OVERVIEW
A mountain top is often the metaphor used for enlightenment. It could just as easily be seen as a deep descent into the core of the earth. When it comes to awareness, directionality doesn’t really matter. Whether we ascend or descend or go sideways even, if we are intentional about awakening, any path will take us there if we prepare our hearts and minds and bodies for the journey. If we can surround the events of our lives with spacious awareness, as Ram Dass says, then we can begin the lifelong journey of awareness. This Sunday we will look at the importance of knowing and honoring our own paths and the spiritual practices that support us on the way.
TRANSCRIPTION
So invite you to take the words of that song as well as our reading into your hearts as a backdrop to this talk, uh, as a way of connecting to that quiet awareness, which you will hear me refer to quite a bit. So now, how many of you pop right out of bed in the morning? Oh, okay. So there are a few hands in the room. Maybe there are some more, you know, um, out there that are raising their hands online. I know that, you know, people do that, but, and I used to be one of those people. I, I still am a morning person. I prefer morning, but I just don’t get outta bed like I used to, you know, and, and you know, I’m not Miss Sunshine when I wake up, but, you know, I can get up pretty early, but if you could see me now, my husband and I in the morning, it’s almost comical <laugh>. You know, we look, if there were cameras, you know, we, and I’m glad they’re not, but we look like a film documentary about the history of evolution, you know, going from <laugh>, you know, bent over walking to upright, you know, um, speaking, uh, upright, um, walking, I’m sorry.
And as along with my, my speaking right now, you know, if I want to go with this, this, uh, this analogy, we go from guttural speech to actual guttural utterances to actual speech. So it’s a, it’s a little bit of an experience waking up in my house. So we all wake up in different ways, right? Some people pop out of bed right away. Other people take all day to wake up. You know, those people who are not really morning people night’s, really their thing. Some people wake up early, other people wake up late, some people wake up cheerfully, other people more grumpily. Uh, my husband is one of those grumpy people. So, you know, anybody else wake up to a grumpy spouse or husband or partner <laugh>? Yeah. So that’s, that’s my experience. So we, so I am using, you know, this analogy, right, of waking up literal waking up from sleep, as you know, a not two original analogy for the idea that we’re, uh, addressing this week of this month of awakening.
And if there’s anything that I have learned about this topic as I’ve researched it and studied, and as other people have, the speakers before me have mentioned that, is that we all do it differently. You know, as a Hindu religion emphasizes, there are many paths of the mountaintop, many paths to God, as it were. They are all valid. We begin services here by talking about how we honor all paths and we support everyone on their spiritual journey. And if you’ve been listening to the talks this month, you’ll know that that’s been the common thread, the through line, that this awakening is a journey. It’s a path, and that we all do it differently. In fact, in Christian’s Christian pan’s talk last week, hers was a literal path. At least part of her journey has been a literal path of walking the El Camino and all of the awarenesses and insights it brought her.
I’m using this as a starting point for my talk today, because I think it’s important. Um, you know, we can become, uh, kind of attached, if you will, to our spiritual paths. And not that that’s, that having a spiritual path is, is bad. You know, it’s, it’s, we all want to find one. So there’s nothing inherently wrong with being on a Buddhist path, a science of mind path, a Celtic spirituality path, if you will. But the danger is, is that we, when we find a path that we are comfortable in, we may stop questioning, you know, And the Buddhist said never to accept anything that he said on faith alone. There was a Buddhist, um, sage in the ninth century who said it this way. He said, If you, um, see the Buddha on the road kill him, which is kind of violent imagery. Um, but he was really just expressing the idea that we have to find something that works for us.
And it’s that practical spirituality that we are, that we talk about here at Cityside. You know, it doesn’t matter if some sage or respected person said it or advocates it, you know, does it work? Yeah. How does it work for you? Does it work for you? We also learn from Kristin’s talk that she was able to connect with that inner wisdom, that inner knowing within her and trust to let spirit lead in that allowed her to let go of a, a beloved spiritual path that she’d been on for years in order to have another experience of spirit in her life.
How many of you landed in this path, the science of mine path, because you began to question the religion of your birth? Yeah, a lot of people, right? You know, I, uh, for myself, I live in a very interfaith household. Even though both my husband and I were cradle Catholics, you know, brought to mass as babes in arms, my path had me, um, for a while in fundamentalist Christianity that led me to explore alternative spirituality that brought me to, to science of mind and eventually to becoming an interfaith minister. My husband was in pre seminar or seminary to be a priest and is now a practicing Buddhist. You know, I, I don’t think that there is a faith path out there that where I could believe all of the tenets of that faith. I guess that’s why I’m an interfaith minister.
