THE SWEETNESS OF DOING NOTHING

DOING NOTHING

The Italians have a saying, La Dolce Far Niente, The Sweetness of Doing Nothing.  It’s reminiscent of the 1969 Fellini movie, La Dolce Vita, The Sweet/Good Life.  It’s all about slowing down and appreciating simple moments/pleasures, spending time with family and friends, etc.  The art of doing nothing is all about being present, sitting quietly and spending a day without interruption and stress.  It’s about giving yourself a no guilt chance to breathe, rest and gather energy to carry on.  The limited agenda could include a restful cup of coffee, watching nature and the sky or a walk to nowhere in particular.

Suggestions for a Doing Nothing day include “scheduling an appointment with nobody, doing nothing and feeling everything.  Your mind will thank you.  Your heart will smile.  And your blood pressure might even send you a Thank You note!”  Rest is not wasted time.  Let the sunset remind you that you are here to live, not just to survive.  Give yourself grace to slow down. 

We live in a culture that treats being busy as proof of worth.  Sometimes the most healing thing you can do is declare a “Time Out” and let the world keep spinning without you.  You are actually resetting your energy, releasing stress and creating an environment to honor our Creator’s advice in Psalms 46:10 to “Be still and know that I am God.”  Stop the Merry-Go-Round, get off, slow down, abandon your tears and fears and trust in God’s power and presence.    

 

SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS

SOUL CONSCIOUSNESS

ENLIGHTENING

“Unless you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate…  

Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes.”  –Carl Jung

"Consciousness isn’t in the body.  The body is in consciousness.” –Dan Millman

Bernard Haisch has proposed a mind-bending theory about consciousness in his book, “The God Theory”. He contends that “ultimately it is consciousness that is the origin of matter, energy, and the laws of nature in this universe and all others that may exist. And the purpose is for God to experience his potential. God’s ideas and abilities become God’s experience in the life of every sentient being…God experiences the richness of his potential through us because we are the incarnations of him in the physical realm.” Frankly, I’m not convinced that God needs us to experience his potential, certainly not nearly as much as we need him for our well-being. As a learned astrophysicist Ph.D., he contends that our consciousness is the ultimate connection to God, the spiritual creative force in the universe and the source of all consciousness. While we are in our everyday state of consciousness, we remain aware of our surroundings through the filter of the physical world. But mystics who are conditioned to enter the unfiltered state of ultimate consciousness or nirvana experience a state of peace, love and bliss, something Haisch defines as “a concentration point within a single universal consciousness”.

Consciousness exists apart from the body and survives death. The temporary physical world was created for the development and evolution of human beings with a spirit. Our natural timeless home lies in the wider supernatural realm of the creator.  Consciousness can be defined as being mindful or aware of oneself as a thinking, feeling being. We realize with awe the miracle of a body that is informed by this extraordinary thing we call life that we take for granted almost every day. The fateful day we realize this eternal truth is the beginning of a lifelong spiritual journey.

God is a conscious spiritual being and we are conscious earthly beings. We were created in his image, so we can expect parallels in our existence. His being occupies the universe like our consciousness occupies our body.  By liberating the spaces in our lives and minds that are filled with clutter and chatter, we allow the presence of God to more easily occupy that space!

J. P. Moreland reasons that, “Consciousness cannot be reduced merely to the physical brain. Our consciousness came from a greater consciousness. You see, the Christian worldview begins with thought and feeling and desire and choice. That is, God is conscious. God has thoughts. He has beliefs, he has desires, he has awareness, he’s alive, he acts with a purpose. We start there and because we start with the mind of God, we don’t have a problem explaining the origin of our mind. … he’s invisible because that’s the way conscious beings are…. I have no inclination to doubt that this very room is teeming with the very presence of God.”

Enlightened humans all over the planet through endless time have reasoned that we’re not a human being having a spiritual experience. We’re consciousness having a human experience. And once we separate, we return to the vast eternal consciousness of creation.