Tag: meditation

The Inner Alignment of Power and Intelligence

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Jesus’ teaching on faith that “moves mountains” is not a call to defy nature but an invitation to return to our inner center—the quiet place where divine power becomes strength and divine intelligence becomes light. True strength is not personal will but alignment with the Source from which all possibility arises. This week, the teaching on Power and Intelligence takes us deeper into that alignment, showing how the light of divine guidance directs the very power that sustains us.

When Jesus urges us to “believe and not doubt in the heart,” he is describing a shift in focus. The mountain symbolizes the problem that appears immovable. Faith is not pretending the mountain isn’t there; it is remembering that we are not defined by it.

The Genesis writer captured this inner movement with the first creative command: “Let there be light.” This was not physical light but the illumination of divine intelligence—the radiant clarity that brings order to chaos. Power provides the energy, and intelligence gives it direction. Together, they form the spiritual architecture of every breakthrough, every healing, every step toward wholeness.

Like King Jehoshaphat, we all know what it is to feel overwhelmed. His prayer—“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon Thee”—is the perfect union of these two qualities. He releases reliance on personal strength and opens to the larger field of divine guidance (intelligence). The battle shifts from the outer to the inner field. The moment fear dissolves, clarity arises.

When we affirm “Let there be light,” we are not asking for something new to descend from the heavens; we are awakening what is already present in the soul. Divine intelligence is omnipresent, waiting for recognition. Power is ever-flowing, waiting for direction. When the two meet, mountains move—not by force, but by realization.

In quiet prayer, let your focus return to your center. Breathe in power; breathe out strength. Then affirm the light of intelligence is making your next step clear. This is the mystic’s path: strength without struggle, clarity without strain, and guidance arising from the indwelling Presence that never fails.

Life that Flows, Love that Balances

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Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Abundance, in the mystical sense, is not measured in years or possessions but in awakened awareness—an inner recognition that the same vitality moving galaxies into being also breathes through us. Life is not something we possess; it is the universal energy expressing itself in every form. Stars, stones, and souls are all waves rising from one eternal ocean.

This field of life never begins and never ends. Forms appear and dissolve, but the underlying current remains untouched. What we call “death” is simply a change in expression, not a loss of life itself. To live abundantly is to recognize that the Eternal is present here and now, breathing through everything that exists.

Yet life alone does not complete the picture. The energy that animates creation also guides it, balancing and renewing all things through the law of divine love. Love is not sentiment or emotion but the active intelligence that draws to us what belongs to our wholeness and dissolves what does not. Jesus named this the greatest commandment—not as a moral burden, but as an invitation to trust the very nature of reality.

To love God is to trust the movement of divine order within our lives. To love our neighbor is to acknowledge this same movement in them. Love is always at work, even when unseen, restoring balance where confusion once held sway. When we stop resisting this flow—through forgiveness, humility, or simple willingness—we discover that love was already healing what we thought we had to fix.

Life gives us existence; love gives that existence meaning. One is the vitality at the heart of creation; the other is the intelligence that shapes it toward harmony. To awaken spiritually is to perceive both at once—to sense the living field beneath all things and to trust the love that continually renews them.

When we recognize that everything is alive and held in love’s eternal balance, we move gently, speak kindly, and live with the quiet confidence that we are part of something endless and whole.

Event and Experience

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A Simple Approach to Mindfulness

J Douglas Bottorff

Imagine we’re having one of our beautiful fall days. You step out your front door and are greeted by the warmth of sunshine, a cool breeze, and the beauty of fall colors. You take a moment to take in the sensations of the day. Now imagine you’ve just received some unsettling news. You step out the same door into the same fall day, but you don’t notice the sun, the breeze, or the colors. You are absorbed in the news.

In both scenarios there are two things going on: an event and an experience. The event is you stepping out your front door. The experience is what is happening within you. The first time you are carefree; you have a pleasant experience. The second time you are preoccupied with your unsettling news; your experience is completely different.

