Debra Basham

Living and Loving

Tag: Brahma Kumaris

  • In-tension or Intention

    As you speak, so you see
    As you see, so you share
    As you share, so you become

    I am on retreat, and am living the spirit of the law (rather than the letter of the law) by writing a blog post. This intensive / retreat is the culmination of a two-year “Path of Clear Light” study with Barbara Brodsky and Aaron (and a cast of other enlightened teachers). The past semester has been working with sacred darkness. Groundwork is now being laid for a third year: Co-creating with Spirit. This focus is how we move from being in tension to the intention to invite and allow support. Namely this: How do we INVITE the world as we want it to be? How do we INVITE the expression of the self as we wish it to be?

    We were led on a guided meditation and then instructed to take paper and crayons or markers or colored pencils and draw this sacred wish for our being in the world. Most of us in my small group commented on our unskilled artistic abilities. There was no lack of skill in the articulation of our sacred wishes….

    I did a doodle process where you place a writing instrument on the page, close your eyes and move it around until guided to stop. Open your eyes and turn the page different directions until you see something come into view. The rules are you can embellish or not, add or not, highlight or not. I like those rules.


    After I had completed my drawing, I wrote these notes in my journal: I know I take human form in the world as it is. The big shift is instant manifestation. I see people able to transport via thought, create via thought, destroy via thought. Suddenly, I get a jolt of fear — not trusting human ability to manifest from love and wisdom. I choose the intention to invite and allow release of this fear and I hear, “This is the way.”

    The words on my drawing that are featured in the top center of this post were written with my nondominant hand. The words on the right side of the drawing were not.

    I am the world around me.

    What you give birth to has it’s own independence and free will.     (Aaron had said this, but including this one might be influenced by learning that I am going to be a great-grandma.)

    Everyone has a double and a mirror opposite. Find yourself.

    Life expression is joyous.

    In my doodle, I included a small section of a process called Zentangle which I learned from Carol Myers. Those words are: I AM LOVE.

    Yesterday and today I have thought of the title of the book “When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations of Voice” by Terry Tempest Williams. Her mother bequeathed Terry all of her journals, with the promise not to open them until after she had passed. Three shelves of journals were blank….

    I opened email this morning to the BK Thought for Today:

    No Complaining Zone

    If you approach life complaining about what’s missing then you’ll be dissatisfied. Satisfaction comes from knowing things can always be improved but at the same time appreciating what is right in your life right now.

    And Aaron’s Daily Quote:

    When you say, ‘Thy will be done,’ you’re not saying, ‘I’ll do whatever you want,’ you’re saying, ‘I obey this sacred sound within me, this sacred wisdom and clarity and love. I will listen for that and no matter how quiet it is and no matter how loud ego’s voice is, I will keep coming back to that sacred vibration within the heart. That is the will I will follow and not the voice of the ego.’

    Perhaps this new world is simply the sacred vibration of love and clarity in a no complaining zone….

  • A Time for Cherishing

    When you are in complete alignment
    with your authentic self,
    you will attract everything
    you desire in life.
    ~Brahma Kumaris

    Last week I heard again the message from Aaron, “If you were not ready, you would not have taken birth at this time…. You did not come to fail…. Are ready to trust your heritage as deeply loving?…. You cannot fully express light until you live in darkness…. You and the earth are inseparable…. Be a lamp until yourselves…. It takes your human vibration to co-create the future earth…. You are ready…. You are not alone.”

    I have been living in the darkness. I confess to have been struggling with Stacey’s choice to continue to move about during the pandemic. I opened my journal and let myself be honest: I did not agree and I was mad. In Heart of the Soul, Gary Zukav, encourages us to continue again and again to challenge our anger. First comes the pain, then the fear—the terror of realizing you cannot control all that you feel is essential to your safety and well-being.

    I was making dinner when I looked out on our front porch and saw John and the guy who does maintenance here on our home for us shoulder-to-shoulder with one another! I shot across the great room like a stone out of a slingshot, flug the storm door open, and yelled at them both through gritted teeth: “What the hell are you two thinking? Kissing distance is not social distancing!” It was awkward, painful, embarrassing, and maddening. For all of us.

    It got more painful when Stacey called and asked me how it was going. I shared the experience and felt the pain of the gaping whole in both of our hearts when she asked me what it would take for me to be willing to risk her dad’s being with someone. I told her I was mad at her. I asked her what she would be willing to do to help keep her dad safe. We both cried—the distance between personal viewpoints was a lot wider than six feet.

