift Page) for a powerful free meditation technique.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

Please feel free to publish this article in your blog or newsletter or share it with a friend, as long as you include this resource box.

If you’d like to receive weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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I remember a time when Ed Rabel, Unity Minister and a former teacher at Unity Village in the ministerial program, was teaching the students when Bill Fischer, Director of Ministerial Training, was away. Ed was taking the students for speech assignments. The top four or five students were scheduled to give their talks in front of their classes. The talk that they were to give was based upon a question: “If you had just ten minutes to speak to all the people on the earth, what would you say?”

Just think about that for a moment. What would you say if you had just ten minutes to speak to all the people on the earth? What would your message be? 

Ed Rabel said the students he heard “Blew it!” Their response to the question was to try to reach out to all the people of the earth and tell them of some great and wonderful philosophical theory. In doing this they did “blow it,” because only that which you experience is true for you. You cannot take in someone else’s knowledge; you can only gain knowledge for yourself.

So if you were speaking to everyone on earth it would have to be something that people could find for themselves, work with, and experience from within their own being. You can’t really tell anyone else how things are. You can express from the depth of your own being that which is true for you, and in that way you speak with authority about your own experience. You can share that with someone else; and you can share ways for the other person to experience for themselves. But borrowed knowledge is not true knowledge. So when you speak with borrowed knowledge you don’t really come across, you don’t really reach a person.

This is what Ed Rabel was really saying, that the students blew it in regard to that. They were trying to get across a great message of God and what they believed about God, but speaking in a way that was not necessarily based upon their own experience. It was based upon knowledge that they had taken in from borrowed sources. They were not being real.

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Hello Folks,

Here’s another great blog post from Karl Moore, www.karlblog.com:

Yesterday I was in town and decided to visit a coffee bar.

There was a magazine on the table, and an article caught my eye titled: “Secrets of Success!”

The article was a series of interviews with some of the country’s top entrepreneurs, and it proved quite a fascinating read.

What was clear from the people featured in the article was that they had all experienced failure before becoming successful.

In some cases, they had failed big time – often ending up with absolutely nothing before building up the successful businesses that they have today.

What’s also interesting is that most mentioned that without experiencing failure, they wouldn’t be the successful figures that they are now.

It turned out to be quite an inspiring coffee break.

As I see it, failure is simply experience. But it’s also so much more!

When something doesn’t work out, it presents an opportunity to learn from that experience. And in the failure are the clues for success – ways to do something bigger and better next time round!

So, if you’re experiencing failure in some part of your life right now, acknowledge it as experience and look for those clues that can make you more successful next time.

And think on … The only people who do not fail are those that aren’t doing anything!

It’s true!

So, if the going is tough at the moment, grab some extra inspiration by watching this video:

(Visit www.karlblog.com to view the video – under the heading Failure is Just Experience.)

 Remember – you’re not failing – just experiencing!

Have a positive day!

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions. Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend.

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at Rich Words.

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