This simple illustration shows us that while events can influence our experience, our experience can also color the event. We cannot always choose what happens, but we can become aware of the inner lens through which we interpret it. This is the essence of mindfulness.

When we pause long enough to notice what is happening in us rather than to us, we step into a deeper level of awareness. The mind begins to settle. Our attention shifts from reacting to observing, from judgment to acceptance. Even a difficult event can become a teacher, revealing where our peace depends too heavily on circumstances.

We all know that life brings both calm and storm. Yet the power to choose how we meet each moment is never taken from us. By remembering the distinction between event and experience, we create space for a more conscious response. We may still prefer sunshine to rain, but we no longer feel captive to the weather.

Each moment, then, becomes an invitation to live awake. When we meet life from this inner steadiness, the event—whatever it may be—ceases to define us. We begin to taste a quiet freedom, the awareness that peace is not found in the changing scene before us but in the still presence that observes it.

The Power of Silence

The Paradox of Power in Silence

It seems counterintuitive to associate power with silence. The squeaking wheel, after all, is the one that gets the grease. In the world of circumstance, there are moments when squeaking is necessary—when we must speak up, advocate, or act decisively. Yet the development of our spiritual awareness unfolds in an entirely different arena. Its work is done in stillness.

This “stillness” is not mere quiet. It is a shift of awareness—a turning from the restless surface of the mind toward the deeper current of life itself. The Psalmist’s invitation, “Be still, and know that I am God,” is not a command but an opening. It reminds us that knowing the Divine is not an act of intellect but of intuition. The Creative Life Force that sustains our being is ever present, but it works in silence, as a hidden, living fountain of energy.

The Restless Mind

Anyone who has ever tried to meditate knows how easily the mind resists stillness. We close our eyes intending to move into silence and find ourselves chasing thoughts, replaying conversations, or solving problems that do not need solving. Many of us have spent twenty minutes “worried with our eyes closed.”

This is the central challenge of entering the silence: learning to let go of thought patterns that have no real value. We are conditioned to stay on the mental treadmill, running hard but getting off exactly where we got on. What Jesus called “going into your inner room and shutting the door” is the act of stepping off that wheel—of releasing the outer noise to rediscover the quiet center that is always waiting.

When we touch that inner place, we emerge changed. We move into life with fresh enthusiasm and clearer vision. The external world has not altered, yet our relationship to it has. We respond from strength rather than react from fear.

Coming Home to the Center of Power

Silence is not escape from life; it is the re-entry point into our true home. In stillness we return to the center of our being, where all that is real abides. The “Father who sees in secret,” as Jesus said, rewards us openly—not with material prizes, but with the subtle grace of a life that begins to work.

Paradoxically, the time to be still often arrives when stillness seems impossible. We want to “do” something, to solve the upset that has thrown us off balance. Yet sitting quietly, releasing the urge to fix, is often the very thing that restores order. The silence re-centers us in the awareness that we are expressions of the Infinite—not isolated minds scrambling for control, but emanations of the same creative power that holds the stars in place.

The Modern Maze of Distraction

Technology has multiplied our distractions. We carry devices that promise connection but too often deepen our fragmentation. In earlier times, when the phone stayed in one place, we didn’t wonder where it was; now we feel uneasy if it’s not in reach. The more connected we become externally, the more disconnected we risk becoming internally.

This makes the commitment to silence more vital than ever. The silence is not opposed to life in the world; it is the grounding that makes life in the world manageable. It is where the noise of outer activity meets the still rhythm of the soul.

Experiencing, Not Thinking

The silence cannot be understood intellectually. It must be experienced. Reading inspirational books can be helpful, but reading about stillness is not the same as entering it. We may become addicted to uplifting words, returning to them like a pleasant habit, yet never touching the experience itself. The true invitation of “Be still and know” is to be still and know—to feel the reality of God, not merely to think about it.

This is not about solving problems. It is about solving the problem of the busy mind. When we drop beneath the whirl of thought, we encounter a different order of knowing—direct, wordless, whole.