I know that I’m spending a lot of time with I this idea. But again, I think it’s important how many of you have spent time on somebody else’s path? Yeah. So this may have looked like going to the college your parents thought was good for you, or, um, picking a career that they or others thought was right for you. It may have looked like kind of fitting yourself into some sort of a, of a, of a box or a mold as, you know, as a, a child, as a parent, as a spouse, as a lover, as a, an employee, maybe even in your sexual or gender identity, or how you show up as a spiritual person, is this familiar? Has have, have people done this. So I think that for me, questioning is the first step to awakening or enlightenment. And as you question, you begin to find out what works for you.
What is your path up the mountain top. So I have to say this, do a little psa, or maybe it’s probably a disclaimer, and I, I think that you guys know this. You’re getting Judy Raneer mes understanding of awakening nobody else’s, right? And in fact, this is the point that Ro Doss makes in his book, The Journey of Awakening. You know, people have awakened in all ways and in all times it’s an individual journey. In fact, there was a zen master who was walking along and was awakened or enlightened at the sound of a pebble dropping.
So I’m guessing that most people do not awaken in that way. That’s kind of in a spontaneous awakening, right? And with an open heart and quiet awareness, any experience can bring about an awakening. When I thought about what I wanted to speak about this month, you know, um, on the topic of awakening, I thought my first reaction was, Oh, geez, I’m coming after Reverend Amy, Reverend Darrell and Christian panic. You know, what can I add? You know, that they will not already have covered, they would’ve hit on all the important points, you know? So I found myself developing the kind of talk that I think I give here a lot. It’s kind of my thing. It’s my mo if you will. You know, I’m the, I find myself being the person that says, yes, this is the principle that we are aligning with. This is the ultimate truth that we ground ourselves in.
And this is how that shit works in real life. <laugh>, so, pardon, pardon my French. Now we’re talking about awakening, right? So this awakening happened on these moments up the mountaintop, not on the mountaintop itself. You know, it’s of course why we call it a path, why we call it a journey. And it happens in all of these moments in our lives where we can remind ourselves, notice, train ourselves even to align with the ultimate reality. And you know, who is really good at reminding us of ultimate reality? You know, the actual truth of who we are. Mark Anthony, you know, he was here a few weeks ago, and I really love it when he comes and reminds us of these eternal principles of spirit. I really enjoy how clearly he lays them out and reminds us to be, to be in the higher mind as we face life’s challenges, and reminds us that we can’t solve our problems.
As the saying goes, that’s attributed to Gandhi. I think at the level of our problems, if we are here in the body trying to solve pain, or we are in the effect already of a failed relationship and are praying for connection, we’re not gonna get what we want. We have to be in the higher mind to manifest those things. So what he was saying was, simple God or spirit is love. If it is not love, it is not spirit. If it is not love, it is not truth. If it is not love, it is not reality, period. Simple, except that it’s not. So, you know what, what is simple is not so easy. You know, to live in that place of love, to walk in that place of peace, and the truth of knowing what is really real is not that easy.
Think of the story of the Buddha. When he attained enlightenment, he was first visited by the demonn Mara, who tempted him with thirst, desire, and delight in an order to seduce him. According to the Bible, Jesus was tempted in similar ways by the devil in the desert, um, when he was fasting for 40 days and 40 nights there. So this awakening, enlightening enlightenment stuff is hard. You know, how to be in the world, but not of it. As Jesus taught his disciples, you know, we often get the images of awakening as enlightenment, as, as peace and contentment and bliss. And of course it is that. And the more we are intentional about our meditation and spiritual practice, the more we are in the world, but not of it, the more we can embody this piece and ease and contentment in our day-to-day lives. But these moments don’t just happen when we are having a particularly good sit or our meditation practices, deep and powerful.
They happen in rush hour traffic. They happen when they f you in the drive through, which again, pardon my French, and it’s a line from a movie, I don’t remember which one, but I say it all the time, <laugh>. So this enlight awakening stuff, it’s not sexy most of the time. You know, I have a client who likes to say on her journey, you know, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, you know, and it’s, it’s like that, I think. Um, but maybe in a more walking meditation kind of way, You know, being mindful, paying attention and maintaining that connection to this inner peace and calm as we move through our lives. And as Reverend Darl mentioned in his talk, he said, You know, that we can remind ourselves that we can move into these moments of awareness and, and enlightenment, if you will, through joy and celebration and fun.
