The Anne Report, Only Half-Baked Now, relates Anne's reflections about her past week. The Main article, Finding Without Seeking, shows how "enlightenment" is more easily "found" than sought. The Healthy Living article, Healthy Planet, encourages us to take measures to protect Earth and all of her inhabitants. The Anne Talk, EZosophy: Let Go of Ego Driven Suffering, presents one of the prayers from Anne's book, Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic. The Featured Product This Month is Anne's book, Standing in the Dark. Click to read What is EZosophy? Click for Abundance Affirmations. Click for Shareables From Anne.

The EZ Mantra: "Everything can be EZ or at least EZier." -- Anne Sermons Gillis

Living EZosophy, November 13, 2018
Published Weekly on Tuesday Mornings

Phone: 713.922.0242
Email: anne@annegillis.com

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  The Anne Report

Only Half-Baked Now

Dear ,

Do you ever feel like a bumbling idiot. I do. I hide it, but when traveling alone in strange places, I bumble. Today, which will be a few days later when you read this, I walked the wrong way in the subway station, a walk I've made at least 7 times. I proceeded to place my suitcase on a rack on the subway, but when I returned to get it, it was gone. The attendant saw my expression and comforted me, "You walked the wrong way. Your bag is the other way." This is the same attendant that suggested I might look in my pocket when she asked for my ticket. After a fruitless search in my backpack, she said, "How about checking your pocket?" I've learned to live with these blips. After all, I tell myself, a lot of seventy year olds are home watching TV." Of course, I'll watch TV too when I return, but at the time I needed some comfort thoughts, even if it was at the expense of others.

I just spent one week at the Parliament of the World's Religions. It was a thought-provoking week, an inspiring week, and a week full of adventure. From gurus to imams, our hearts, more than 8,000 of them, were filled with promise, enthusiasm, and a call to clarity. We were challenged to be the leaders of the world, and we were told to lead lives of power, compassion, and forgiveness.

I thought I would be writing tales from the parliament, but I feel like I was in a bowl, then filled with the richest ingredients. I was stirred, poured into a pan, now I'm baking, and I don't know what I'm going to be when I come out of the oven. I feel the deepest gratitude for being able to attend two of the seven parliaments that have occurred since the first one in 1893, and I know that the experience lives in me, as a step into the beloved. And that's it for the Anne Report.

Anne

  Main Article

Finding Without Seeking

We think of life revealing itself as a flow, and while there is flow, the Universe, and life itself, is more than just movement. There is rhythm in this flow. There is harmony in this flow. This flow has an informed intelligence. While we plan, set goals, long, and imagine, this illuminated flow moves in us, as us. All religions are a product of this awakened flow. Someone, somewhere, awoke to the rhythm of the Universe, and when they did, they lit up with softness, compassion, grace, and love.

The story of Paul on the road to Damascus is the story of this awakening. The lives of Jesus and Buddha reveal the stories of the rhythmic, unlimited flow of harmony and love. We don't know if Jesus had it all along, or whether it was a gradual awakening, but we read that at the age of 12, he was wowing the rabbis.

Buddha's challenge was different. He was the son of a wealthy merchant. It was not until he stepped out of privilege, that he began the journey of self-discovery. Eventually, after he tried everything, he decided to sit. He would seek no longer. The search was off. If he got anything from life, it would come to him. It was in this revolutionary act of maximal surrender, that he awakened to the All.

We face challenges every day, and while we might not think of ourselves as great ones, like master Jesus or master Buddha, we are wrong. Wise ones tell us that the only reason that we are not fully apprised of our inner glory, is because we don't believe we can access it immediately. We think if we work on ourselves long enough, and hard enough, we might catch on. Maybe then, we will awaken.

New Thought teachings have a powerful view of Jesus, the Christ. They refer to him as an elder brother or wayshower. He came to show us the way. Buddha also provides an exemplary model. It is the model of surrender.  Surrender requires that we put our ego to bed and realize that striving, manipulation, and longing keep us away from our true nature. Buddha immersed himself in his true nature. It was through stillness that he realized the rhythm, flow, and the informed intelligence of life.

Today, spiritual teachers abound. Technology brings the wisdom of the past and present masters into our home with the stroke of a key. The momentum for the truth of our being is flowing and growing. But our society is filled with fear messages. Fear produces greed and need for power. The phenomenon is not born of spiritual movement; it is born from stagnation. Greed and power are built on a hierarchy of privilege, patriarchy, and desperation. Nonetheless, at some point, the foundation built with fear, will fall.

Jesus threw the money changers out of the temple (their church). Our lives are our church, and the love of money, prestige, or power over others, obliterates our experience of unconditional love. But love is more powerful than fear. Love moves like a river through the rock. It creates channels deep enough for its mighty flow.

Rather than spend time riveted by bad news and focusing on the potential collapses of life, it behooves us to focus on the river, not the rock. The force of love, the power of Presence, the wisdom of the truth - this universal harmony is within us. Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, a Palestinian, watched as his three daughters were brutally murdered. His ultimate response was love. His book, I Shall not Hate, offers a powerful model of what this flow of harmony and love can do in our lives, when we allow them to move in us. Here’s a powerful three minute video of Dr. Abuelaish speaking against hate.

Every religion calls us to love one another. This call implies what Dr. Abuelaish advocates: there are no circumstances that call for hate. We can punish the crime, but when we harbor hate, both the crime and the victim are punished. I'm sure Dr. Abuelaish needed time to work through his anger and grief, but at the end, he chose love. It should be the eleventh commandment, "Thou shall not hate." We are living in a time where hate has been sanctioned as a popular narrative. If we allow ourselves to be swept up in this talk of separation and fear, we cut ourselves off from the truth. There is only one winning response - love. We must love ourselves and love our neighbors.

