Frannie Rose
Spiritual Teachings
One Simple Voice
JULY 2010
As Journeys Unfold
-Frannie Rose
To see for the very first time what the mind
ignorantly avoids is for some a new revelation. I learned when I was ill to see the inverse of what my mind
was telling me – to honor the space.
Some call that alchemy, I call that God – for that is the sacred space
in which God works, and if you stop to see it, you can see Him standing
strongly within the wonder.
Mystery?
No! Wonder. Yes, for there
is nothing mysterious about looking where you had once feared to look; there
within the present moment.
Hidden? No! Lost to
us. Lost to us because we have
learned to listen to the wrong voice; the voice that takes us outside our own
souls to look for God. This is the
voice that leads us astray; the voice that speaks too dominantly and loudly
within our heads, muffling the quieter sounds of Him within our hearts.
But there is another voice, one that is softer and
more consistent. It is so present
that we hear it but ignore it – thinking it is ourselves. It is the voice of the true Self,
immersed in God; it is the Voice of God, immersed in the True Self. This voice, when isolated, and listened
to, is the voice of essential purpose, the voice of preeminent meaning and the
simple voice of our destiny.
If we are lucky we are taught to find to this
Voice. If we are lucky we learn
Who is speaking within the Voice and What was deep within the wish to hear the
voice. The Voice is the wish and the Voice is the outcome. From this Voice comes
the secret to being, the secret to living and the secret to our sacred
transformation. This Voice is both the teacher and the wish, the student and
the learner, the quest and the finding all in One. This Voice is the Voice of God, our Creator – who has
ability far beyond any thing the mind describes or can ever know from its
limited nature. This Voice is the
Voice of the Infinite, the Voice of the All.
What happens when One hears this Voice, can only be
described through being. I cannot
use the limited to describe the manifold changes that it created within my
heart. Yet, there are pivotal
times when I can share it with the energy He gives me, for it carries my words
near and far, carries them through one to another on a magic carpet of Faith
and Being. Yes, Faith is the magic
carpet these words ride on; a Faith stronger than any thought or idea; a Faith
that is only known through Being Faith.
What is God?
God is neither a Who nor a What.
God is bigger than these words.
God is every word in every language and more. God is the pieces and more than the pieces. God is not the whole, God is All, God
is Infinite. All God in One.
“Thou Shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart,
with all thy Soul and all thy Might.
The power in the heart that both knows and feels these words is
inexplicable, undeniable and unstoppable.
To walk to the Kingdom through the clouds, up the cliffs and despite the
weathering winds is a glorious journey.
For when One stands on the mountaintop, with the eyes of God, one stands
solidly in the Center, within the wondrous majesty of God.
The Peace of One, Can Create Peace in the World.
For just a moment, imagine.
Imagine, each human being functioning from a place of Peace, Presence
and God-centered awareness.
What would friendship look like? How would collective structures
appear?
Would there be such hate and violence between peoples and countries on
our Earth?
From a place of Inner Peace and God-centered awareness there is unity,
no sense of false self/ego obtained by standing firm with divisive
beliefs. Human beings honor one another's differences, seeing them as
diverse and revering their beauty.
The colors that each individual expresses would become the infinite
bright colors of blossoms in the garden of the world - harmonic
components to a chord - flavors to a recipe - and infinite forms of
beauty.
This is harmony.
This is also the dream of Peace.
We all see the signs that our Earth is in serious turmoil, as we watch
aggression, disorder and chaos veil our hopes and prayers for Peace.
Each country on our Earth is seeing increased violence inflicted from
one human being to another. This done only to increase a human being's
sense of false self/ego
- for that person to feel superior to the other. On a collective
level, the structures created by human beings who work together for a
common cause, can do exactly the same injustice - only in a more
powerful and intimidating way - Collective false selves or egos working
together to create the same sense of self an individual creates when he or she inflicts
violence on another.
Without the shells of our egos dividing us, we are all innately
goodness. It is this shell of ego that has given us our sense of false self. Let us instead go
deeper within, and find the beauty of our sense of Self. The Self
that is the Essence of Who We Are, not what we are, or what we
do. The Self that is innately, beauty, love, pure goodness,
unity and compassion. This is the Self that we are each
wishing to find. And yet it is right there, underneath the layers of
untruths our false selves have come to believe about Who We Are.
The way to create World Peace, is by creating Inner Peace. It is the
nature of the World of the Unmanifested to start from the heart and
reach outward. Inner knowing and Inner wisdom is uncovered within us,
and moves outward to others through BEING. And so it is, that Inner
Peace begins within our hearts moving in the same way - outward toward
one other, infinitely, moving from within to without, gently flowing
through BEING to those with open hearts.
How does one open their heart when there is so much anger in the world?
How does one go to a place of Inner Peace when there is so much to do
and fill up their life? It starts with letting go of what you do not
need that is filling up your space, and finding the emptiness to be.
