God's Thoughts

"I want to know God's thoughts; all the rest are just details."

-- Albert Einstein

I wish the Cubs would stop losing so many games! What's for dinner? I hope this new book is good. Do these pants make my butt look big? Our usual everyday thoughts are so mundane! We recycle the same material over and over through our heads like bad summer programming on the CW network. And brainstorms? Forget 'em. We're lucky if we get a light drizzle.

Ah, but God, on the other hand, he must have some really bodacious thoughts! BIG thoughts. Not the trivial crap that our monkey minds seem to be obsessed with. What are the thoughts of God? How do we find them?

Over many centuries, millenniums even, spiritual practices have been developed to do just that. While they may differ in form, all true practices bring about a transformation of heart, of mind that allows us to see the world from the perspective of the Divine. We access God's thoughts because we realize our own divine nature and the Unity of all existence. God's thoughts become readily available and transparent to us.

So what does God think? Best if you go find out for yourself. Mystics, seers and sages of all traditions have given us some hints, though. It seems God sees Unity within diversity. God honors all with awareness and love and rejects no one. God's thoughts are all encompassing and affirming, not petty, jealous or discriminatory. God is the original big thinker and no one and nothing are left out of the embrace of his thoughts. God thinks Truth.

In one sense, all spiritual practice is about is taking some time each day to let go of our small thoughts and allow the thoughts of God to enter our consciousness. "The devil is in the details," they say. So, let the details go for now. Relax and dwell in the mind of God.

The Eternal Flow

"I feel myself so much a part of everything living that I am not the least concerned with the beginning or ending of the concrete existence of one person in this eternal flow."

-- Albert Einstein

Death happens. What happens after death is anyone's guess. What we do know is that life goes on. I die, you die, someone dies, in fact, everyone dies sooner or later, and still life goes on. And whether you know it, (like Einstein) or not (like Joe Sixpack) we're all a part of this eternal flow.

Kind of takes the pressure off, doesn't it? If we really feel our unity with all of life, death of one physical body, even our own physical body, means so little. Your obit today, lines the birdcage tomorrow.

And yet, I'm hardly fatalistic or pessimistic, just realistic. Recognizing our part in the eternal flow, now, while we're still alive, helps make life an enjoyable journey rather than a life or death battle. The purpose of life is not to see who can make the biggest splash in the eternal stream. If Einstein had not concocted his theory of relativity, someone else would have. The flow supercedes the individual, but in truth the individual is one with the flow. The size of the wave hardly matters -- we're all water.

So, lighten up! Better to feel your oneness with everything than to worry about death -- yours or anyone's. The ultimate accomplishment is not living long but living well, moment by moment, in the eternal flow.