    The following morning I again wrote in my journal: Some awkward exchange with Stacey about COVID-19. What would you have me know?

    V: Fear is fear, Dear One. Your fear is not helping you. What are you afraid of?

    D: Being on a vent! Being ill in a hospital without my friends and family. Dying in fear.

    V: It is any worse to die in fear than to live in fear? No one is ever alone. You are giving up so much false belief.

    Later that evening, playing ZOOM dominoes with good friends, I tearfully confessed that while extra caution is warranted because of John’s comorbidity risk factors (diabetes, hypertension, and on steroids for Polymyalgia), the anger was covering up my fear. Fear which had been my companion for a long time: I was hospitalized in isolation diagnosed with polio at age five, and I experienced post-surgical complications and ended up in the cardiac intensive care unit due to aFib related to having had a nasal gastric tube in 2012.

    It has been such a tender process, realizing we are incapable of fully expressing light until we live in darkness, but I am willing to trust our true heritage.

    This message came with Darshan yesterday (Darshan is an opportunity or occasion of seeing a holy person or the image of a deity):

    You are so radiant. So beautiful. I am saying this to the one present before me, but to all of you. You are all radiant and beautiful and I love you. Sometimes your forget how beautiful you are. Imagine a very lovely silver pitcher — radiant. But here is a spot of tarnish (just a little one). Does this make the pitcher any less? When it is appropriate, it can be polished a bit, but the form of the pitcher and the radiance and the quality of the water that the pitcher holds is not diminished by the spot of tarnish. And, remember that when you get that spot cleared off, you are go to say, “It’s perfect. NO…. there’s another one!” So relax. Focus instead on the radiance of the entire pitcher, the entire being that you are — mind, body, and spirit — with great appreciation. Pride is not going to come up and destroy your radiance. You’re past that. Now is a time for relaxing and cherishing. I love you.


    Deep Spring Center
    Thought for Today

    Watch what pulls you out of balance and
    add what’s needed to bring you back again.
    This is a dance which you learn,
    swaying to the movement of the winds of the world,
    deeply rooted in your true being.
    This essence of being knows what is needed.
    Trust this innate wisdom and goodness in yourself.
    Trust that which I call the angel.
    ~Aaron

  • It Hurts


    Old doors close
    so new ones can open.
    Don’t get stuck on what
    fell apart just because it hurts.
    Transformation requires
    growth and letting go.

    ~Brahma Kumaris Thought for Today

    My friend, Kathy, lost her husband on January 18, 2020. She had been his care-giver. Their home was visited almost daily by friends and a devoted team of home-care and hospice-care helpers. For weeks now, she and their dog and cat are there. The pandemic means EVERYTHING social is lost. It hurts.

    Yesterday was to have been the college graduation ceremony of our only granddaughter, Courtney Nicole Ross. All face-to-face classes at UTC went online Monday, March 23, and for the remainder of the spring 2020 semester. Courtney is the first female college graduate in my line. With all A’s and B’s, she has graduated, but the ceremony and our family gathering together to celebrate as we watched her walk in her cap and gown did not happen. It hurts.

    My client/friend/colleague, Bonnie, passed away from COVID-19 in a hospital—a hospital her family was not allowed to enter. I had to decline an invitation to come offer a brief ceremony at the funeral home or cemetery, saying, “Let’s wait and honor her Celebration of Life when we can be together.” It hurts.

    In May of 2003, my mom was nearing the completion of her transition. I was finally alone with her for a few moments. I began to spontaneously sing (badly) a made-up song, “Momma’s gonna get a brand new pair of wings, fly, Momma, fly….”

    A social worker walked in and, embarrassed, I stopped singing.

    The social worker softly whispered, “Please, go on….”

    I continued to sing until I felt my mom’s center of gravity shift from her material body to her energy body. My mom’s face softened into a beautiful shade of pink as she relaxed into her wings.

    Moments later my sister and her son and daughter-in-law and their young son returned from having gone to get something to eat. I knew it was OK for me to leave. It hurts.

    Soon after, my sister was alone with our mom. My sister said, “Mom, I would really like to be with you as you cross. If you want me to be with you, it is time, because I am very tired and I need to go home soon.”

    Three minutes later, our mom was soaring with her brand new pair of wings.

    Old doors do close so new ones can open. We don’t have to get stuck on what fell apart just because it hurts. The transformation of humanity and our soaring with new wings requires growth and letting go.

    I found myself singing another ditty about flying with new wings while I was out riding my bike wearing my mask.

