Is everything going to be all right?

How does quiet overcome noise?
How does soft overcome hard?
How does yielding overcome force?
How does rest overcome effort?

Two steps forward and two steps back. We have gone no where.

Balance is always there, behind the scenes, working to rectify the extremes.

In Unitarian Universalism we know about the interdependent web of existence.
In Unitarian Univeralism we engage in the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
In Unitarian Univeralism we acknowledge the inherent worth and dignity of each person.

What more could one want?
What more could be done?

UUs rise above the machinations of the ego recognizing that Tao is the Ground Of Our Being and everything is all right in spite of our fears.

Can we keep our balance in a turbulent world?

When life gives you white water, get a surf board.

Turbulent times are best navigated with balance.

Exert too much or too little and you lose your balance.

Rome wasn't built in a day. There are a lot of ways to skin a cat.

In spite of what you have been taught, Life is not mechanical, it is organic.

Retreat from the extremes and find the center. It is in the center that balance is found.

If you would find peace, harmony, bliss, it will be in the Ground of Being not in the ten thousand things.

Unitarian Universalists know about the center because they covenant together to affirm and promote the interdependent web of all existence of which they just a tiny part.

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of all persons, and in this awareness they find refuge.

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion and with this principle they evolve to the heavens where Oneness abides beyond the ten thousand things.

What will it take to end the mass shootings?

Stephen King's first chapter in his little book, Guns, is entitled "The Shake." He outlines the 22 predictable steps we go through in America when there has been a mass shooting. It is so predictable that the violence has become banal.

Mass shootings are great for the NRA and the gun stores because gun sales will go up, and its great for the cable news networks because viewership goes up, and its great for people who like drama because the news and views are very emotionally arousing until one just becomes calloused and is no longer moved because it is so familiar.

The current mass shooting in Pittsburg at the synogogue on 10/27/18 should come as no surprise, and the perpetrator, a 46 year old white male, whose existential pain has been channeled toward a convenient scapegoat, comes from central casting. Robert Bowers, 46,  killed 11 people, 8 men and 3 women all over 54 and most in their 70s, 80s, and 90s.

There will be much kvetching over this incident, but, as Stephen King points out in his book Guns, nothing will be done by government officials who take their instructions from the NRA and the voters who elect them to office.

Three things will change this common scenario in American society: a change in norms and values, a decrease in access to guns, and better laws and regulations governing the possession and handling of firearms among the public. The later two conditions will not be met without a significant change in the first.

It is in changing the norms and attidudes of our society and communities that Unitarian Univeralists come in. We can be the yeast in the dough. With what norm and attitude do we start? Perhaps it is best if we start with the first - the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This means we must fight the racism, the xenophobia, the mysogony of Trumpism.

Unitarian Univeralistis believe in the value of diversity and inclusion. Have you shared this idea with your family and neighbors? If we can open our hearts in love, perhaps this will be an example for the world.

Until we change the norms and attitudes in our society there will be more Robert Bowers and more Cesar Sayocs.

Does the love of the Divine abide in you?

The key to the good life we are told by Aristotle and Buddha is balance. Aristotle called it the "golden mean."

Jesus tells us we worry to much. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:26-34:

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

And the Tao Te Ching tells us in Chapter nine:
Better stop short than fill the rim.
Oversharpen the blade, and the edge will soon blunt.
Amass a store of gold and jade, and no one can protect it.
Claim wealth and titles, and disaster will follow.
Retire when the work is done.
This is the way to heaven.

Our Universalist faith tells us that God, Creation, loves us unconditionally and we have nothing to worry about when it comes to our spirit, our soul. Our Unitarian Univeralist covenant's first principle is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Our UU faith tells us that attachments to material things, psychological things, social things don't matter because each one of us is okay just the way we are. Our inherent worth and dignity is what matters not the external artifacts.

Unitarian Univeralists who are engaged in their faith and incorporate it into their daily lives live a life of peace and joy and contentment because the Love of the Divine abides.

Is the first principle of UU biblical?

