Contemplating my thoughts!

by Michael Ketterhagen

“every human being, however lowly, is a [child] of the Creator, and that one day and in due time he will advance to perfection just as we all hope to do. However base a man or creature may appear, we must remember there is the Divine Spark within, which will slowly but surely grow until the glory of the Creator irradiates that being.”

--Edward Bach, Founder of the Bach Flower Remedies.

Contemplation is another important prayerful action. It is not just stillness of the mind and a feeling of union with the Divine. It is a very active form of mental prayer, called in Christianity “discursive prayer”. We learn many lessons and gather many insights from contemplation, no matter what our religious practices might be. People contemplate all the time. Some people even contemplate the horror that they see on TV.

Getting back to the quote above: Edward Bach is saying, in his own words, the meaning of Yoga Sutra 1.33, “Transparency of mind comes by embracing the attitude of friendliness, compassion, happiness, and non-judgment [respectively] towards those who are happy, miserable, virtuous, and non-virtuous. (Tigunait)”

This sutra’s lesson beat me over the head recently, as I sat in the waiting room of the hospital. I was quietly stilling my mind. A NASCAR race was blaring over my head. I heard the announcer say a few words of prayer as the race was about to begin. The entire stadium fell silent. “God,” he said, “we know that this will be a safe race and we ask all those here to make it a safe race and accept the responsibility of your safe choices. We know this God! because you love us and are a good God. Amen”

Immediately, I felt a huge surge of animosity rise up within me towards the announcer and the thousands of people at the Indianapolis Speedway. All kinds of judgments filled my head justifying my feelings. “Those are people who were using God as a “crutch” and a “tool”, I thought. “They don’t understand the true meaning of God,” my mind continued. And so on….

I had always thought of myself as a very open sort of person, one who would accept anyone and everyone. Now, I was faced with the truth that deep within my unconscious mind I have harbored some deep resentment and animosity toward certain types of people.

“What a fabulous insight,” I heard my inner voice say. Instead of dwelling on my depravity of unresolved animosity, other thoughts pushed into my head. “All my meditation work is starting to pay off, I heard. I am beginning to know why I feel this way.” Then, my mind examined in detail any and all the reasons for my animosity.

This went on for a while and finally a deep heart-felt ache released in my heart as I asked the Divine Mother and all of Life for forgiveness.

God does forgive “because we know that God is a good God.”

That is the Himalayan Tradition’s core belief: God is a Compassionate God and we are one with that compassionate God.

Namaste’