Socrates told us to know ourselves. Psalms 46:10 invites us to "Be still and know that I am God." The map to salvation, which means moving from a false sense of self, to a true sense of self, is always with us. Our personal work is intense and immediate. We must drop our personal agenda and listen to what speaks from within and realize what is eternally present. We move with the same power as Jesus, Buddha, and Mohammed. They are our wayshowers and elder brothers, showing us that The Way is showing us the way! There is no waiting list or waiting period, and when we realize this, our lives become EZier and EZier.

Anne

  Quotes

Anne Quotes

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 Featured Product This Month

  Abundance Affirmations

Join Anne's Facebook Group

This group is a place to post uplifting affirmations and thoughts about prosperity and abundant living. Let's create a right relationship with money so that we feel comfortable about money. Let's use money as it's meant to be used, and not as a way to accumulate power or to fill a void. We don't need money to buy more stuff. We need it to create a world that works for everyone. We want to cast off old beliefs of lack and reclaim our natural state of abundance.

  Shareables From Anne

The World's Best Weight Loss Secret

Thought Freedom

40 Days to Abundance

  What is EZosophy?

Click the image to learn about EZosophy.

NOTE: If you are viewing this on a cell phone, be sure to scroll to the right to see the other column.

  Healthy Living

Healthy Planet

While I am still processing my experience at the Parliament of the World's Religions, there's one clear message. There was the unanimous agreement on the most important message to carry back to our families, friends, and spiritual communities. The message: climate change. It is considered the most pressing issue of this century. This message comes for people representing 200 religions and 80 nations.

My friend, Rev. Dr. Karen Love Baisinger, told me of the efforts her Methodist congregation has made in behalf of climate change. They have gone into debt to go solar. While organizations will play their parts, we can always do things to support a healthier planet. While action is important, it is the intention that we must hold all life sacred, and to treat our water, air, and earth with care and respect, that will make the biggest difference. Taking care of the earth, the air, the water, the forests, the animals, the mountains, etc., is called creation care by the faith community.

Matthew Fox, the former catholic priest, whom I heard in Toronto, said this 40 years ago: "If you are not taking care of nature, you cannot claim to be a spiritual person." His message of today reflects his deep commitment to the earth.

Here are a few links (not all religions are included here) on faith communities and religious organizations that actively see a strong connection between God and nature, and, therefore, work to care for our planet:

Evangelical Environmental Network Christian (Evangelical)

Blessed Earth (Christian)

Care of Creation (Christian)

Green Faith (Interfaith)

Buddhist Insight Network These are organizations that adhere to a Buddhist framework in approaching their environmental work. (Buddhist)

The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (Jewish)

The care of earth and all living things is built into the native American tradition, and regardless of how we were trained or taught, the care of the earth and all living forms lives in our hearts. We may look past this truth, but it lives in us. All life is a part of our family, be it a mosquito, or a snake. Kill all the mosquitoes and there'll be trouble. Here's a story of what happened when someone killed all the snakes in his area. Remember, if there are a lot of snakes, it's because there is a lot of food around. Think rats and ant eggs.

Why talk about snakes and mosquitoes when I'm talking about climate change? Climate change is killing our animals, and we need them as a part of an extremely sensitive ecosystem. Habitat destruction is not only caused by climate change, it is also the result of widespread "progress and development." I put this in quotes because I don't call killing everything in sight, progress.

It's always good to get an overview of the problem, but let's also take some concrete steps toward caring for Mother Earth. Here are a few suggestions:

1. Do not use Round Up. While it kills "weeds," it kills everything else too. It is cancerous; it kills microorganisms that give us healthy topsoil; it poisons the water. It kills everything it touches. It may take 10 minutes or ten years to do so, but the major active ingredient in Round Up is glyphosate. Here are five reasons to stop using Round Up.
2. Use cloth napkins rather than paper napkins. Use them multiple times. Throw them in the wash when they are dirty. Easy peasy.
3. Use dish towels rather than paper towels. I cringe when I see someone use 20 paper towels to wipe up a spill, when a hand towel or bath towel could have done the job.
4. If you eat meat, go meatless one day a week, then try two days a week. Animal farming is not only the major cause of animal suffering and cruelty, it is also the major cause of carbon pollution.
5. Fill up a glass of water to rinse your mouth after brushing your teeth. Why run the water when we brush our teeth? Our faucets deliver an average of 3 gallons per minute while we are just standing there.

As I said before, the action is not as significant as our intention and pledge to take care of the earth, but as the Biblical saying goes, "Without works, faith is dead."

If you have any healthy living tips for the newsletter, send them to me at anne@annegillis.com.

  Anne Talk

EZosophy: Let Go of Ego Driven Suffering

Anne's video, EZosophy: Let Go of Ego Driven Suffering, presents one of the prayers from her book, Offbeat Prayers for the Modern Mystic. Time: 2:20

  Anne Art

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  Anne's Schedule

All times here are Central Time
unless otherwise specified.

Sunday, December 23, 2018
11:00 AM-12:00 PM:
"Celebrating Christmas in Your Heart"
Unity of Brazosport
507 S. Brooks St. (Hwy. 36)
Brazoria, TX 77422

Contact Anne to book your event:
713.922.0242 or anne@annegillis.com.