When you consider that both Unitarianism and Universalism were conceived in Christianity, you might wonder whatever happened to the Bible in Unitarian Universalism?

Christianity and the bible along with it, unfortunately, has become marginalized and in some UU congregations, disappeared. It's a shame and a mistake. Western Civilization, like it or not, believe it or not, is based on biblical understandings and teachings.

The bible has been sorely abused and misused by some so called Christian denominations and churches and it has been beautifully used and uplifted in others. Bible teachings are a part of our secular life in Western Civilization and have been used to advantage in human justice improvements such as by Martin Luther King, Jr. in the campaign for civil rights for African Americans.

Uses of the Christian bible in UU sermons often add an element of inspiration, uplift, and recognition in the congregation.

Would not bible study be an invigorating activity in UU churches?

What does the bible teach that is foundational to UU principles?

The bible teaches us in Genesis 1:26:

"God created humankind in God's image. In the image of God did God create human beings: male and female God created them.

and in Genesis 30 it is written "And God looked over everything that God had made, and it was good, so very good!"

The first principle of Unitarian Universalism is that we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Where do UUs think that inherent worth and dignity comes from?

Human worth and dignity comes from its origin, from its source. UUs say it is "inherent." It just is. It is based on creation itself.

Unfortunately, our egos have separated us from creation. Some UUs think they are the authors of their own existence, but this is just silly. On the path of the spirit we come to realize that we are held lovingly in the hands of creation. It says so in the bible.

What are you?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This presumes that UUs understand what a person is.

You are not a body. The body changes over your life span. How could you be it? Look at your baby pictures; you are no longer a baby.

If we are not our body, what are we?

We are not a body with a spirit, we are a spirit with a body.

Same is true of other people. They are not bodies either. They are spirits within bodies.

Watch what one body does to another in war, in bullying, in physical abuse and assault. What is going on?

Bodies come in different colors, different shapes, different weights and heights. Some we judge to be beautiful, some mediocre, and some ugly.

Some bodies kill other bodies. In the U.S.A. black and brown bodies are assaulted, attacked, and killed by white bodies.

President Trump says that because he is a celebrity he can kiss, fondle, and grope bodies as he prefers. He says, "They let me do it." This has become our national standard. If you are rich and powerful your body can do what it wants to obtain pleasure.

However, the spirit becomes sad and is dispirited. The energy is very low and leaden. The spirit becomes demoralized when people are treated as bodies and not as spirits.

We recognize that something is wrong. Our minds have been lead down a mistaken path. We have become wrong minded instead of right minded. We have been robbed of our peace and joy. In this recognition it dawns on us that there is a better way and we begin our search for the better way to live our lives and engage with others who are called to a similar search. We come to understand that the person's inherent worth and dignity comes from the spirit not from the body.

Separation from Life leads to hell.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent dignity of every person. The inherent worth and dignity does not come from separating ourselves from the Divine. Our inherent worth and dignity comes from the recognition, acknowledgment, and celebration of that of which we are a part that is bigger than our tiny little egos.

Separate egos do not have inherent dignity and worth. Just the opposite. Separate egos lead to a descent into hell in which we suffer and writhe in anguish.

Osho says, "Either I can exist or God can exist; we cannot both exist together - because if I exist, then I am a separate entity. Then I have my own existence independent of God. But God simply means the total, the whole. How can I be independent of it? How can I be separate from it? If I exist, I destroy the very idea of totality." p. 182 "Ah, This!"

And how the ego wants us to be separate. It is this desire which is the original sin. We stupid humans want to be the author of our own existence. This is ridiculous. People, with their egos, are just ridiculous, Ridiculousness reigns supreme on the earth plane and creates the hell for us which we suffer in.

Surrendering our egos is so scary that most of us avoid even thinking about it. It seems like a crazy idea unless we obliterate our consciousnesses with drugs or other mood altering, mind bending activities like compulsive gambling, pornography, workaholism, compulsive overeating, extreme sports, internet addictions, etc.

Our egos set up a false dichotomy of me against Him. "I don't believe in God" we say because like children we don't like anyone being the boss of me.