Finding the Doorway of Receptivity

Emilie Cady likened the receptive attitude to a bird bathing in the sun. There is no effort, only openness. We do not make the light shine; we simply stop blocking it. Sitting quietly, we relax the body and center the mind. If thoughts drift, a simple affirmation such as “I am” can help restore focus.

Do not force anything. If the mind refuses to settle, get up and return later. The silence is never achieved through strain; it opens through willingness. The fruit of practice often comes in unexpected moments—a sudden wave of compassion, a surge of peace, a quiet joy that needs no reason. These are signs that the intuitive door is opening and the light of God is beginning to shine through.

The Inner Healing Flow

Myrtle Fillmore’s healing story beautifully illustrates the power of this inner awareness. When she heard the words, “You are a child of God; therefore, you cannot inherit sickness,” something awakened. She began to enter the silence daily, speaking gently to each part of her body, affirming that the life of God was active there. She wasn’t commanding healing—she was acknowledging a truth already in operation.

In the same way, when we quiet the mind and release stress, we cease interfering with the natural intelligence that sustains us. The body follows the mind’s lead: as thought becomes calm, the physical system relaxes, renews, and restores itself.

The Treasure Hidden in the Field

Jesus compared the kingdom of God to a treasure hidden in a field. The silence is that field. In discovering it, we “sell” everything we own—our stress-producing thoughts, our need to control, our limiting ideas—and trade them for the simple awareness of Presence. The intellect can grasp the logic of this; intuition alone can make it real.

This path does require discipline and commitment, not as burden but as devotion. We commit because we recognize the truth of what calls to us. If God is truly within, then the question becomes: How will I experience that?

The Direct Experience

Direct experience of the Divine is not reserved for saints or mystics. It is the birthright of every soul. Yet few seek it because they imagine it difficult or remote. In truth, it is closer than breath. We overlook it precisely because it is so near.

The spiritual life is not about becoming something we are not. It is about awakening to what we already are. As you sit in stillness, you may discover that the freedom you’ve been seeking was never absent—it was only veiled by thought.

To be still is to know. To know is to remember that the treasure you seek has always been within.

The Spirit-Soul Connection

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Spirit and soul are words we use to describe spiritual abstractions. Both are very real, but we do not experience them through the five senses. We know them intuitively. Jesus defined God as spirit, comparing it to the wind whose effects we see, while the wind itself is invisible. He said we must worship God in spirit, which I understand as the meditative practice of stilling the intellect and opening intuitively to our spiritual source.

Spirit is universal life, love, power, and intelligence. Soul is an individualization of this universal energy, but capable of interfacing with the material world. Our consciousness is the idea-forming mechanism that enables us to interact with the world. The body, existing within time and space, is the center of most people’s identity. Our spiritual essence, our soul, is not bound or defined by time and space, but our consciousness is. When a person momentarily steps from their body, as in a near-death experience, they instantly rise out of the body-based consciousness and experience the vastness of their soul and their oneness with universal Spirit.

A metaphor I find helpful is that of the sponge in the ocean. Think of the ocean water within the sponge as the soul of the sponge. When the sponge refers to itself as “I”, it is referring to this volume of water rather than the physical sponge. Imagine squeezing out the water and tossing the sponge onto the beach. The water you squeezed out remains in the ocean and keeps its individual identity. But now it lacks a body. It is a point of consciousness fully aware of itself and its oneness with the sustaining source, the ocean. If it wishes to be seen and felt in the visible world, it must take on another sponge body.

The “I” that we are is not the body. We have a body. If we were to step out of the body, we would continue to use this personal pronoun. Describing our experience to another, we would say, “I went through a tunnel.” “I communicated with deceased relatives.” “I found myself in the middle of a beautiful meadow.” This “I” is the soul. The all-sustaining life force in which we live is Spirit, Source, God, or whatever name we wish to give it.

