​When we understand that what we read in the Hebrew Bible in English today was written thousands of years ago by people who spoke a very different language and thought very differently, and that it’s been translated multiple times over centuries, by many different people, all of whom thought differently about the world than we do, we begin to realize that what the original writers said and what we hear may be radically different. Even the new translations, mostly from the Greek and some from the Hebrew, are based on modern American and European thought patterns rather than the ways people thought in the Middle East thousands of years ago. So, even though the original writing, and even the translations, may have been “revealed,” what they were thinking then and what we think when we read what they wrote are often very different.
This is particularly the case with what has come to be known as “The Ten Commandments.”
Many Jews today, reading the chapters in Exodus or Deuteronomy in which the list of ten is presented, don’t translate the Hebrew as “thou shalt” but as “thou dost.” This is because, while all the languages derived from Latin (including English) include an “imperative” form, a person commanding someone to do something, the far more ancient biblical Hebrew does not. And, while in English we use verbs to talk about past, present, or future actions, in biblical Hebrew verbs describe an action that is complete or incomplete—no time is involved.
It turns out that the verbs in the list of ten are all written in the second person (you), masculine, singular, imperfect (an incomplete action—“man, you’re cutting yourself”) as opposed to “perfect” which would be a completed action (“man, you have cut yourself”). The result is very different from what most of us were raised on.
As written, the opening Hebrew sentence can be most correctly translated as, “Hear, Oh Israel, I am the Lord your God who has brought you out of the land of the Mizraim (which is usually translated as Egypt and refers to the sons of Noah’s son Ham); you have no other gods greater than I.” It’s then followed by a series of verbs, each preceded by a symbol that is read as “lo” and means “no” or “not.”
This means that, when we look at those familiar verses in Exodus, we need to see them a new way: they’re not rules for us to follow, but promises!
They tell us that, when we accept the Almighty One as the Love of our lives, the Source of our existence, and the Power beyond all powers within or around us, then, in fact, we can’t ever allow a desire for money or property or any idol to be more important than our desire to commune with The One, or covet anything, much less steal; we would always honor our elders as guides to experiencing that One, and we would never be inclined to kill another!
Now that’s something worth celebrating! No wonder the Hebrews or Israelites (children of God) as they began to call themselves after hearing these words, held the tablets that bore them as holy!
May we all know the peace that comes of accepting this fact of our history as truth in our hearts!

The following is a response to a recent request by email - How do I begin to bring my new, perfect companion into my life?

1. Make a list of everything you appreciate about each one of the people you've been close to in your life. 
2. Combine those qualities into one list.
3. Look at your own self to see how those qualities manifest and
   
4. if they aren't, ask if you're expecting someone else to fill them in for you
5. Look at your own self to see how the things you haven't appreciated about those people are also in you - and do the work to release them (see Ruth's Method for Releasing the Past on the home page of this site)
6. If you're not depending on someone else to fill in missing parts, your companion will be there shortly
7. If you think all those qualities are outside of you, do the work to get where you can accept those qualities as part of you - and therefore of anyone you would build a life with.

It's a truism that the moment we're fine without anyone in our lives, the perfect companion shows up. And, we'll know they're perfect because everything we appreciate about ourselves and the people around us are present in them. So appreciate and enjoy!  

A student asked this the other day, and I thought I'd share my response with you...
For me, it's been a gradual process. I started by - and still need to be - observing all the times that what I thought about  (pleasant or unpleasant) came into my experience, recording in some way each incident, and practicing observing it as it happens.  We often refer to such incidents as synchronicities.

Then I started managing my thoughts, so what I focus on is what I want more of, canceling or erasing any other kind of thought (and yes, I'm still practicing at that one too :)  I focus on the qualities, the characteristics, not the form, as in mutually supportive relationships, comfortable home, easy transportation.

AND I sing songs and read texts that support my understanding that the universe is, in fact, as Wallace Wattles says, supporting and supplying my needs and desires, which helps me remember that truth while living in a culture that's designed to operate in contradiction with it. 

I trust that my having worked through it makes it easier (and faster) for others to do so.

Blessings on the journey!

I recently had an opportunity to go back into a book I had created some years ago - a book with a title I've never liked, but whose message is a powerful one for all of us.
 
The original text was by a man with the unfortunate name of Wallace Wattles. His book launched a whole body of material that has been called "the masculine arm of New Thought": books and lectures on how to create a prosperous life. It was also the book referred to in the film The Secret, as having turned Rhonda Byrne's life around at a particularly dark time.

I've understood and applied the principles he teaches for many years now, but it wasn't until I read (and rewrote) his first few paragraphs that I really got the fundamental basis he was working from
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Here's what Wattles has to say:

• No one is kept in poverty by limits in the supply of riches; there’s more than enough for all. …In truth, the visible supply is practically inexhaustible, and the invisible supply really is inexhaustible…
• Nature is an unlimited storehouse of riches; the supply will never run short… 
• The formless substance responds to the needs of mankind; it will not let humanity be without any good thing… 
• Nature exists for the advancement of life, and its primary impulse is the increase of life. Because of this, everything that can possibly enhance life is bountifully provided.

The book he wrote is called The Science of Getting Rich. The book I created (at the request of and with the wonderful folk at Beyond Words Publishing) includes his text along with an updated version, with simpler language and exercises. 

Someone sent me an email recently, asking why I talk about divine power.
​I thought I'd share my response...
Having grown up in a world that seemed anything but divine, I became agnostic. My studies of anthropology, however, said all human cultures honor something beyond the brain-body experience, so it seemed a reasonable working hypothesis.

