Morning Notes Read online

  Also by Hugh Prather

  Shining Through

  How to Live in the World and Still Be Happy

  The Little Book of Letting Go

  Standing on My Head

  Notes to Myself

  Spiritual Notes to Myself: Essential Wisdom for the 21st Century

  I Will Never Leave You: How Couples Can Achieve the Power of Lasting Love

  Introduction

  365 Meditations to Wake You Up

  First published in 2005 by Conari Press,

  an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC

  York Beach, ME

  With offices at:

  368 Congress Street

  Boston, MA 02210

  www.redwheelweiser.com

  Copyright © 2005 Hugh Prather

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC. Reviewers may quote brief passages.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Prather, Hugh.

  Morning notes : 365 meditations to wake you up / Hugh Prather.

  p. cm.

  Includes bibliographical references and index.

  ISBN 1-57324-254-3

  1. Self-realization—Religious aspects—Meditations.

  2. Devotional calendars. I. Title.

  BL624.2.P73 2005

  158.1′28—dc22

  2005014845

  Typeset in Janson Text and Triplex Light by Marquardt Art/Design.

  Printed in the United States

  VG

  12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05

  8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials z39.48-1992 (R1997).

  To Beverly Hutchinson

  (for so many reasons)

  INTRODUCTION

  What I Need to Hear

  You'll probably notice right off that most of this book is written in the first person. Here's why.

  Over the years I have resisted several requests for a book of 365 thoughts because I felt there were a number of excellent ones on the market, and I didn't think I had much to add. But a year or so ago I noticed that I have certain ideas that I keep returning to when I wake up in the morning. The thoughts I need have stabilized and are now like a comfortable old coat with big pockets and extra long sleeves that never fails to keep me warm in winter.

  So this book is a little different in that it contains what I personally need to hear—over and over. That's why you'll find the occasional odd entry such as “Today I will do two things: shut up and mind my own business” and “When I'm happy, I don't need to look over my shoulder.” Both of these ideas, as well as all the other main thoughts, or “morning notes” for each day, are generalized and expanded upon in the paragraphs that follow them.

  My wife Gayle and I have always felt that it cuts down on mistakes if we begin the day with a clear spiritual goal. We have stacks of sheets listing these daily purposes from the years when we took turns coming up with one. This trading back and forth, and especially our sharing a common objective, was extremely helpful, and we still do something along those same lines. The main change in our spiritual path during the almost forty years we have been married is that we have distilled a multitude of concepts down to just a few, each one simple enough that it can't be fudged. These themes appear throughout this book and constitute a progression of steps.

  As I say at one point, “The way out of chaos is to stop analyzing and start experiencing, to stop looking for better ways to say it and star t practicing more peaceful and inclusive ways of doing it.” If you think about it, all anyone really needs is the golden rule, and if that were practiced daily, it alone would get you where you want to go. Yet most of us find it helpful to have different ways of coming at the subject, and I try to provide a nice variety of concepts along the lines of “treat others as you want to be treated.”

  I laid out the book so that it can either be used sequentially or opened at random. Each page is complete in itself.

  To me, the most important thing to remember as we set our daily purpose is that there is One who is always with us. We do best when we don't try to go it alone. Instead, we take God's hand, and above all we take God's advice, which can be heard by anyone who just stops a moment and is still. Whether or not this book helps you in your journey, you will arrive Home. We all will. We can make it difficult by insisting that we figure out everything for ourselves or we can make it easy by accepting Help. Easy is best.

  1

  To choose love is to begin again.

  Clearly, our human family is in distress. Yet because of this, it is also more open to change. Today I join with countless others in a renewed determination to be a better person—a truer parent to children, a more tolerant friend to others, a kinder coworker, a more committed partner. For this to happen, I must make up my mind, because behavior that flows from conflicted thoughts can't be controlled. Engaging in trench warfare with my personality doesn't work. Nor does making resolutions that last only days or weeks. To succeed I must unite my mind around a single purpose. And love is the only true purpose, and the only real unity.

  2

  I know what to do. The only question is, will I do it.

  I have never lived this day before. I am free to start fresh. My mistakes are in the past. They can be my shame or my treasure of useful indicators. I will use them to renew my faith and strengthen my resolve. Because of my mistakes, I know what to do. Today I release the old ways that have split my mind and drained my power. I will fill my thoughts with the newness of love and the simplicity of peace. Today I open myself to others so that I may open my heart to God.

  3

  The answer is to let go of pressure, not add more.