Embracing the Divine Feminine

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Much of our thinking about God is influenced by the masculine, Judeo-Christian image. Attempts are made to counter this with the notion of God as Father/Mother. While this is an appropriate exercise in stretching our thinking, we do best to think of God as one power expressing as masculine and feminine energies. We might think of it as a magnet. Two poles, one negative and one positive, make the magnet what it is.

When we think of our own mind, we understand we have intellectual and intuitive faculties. The intellect is the fact-processing aspect that helps us do our shopping and balance our checkbook. We use it to navigate the world of external appearances. The intuitive side opens to our spiritual source. The practice of meditation is the releasing of the dominating intellect and opening to intuitively received spiritual impulses.

If you observe the workings of your own mind, you will notice how the intellect keeps an audio/video program running all the time. We’re thinking about the past, anticipating the future, making shopping choices, wondering how long we’ll have to wait in line at the grocery store, or trying to remember where we laid our car keys. To embrace the divine feminine is to bring this mental movie to a halt and settle into a receptive state of being. We turn from external concerns, and we open to the subtle energy of spirit that is the living source of our being. Our habit of chasing the intellectual movie lines makes being still and listening a challenge. With practice, however, we can learn to relax and pick up on intuitive promptings that will surely come.

What is the value of doing this? It lifts us out of the incessant chatter of the surface mind and reveals a much broader state of being. The broader our horizons, the more relaxed and creative we become. We’re more receptive to the presence of God as our guiding, healing, prospering source.

Embracing your divine feminine is opening yourself to the wholeness that you are. Bless the wonderful tool that is the masculine intellect and give thanks for the broader vision that is made known by embracing the divine feminine that is your intuitive side.  

What Is Consciousness?

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To be conscious means to have a subjective awareness of oneself and the surrounding environment. It involves being awake, alert, and perceptive of one’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, and experiences. If you’ve undergone surgery, then you understand that the anesthesiologist’s job is to render you nonconscious; all bodily sensations are put on hold.

When we talk about developing a consciousness of prosperity, healing, or improved self-esteem, we’re talking about changing our mindset. Changing from a consciousness of lack to a consciousness of abundance and an expectation of greater good involves a change in beliefs, self-image, the type of language we use, and our level of expectation. The whole of our belief system sets up a vibe, a kind of harmonic resonance that manifests as an environmental equivalent.

The primary focus of Jesus was not on the afterlife, salvation, religious conversion, the end times, social reform, or any of the causes normally attributed to him. Your faith has made you whole. Say to this mountain, be cast into the sea and do not doubt it in your heart. Ask, seek, knock. Be persistent. It’s not what goes into the mouth, but what comes out that has the greatest impact. All things are possible for the one who believes. These things relate to consciousness. He was teaching people that there is a connection between the inside, the consciousness, and the outside, one’s life.  

Does this mean that we draw difficult circumstances because of the kinds of beliefs we hold in our consciousness? Most of the people in Jesus’ audience were poor, struggling through a hand to mouth existence. He was not ignoring this or casting any blame. Neither was he giving them false hope, telling them how to think and grow rich. He was telling them that a change of mind would stimulate a change in the choices of attitudes that each person carried. He was telling them that a new freedom could be theirs if they learned to pay attention to the mental and emotional video that ran through their heads all day. Every challenge stirred opportunities to discover the self-defeating beliefs under which they labored, to cast these out and start anew. A simple change of consciousness could mean a substantial change in life.

A Simple Way to Change Your Mind

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We credit Donald Altman, former Buddhist monk and recognized mindfulness expert, with this quote: “If you truly want to change your life, you must first be willing to change your mind.” While most of us respond positively to such a statement, we also know that changing our mind in an impactful way is easier said than done. And yet Moses, in an absolute moment of crisis, offered his people a formula that works every time. He said, “Stand firm, lift up your eyes, and see the salvation of the Lord.”

