December meeting

We first watched an interesting interview where Dr. Robert E. Carter talked about self-cultivation.
The we read and gave our views on the following.

In the Past or in the Present?
Are you walking dead or are you walking alive?
"Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things do I declare; before you they spring forth."
Isaiah 42:9
In the Greek myth of Orpheus Descending. Orpheus went into the underworld to rescue his wife from death. He was told that he could do so as long as while on his way out, he didn't look back. Well, he looked back. Consequently, she was lost forever-frozen in time! The same similar story is found in the Bible. Lot and his wife are spared by God from the fiery destruction of the evil cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. They are told by the angel not to look back at the city as they are leaving. Lot's wife looks back; she is turned into a pillar of salt.
The same is true for us when we don't let go of the past We become frozen in the past like Lot's wife who became a pillar of salt and like Orpheus looking back at his wife sees only a frozen memory. Lifeless. We are dead to life. And like a pillar of salt we become bitter like salt. Bitter over the fact something was taken from us or something didn't last forever. We are no longer moving or changing. Stuck! The only change that is happening is the deterioration of our body and our minds because we lack the vitality of ongoing life. Like a pillar of salt, rigid, with time, we begin to crumble. We cease to be moistened and renewed by the current of life. We like Orpheus are in the underworld visiting the frozen images of yesterday. We see people doing the same thing to us as in the past, the same failures, the same relationships with different names, the same attitude and outlook, the same insecurity, the same outcomes- we always keep winding up in the same spot. Stuck in time! We ARE in the same spot! We are a tombstone. Petrified like a pillar marking some past event or past person we won't let go of. A lost marriage, unrequited love, tragic events, a dead companion, past hurts, past regrets, past cherished moments, our childhood. Whatever we want to go back to. We avoid the pain of letting go and the price we pay for that is death! We cut ourselves off from the flow of LIFE. Our thinking and actions becomes become old and rigid. We are dead to Life.
It is ironic that those who live in the past age quickly and are prone to alcoholism and addictions. While those who change and live in the present stay younger, happier and are not addicted. Mother Theresa once said, "Being in the Present is to be with God."

Get Back to the Present: Since Life is a series of deaths starting with the loss of childhood into adolescence. By letting go, we can be reborn into new and greater things. In other words grow or "grow up". By being constantly reborn we enlarge our capacity to experience greater capacities of blessings and opportunities. When we get stuck to someone or something that we need to let go of, we stop in the flow of life. Prosperity and Health cease. Medical science has proven that brooding over the past can bring rapid old age, arthritis, failing vision, heart trouble, high blood pressure, depression and death. With God's help we have to constantly let go of people, memories, ideas, yesterday. We must be in the present to experience Life. We have to renew ourselves daily to attract the blessings in life. We must save our energy from depression caused by being stuck. Youth is only an eternity in the present. In the present we attract prosperity, health and joy! Good things occur regularly. We move ahead in the flow of Life. We are ALIVE!