Know you can have great peace inspite of how life may treat you

Our message for you is one of hope and joy. We know that at times you feel despair in your life, and we want to assure you that we are with you at all times, including during these times. Through these times, you are deepening and clearing in ways that are not yet apparent to you, but that serve you well on your path. Even during times of darkness, we are here to remind you that our Light is always with you--and you need only to remember to look to us. Our light can never be completely hidden from you.

As we see you, we know that this is a time of questioning and doubts, and we assure you that this is a relevant step. There is no need to judge this time or yourself. No moment in your life is more valuable than any other moment. We know this may be hard to hear, but it is a Truth we want to share with you. Every moment of your life is equally important and in hindsight we feel that you will know the Truth of this statement.

It is OK if you don’t feel that way now. We know this is an experience that will grow within you. It will not be attained mentally or because we tell you so. But we say this, because in every present moment lives all of your power, all of your energy, all of your essence. How precious is that? Can you fathom yet what we are telling you? If you can get but a glimpse of what we’re telling you, you will find more gratitude in your heart for every moment of your life, regardless of how you feel in that moment.

You may begin to doubt your power based on external circumstances, and we are here to remind you to go within whenever you question your power to create life in the way you wish to create it. For you are the universe and you are what you are creating.

To be sure, there are shadows within, but they do not hold the power until and unless you give it to them. You have no role with these shadows but to place the light of day on them and see them. Here your responsibility simply stops. If indeed you try to reject or accept these shadows, you have begun a distraction--an unnecessary detour of sorts--as there will be no end to this process, which is managed by your mind.

If you feel yourself taking this road, we ask you to simply become aware and feel our presence in your heart. Again, your responsibility ends here. You may ask for our assistance if it makes you feel better, but simply by being aware of the track of your thoughts AND choosing to feel our presence as well, you have honored the love and the Light that you are.

We cannot convince you of your Light. Believe me, sometimes we wish we could! But as you experience your Light through us more and more, we send you signs, and we will continue to do so, so that you may begin to take pleasure in seeing and feeling your own Light.

You may look into a mirror for your reflection, but that is only a piece of it. Every situation, every person, everything in your life is a reflection of your inner Being. They are all gifts to you from the universe, so you can discover what your mind has difficulty accepting, due to its duality and its judgmental nature. By seeing these external manifestations and even just wondering how they reflect you, you have begun the healing process. Awareness of your outer world--and how it makes you feel--is key to your growth and healing.

We hope you’re not becoming tired, for you as well as others were created to grow and to continue growing. It is only through this growth that you will find happiness. This growth is as natural for your Being as digestion is for your stomach!

We take this opportunity to remind you that we are not grading you or judging you on your rate of growth. We remind you not to take qualities of the mind and project them on us or on your own inner Light. We see you in your wholeness at all times.

We know it is easy to become attached to those things we love. This is one of the ways our mind likes to think it can keep us safe and our lives secure. But as we cling to people, objects, or events, we cannot grow forward, or that growth becomes incredibly painful and more difficult than it need be. It is OK to feel pain at times. There is no way you won’t feel pain. Do not judge yourself for any of your responses or reactions at times you perceive you have suffered a loss. Instead, feel your feelings fully as this will ease your healing and growth process. If you do not feel your feelings fully, it is as if you develop scar tissue. And in order for you to grow, this scar tissue must then be torn apart. As you feel your feelings fully, while not judging yourself in any way, you ease your path immensely.

The universe is constantly changing, just as you are constantly changing. To try to hold it in a permanent state is far more painful than watching the growth and evolution in and around you. Your mind does not believe this or trust this, so these are the times we remind you to go within. Then, we will help you to feel your connectedness. In this way, you won’t feel separate from and a victim of these changes.

Your connection with Spirit is strong, and we take great pleasure in it. We hope you will take greater pleasure and enjoy it as well. It is not a chore or a job you are saddled with. It is not a burden. Be aware of how your mind would like you to look at this. We want you to feel joy with your connection. You have our permission! (Not that you need it, but we want to tell you that.) You have our permission to feel happy, joyful, light, and free. You know this. You go there, but in moments, and then you may become nervous or you refocus on the illusions you perceive. We encourage you to stay with the joy longer and longer. Build up your endurance--just as you would for an athletic event! What comes naturally as a child must now be consciously encouraged as an adult.

We encourage you to focus on moments of this life and how you feel in these moments. In each moment is indeed your entire lifetime for you bring yourself to each moment. This is never something to be judged.

We bid you to open your heart fully to our love. It is boundless. The more love you allow yourself, the more love you are able to accept from us. You may begin simply by acknowledging and honoring how you feel and not trying to convince yourself you should feel otherwise. By allowing yourself to simply be and by seeing yourself as you are, without judgment, you are giving yourself the greatest love. Without this, your love for others is only a small fraction of your Light. It can never be your full love under these circumstances.

We feel you feel your connection with us the strongest when you are outdoors, and we encourage you to continue bringing nature into your life as much as you can. You do a good job of this; our only suggestion would be to place more focus on “being” than on “doing” while you are in nature. Allow yourself to feel the stillness of the earth, until you become so sensitive to her that you feel there is no stillness at all. Feel the pulse of the universe through the earth you stand, walk, and live on. Feel your connection to all that is at a physical level, so you may be reminded of your Oneness with all.