It seems that most of us though have to go through a bit of a struggle first, doesn’t it? Before we learn to be lighter and fight less with what is. You know that saying, um, when you fight with reality, reality always wins, You know, And it’s true, isn’t it? You know, I’m talking about the lower case are reality, not upper case are reality. But if you try to tell yourself you’re not experiencing severe back pain, your back pain, your back is going to say, Oh, no, it really does hurt. So we can’t deny what is happening in the world of form. Can we, We can choose not to struggle with it so much, though. One of the most helpful images for me on my path has been one of the open palm when life’s events and our reactions to them sit here. There is that open awareness of which ram dos speaks. He encouraged surrounding the events of our lives with this, with spacious awareness. But when we close our fingers around those events, around those experiences, around those feelings, this is bad. This is wrong, this sucks, this hurts. Spacious awareness is lost, and we are left holding on to the hurt, to the pain, to the wrongness.
And the closed fist also doesn’t allow for anything good to come in either, does it? You know, and it symbolizes, you know, my resistance by fighting with what is. So releasing my metaphorical fist and allowing whatever it is to just be what it is without having to hold onto it or having to fight with it, has been a particularly helpful, um, image for me on my journey. The invitation for us this month who were given the talks, was to reflect on our awakening journey and to share the experience of that journey, that trip, you know, And again, for some people it was a literal trip, either Christian Pan’s, physical trip of walking the El Camino or rom Doss, who began his spiritual journey with the use of psychedelics, another form of a trip. Now, he talks about the detour, though he took in, in the book when he allowed the use of psychedelics to just, to just be about recreation and pleasure.
But there’s no doubt, no doubt that psychedelics can, can be a portal to extra and heightened awareness that can lead to spiritual awakening. But when I was thinking about, you know, at what point in my life did I really find myself on a path of awakening, it occurred to me that the place I wanted to talk about wasn’t something I’d even considered before. You know, I was always a, a nerdy religious, spiritual kid going, growing up, You know, as I said, I grew up Catholic, so my siblings just assumed I was going to be a nun <laugh>. Well, that didn’t happen. So instead, I grew up and married a guy who was gonna be a priest. <laugh>. So, so Catholic religious life almost got us, but not quite contemplating this, um, idea of where, um, you know, awakening and how I got there though had me land on an experience that I just hadn’t even thought of before.
And I wouldn’t have said it at the time, but I think my awakening journey began when, um, in earnest, when I was pregnant and I had this living, growing, being inside of me that I had to relate to in a way that was completely different. Then I had to, you know, here to fore with people in my life, people who I was connected to and in relationship with. Suddenly I had to be aware of, you know, everything that I put into my body, what I ate and what I drank. Because everything that I partook of could affect my child. You know, I had to be aware of my, um, my emotions and my stress level because it could affect the growing fetus. I had to be aware of all of the situations in my life because everything had the possibility. Everything had the potential for affecting my child, either in a positive or a negative way.
If you’ve read the journey of Awakening or reading it this month, dos talks about br about food and what we bring into our bodies as well as what we bring into our mental emotional bodies as being important aspects of being intentional about our awakening. So pregnancy for me was probably the first time that I was so intentional for such a prolonged period of time. Now, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t a perfect pregnant person, and I like the alliteration of that, don’t you? Perfect pregnant person. Um, I wasn’t <laugh>, just ask my husband. Um, and, and it’s not like I had all of these spiritual awakenings at the time either. No, I did though find myself on a lifelong journey of reflection on what kind of a parent I wanted to be to my children, which continues to this day, grown as they are. You know, my own mother has been gone for many years and I can’t even begin to tell you, uh, how much I love her and what a good mother she was.
And yet, even still as young teenage girls are want to do, I vowed, I vowed I would not do the things that she did with me, with my kids, especially in my daughter. I would not parent like her. And I’m so like her now. I can’t even begin to tell you <laugh>. And there are women and people in the, in the room laughing cuz you know what I’m talking about <laugh>. You know? So my children, these little beings who are now big agro, you know, adult beings were part of my path of awakening. So being pregnant, um, you know, is, is not every the way everybody awakens or, or can even can, obviously, right? You know, But they, it was, it was part of my journey. And certainly being pregnant or becoming a parent doesn’t necessarily lead to awakening. I mean, we can be asleep in any phases of our lives, in any roles that we have in them. I am just grateful that for me, this experience made be a more intentional person and that it led me to be more about how I wanted to show up in the world as, as a parent and as a human being. You know, for some these experiences of awakening have been pa painful or jarring.