It means not scheduling so many appointments in one day, or activities
each night. What does this do for you? It allows for what is in your
life to be seen from a place of space. Why space? We see things more
clearly that are not crowded together with other things. With space,
our tasks are seen in their own light. This space is needed to see each
thread of unique beauty and for our hearts to allow God to work through
us, by showing us this beauty.
It
means waking up in the morning excited to see something as simple as the
sun rising in the east - or the beauty of snowflakes falling from deep
in the sky. It means listening to your fellow man without judgment or
expectation and deep enough to hear what is unspoken beneath his words.
It begins by focusing on an eternal present moment and not on an
imaginary future, or a finished past, meeting God where He stands in the
present moment.
You begin by Presence: Staying in the now moment. You begin to let go
of obsessive thought and mind and false self determining your desires.
From the stillness in the silence you listen to your heart speak to you,
as you soon find that the answers it gives you are the answers you have
been waiting for. You learn to go with your innate wisdom and love, the
Essence of Who You Are and allow the Heart to lead you. Inner
Peace is the background on that path. While walking The Way, you
can allow that peace and goodness of heart, to lead you straight to God.
This is not about religion, structure or a specific dogma or words to
follow. Each religion leads to the same place and is only a vehicle to
God, Our Creator, the Source of all life. This is about finding Who
You Are/The Self and letting it lead you to God.
For underneath all the mind stuff is heart stuff and your true Self.
But you must first put the mind stuff/ego aside, to get there.
I invite you on a journey of Inverse thinking to uncover your Self
and Essential Purpose.
The emptiness you feel in your life is meant to be there. It
is only from that emptiness that you uncover the Sacred.
It is
from emptiness that God creates.
You have been trying to fill the emptiness and space with things from
the outside.
Let Go and let God create in you a garden, inside.
Spend
some time in the space, emptiness and peace - watch this garden grow!
It is there that you will find the secrets that the ancients speak of.
It is
there where the answer of Peace begins...
Not without, but within.
With Peace, the Presence and Love,
Frannie Rose
Finding Our Way Back Through the Woods: Losing The Presence
Frannie Rose, 10/2/09
Its funny how the path fades as mind situations come passing through your life. All of a sudden you find the path blur into the greenery and you don’t know where to place your feet. If you walk straight ahead, you might miss a detail that your mind feels is important, so you veer off the path and stumble into the woods.
As you walk off the path, the sun is slowly veiled from your sight. The sky fills with clouds and the world darkens. It is then that you must watch your feet very carefully, for the mind tells you there are fearful ends you will meet if you step here, or step there. And as the woods darken, your eyes can no longer see the path you left behind. Sometimes it feels as if there is no turning back, you will never find your way back to God. The mind - magnet pulls ever harder, showing you the crisis from an imminent point of view. You feel there is no other choice, you are limited and bound to this walking with one foot carefully in front of the other, instead of the skipping, jumping and flying through the air that your heart so loves to do.
The path you leave behind is bathed in sunshine, blue skies and warm breezes. There was a gentle flow in that moving forward, sometimes uphill and sometimes pleasantly past the most wondrous of colors. When you leave this path behind you, every step becomes a hardship, a decision to imprison your soul. As time away from the path continues, the chains upon your arms and feet make you weary and exhausted.
Why do we leave the path behind us from time to time? Why do we lose “The Presence”? The answer is so simple and yet so profound. Because we have to lose our way, to find our way. If we don’t find our way back through the greenery with consciousness, we cannot remember how to get back on our path and stay there.
Every time we lose The Presence, we learn more about what we allowed to take us away from God. Often it is the "acting out" of the ego that brings us to an unhappy or uncomfortable place. Sometimes it is greed, or not practicing as needed. Other times it is knowing you did something very well, allowing it to go to your sense of self.
Reflection is used to find where we veered off the path and the illusions we were caught up in. Spending some of morning practice time reflecting on the life situation that took you away from the path is often what is needed to realign with the path. Use this time to look for important lessons that were learned in this process, which can be very meaningful to your further journey. Reflecting is really backtracking and can be the most valuable of processes to increase our conscious awareness of the trappings that keep us from the freedom of being, and the transformation that can occur within our lives.
When one loses The Presence, the first step is in the knowing that they have veered off the path. It is this consciousness of knowing that is the awakening of the true Self, the Observer. A simple glance at beauty through these eyes can burn through the layers that your ego has created between the true Self and the world of God. Watching this beauty, beholding it, and nurturing it is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. Bringing your Self always to the Center of Creation, the Center of Beauty – the reason for being, God.
How do we find our way back to the path of The Presence? We do so by finding the Center, the reason for being within the greenery as soon as we are conscious we have veered off the path. We look for the Light gently shining on the Infinite leaves of Infinite greens. We look for the deepest color in the rainbows. We glance toward the sky and remember its Light. And in the middle of all these beauties, is always God. God is at the Center, and God will always call us back to the path, if we have lost our way.