But "God" is not a person. God is an energy. Luke Skywalker had it right when he called it The Force. Osho teaches that God is a quality; godliness he calls it.

Neale Donald Walsch teaches that if you don't like the word "God" use the word, "Life." "Life" works just as well. Try it.

Who can deny that they are part of life? Life is what we are in, not hell at all. Hell we create all on own by separating ourselves from Life.

"What am I?"

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent dignity and worth of every person. But suppose personhood is an illusion. It doesn't really exist?

The basic question we struggle with throughout  our lives is "Who am I?" or perhaps, "What am I?" These are questions of the ego, and the ego suggests plenty of answers and modern day psychology and self help books egg the ego on and add fuel to the fire.

On the path of the spirit we become aware that we are not anybody. We are a part of the whole. Osho says, "Knowledge is beating round the bush: knowing is a direct penetration. But the moment you directly penetrate into existence, you disappear as a separate entity. You are no more. When the knower is no more then the knowing is. And the knowing is not about something - you are the knowing yourself." p.30 "Ah, This!"

A little further Osho says, "Lao Tzu says: 'Tao, once described, is not more the real Tao.' The moment you say something about it you have already falsified it, you have betrayed it. It is such an intimate knowing, incommunicable." p. 31 "Ah, This!"

"When all faces have been rejected and emptiness is left, you have found the original face. Emptiness is the original face. Zero is the ultimate experience. Nothingness - or more accurately no-thingness- is your original face." p. 31 "Ah, This!"

The best answer to the questions, "Who am I?" and "What am I?" is a drop in the ocean. Actually not even a drop. You are the ocean along with everyone else.

Are you a caterpillar living into a butterfly?

Unitarian Universalists have seven principles which they covenant together to affirm and promote. The first principle is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This first principles involves the recognition and acknowledgement of piece of the Divine within every human being.

The third principle is the acceptance and encouragement to spiritual growth of one another.

The fourth principle is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

It seems apparent that the engagement with the third principle requires some success with the fourth. A person can't give what the person doesn't have. Encouragement presumes that the person doing the encouraging has some experience with what they are encouraging.

In the Unitarian Universalist church there are plenty of caterpillars. Are there any butterflies? If there are butterflies among us are they encouraging us caterpillars to be patient and continue to eat and digest our leaves because butterflydoom is going to come if we are patient and persistent.

Is the caterpillar aware that it is going to become a butterfly? Are you aware that you can become a buddha?

Some people have this awareness that within them is a piece of the Divine. Others have no idea. Nobody has ever told them to look within. If the person did look within and was confused, perplexed, bored, frightened, they stopped. They didn't stick with it. To pursue the truth of the Divine within takes courage, persistence, and faith.

It helps to have someone further along the path of the spirit to encourage others to come along. Most people will not listen because they don't believe the encourager has anything of value to impart. Jesus says in Matthew 13:4-9:

4 As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. 

5 Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, 

6 so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. 

7 Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. 

8 Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. 

9 "Are you listening to this? Really listening?" 

Nah, they weren't really listening. Jesus sounds kind of frustrated. As Kurt Vonnegut was fond of saying, "And so it goes...."

Maybe, you, reader, are listening. So try it. Look within and stick with it. Do it for 5 minutes for two weeks and see what happens. Nothing? Quit. Something? Stick with it. You, too, can become a butterfly.

Becoming human

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent dignity and worth of every person. The mystics tell us that most people are sleep walking through life based on their instincts and conditioning. In this sleep walking, there is little dignity and worth for they have not yet realized their potential.

The hallmark of worth and dignity is freedom. Freedom is an inside job not just the eradication of external constraints. True freedom is making choices about our experience. This freedom requires self knowledge and awareness, something most people haven't achieved. If UUs are serious about their first covenantal principle, they would provide more assistance in facilitating the nurturing and cultivating of an interior spiritual life. It is this interior spiritual life which makes us truly human and manifests our true worth and dignity.

The thoughts we have bring either peace or war; either love or fear. Which do you want? Can you tell the difference?

