Tuesday, August 29, 2017

What would Love have me do? Unitarian Universalist fourth principle

Dear George:

On the phone yesterday as you told me about your break-up with Judy, you cried and said you didn't know what to do. I said, "Yes, you do. What do you think?" And you told me, and it became apparent that you knew the answer all along. You were just too upset to recognize it.

We often know deep down what is in our best interests and others. Some people call this "intuitive wisdom" and this intuitive wisdom seems to be more readily available to some people than to others. In other words, some people have learned how to turn within and listen. Others look for external answers and fill their lives with screens, social media, and all kinds of external distractions. This behavior reminds me of the song, "Looking for love in all the wrong places." I will change the word "love" to "wisdom." Looking for wisdom in all the wrong places.

There is a couple of sentences in A Course In Miracles that point to this idea of intuitive wisdom. It is written, "This is a course in how to know yourself. You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you." We all probably will admit that we don't know ourselves very well and very few of us knows what makes us tick. This deep level of self understanding is very rare. If you want to bring a conversation to an abrupt halt ask the person you are talking with, "Tell me, what makes you tick?" The question almost seems impertinent, doesn't it? We teach who we think we are and often our teaching is delusional at best, and harmful at worst. And yet if we deeply listen to the whisperings of the Spirit, we learn who we really are and then we begin to teach that and our lives and those of others improve.

I have shared with you before, George, my interest in Unitarian Universalism and the fourth princple of UU is to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search, if we are serious about it, will take us inward not outward, we will search the internal not the external. And so, you knew, all along what you needed to do about your relationship with Judy, and you said to me, "Give her, her space." We agreed that giving her her space seemed to be the loving thing.

The test, George, of your decision about what to do about your relationship with Judy is whether it brings you peace and joy in the end. Breaking up is hard to do as Neil Sedaka sang, and yet possessivness, control, domination, guilt induction, retribution, are not the answer even though the ego often wants us to engage in these tactics. The answer to most of our problems is "What would Love have me do?"

Peace be unto you,

Uncle David


7 comments:

  1. I have come to look forward to Uncle David's letters. They all are good, but this one is great! I recently went through a break-up and I finally came to the same awareness that George came to. This awareness brought me relief and peace.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a great use of the fourth principle. I think most people think of the fourth principle in the scientific and theological domains and not so much in the spiritual. I really appreciate your insight here. The transcendentalists might have acknowledged the importance of intuitive wisdom but I have never heard a good sermon preached on this idea.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My heart goes out to Judy and George. I wish them well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I got thinking about this teaching of intuitive wisdom in the days of Trumpism and it seems so astonishing to me how the ego prevents people from listening to the wisdom of the Spirit of Love. I am reading Matthew today and he quotes Jesus as saying, "Whoever therefore who breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 I am left wondering what President of Trump is teaching and what is it that he is learning about his own being? It must be hell.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Stephen Gaskin said that the only thing we have to offer another human being is our own state of being. What kind of condition is your condition in? I try everyday to do at least one nice thing for somebody else, and the next day I try to do two things and as I have worked on this I find that I am learning more about myself that I really like. If you would be happy, teach what you want to learn. We are teaching all the time by the way we live our lives and interact with others, so be the kind of person that you wish others would be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. From the Desiderata

    Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
    and remember what peace there may be in silence.

    May it be so as the UU preachers like to say.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It is a great comfort and inspiration to read that George is learning to listen to what is called here "Intuitive wisdom." This term, of course, goes by many other names whether it be the Holy Spirit, the muse, the Spirit of Life, the good vibes of the universe. Many of us waste a lot of our lives and make many mistakes because we don't learn to listen to our heart, the heartbeat of higher consciousness. Would that we were to learn to listen at a young age to discern God's will for us, it would save so much pain and suffering.

    ReplyDelete

Print Friendly and PDF