We encourage you to honor the individual creator in each Being. Knowing you don’t honor their Light by owning or controlling them, and that sometimes you honor their Light by allowing them to grow and shine in ways you don’t yet understand. Giving this freedom to someone is the greatest gift you can ever give them. Giving this freedom to yourself is the greatest gift you can ever receive.

You are a radiant Being of Light! We encourage you to take great pleasure in discovering this Truth for yourself. We bid you to shine on and to take great pleasure in doing so.

Do you love others? Then show kindness from your heart.

The world is a vale of tears, no doubt about it. At the drop of a simple "how are you" anyone can open their big book of loss, disappointment and pain. It's true for all of us, though surely more for some than others. Black threads are woven into the very fabric of every life.

No wonder, then, that the Jewish tradition elevates deeds of loving kindness (chesed) to the highest possible ranking among soul-traits. Only some problems have solutions, but all are alleviated by the loving response of those around us.

In Pirkei Avot (2:1) we learn that: "The world stands on three things: on the Torah, on the service of God, and upon acts of loving kindness." The fact that chesed is one of the three pillars on which the world stands underlines how very important this soul-trait must be.

Chesed is a primary attribute of God, About two-thirds of these instances speak of God's character and actions. God is the Master of chesed, because, as the Psalm states, "The world is built on chesed"(89:3). For God to have created the world at all was nothing short of an act of chesed!

He has told you, O man, what is good! What does your God ask of you, that you do justice, love loving kindness, and walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8

God is also constantly engaged in sustaining all of Creation through acts of chesed. So where is the chesed in the suffering and tears that plague our lives? Even though it may be hard to see, there is great love extended to us at every moment. We are weak, and we all stumble and fall. We transgress against others, against ourselves and against God. And yet we are not snuffed out like a feeble candle, as well we might be. We persist in breathing, our hearts go on beating and we find the strength to rise again because God sustains us. That's God's chesed.

We can learn from God's chesed that what we call loving kindness involves acts that sustain the other. In the Mussar view, there is little value in fostering unconditional good will in your heart and wishing someone well. You have to tap those feelings to reach out your hand with real sustenance to another, by way of money, time, love, empathy, service, an open ear, manual assistance, a letter written, a call made, and on and on. People can and do draw sustenance from many sources.

Yet not all acts that sustain constitute chesed. We do some things out of obligation -- paying taxes sustains programs that sustain people, but it would be a big stretch to call paying taxes an act of chesed. Or we might be repaying goodness done to us, or offering sustenance with a plan of getting something in return. Those motives don't reflect chesed either.

Here the notion of kindness comes back into the picture. Chesed is sustaining action all right, but it has to come out of kindness and compassion, no other motive. That means that acts qualify as chesed only when they are motivated by a spirit of generosity. You are not obligated to do it, you aren't repaying an act done for you, you don't hope to get anything in return -- you are generously reaching beyond those limited acts to give of yourself in a spirit of honest and selfless generosity.

With these considerations in mind, I'd now translate chesed as generous sustaining benevolence. That's more clumsy than the already clumsy "loving kindness," but it conveys so much more than just being nice and wishing well!

Giving in the way of chesed requires that we go beyond the boundaries that are familiar and comfortable to us. We have to stretch into chesed or it isn't chesed. That makes it sensible why the Jewish tradition accords service done to the dead as chesed shel emet, true chesed. Only with a dead body can we have absolutely no hope or chance of a payback for our generosity.

I can already hear somebody saying, yes, but what of the inner feeling people get when they know they are doing something good? Isn't that a "reward" of sorts? There is a joy that comes from doing a mitzvah. Unless you do the act specifically to get that feeling, being joyful in chesed does not invalidate the fact that in giving you had to stretch yourself beyond the boundaries of the usual and the comfortable to offer benevolent sustenance to another, which is how you enter the territory of chesed.

Mussar points out that some people are moved to acts of chesed whenever they meet up with someone in need of their help. Others, however, don't wait for the opportunity to come to them, but rather search out any chance to act generously in ways that sustain others. This is what the Sages meant when they wrote that the way of those who do chesed is to run after the poor (Shabbat 104a).

The demand is to not only do acts of kindness, but to love doing them.

Another way to understand this distinction is to recognize that there are deeds of chesed, and then there are souls that are totally infused with the spirit of chesed. That's the profound quality pointed to in the quote from Micah: "do justice, love loving kindness, and walk humbly with your God." We are not told that we fulfill our spiritual destiny by doing acts of loving kindness but rather by loving those acts. Of course if we love them, we will engage ourselves in doing them, so the doing is still covered, but really only as a spin-off. Our focus is not on the doing but on the quality of the heart that lives within us. Love loving kindness! What a profound demand!

The words of tradition unremittingly remind us that life is not to be lived every man for himself. Hillel puts it, "If I am only for myself, what am I?" (Pirkei Avot 1:14). It is central to our spiritual job description to stretch ourselves to sustain each other, and the most important dimension of that behavior is bearing in your heart love for the very act of caring for the other. Done for any other motive and the act is not chesed and it does not sustain the world, which is the outer mandate of chesed, nor does it move us closer to realizing the very purpose of our souls, which is its inner mandate. But when we get it right, our perfected chesed makes us pious and righteous people (hence the linguistic relationship between chesed and Chasidim).

Focus inwardly and then ask of your heart: enter joyfully into the love of generously sustaining the other. Then put that spirit into action. The heart and the world are called to connection, linked by flowing loving kindness. Succeed there and your world will be totally transformed, within and without.

© Alan Morinis