​My continued studies of culture, psychology, and philosophy showed me lots of different models and ways, but no clear evidence. My journeys inward, however, led me through distress to a different kind of experience - wordless, nameless, very real.

My journey through a major health crisis (described in my book Finding the Path) introduced me to a Presence within that guided me through great distress into healing. Part of that journey included Reiki training, which introduced me to something that flows through us which anyone, anywhere, can experience and share and that, through simple intention, changes peoples' physical and emotional experience. Teaching others how to access this something has shown me that, truly, we all can tap it and use it.

My study of systems demonstrated that all systems, of every size and type, are part of one great whole and are sustained by a flow of matter-energy-information through them. My learning to trust in that flow and the Presence within has led me to do and say things I was not capable otherwise of doing or saying, including experiencing islands of peace in the violent neighborhood I lived in.

My communication with folks who are elsewhere on this planet and those who are no longer incarnate has given me experiences of a loving sharing of wisdom/energy among resonant beings, regardless of form - and helped me feel the process by which resonant fields overlap and reinforce each other. 

When I say divine power, I'm including all these experiences and understandings. It's not some cliche I learned in church (never heard it there, actually :) ) In scientific terms, it is called the intelligent energy of the quantum field. In psychological terms it's the highest resonant aspects of the collective consciousness. In philosophical terms it is the metaphysical noumen. In religious terms it is the divine power and presence - by whatever name a given cultural group uses to call it.

It's everywhere, in everything, flowing through the All-That-Is, supporting and sustaining every being. All forms of matter are temporary condensations of that divine power in alignment with individual intention. All personal experience is the result of the projections of our perceptual framework on that flow. 

Everywhere. Always. In and throughout this space-time continuum we call reality. 

And so it truly is - which is why I talk about it. Thanks!

Once again, we enter the dark days of the year, when lit candles and firelight warm our hearts and feed our souls.
Last year I posted a description of the different traditions, which you can find by clicking here.

(this was posted on an older version of this site several years ago and seems relevant today...)
​
​Have you noticed that when you look at your “To Do” list you sometimes feel suddenly de-energized, maybe even resentful?  Even if some of the things on the list are things you normally really enjoy doing, do they suddenly seem like an imposition?
Well, as a friend of mine used to say, that’s because you’ve been “shoulding” on yourself!
It’s fascinating: the moment we make something that we want to do something we “should” do, our small self (often called our “ego”) begins to complain about “having to” do it.. It doesn’t matter how much we wanted to do it before; all that matters now is that it’s on that list and so has become a “should.” The body now responds to it as a stressor rather than a pleasure: our belly tightens, there’s tension in our arms and shoulders, and for some, a small rush of adrenaline “fight or flight” whenever we think about doing it.
This physical response, without an actual opportunity for “fight or flight” builds up toxins in the system that cause other symptoms in the body, ranging from arthritis to diabetes, and can, for some of us, lead to adrenaline depletion.
Now, the word should is not at all the only such word that works that way—it’s just the one currently in style. Other equally devastating words are: ought (as in, I ought to be…), must (as in, you must do this or…), have-to (as in, but I have to!), and  got-to (as in, “I gotta get this done before….”)/ Each and every one of these is as toxic to the human body as cigarette smoke or nuclear radiation. They all build up toxins in the system that can only be released by running away or fighting—which may explain why kick-boxing is so popular these days!
Okay, you’re wondering, but how am I going to get anything done if I don’t make up a list—and how am I going to get anyone else to do what they’re supposed to (oh, yes! That’s one of the toxic ones too!) without using these words?
It’s not all that hard, really, it’s about discovering what we really would like to do right now.
What? You’re wondering, how would I possibly get the dishes done, the toilet bowl washed, or my bookkeeping handled if I only did what I really want to do?
Isn’t that interesting…. We’ve convinced ourselves that some of the things that make our life easy and harmonious are onerous tasks that we would never do without coercion!  If I didn’t “have-to” clean the bathroom it would be filthy—well, to quote Byron Katie, is that really true?
Really, what’s the likelihood that you wouldn’t wipe out the sink or brush out the toilet bowl when it was uncomfortably dirty and ugly? Would you really just let the dishes pile up in the sink forever? How likely is that? At some point you’d look at them and simply start loading them into the dishwasher, or fill up the sink with soapy water and swish a few through every once in a while as you were cooking—or something! Right?
In fact, at the time you’re inclined to do things like that, it’s no big deal; almost on automatic while you’re remembering or contemplating something wonderful, like a guest coming over or the lovely evening you had last night, or the beauty of the sunrise or sunset. In some Buddhist monasteries, the young novices who clean up the kitchens after a meal are encouraged to think of the pots and pans as “Buddha’s body”—to realize that  what they’re doing is a sacred act and part of their contemplation. And Brother Lawrence, the monastery kitchen helper who “practiced the Presence” became a powerful healer that way.
And that is how life is meant to be lived.
We do the small things that make life easier and more comfortable in and around the wonderful things that make life worthwhile.—not because we “should” but, because, in this moment, it feels perfectly right and fitting to be doing that.
So giver yourself—body, mind, and soul—a break. Throw away the lists and set the intention that everything that needs to be done today for the wellbeing of everyone you care about gets done without your “shoiulding” on yourself. Join the movement for freedom from “shoiulds, oughts, musts, gottas and haftas” and be your wonderful, healthy, effective Self!