  My tendency is to make matters worse. Let me at least pause a moment and see what I want to do. When I set up a war within my mind, I put it between myself and God, because I make conflict more important than everything else. When I try to thwart other people, winning becomes more valuable to me than Love. And when I try to dictate the course of events, I am immediately at odds with the situation I'm already in. Yet when I relax into equality and trust in a greater Reality, life becomes simpler and my behavior modifies itself naturally.

  4

  To free myself from useless battles, I put all things in God's hands.

  Sooner or later, I must take a leap of faith. The existence of a sustaining Love makes no rational sense. It can only be felt when I exercise trust. As long as I wait for signs, miracles, fulfillment of dreams, or just a slight improvement in circumstances, I will never know Reality. The divine can only be seen through the eyes of faith. Today I will proceed as if I already believe.

  5

  Because the truth is true, letting go is all there is to do.

  Everything I do today is like a little test. Do I want the question or the answer, mental conflict or peace, to be right or happy, to be a burden to others or a blessing, to awake or continue sleeping? Each decision I make moves me a step closer to Home or a step further away. Therefore, it's clear that since the choice is between Truth and error, all I need do is to question—and thereby release—my desire to continue making the same mistakes.

  6

  Instead of trying to force the day I want, let me embrace the day I am given.

  Change begins with the willingness to make a modest effort each day. To at least try to let God be God, to let Truth be my truth. I betray what I believe when I push against events and other people. Nat
urally, if some change is helpful to me or another, I make it. But it's simply a fact that life is happier when I listen to the music behind the scenery than when I nosily try to rearrange it.

  7

  To be in God is simply to be connected.

  I need something more than free will, independence, or specialness. I need something more than private thoughts, a personal code, or a splendid point of view. I need people. Not in order to stay alive but in order to be fully alive, fully human, to be affectionate, funny, playful, generous, happy. I can love a concept—I can study it, meditate on it, and repeat it to others—but I can't throw my arms around it. And that's what God is: arms around us all.

  8

  Oneness is not cooperation. It is experiencing the familiar in another.

  No one owes me anything. No one is obliged to meet my needs. People are people. They are not sexual experiences or career support or a series of well-wishers on my daily rounds. They are not enemies of my enemies or my personal support group or a way of killing time. People are not even a means for us to “get to the next level.” They don't exist to give to us, or to withhold. They are us.

  9

  The only cost of forgiveness is to again be whole.

  Isn't it obvious that anyone who wants to for give forgives easily? I must not underestimate my desire to continue judging. But the problem with grievances, grudges, bitterness, and hurt feelings is that I have to remain damaged. I have to remain living proof of the other person's guilt.

  10

  When I see your heart, I want what you want.

  “Love your neighbor as yourself” implies nothing more complicated than the fact that anything less than love is not love. The golden rule is not asking “What would I want?” The question is what does my child, my friend, my partner, my parent truly want? Love does not guess; it enfolds, embraces, and understands. If we do not love someone outside ourselves, then quite simply, we do not love ourselves. God is love, and within the love of God there is no discrimination.

  11

  Kindness is the touch of God.

  If God is love, kindness is the key to happiness, freedom, and true success. And if God is one, it is impossible that the practice of love would mean choosing between myself and another. I am being dishonest when I say that I must put myself first. I must put love first. Today I will use the most powerful and transformative of all spiritual practices: I will be kind. I will be kind to myself, to everyone I encounter, and to everyone who crosses my mind.

  12

  All around us is a welcoming Presence, but only by being kind can I feel it.

  A gentle affect can disguise a malicious intent. Kindness is not smiling or agreeing or speaking softly. It must come from my heart and if expressed, always include a silent blessing. Letting people know that I hold them in my prayers sometimes engages my ego because of the acknowledgment I seek. At other times, telling them that I am praying for them can be a way of connecting and showing support. Kindness must dictate the form my efforts take. Every living thing is held in endless blessing by the divine. By being like God, we feel God.

  13

  When I submit to Truth, I submit to harmlessness.

  Submitting is not saying yes to every ego request or condoning destructive behavior in myself or others. It has nothing to do with indecisive stands, shaky loyalties, or “seeing both sides” when a friend has been mistreated. Submitting is an impulse of sincerity, not an act of passivity or a show of impartiality. It is focusing sharply on my deeper self rather than on the superficial. My behavior is filled with God only when my heart is filled with God.

  14

  By letting go, I fall into God.

