What is it in me that resents your achievements and seeks to discredit and so diminish their significance?

It is the little me in me. The self-absorbed me, fearful of not making it and so consumed with competitiveness.

I know better than this. I know I only ever do to another what I’ve done to myself already. When I put you down, it’s really because I’m trying to recover from self-inflicted wounds.

Today, I will stop this nonsense. I will, instead, accept and love myself. I will know that many of the fantasies I confuse with dreams are just another way the little me reminds me that my choices in life have proven stupid.

I have tired of living this way. So, today, I will remind myself often enough until I get it, that I will arrive at my intended destiny, but never at yours. I will be aware when the little me in me seeks to make you “littler.” When I catch me doing that to you, I will stop the madness, knowing I could never pull myself up by putting you down.

What I see outside my window is the image I will carry all this day. The tall oak tree is thick with leaves. So thick, in fact, what lies behind the oak is hidden from sight. Yet, I witness no struggle in the tree, no competitiveness…no clamoring for the light. Each leaf hangs peacefully from its branch. And, the miracle, each is beautiful…each “makes it to the light,” as Nebo puts it.

So will I.
So will you.

Both the mind and the body are material and so subject to birth and death. You, however, are the awareness, the consciousness, beyond your thoughts. For example, you have perhaps heard someone say, “I caught myself thinking,” before they proceeded to tell you what they were thinking. Perhaps you have said something like this yourself. This is a peculiar statement, revealing too.

If I say, “I caught myself thinking,” am I one or two persons? Who is the “I” who catches “me” thinking? The answer should be clear. The “I” catching “me” thinking is the consciousness that is aware. It is a bit awkward but that is, of course, the ego. What could be more unnatural than that which Saint Paul called the “natural” man – his way of describing the ego.

Try this. The next time you catch yourself thinking, pay attention to how the mind in you works. Pay attention to your thoughts. In other words, BE THE WITNESSING PRESENCE. This is the Spirit within you – it is the Divinity you share with Source itself. As you make this your practice – that is, as you “practice the presence of God (Spirit within – witnessing presence”), to borrow the words of the 17th century Carmelite monk, Brother Lawrence, you make the wonderful discovery: overcoming the ego takes NO effort whatsoever.

Effort implies struggle. And, in this regard, is just the ego slipping in the back door. Instead, practice being the witnessing presence. Watch your thoughts. When negative thinking creeps in, and with whom does it not?, instead of struggling to rid yourself of such ego-inspired negativity, just observe those thoughts and like your breath on a cool morning, they will disappear. (From The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God).

This is the way to peace…the pathway to happiness and inner serenity.

If you knew this were true, how would it change your life? The way you view what is happening in your life? How would it impact the way you feel about where you are at this point? In your life? Circumstances? Career?

So much of my life has been spent resisting where I am and wishing to be somewhere else. In recent years, however, I have been making it my practice to know the following “knowings”…

• I know I am exactly where I’m supposed to be – and, how do I know this? Because this is where I am. What further proof do I need?
• I know that what I’m going through now is exactly what I’m supposed to experience – and, how do I know this? Because “all things work together,” said Saint Paul (Romans 8:28) and, the Buddha said, “What you are experiencing now when never finally disappear until you learn the lesson it was sent to teach you.” So, I make it my practice to look for the life lesson hidden like a pearl in every experience.
• I know that God, like the air I breathe, is mysteriously present, though perhaps not seen, in everything I encounter, every person I meet, every thought I think, every word I speak. So today, and every day, I worry little. I watch and wait, instead. Why should I worry? If God is as present as the air I breathe, then with every breath I take, I’m actually receiving Life Energy itself – infinite and inexhaustible.

This, I’ve discovered, is the secret of happiness…the pathway to peace.

Correction:  Not the “pathway to peace” as if peace were that which lies just around the next corner.  No, this IS peace…the pathway, or living this way, IS peace.

May it be so for you!  Right now even.

This article currently appears in the Huffington Post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-mcswain/when-there-is-peace-among-religions_b_1443667.html

Slightly over a year ago, I picked up my iPad one morning and began drawing the image you see in this post. I named it the Unity pendant. I designed this to be a kind of “brand” for my speaking and coaching on matters related to spirituality and interfaith acceptance and cooperation — even the interfaith comedy show a Jewish friend and a professional comedian, Mark Klein, and I have created. I have long felt that the Dalai Lama is right when he said, “When there’s peace among religions, there will be peace in the world.” I had those words inscribed on the outer rims of the pendant.