    I sent the voice memo titled “My Bonnie” to Bonnie’s daughter, Melody.

    It makes me laugh because my Bonnie had a semi-professional singing voice!

  • Liberation

      Deep Spring Center
      Thought for Today

      “I would ask you not to settle
      for anything less than liberation,
      and yet not to hurry toward it,
      but to know that if you practice
      with sincerity, love, and courage,
      it will come.
      May the way be very beautiful for you.
      May you find freedom and peace.”

    Aaron’s words slide over my being as smoothly as silk.

    We discovered mold under our dishwasher Sunday evening. It has been crawling along the floors.

    After mold remediation at the office, mold remediation on Lot 51, and now EXTENSIVE mold remediation happening here, I thought it wise to search for the meaning of mold as totem.

    Adaptability in the face of widespread, often destructive changes….

    Black Mold helps to keep me humble, and reminds me of the privileges I enjoy, however temporarily.

    An incentive to find more eco-friendly options for food, water, shelter, and other resources.

    Any species that manages to increase its population due to human influence, rather than becoming endangered or extinct, is at least noteworthy for its adaptability.

    It is truly amazing to be aware of the full monty. The full monty (or the full Monty) is a British slang phrase of uncertain origin. It is generally used to mean everything which is necessary, appropriate or possible; the works.

    Even while feeling overwhelm, I am aware how easy my life is compared to so many. Along with emotions of dread, trust holds my trembling breast. If this is liberation, it is worth the wait.

    One of the Brahma Kumaris inspirations of the day I received this morning says simply:

    Repeat after me: My current situation is not my permanent destination.

  • Learn the Tables

    Recently I wrote a poem titled ‘Longing’ that was inspired by an exchange with a dear friend that left me feeling less than valued, wondering if I should have, or could have, done something differently in our past to allow for a more pleasant current exchange.

    Sitting heart-to-heart with another precious friend a week or so later, I was stunned to have her say to me, “You are more invested in saving my marriage than I am.”

    Later, as I was writing in my journal, some clarity came about all of this, inspired in part by the Thought for Today from Deep Spring Center.

    You as a world are inviting conflict but then not doing the needed practice with it, so you must invite it again and again. You are like the child in school doing endless multiplication table drills; they are unpleasant but you have not studied the tables, and will not, so the teacher repeats the drills. Your inattention calls forth the repetition. If you wish the drills to cease, learn the tables.
    ~ Aaron

    The “D” stands for Debra, and the “V” stands for the voice of wisdom I call Holy Spirit, from my journal entry:

    D: I know the truth that ‘wherever you go, there you are.’ If she is so easily offended because he yelled at her, she will encounter that energy again. It is today’s quotation from Aaron about calling difficulties to us over and over to learn what we need to know.

    V: If you had a lesson you are still learning that expresses itself in the ‘Longing’ poem, what might that lesson be?

    D: Take nothing personally. I am not responsible for another person’s emotional state.

    Note—As I wrote these words on to the journal page, I could feel something leaving my energy!

    V: What else?

    D: Wonderings are a symptom of not being present moment where I can gently say, “Oh, this is that old habit energy. I know you. Come, sit, have tea. I’ve been expecting you.” *

    V: Tell all who know. They all know. Love, Holy Spirit

    A very wonderful message on an Easter morning.

    Going right along with that, was the quotation, “When humanity awakens, it will move beyond time,” which came from the Brahma Kumaris with this image:

    *This is a reference to the stories of Milarepa (c. 1052 – c. 1135 CE), one of Tibet’s most famous yogis and poets.

  • Acceptance

    I am still doing morning ‘writing down your soul’ pages. This morning’s entry dealt with my sleeping with a bed hog. From my journal:

    This morning as I got up, I again showed John how he pushes me over to a 12-inch slot of bed. I find that very unrestful.

    I asked what Holy Spirit would have me know. Would I prefer my bed empty? I answered that I would prefer not to sleep pushed over.

    I was then reminded how all of life is connected, and how much I enjoy hearing John’s music, and how much I appreciate the life we have generated. When asked if this sleeping is major or minor, I admitted that it is overall minor, but it feels major when I am trying to sleep.

    (Note* In my journal, I use a marginal notation of ‘D:’ for what I am saying and ‘V:’ for what Holy Spirit is saying. Here is the rest of my entry.)

    V: OK. What allows you to bring kindness to both of you and have you say, “Honey, please scoot over. I am on the edge.”

    D: The desire (choice) to have both of us matter.