It is taught in A Course In Miracles, in the workbook in lesson 16, that "I have no neutral thoughts." We either walk on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit. Upon the dawning, we must decide which path we want to proceed on. One path takes us to war and fear, and the other to peace and love.

The tolerance for pain in human beings is very high and sometimes, it's not until they hit bottom, that they realize there is a better way. They realize that their thoughts are not an external factor over which they have no control. They come to realize that they can control their thoughts and this control means they have a choice.

This choice over one's thoughts is the beginning of freedom, the beginning of liberation. It is the first step away from being merely an animal to becoming human.

The dawning - "I need help."

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Notice that the principle reads, "inherent" and not "apparent" or "ostensible" or "assumed." The worth and dignity of every person is qualified.

I was talking with a 12 year old 7th grader yesterday who is having trouble in school with his grades and his teachers as well as with his fellow students. His biggest complaint was, what he called, "ridiculous people." I agreed with him that most people are, indeed, "ridiculous." We both laughed about this observation and then I said, "Given that most people are 'ridiculous', how do you think you can best manage this fact in your life?" This began a very interesting discussion based on the presumption that superficially most people are "ridiculous" and yet, deeper down, they all have inherent worth and dignity. How do you get past the "ridiculousness" to something more precious?

We think in images we call thoughts. We make these up. Our thoughts are not real.

The bumper sticker says, "Perception is reality." Most people seem to believe that what they think is real, and they "see" it when they look. They are not "seeing" they are projecting and displacing. What they think they are seeing is an "illusion."

And so when we think things, and see things, we need to remind ourselves that what we are thinking and seeing isn't real but rather perceptions and experiences we have made.

Off we go, "half cocked" as they say, "making shit up" to fit our preconceived notions and preferences.

My favorite bumper sticker says, "Reality is when it happens to you."

Dr. Freud called the checking of our beliefs and perceptions with our experience, "reality testing." We come to learn that life is not the way we thought it was and is, at the bottom, quite different.

We come to the point where we realize that "there must be a better way." As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve step programs with step one, "We have come to realize that our lives are unmanageable."

And so the moral of the story is "Don't believe everything you think."

How to create heaven on earth

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UUs also covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. These two principles raise interesting questions of deep down what do we mean by the word "person" and where does one find this thing we are attempting to describe? The search for the person is not without but within. If one goes within what will one find?

It is a well established scientific fact that we project our thoughts, beliefs, past experiences, and emotional reactions onto current objects. We don't see what actually is there but what we think we perceive. As the slogan says, "Perception is reality." In this sense, we create our own reality.

If you believe you are a good person living in a good world, good things will happen to you. If on the other hand, you believe you are a bad person living in a malevolent world then bad things will happen to you.

This principle of projection is a fundamental law of the ego. This law is below the level of consciousness for most people. They do not realize that the "reality" they are creating, continually, isn't real.

On the one hand, projection is a product of our experience. The bumper sticker says, "Good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgement." However, we have the ability to be mindful. We have the ability, stronger in some than in others, to examine and reflect on our experience, and manage it. Rather than being reactive we become responsive.

Spiritual teachers tell us that living the good life entails meditation or some call it now days, mindfulness. I call it the "witness." To what extent does a person have the capacity, the skill, to just observe his/her own functioning?

This power of observation of one's own functioning is the key ingredient in the spiritual life which brings one to peace and joy and heaven on earth.

Surrendering to a Higher Power is based on heart felt faith

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. From where does this worth and dignity arise, and where does an awareness of this worth and dignity take us?

In Alcoholics Anonymous and other Twelve Step Programs they say, "Let go and let God." "You do your best and God will do the rest." At times, these slogans get shortened to simply, "Let Go," and "Turn it over."

Sometimes implementing these slogans is called "Surrender." "Surrender" is not giving up or avoiding responsibility. Implementing these slogans is a way of asking for help recognizing that there are powers far greater than ourselves in the Universe.