If you are in a moment of crisis or uncertainty, the first step is to stand firm. What does this mean? You are to make the decision to get off the mental and emotional roller coaster and bring your full attention to your present mind action. If you are going to change your life, the only time you can do it is right now. Stand firm in this understanding. To lift up your eyes is not a command to look to the sky. It’s a command to stop looking at the problem and turn your attention elsewhere. Where do you turn your attention? See the salvation of the Lord. See your present concern resolved. You are on the other side of the Red Sea with your Egyptian hoard no longer in pursuit. Get the distinct feeling that your problem is resolved.

A technique like this is a little like an exercise machine. I have an elliptical machine, and I have to confess that I look at it more often than I actually get on it. I always feel better when I use it. Unfortunately, just looking at it does nothing for the cardiovascular system. The same is true with any spiritual technique. Reading about it is like setting the exercise machine in your room.

Make a firm decision to confront your situation. Pull your attention from the worst case scenario and turn it to the resolution of your issue. You do not need to know how things will work out, but just commit yourself to the feeling that they are. We are not seeking to change our life from this day forward. We are seeking only to change it within this now moment. This simple change of mind can make a profound change in the quality of your life.    

Spiritual Enlightenment

YouTube: Spiritual Enlightenment, What It Means

This week someone asked me what I thought it meant to be spiritually enlightened. Is it a state we reach or is it an understanding that we are unlimited beings that will never reach a spiritual stopping place? Great question.

From what I have observed, many believe it is a state we reach. This seems to be a motivating factor behind much of our quest for further spiritual knowledge.

I think of how far we have come in our exploration of the world and the universe as a whole. Early adventurers explored the earth from wind-driven ships. If they could see the technology we use today, they would probably consider us an enlightened people. From our point of view, there doesn’t seem to be any signs of having reached a stopping place. I think most of us would agree that we’re just getting started.

Why would this be? Because we live in a universe of infinite possibility. There is no point of arrival, no stopping place. As Walt Whitman wrote,

“There is no stoppage and never can be stoppage,
If I, you, and the worlds, and all beneath or upon their surfaces, were this moment reduced back to a pallid float, it would not avail in the long run,
We should surely bring up again where we now stand,
And surely go as much farther, and then farther and farther.” Walt Whitman, Song to Myself 

Spiritual enlightenment, then, would be better described as the state of knowing there are no limits imposed on our being. As spiritual beings having a human experience, it is easy to forget that we are much more than the human side. Spiritual enlightenment is living from the awareness of this greater reality.   

Meditation and Prayer

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Audio: Meditation and Prayer

“On the path to spiritual understanding no practice is more important in terms of spiritual transformation than the practices of meditation and prayer.”

Because the terms meditation and prayer tend to evoke different meanings, we treat them as two completely separate practices. Meditation is often thought of as the art of listening to God while prayer is thought of as the act of talking to God, usually in the form of a request. In my book I treat these practices as two halves of a single process. Meditation provides an infilling of inspiration from our inner resource and prayer is the act of directing this inspiration into specific areas of our experience.

Let’s say you have a healing challenge. In meditation you still your mind, releasing all images of yourself as incomplete. You pull your thoughts from the appearance of illness and open your mind and heart to your spiritual wholeness. This opening process is not a blind groping for something you do not have but a receptivity to your spiritual reality. Regardless of the condition of your body you are whole and complete right now. You invite this wholeness to come forth, to become part of your conscious reality.

Thus inspired, you engage in prayer by releasing all negative energy around this appearance and then directing affirmative statements to your body, particularly to the affected area. Think of meditation as an inhaling and prayer as the exhaling of divine energy, two parts to the single activity we call breathing.

The basis of this approach is the understanding that as a spiritual being you are already whole and that you are right now fully immersed in the presence of God. You don’t ask God to make you whole, you acknowledge your wholeness. You don’t ask God to act as your healer, you acknowledge that God as your source is your wholeness. You are aligning yourself with the presence and action of God in and as you.

In the following weeks we will further explore both aspects of this spiritually aligning process.