Saul who became the apostle Paul fell off his ass onto his, you know, on the way to Damascus right now. He literally had a come to Jesus moment. You know, we say this all the time, <laugh>, but he really did have a come to Jesus moment. Many here can understand and relate to how these moments of awareness and awakening can come through very painful events and experiences in our life of loss, of abuse, you know, of addiction, many, many painful experiences. So whether anyone would choose that path again, if they had the choice, we can certainly honor that. Which brought us to these moments of awareness, to this awakening that that which started us out or has deepened our experience of this quiet awareness.
In his book Rom Das talked a lot about our thoughts. And because the spiritual journey is nothing, if not paradoxical, we can both use our thoughts to affect change. And they can trap us. They can imprison us. Ramdas calls us our thought prison. And Rema, Amy and her talk spoke about the ways that thoughts can fracture us and reference that saying, you know, that thoughts are barrier servants than masters. This is the potential pitfall of science of mind and other psychological and spiritual approaches that focus on thought as the vehicle for change. You change your thinking, change your life. That is not a wrong statement at all. It’s true. It’s just not the whole truth. It’s, it’s why we meditate, right? And when we meditate, of course we learn to observe our thoughts and not identify with them, not hold onto them. We, we take that witness position so that we can observe our thoughts and ourselves.
And there are other paths out there that do a better job of connecting the body to spiritual experience. I’m a really somatic person. So if I don’t, you know, feel it or understand it somewhere in my body, I don’t really connect to it. You know, this, this achy, quirky, wonderful body of mine, you know, lets me know how things land on it. You know, maybe your body works way for you too. You know, it can be an a barometer for how something is landing on us for how, you know, whether something is good for us or not, You know? And it is the way that for, for many that can deepen us into spiritual experience, you know? And you know, we talk a lot about the higher vibration of spirit and we are so blessed in this community each and every Sunday to have the wonderful music provided by our, our fantastic music team as a way of connecting to that higher vibration. And there are other ways too, right? If you’ve been to a, uh, a gong wash, participated in a kean or a drumming circle, you know the power of that vibration, you know, as it moves through your body and how it can connect you to spirit, to essence.
So I am going to close out my talk today with an experience of us raising our vibration as we chant a mantra. And we are going to be using, um, the mantra ram, which many of you will know, is the shortened version of Rama, a Hindu deity who was an avatar Vishnu. And interestingly enough, the root of rama ram means to stop, stand, still, rest, rejoice, be pleased. And like chanting om it ends in that m sound, which gives us that nice buzzy feeling in our lips when we pause on it. So we are going to be chanting drum for about one and a half minutes to give us the opportunity to really feel that vibration move from our lips, um, throughout our body. Now, my timer’s gonna ring at the end of this. It’s kind of loud, you know, it’s just for me so that I can really be in the experience and not be worrying about time. So, you know, don’t pop out. Um, kind of stay in that meditative stillness as we then close out in prayer. Pay attention to your body and how it feels during this time. A time when we stop in stillness, where we rest and rejoice simply allowing us to be in this spacious awareness, in this deep place of spirit and oneness.
So as we stay in that vibration, as we continue to allow it to flow throughout our bodies, we just turn now in prayer, knowing this stillness, this knowing, this vibration, knowing this peace, this quiet awareness as spirit, as God, as oneness, this eternal presence of peace, of love and joy. It is with us now. It is in each of it is in it is in my body and my mind, my essence as it is each person here, online, all those who will connect with this talk and later, later on in the week, it is here it is now, it is present. It is my life. It is your life is our collective life of spirit, of oneness. And I know in this union and this connection with spirit, that this quiet awareness is easily accessible to us as we pause, as we rest, as we still our minds, still our bodies, as we are mindful of this connection of this source always and everywhere present, always and everywhere there for us. And so I just claim for each of us that this knowing within us, this peace and stillness is our guide for this day and all days as we go forward. And it just remind us that we just need to open the channel. We just need to tune in to it, be there with it, and let it be that which is it, as our reading said, and that we are what we are in love, in truth, in joy, in peace, in grace.
And so I just invite us again to still ourselves and be in that peace and vibration for just a few seconds longer. So knowing this peace and connection is with us as we leave here today, to enjoy a beautiful, beautiful day is with us through our week, is with us in all that we do. It is with us as a community, as we grow and as we expand and as are, as we are the love of God in the world. I’m so grateful for this, So grateful that this prayer has already been answered. I release it and call it good. And together we say, And so it is.