It’s true — embarrassingly true. Many of the conflicts between nations, peoples and cultures throughout history have been motivated and sustained by religion and religious differences. Virtually all religions start out well but it isn’t long before a kind of collective ego takes over and things get insane. I’ve written extensively about what goes wrong in most religions, Christianity notwithstanding, in the book, “The Enoch Factor: The Sacred Art of Knowing God“:

“All religions are subsets of a stained-glass window through which the light of the Divine shines in all its dazzling color, diversity, and beauty.”

In other words, there is no one religion that holds a patent on God, Allah, Yahweh, Source, Intelligence — whatever you wish to call the divine. “God has no religion,” said Gandhi.

I have concluded the same. Which is pretty long step for me to take, given I was raised in a Southern Baptist home, educated in Christian theological institutions and served as a Baptist minister myself for more than two decades. But I am at a entirely different place in my life today as I describe at length in the book.

The Unity pendant says it all, at least for me. It might or it might not for you. But here is its significance for me.

It’s about the size of a U.S. quarter and I designed it to promote a more conscious, compassionate and charitable world. At the center of the pendant is the symbol of the Christian cross representing the largest of the world religions with more than 2.2 billion followers. I placed the cross at the center to acknowledge the centrality of the Christian faith in my life. Raised to be a devoted follower of Jesus and his teachings, his path as a way to know God, I could no more deny who I am in this regard than I could deny the parents who brought me into this world. Had I been raised by Muslim parents and taught the faith of Islam, I might have placed the Crescent Moon at the centermost place of this pendant.

Where the Christian cross intersects, you observe the familiar Yin/Yang symbol of Taoism. Taoism is an eastern religion with perhaps 225 million followers. While more accurately referred to as a philosophy, books on world religions almost always refer to it as a religion. The symbol itself represents the “dance of opposites” within the universe. There is daylight and dark, morning and evening, birth and death, and so forth. While everything may seem, however, to be an amalgamation of polar opposites, the reality is that all things are interconnected and interdependent. In the west, many mistakenly think this polarity refers to good and evil. But to the Taoist, good/bad distinctions are overlooked in preference for the idea of balance, harmony, unity. One for all, all for one is closer to the idea. By seeking balance in life, one becomes whole.

The symbol at the top left is that of Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion in the world with nearly 1 billion followers. Unlike Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, Hinduism does not have a single recognized founder. While widely regarded as a religion, it is really much more like a way of thinking and living, much like the spirituality of Native Americans. Given the age of Hinduism, there are many variations and much freedom of belief among its practitioners of Hinduism. In India, for example, where Hinduism is believed to have originated, there is perhaps more religious diversity than in any other country of the world. While there is no one symbol for this faith tradition, the symbol in the pendant is the most widely recognized one for Hinduism. It is Om or Aum, representing Brahman — the impersonal Absolute, the source of all that is manifest, as well as un-manifest, that which pervades all of life.

The symbol at the bottom left is that of Buddhism, or the Wheel of Samsara (sometimes referred to as the Wheel of Life). Buddhism is a philosophy based primarily on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as The Buddha (or, Enlightened One). Buddha lived between the sixth and fourth centuries B.C.E. and is highly regarded as an awakened teacher whose primary ambition was to help others end dukkha (suffering), reach nirvana (the supreme state of peace) and escape cyclic existence (birth, death and rebirth). The Buddha taught that our suffering was the consequence of ignorance — which did not refer to one’s intelligence or IQ — but to one’s understanding of the cause of suffering and the path away from it. According to the Buddha, therefore, the cycle of suffering could be overcome by understanding what he called the Four Noble Truths and by following the Eight-fold Path.

The symbol at the top right is that of Islam. Like Christianity and Judaism, Islam is a monotheistic religion — belief in one God. Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world, already making up about one-fourth of the world’s population. Most social scientists believe that within the next few years the Islamic population will exceed that of the followers of Christianity. Most Muslims belong to one of two denominations — the Sunnis (80 percent to 90 percent) or the Shia (10 percent to 20 percent) and Muhammad is regarded as its founder. The word Islam means “submission to God.” The symbol in the pendant is that of a crescent moon and star, the five points of which refer to the Five Pillars of Islam — the Testimony of Faith, Prayer, Almsgiving, Fasting and Pilgrimage.

The symbol at the bottom right is that of Judaism. The oldest of the monotheistic religions, Judaism is the faith of the Jewish people. Their history of survival is in-and-of-itself truly remarkable. About half the Jewish population resides in Israel; the other half in the United States, and a small percentage of Jews live in Europe. The Star of David is highly regarded as the most familiar symbol of the Jewish faith. Similar to Islam, the basis of Jewish faith and tradition is the Torah, known as the Pentateuch or the first five books of the Old Testament. The shape of the symbol, a hexagram, is known to many Jews as referring to the Shield of David, but its significance as a religious symbol is not widely recognized. Throughout the centuries, many ideas have circulated as to the meaning of the six-pointed star. About the most that can be said is that the six-points represent God’s absolute rule over the universe in all directions.