    V: You see how your sleeping in resentment is not kind to either of you. Saying exactly what you need will allow a new pattern to emerge. Be willing to say it gently over and over until the new pattern is stable.

    As I closed my journal, I opened email to read this ‘Thought for Today’ from the Brahma Kumaris:

    Your expectation will hold others back.
    Your acceptance will let others fly.

    P.S.
    As I posted this, and went back to email, my next message was this:

  • Happy New You!

    Most people will be wishing you a happy new year today, but I am wishing all beings a happy new YOU.

    Attributing the saying that “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be” did not happen until 50 years after Abraham Lincoln’s death. Dr. Frank Crane included the saying, and the attribution, in a column about New Year’s resolutions in the Syracuse Herald. No evidence exists that Lincoln said it, but it is probably pretty true, whomever said it first.

    The most significant learnings of 2018 hover around mindfulness, nondual awareness, and intention. In September of 2018 I joined a two-year study intensive with Barbara Brodsky, Aaron, and John Orr: morning meditation, daily journal entry, and living from highest purpose.

    Previous posts have mentioned Rob Swartz, Rupert Spira, and Janet Conner. Perhaps you have already taken time with them, but I will include links again just in case today is the perfect day for letting their expanded awareness awaken our own.

    Rob Swartz “Buddha at the Gas Pump” interview.

    Rupert Spria “Buddha at the Gas Pump” interview.

    Janet Conner “Find Your Soul’s Purpose & Live a Life You Love!”Interview.

    This morning’s thought from the Brahma Kumaris says it well:

    The best solutions to problems will not be the result of hard thinking. Use your time better by creating peaceful thoughts, and problems will cease to affect you. Do not try to solve everything on your own. Leave some space for God to come and help you.

    Whatever your thoughts about “God” might be, whether you have a religious or spiritual practice, or perhaps just your sense of something greater than yourself, make 2019 the year you rely less on your own effort and leave some space for God to help you.

    For example, if you misplace your keys, rather than frantically searching, simply ask within. Affirm, “What is mine comes to me.” See what happens.

    When you are not feeling well—an ache or pain—something major or minor—rather than name the symptom or the diagnosis, or go into story about it, simply note “sensation…” Try it! This is a new year, and a new you.

    Notice old habit energy. A dear friend of mine has recently begun boating regularly after many years without a boat. I notice the habit energy to feel left out and jealous. Looking more closely, it is clear those are not my authentic experiences of her good fortune. I am truly thrilled for her. I am enthusiastic about her being able to renew a passion for boating. Her joy is my joy.

    2018 was also the year when the tree in our yard came down. The most significant question around that was when Barbara Brodsky asked, “Who dies? What dies? Does the tree still live in your heart?” (See: Does the Tree Still Live in Your Heart?”

    What year ends? What year begins? Who is the old you? Who is the new you? Does the real you still live in your heart?

  • Filter Bubbles

    The one you seek, is the one who seeks.
    Therefore, It’s not “I” who reads spiritual books;
    it is not “I” who sits ZAZEN,
    paying attention to body, BREATH, and mind.
    IT is not “I” who let’s go of everything, but THIS, only THIS!
    ~ Jerry Ashmore, posted in Empty Circle Zen Group

    Most of us are aware of algorithmic editing at some level. All information we access is filtered according to a predetermined “sorting.” The news is full of Russia’s manipulation of social media (Facebook) and the hidden criteria of search engines (Google). Even if you are not new to the truth and implications, check out Eli Pariser’s TED talk about filter bubbles.

    Pariser says the key threat is this: “If I search for something, and you search for something, even right now at the very same time, we may get very different search results… And you know, the funny thing about this is that it’s hard to see. You can’t see how different your search results are from anyone else’s.”

    The biggest algorithmic editing risk might just be to our relationships. What if we have family and friend “filter bubbles” operating and we don’t even notice? Sky Nelson-Isaacs has looked at a model for synchronicity based on a process called “meaningful history selection.” His book, Living in Flow: The Science of Synchronicity and How Your Choices Shape Your World, is due out in the spring of 2019.

    This is so alive, so organic, so vital. Our brains operate just like these search engines: our thoughts and emotions are generated by our memories, and then our experiences are generated by our expectations. I don’t see you as you. I see you as my history of you. I don’t experience you as you, I experience you as I expect you. I am co-creating you in my image of you.

    Of course, as Jerry Ashmore wrote, “YOU” and “I” don’t exist on the ultimate level of reality. Even at the relative level we can see this is truth. We can look at our hand and see all of the fingers and we know the fingers are a part of the hand. We know the hand is also part of the body. Everything and everyone is part of everything and everyone.