  If I “let go and let God,” I allow Love to be within me. I quietly acknowledge and embrace my true nature. Letting Love is extending love, looking gently, being quick to understand and slow to judge. It is relaxing, being still, accepting, and above all, giving up the illusion of control.

  15

  The ego is always up to something. Unless I remain conscious, I will act it out in some way.

  An action can't exclude the mind of the one who acts. My behavior may seem appealing or unappealing, admirable or objectionable, depending on the reactions of those who view it. But another's take on what I do doesn't alter my intent, which is the true content of my behavior. Since all minds are connected, the deeper effect of my actions is in what I think. That is why there are no private thoughts or completely hidden motives. I can't expect to be a person who consistently makes life easier on my loved ones if I don't stay aware of my thoughts.

  16

  We can accept one another and enjoy life, or judge one another and be unhappy.

  Self-preoccupation is an unhappy state of mind, yet it offers several temporary pleasures, and these must be honestly looked at. For example, revenge can seem deeply satisfying for a while and acts of ill will can make us feel more confident. But there is another set of pleasures that comes from empathy, tolerance, and trusting other people's processes, which never leads to misery. If there is indeed a greater Guidance, who am I to know what anyone else should be doing? This is what is meant by trusting others.

  17

  Closeness to God is first experienced as closeness to others.

  There are personality types that are universally disliked. There are also individuals who are destructive, even murderous. Yet personality is not all there is to anyone. The experience of connection isn't dependent on how others talk to me or behave. Nor is it a matter of making someone like me. If we can feel close to individuals who are miles away or even to people after they die, surely the potential exists to be at peace with those who are physically present.

  18

  A gentle and accepting mind always feels close to God.

  I alone block my perception of Oneness by thinking defensively. It may be rational to fear someone physically, but not spiritually. God does not hold me back from feeling close to anyone—telemarketer, teenager, politician, postal worker, cable company executive, spouse, or self-help author. When I relax my mind, my vision can now move past the sur face of things, and there, awaiting me, is a great Splendor.

  19

  Make your state of mind more important than what you are doing.

  Only the mind can be controlled. Health, income, relationships, longevity, reputation, and the like, can't be controlled. Personal destiny is merely the story told by my body. Even the tiniest event can't be controlled, and the attempt to do so always splits the mind. In trying to control what I believe to be outside my mind, I discount the power of my thoughts and fail to take responsibility for them.

  20

  Inner peace is letting go of being right.

  Obviously, I can't make myself right without making someone else wrong. Forgiveness is a choice. If I want to change my mind from an environment that tortures me to an environment that comforts me, I must make forgiving as routine as breathing. Forgiveness isn't something nice I do for another person; it's something nice I do for my mental health.

  21

  Acceptance is the way I bless myself.

  My disdain, dismissal, hatred, or dislike of another does not punish that individual. It punishes me. I am the one with the bitter mind. I can' t pass on that little piece of hell to another. Hatred destroys all awareness of light within me, but unless I go out of my way to make others aware of it, they don't even know I judge them.

  22

  Our core is already positive. Choice is made possible by seeing how we routinely betray our core.

  If I look at a shadow closely enough, I see that it's merely a shadow. I release my negative impulses and thoughts by giving them more attention, not less. No one acts out a judgment of which they are acutely aware. No one makes a conscious decision to act insanely against their own interests.

  23

  If we are each in God's hands, judging another is an act of arrogance.

  I merely delude myself if I think it is possible to judge. How could I
know a faster or better way to transform another person's heart than the way God has already chosen? Judging is a not so subtle way of procrastinating, of putting off something I need to take responsibility for this instant. What am I avoiding that I am taking time to judge?

  24

  How could one person's way possibly be superior to another person's way if God is leading us all?

  If I believe that my spiritual path is superior, my path is not spiritual. Spirit is One. The divine doesn't contain degrees of correctness. Either we all share the same Truth and ultimate destiny, or there is no truth and we are lost in a reality of private perception and momentary interpretation. The way out of chaos is to stop analyzing and start experiencing, to stop looking for better ways to say it and start practicing more peaceful and inclusive ways of doing it.

  25

  All thoughts are equally a part of the mind.

  Notice how difficult it is merely to think in peace about any individual who comes to mind. Still, that must be my aim if I am ever to experience consistent mental wholeness. My tendency is to disown the negative parts of my mind because it's uncomfortable to admit what they say about me. Yet I think what I think by choice. All of it is my mind. My motivation to learn how to react peacefully to those who people my thoughts should be enormous—once I consider the effects my attitudes have on me.