Again, I created this pendant to promote peace, harmony and the oneness of all religious traditions. Each tradition is valid. Each holds special significance to its followers. Yet, each must respect, value and so make room for all other traditions. All provide Light and Truth to the world and seek to hold sacred the Mystery of Life.

“When there is peace among the religions, there will be peace in the world,” said the Dalai Lama.

May that peace come soon.

Be glad you’re not me. But, maybe you’re like me. Here’s how Mark Nebo phrases my neuroticism with “success.”

“From an early age, we are taught that to live fully is to be accepted, and to be accepted, we need to be seen. So we base success and even love on the effort to be seen, on how much we stand out” (from The Book of Awakening).

It’s true, isn’t it? It is for me…all too damn often. The ego in me feeds off the attention it receives…the recognition it gains…and, no matter how much attention or recognition I receive, the “good” feeling I have inside of having finally “made it,” is all too soon replaced with the feeling I haven’t quite made it yet.

I know better than this. The Buddha taught us about the pleasure/pain circus of madness…that, the very thing which will bring you pleasure today will bring you pain tomorrow. Jesus put it like this: “Lay not up treasure in heaven…” – we’ve mistakenly thought he was talking only about money and material possession. To the contrary, He may just as well be talking about whatever it is you imagine heaven to be. For me, it’s always just a little more recognition than I’ve received already.

In my better moments, I know that success has little to do with my external circumstances…almost everything to do with my internal state of peace.

Today, I will remind myself to look within…to live within…to view my internal world, my mental state of peace as that place where eternal treasures reside…where “nothing,” as Jesus said, “can corrupt and no thief can slip in and steal it from me.” I will know that there is nothing I could ever “do” to be a success, I AM a success. To know this…is to have succeeded already.

I loved this movie. And now, I must read the books.

In one of the film’s many memorable scenes, Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), co-star who is in love with Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and who survives with her the perils of the games, discuss the most likely outcome to the games on the night before they begin.

Peeta says to Katniss, “If I’m going to die, I want to still be me.”

When you die, that is precisely how you will. As yourself.

If death accomplishes anything, it succeeds in bringing an end to the illusions of who you and I really are. There’s a sense in which, for example, Saint Paul missed it, when he likened death to “the last enemy.” Death is an enemy and one could argue it is the last enemy. But death is only an enemy to the illusions. Hence, death is is only ever an enemy to the ego in you. It could never be your enemy.

What is ego? Your make-believe self, social mask, or you might think of it as the “false” self –the “you” that isn’t really you but the “you,” you mistakenly think is you.

You are not, however, the image you see in a mirror — what Albert Einstein described as “the optical illusion in consciousness.” If you have read “The Enoch Factor,” you know I discuss all of this at length in the book.

The image you see in a mirror is dying and one day will disappear altogether. It takes no “hunger games” to achieve this. Death is your intended destiny.

Furthermore, you are not the voice in your head — the thoughts you think, conditioned mostly by your upbringing. They, too, will die. And yet, isn’t it interesting, that virtually everyone mistakenly thinks that they are their thoughts?

You are not your name, title, career, achievements and so forth. None of these survive death either. In other words, that which we typically regard as real is really an illusion. What we take so seriously survives but briefly. This is why the Buddha said of life, and all its trappings, “Nothing is permanent.” Viktor Frankl said, “The meaning of life must be understood in terms of its temporality.”

So, what, if anything, survives death?

You, of course. That is, the real you — or, deeper you: the you beneath, behind and beyond form, the body, the thoughts, as well as titles and accomplishments, so easily confused with who you are. As long as you are attached to any of these transitory illusions, you will live in fear of death. Death will be to you, as Saint Paul put it, “the last enemy,” or the cosmic hunger game that gobbles up all memory of you.

So I would say to Peeta, and to you, it is not a question of “If I am going to die.” You will die. Nor is it a question of “Will I still be me?” The gift from death itself is the gift of being yourself. Rather than stealing life from you, death is the gate through which you enter into life. Which is, of course, why Muhammad said, “Die before you die,” meaning, “Why wait till you die to begin living?” Or, in the words of Jesus, “Deny yourself,” and so, by implication, live what he described elsewhere as “the abundant life.” The Buddha described this death, or the denial of that which is not really real, as “Detachment.”

