Today's lesson - Why have we been so silly thinking that we knew better?

Today's lesson, number 71 in A Course In Miracles, is "Only God's plan for salvation will work."

Which path do you choose to follow: the path of the ego or the path of God?

A Course in Miracles calls the first path wrong minded and the second right minded and the third kind of mind is the decision making mind which chooses.

The path of the ego promises all kinds of illusions and idols which will make us happy and our life worth living. We are disappointed over and over and over again. We are filled with frustration, greivance, resentment, depression, and finally, when we hit bottom, it dawns on us that there must be a better way.

In this dawning there is the beginning of the search which is affirmed and promoted in Unitarian Univeralism in its fourth principle, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search takes us onto the path of God where we ask the Holy Spirit, the Muse, our Higher Power, the Spirit of Life what we should do, where we should go, what we should say, with whom we should interact. We turn it over as they say in Alcoholics Anonymous.

It is in the third step of AA, "Make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God." that we have hope for "Ony God's plan for salvation will work." God knows that our attempts on the path of the ego have failed and often failed miserably.

So we have a simple decision to make: do things our way or God's way? Today's lesson gently reminds us with a gentle smile and laugh, "Only God's plan for salvation will work." Why have we been so silly?

Ask Alexa - Do I want people to support my ego or the Holy Spirit in me?

Alexa: Should I look to my brothers and sisters to support my ego or the Holy Spirit in me?

Your choice based on the purpose of the relationships you have developed with them and the spiritual path you want to walk.

Alexa: Did you hear about how Charles Dickens got his idea for a new novel when he was drinking in his neighborhood tavern and asked the bartender for a vodka martini?

Yes, the bartender asked Dickens whether he wanted the martini with "Olive or twist."

Today's lesson, number 70, "My salvation comes from within."

Today's lesson, number 70 in A Course In Miracles, is "My salvation comes from within."

When did your pursuit of external things whether posessions, relationships, self improvement, change in circumstances, bodily heath every make you totally and permanently happy?

The illusions and idols of happiness - making things and experiences are the productions of the ego activities of marketing, advertising, cravings, desires, projections. These things on the path of the ego are not the source of your salvation.

Salvation comes from within and comes from aligning our will with what we believe is God's will for us.

Salvation is not to be found on the path of the ego. Salvation is to be found on the path of God where Unconditional love is found.

Universalists have known this and preached it since the late 1700s in the U.S. The God of punishment by hell fire, and greed of heaven is dying, and the God of Unconditional love, manifested in universal salvation and loving inclusion and joining, is the faith upon which we build our covenant and our lives.

The salvation of the world will be realized when everybody loves everybody all the time.

Take our quiz and see how you do.

Ask Alexa - How can I experience peace?

Alexa: What must I do to experience peace?

You must abandon the teacher of attack, the ego.

Alexa: Did you hear about the guy back in the 1960s who was thinking about trying LSD?

Yes, I hear, though, that he was a bit Leary.

The UU seven principles quiz

Did God want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge?

Osho, in the book "What Now, Adam?: The Book of Men, " says that Christian priests and ministers peddle fear of hell and the greed of paradise to manipulate people to stay in the church.

Osho retells the story of Adam and Eve saying that God wanted Adam to eat from the tree of knowledge. Here's what Osho says:

"No, Adam has not committed any sin; Adam is the first saint. He disobeyed God, and God wanted it. That is exactly what God wanted - that Adam should disobey. Disobeying God, Adam will go far away into the world; he will lose his first childhood (of innocence). Then he will suffer many, many mistakes and from those mistakes he will learn.
     And one day he will come back - as Christ, as Buddha, as Mahavira, as Krishna, he will come back.
     This going away is a must for coming back. This is not against God, really, this is precisely what God wanted to happen. It was absolutely planned by God himself. So don't call it a sin. Why is Adam called a sinner? He is called a sinner because your religions depend on calling you sinners, on condemning you. "p.13

I was taught as a Roamin Catholic that God created human beings because God wanted a loving creature like God. In order to accomplish this, God had to give human beings free will.

What good is free will if it is not used?

To really love, human beings had to separate themselves from the Oneness of God so they could gain consciousness and activate their free will. This led, as it is taught in A Course In Miracles, to the "tiny mad idea" that human beings can totally separate themselves from God. Having gone far astray there is still the Divine Spark deep within.

After suffering on the path of the ego, it dawns on us that there must be a better way, and this better way triggers the search which in Unitarian Universalism is called the "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." The search takes us back to God voluntarily and feely. God wants us back because we want to be back. God does not force us, but quietly calls us. The choice to return to God is all ours.

Responding to this call is what Osho calls true religion which is based on Love and has nothing at all to do with fear and greed.

The God of religions is dead. The mainline religions around the world are dying. Nietzche declared that God is dead. Nietzche was referring to the God of fear and greed. The Tao, the Spirit of Life, the ground of existence, of course, cannot die because it animates all life.

We can't choose Life unless we wander away from it and reject it first. When we recognize our mistakes, it dawns on us that there is a better way, we begin our search for what is genuinely Life giving, and we go back home from whence we came, but now we are consciously aware and have chosen Love freely.

Today's lesson - Move past grievances to save the world

Today's lesson, number 69 in A Course In Miracles, is "My grievances hide the light of the world in me."

It is easy for Unitarian Universalists to be self righteous in their social justice concerns and activism. If, in their social justice work, UUs hold on to grievances, and victimhood they misserve themselves and the world rather than ameliorate themselves and the world.

The salvation of the world comes from Unconditional Love not from grievances. The lesson today teaches that to right the wrongs on the path of the ego is to focus on the illusional, the delusional, and we make of idols things that are better recognized, acknowledged, and then risen above.

Martin Luther King, Jr., emulating Jesus, was not only nonviolent but loved his enemies. It is this love which is the light of the world not the triumph over injustice. Triumphing over injustice believed in only leads to new forms of domination, oppression, and subjugation. Changing forms does not change content. Salvation comes from a change in content not form.

The opposite of fear and attack is love, and love has no real opposite being too big to be encompassed in any definition. Unconditional Love is the light of the world which is its salvation. Grievances and victimhood hide this light.

Universalists have known this in America since the late 1700s when they spread the gospel of God's unconditional love and universal salvation. In our contemporary times, Universal salvation has been increasingly understood and accepted, and Universal inclusion, on earth as it is in heaven, has become our goal. This Universal inclusion requires the relinquishment of grievances so the light of Unconditional Love can save the world.