    A precious friend has a life-long history of difficult interactions with a sister that has resulted now in a choice to “put her out of my life.” Conversations with my friend are around my hope/wish/insistence we can access genuine freedom inside buy changing how we look at things.

    Experience the bliss of Self-Respect and give respect to others at all times. When I am prejudiced against another, my narrow vision and small heart lower my self-dignity and self-worth.

    If you are insulted by another person, and you become angry in response, the sin is the anger which you create not the insult. You are asleep to the truth that you just hurt yourself, and that you are the creator of your anger not the other person. And now you have a recording in your consciousness that contains an image of the other surrounded by the energy of anger. You put it there, not them. Next time you see them, up comes the anger again, and in that moment you are at your least effective, paralyzed by self created anger, you are effectively out of the game until you cool down.

    “Thought for Today” ~ Brahma Kumaris

  • Daily Inspiration

      WORD FOR THE DAY

      As human beings,
      our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world
      that is the myth of the “atomic age”
      as in being able to remake ourselves.

      ~ Mahatma Gandhi
      (Sign up to receive the “Word for the Day” from gratefulness.org.)

    Signing up to receive inspiration daily (via email) is one of the many gifts of being here now during the information and technology age. Today’s thoughts from myriad sources really resonate to the hopes and dreams I have for all sentient beings, so this blog post is dedicated to you.

    On this day of your life
    Debra, I believe God wants you to know …

    … that when you see the light at the end of the tunnel,
    it is not beneficial to go out and build more tunnels.

    It was John Quinton who observed that politicians do
    that. Maybe you’ve caught yourself doing it, too. Just
    when things look like they’re getting better, you start
    seeing more things that “aren’t right,”
    or “could go wrong.”

    The Universe is essentially a friendly place.
    So friendly, in fact, that it will give you
    exactly what you expect it to.

    Isn’t that wonderful? Of course,
    it depends on what you expect…

    Neale Donald Walsch
    (Sign up to receive Neale’s “Daily Inspirations” at today@nealedonaldwalsch.com)

    For many years my friend has shared the Brahma Kumaris’ daily thought with me. Each of those comes with an image. Today’s image speaks louder than a thousand words:

    The message that accompanied the image is: The greatest act of generosity is the ability to see beyond the weaknesses of others, helping them to recognize their innate qualities and core values.

    In the USA, visit the Brahma Kumaris at www.brahmakumaris.org/us/o

    For their guided meditation online visit: www.just-a-minute.org

    The final gift I opened this morning was a delightful video interview with Shinzen Young: What is Enlightenment? If you are curious about moving beyond the pain and frustration of relative reality, check him out. His has studied the science and experienced the freedom that comes from making meditation a part of your life. Visit: Meditation is Real at https://www.shinzen.org/

    In closing, I will use yesterday’s message from Betty Lue because she is on the West Coast so those come in later in the day.

    Affirmations:
    Love is the way to peace.
    I quickly recognize, forgive and erase all blocks to Love.
    It is safe, fun and easy to love, only Love.
    All good comes from Loving without condition.

    Closing:
    Now is the time for us to engage one another in the dialogue of how to love and be loved.
    We can begin with our family and ourselves.
    We can ask one another: How can I love you better?
    We can forgive ourselves for being afraid to love with innocence and trust, as a child loves.
    We can choose again to remove (forgive and erase( all obstacles to being Loving always.
    We can undo the false beliefs and limited thinking that separates us from one another.
    We can choose to live in Love, with Love in our Hearts and Minds as Love in our world.

    Life works when we Love,
    Betty Lue

    Sign up to receive Betty Lue’s Loving Reminders at http://daily.lovingreminders.org/

    What an honor it is to “remake ourselves” as we live moment-to-moment with daily inspiration!

    P.S. The heading of the last daily inspiration I opened this morning: “No tap dancing around problems.” Amen and amen….

  • My Side

    Where has the month of February gone? I know one week of it was spent with a friend who was going through a painful time. Without sharing personal details, suffice it to say, it is easy for some people to pretend they are something they are not.

    What did “he” think? For sure, he knew he was making promises he would not keep.

    This image (from the Brahma Kumaris’ Thought for Today) was accompanied by these words:


    Just because you are right,
    does not mean I am wrong.
    You just haven’t seen it from my side.

    From her side, she was honest, open, vulnerable.

    One thing I can say for sure: She did not lose anything by being authentic, but it is very likely that he lost a lot by not being…