All of these spiritual teachers are pointing to the same essential reality: Until you detach from all the illusions of who you are — or, to put it another way, until you die before you die — you will die a thousand deaths. Death will always be a terrifying monster: the “last enemy,” the ultimate “hunger game.”

If you make it your spiritual practice, however, to “deny yourself,” “to detach,” to “die” to the false self, and so experience a kind of resurrection before you die, then the reality of Easter occurs all over — in you and not in some future time, but now. Furthermore, you make the wonderful discovery that there is no death. Nor is there any more fear of death.

How could there be? You are Eternal. Remember this today … every day … and so live a genuinely resurrected life. That’s infinitely more meaningful than all the talk that will take place in sanctuaries around the country about the significance of Easter. You can be Easter Now!

What could be more important than this?

I know now, that’s the wrong question. Why? Because it implies there is something you must DO in order to BE. There is nothing, however, you could ever do in order to be.

So, happiness…your happiness…begins the moment you stop looking for it…seeking it…trying to obtain it…become it…discover the “right” steps toward it. Happiness is instead your natural state of being. It IS who you are, not what you become or attain or achieve.

I have lived much of my life so confused or, perhaps a better word, is unaware of how to be happy. When I finally gave up seeking for that which I am already, I made a wonderful discovery. Happiness.

You are that which you seek. So, today, give up looking outside yourself for that which is springing up within you already – the awareness that the happiness you seek is the person you are–already. Every Dogwood, Redbud, tulip, and leaf I see budding with new life this spring…this day…I will be reminded of the happiness that is springing up within me this season…this day…this moment.

Now, my friend, if you DO this today, what do you suppose you’ll BE?

I was captured by the number of beautiful pelicans as they gracefully and effortlessly soared through the air as we visited Sarasota for a few days. I wondered what they were thinking knowing, of course, they were thinking nothing. Instead, they were just doing or rather being the wonderful creation they are. What struck me was the way they allowed the winds to carry them. I know they must flap their wings. Strangely, I never saw this…only their wings spread and the wind carrying them. It is the way of the pelican.

It’s your way, too. Mine as well. A wonderful way to live, wouldn’t you agree? Sure beats the hell out of how I lived for decades. Jesus said, “The wind blows where it will. You hear the sound but cannot tell from where it comes or where it goes.”

In other words, there are two ways to live your life. One is the way of almost certain struggle…to spread one’s wings and attempt to fly. To make up your mind where you must go, even if it’s against the wind. To flap and stray and attempt to reach a destiny you imagine will bring you fulfillment, prosperity, happiness. Every new height you achieve is quickly met, however, with a feeling of emptiness. It’s not quite the view you were looking for. You’re tired…empty…filled with stress…equally disappointed.

It’s the way of life for most people.

But then, there’s the way of the pelican. It’s the way to which I awakened a few years ago and it’s infinitely more meaningful. There’s no effort. Few worries. Little stress. And virtually no struggle. Certainly no disappointment.

How could there be? It is the way of effortless trust in the Divine Winds…the Unseen Winds of Eternal Spirit. It is the way of the miraculous. In this way, every wind, which others might label contrary, are to you the very winds that carry you to your rightful destiny…your Divine destiny.

What a life it is…can be for you…if you decide to give up the struggle…stop striving…struggling…believing it’s all up to you…and, instead, live by the Wind. Spread your wings and see. It’s the way of the PELICAN!

Blessed journey my friend. Wait till you see the view from here!!

I have always loved Louis L’Amour’s statement: “There will come a time when you believe everything is finished…that will be the beginning.”

I suspect I’ve loved that statement because more than once I’ve believed it was finished…as if it were all over for me.  And never more acutely than when all the external trappings of my illusory self-identity began to fall away one-by-one.

First, it was the unexpected death of my father on the very day he joined the church I was serving. There was no one I wanted more to celebrate my ministerial accomplishments than my best friend and father. Honoring me, as he did, by joining the church one Sunday was a high point in my life and career. That very Sunday afternoon, in fact, I walked around the neighborhood gloating in my accomplishments. Although only thirty-nine, I had achieved more than other ministers in a lifetime of service. So I had one of those self-congratulatory talks.  You know the kind. When the ego becomes intoxicated with itself.

“Look at you,” I gloated. “You’ve made it! You are the envy of all your peers.”

Eckhart Tolle says, “Life will give you whatever you need for the evolution of your consciousness.”  Before nightfall that Sunday, my father up and died on me. The one man whose opinion mattered most to me…whose praise I had clamored for like a starving child managed to reward my accomplishments by dying on me.

I grew angry. Confused. Believed it was finished! That I was finished.  ”Who am I?” I remember thinking, “now that Dad is gone.”