“You have to lose your way to find your way”, has always been my mantra. With awareness one comes back from the greenery with many new and valuable lessons – some of great depth and meaning. For the key is to know when you are lost, you will be found by the beauty, by the Center, by God.
Do Our Wants Come Between Us and God?
As we journey through our lives, many begin to feel emptiness.
This feeling of lack or something missing is the sure sign
we are being pulled by God, to journey deeper within our hearts.
In truth, our Essential Purpose is to walk hand in hand with God as One,
with only one will between you.
Emptiness is the sound of the heart path calling.
It is dependent upon our sense of
Self, which is connected with God within us.
This Self is filled with the Unmanifested, God’s gifts to us.
The will of our hearts or our destiny, is aligned with God’s will, and the present moment.
The mind labors at creating and sustaining thoughts and perceptions
according to its need to
self- perpetuate. With thought comes the “mind’s will”
(your perception of your will) based upon our sense of self or ego.
This will is dependent upon things outside us, to come to us.
In this world of form and things, there is much that weighs down our hearts,
leaving little chance for God to rise up into our lives.
If you picture a body of water, whether it’s a lake or the ocean,
it is easy to envision a heavy rock pressing down any life form.
The rock would be a metaphor for your mind and your ego;
the life form would be exactly that – God within you
and the gift of life He gives you.
Now a mind would say –
“Well God is capable of the infinite, so why can’t he escape
your heart and enter a heavy mind?” And from a mind place, that makes perfect sense.
But the mind is limited, and God is infinite and so it is that God cannot fit into a limited space.
Human beings have devised the perfect way to keep God out.
We do this by staying in our minds and weighing down our hearts.
You have been there, when you feel “burdened”, or “weighed down
with thought” or with “a heavy heart”. It happens to us when we push our hearts deeply down
with loaded minds, and do not realize where we are making our decisions from.
Our minds become over-active feeding the ego.
The ego feels a great
sense of self. This ego keeps us motivated
to continue doing what we are doing, because we feel a sense of success –
but as we continue to do so, we begin to lose touch with our hearts.
Over time, getting what you
want, fills your mind while pressing down
your heart, trapping it deep underneath.
And as your heart feels it wishes to be free from the burden, you begin to feel like you
wish something different. You feel as if what you were doing isn’t bringing you the
feeling of satisfaction or the outcome that you desired.
This feeling is your heart speaking of its wish to be free.
Very meaningful words have been spoken by Bhanta Henepola Gunaratana, in
“Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness” that state: “
It is said that there are only two tragedies in life:
not getting what one wants, and getting it.”
In truth, the things we want are only desires of the mind and ego.
The good feelings they bring are as transient as the world of form,
because wants are merely thought forms anyway.
The things we want are always desires from outside of us – that are dependent upon
other people or other variables to become real. They do not originate within us,
nor do our hearts have any function in the outcome. And so
we travel down a “mind path” to have these things for our very own.
Our egos feel a sense of self when we obtain them, creating“separateness”
between our minds and God’s wish for us (our destinys). These are transient though,
as wants go by the rules of the world of form, and its passing nature.
Our
wishes are quite different than our wants. They originate from within us,
from deep within our hearts. Wishes are always aligned with God and our heart’s journey.
Wishes can be present fromthe time of childhood and can come to fruition
at any time in your life when your heart is uncovered.
When a wish comes true, it is not of transient nature, as a wish will lead one
closer to heart and God. There is no separateness to a wish.
When you wish for something, God speaks through your heart.
You are One.
Are you choosing to be separate from God?
When you function from mind and ego, ego is heavy and smothers your sense of God.
When you function from heart, heart becomes light and floats to the surface -
you and God are aligned, united and without separateness.
You walk as One, you feel as One, you choose as One, you live as One.
We allow our wants to separate us from God and our hearts.
We allow a transient purchase or temporary life-situation gain to be the reason for our lives.
But when we live from our hearts,
wants and desires are merely that – and known
for their transient nature. We do not wait for them to fill us up nor do they satisfy us.
We have an awareness of the importance of the emptiness we feel within our hearts.
It does not go unnoticed. We learn that if we become aware of it and walk through it,
this emptiness will bring us closer to God and His infinite gifts.
We have an inner knowing that emptiness is there for a reason.
It belongs to God and brings us closer to God.
Your heart cannot expand and rise to hold the infinite, if it is trapped by a heavy mind.
Keep your mind empty and keep it light. Allow the heart to rise with the Unmanifested –
the gifts from God: Love, Peace, Joy, Faith, Generosity, Gratitude, Compassion, Kindness and Goodness.
Then you have much peace and goodness to share with the world.
And these are the gifts that you give to the world from God within you.
This is the magic carpet that your deeds ride on.
This is the Essence of your being –
the God within you, shared with the world.
Frannie Rose
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