“And where did he go? Will I ever see him again?”  Questions about faith poured over the surface of my consciousness like lava from an active volcano. The glib answers I had given time and again no longer worked.  Faith no longer worked. My religious convictions felt inadequate.  Were inadequate.  Faith…my faith was finished!

So I left the ministry. Soon afterwards, through a divorce. Within a year of my Dad’s death, all my reference points like clothing removed from a patient preparing for surgery, fell away.

Which IS, of course, exactly what I was preparing to undergo.  Surgery.  Inner surgery. The surgery of the soul.  Perhaps the most important kind.

Though I was completely unaware of it at the time, what felt like the end to me…what I believed was “finished” was actually my new beginning.  This is life’s grandest paradox, is it not?

In Buddhism, for example, there is this paradoxical teaching that what you are now experiencing will never completely disappear until you learn the lesson it was sent to teach you.  Saint Paul said something similar when, to the Roman Christians, he wrote, “All things work together for good…”(Romans 8:28).

I suppose this was what Louis L’Amour was trying to convey, “There will come a time when you believe it is all finished…”

You might be feeling that way right now.  If so, be reminded this day…this moment, my friend, you are where you are because there are mysteries of life that Life itself wants you to discover.  Do not miss this moment. Do not run from what you’re experiencing. If you do, know it’ll show up again…somewhere…sometime.  Perhaps a different operating room. But, the surgery of your soul must occur.  You cannot anesthetize you way through it, either. It will be painful. Through it, however, I know…on this side of recovery, I can make you this promise…with confidence:  You will find your real self…your eternal self…the point of human existence…the point of your existence.  You will discover the secret to happiness…your happiness…

Your new Beginning!

There’s a lot of emptiness in the universe…an infinity of darkness in this world.  In your soul, too, just as there is in mine.  I sometimes think, however, that the darkness is infinitely darker because it is the unexplored part of the soul. As such, it is for many of us a foreboding place…fearful…even terrifying.  Like death itself.

Yes, I got to thinking about this when our nation paid honor yesterday to John Glenn who courageously ventured into the universe nearly a generation ago. The heavens have long fascinated us…called out to us…instilled in us an insatiable curiosity to explore its depths, or heights.  Perhaps it is because we came from the heavens, did we not? Curiosity is encoded in our DNA. Maybe. Few of us, however, will ever have the opportunity that came to John Glenn…to venture, even briefly, into the emptiness of outer space.

What we can do, nonetheless, is to travel into the emptiness of inner space. If you think about it, inner space mirrors outer space. In other words, what we’re learning about the infinity of nothingness that is beyond us we’re also learning about the infinity of nothingness that is within us. According to molecular biologists, each cell in your body consists of mostly–nothing.

In my meditations this morning, I imagined, as I often do, entering into the infinity of inner space. What I do is picture myself stepping up a flight of stairs until I reach a level landing. Before me lies a universe of nothingness…just darkness…emptiness.  This is a world I’ve come to explore…and with great curiosity, even joy.  It is the same world I would suggest you explore, too.  If you do not, your inner world may become increasingly foreboding…fearful…off limits…obscure, even threatening…what it must have been to Van Gogh himself.

I would recommend you make friends with your darkness…your emptiness…what some call your “shadow self”…the nothingness that is mostly everywhere around you. For example, look around the room where you are now.  What do you see more than nothing else?  No, I said that correctly.  What do you see more than “nothing” else?

Nothing–ness.  Pay attention this day to nothing!  It’s everywhere.  I suspect you’ll make the same discovery I’ve made. It is not nearly as frightful as you might think. In fact, what we now know is that it is out of nothing that EVERYTHING emerges.  You and I came from Nothing. Isn’t that what Genesis teaches?  Creatio ex nihilo?  It is from nothing we emerge and to nothing we will return. Why be afraid?

On the next clear night, go out and look up into the heavens.  Pay more attention to what you do not see than to what you see.  That is to say, instead of looking at the stars or seeking to identify the constellations, be aware of the emptiness. There’s more of nothing than there is anything.

God is nothing, too…she/he/it is no-thing as well.  So, here’s the spiritual lesson…the same one Saint Paul tried to teach the Corinthians.  If you will train yourself to be aware of the emptiness that is all around you, that is within you…that is REALLY YOU, I suspect you’ll make the discovery that what you think of as Nothing is really Everything!  Saint Paul said, “What is UNSEEN is more real than what is SEEN” (2 Cor. 4:18).

To discover Nothing is to make life’s grandest discovery.  It is to find the Mystery of Life itself…the Source and secret of happiness.