As a child I was taught that I, and everyone else, has a guardian angel who is looking out for me. In addition, I was instructed to ask the Holy Spirit for guidance. When I have done so, it has always helped as long as I let go of any expectations of particular outcomes. I simply have learned to "turn it over" by "asking for guidance," doing my best, and then surrendering to whatever happened after that. After all, what more can one do?

This way of living brings one great peace and joy. This way of living provides one with self confidence, self worth, and a realistic self esteem because one comes to understand who one is, a child of the Divine, who deserves to be here and is entitled to Love. It is in this awareness and understanding that worth and dignity arise. This is a matter of faith. It is not belief. Belief is of the head, and faith is of the heart.

Turning things over to the Holy Spirit for guidance while one endeavors to do one's best brings happiness and peace beyond human understanding.

A judgmental attitude always gets one into trouble

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, but, like all human beings, they easily slip into judgment forgetting what they covenanted to affirm and promote.

A judgmental attitude always gets one into trouble.

When we make a judgment we become irritated and angry.

Irritation and anger is a symptom of our fear.

We should ask ourselves when we are becoming judgmental, "What am I afraid of."

On the path of the ego, there are numerous things we fear.

On the the path of the spirit, there is nothing to fear because we realize that the things on the path of the ego aren't real. The things on the path of the ego are interpretations and meanings that we have made up.

Is the glass half full or half empty?

Drop the judgment. It is what it is. In this awareness there is great peace and bliss.

Are you sure you have worth and dignity?

A benefit of traveling on the path of the spirit instead of the path of the ego is that one comes to understand who one is. Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, but are often confused about what it is about a person that provides this worth and dignity.

If a person is asked, "What makes you tick?" most people immediately become defensive and begin to stammer. The ego is being attacked. The person questioned is confused, anxious, and maybe even embarrassed that they are having difficulty answering the question.

If you don't know what makes you tick, how can you say with any confidence that you have worth and dignity?

There comes a point on the path of the spirit, what we have been calling "milestones," where the traveler becomes defenselessness. Having come to the truth of who one is, an unconditionally loved creation of God, one realizes that there is nothing to defend, defenses are not only not needed but irrelevant.

Defenses are given up as the person is imbued with peace, security, comfort, and joy. Having become one with God how could defenses have any meaning?

It is written in Matthew 27:11-14

"11 Meanwhile Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”

“You have said so,” Jesus replied.

12 When he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you hear the testimony they are bringing against you?” 14 But Jesus made no reply, not even to a single charge—to the great amazement of the governor."

The simple response to accusations, blaming, attacks is "Whatever." "You have said it, I have no response." "You attack me, but there is nothing to defend. It is of no concern to me."

The person being attacked is no longer walking on the path of the ego. (S)he is traveling on the path of the spirit. (S)he is in this world but no longer of this world.

To whom, to what do you belong?

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person, but what is this "person" which has worth and dignity? The perennial wisdom teaches that this "person" is an illusion, is, in modern terminology, a "social construction."

Have you ever had the faint glimmer of awareness that maybe the ego is not the Self? In A Course In Miracles it is written, "The world you seem to live in is not home to you. And somewhere in your mind you know that this is true." W-182.1:1-2

We have the sense that there has to be more to life. We yearn for that something more. We yearn for Love and to go back home. It is written in ACIM: "Belief that there is another way of perceiving is the loftiest idea of which ego thinking is capable. That is because it contains a hint of recognition that the ego is not the Self." T-4.11.4:10-11

It requires quiet, silence, to remove the blocks and obstacles to our awareness of Love's presence which is our natural inheritance. Looking inward we come to "know" that Existence is of that which we are made and to which we belong. We come to appreciate that our separate self, our separate ego, is not really real. It is a social construction with which we have identified and become attached. The loss of our ego self fills us with fear, even terror. When, in our witness, we gain and regain some perspective, we are reassured when we realize with a laugh that our egos are bull shit, nonsense, illusions, figments of our imaginations, that deep down, we are part of something much more precious. We decide to pack it in and go home. We have had enough. When enough is enough, that's enough. Time to return from whence we came and to acknowledge to whom or to what we belong.

UUs first principle: deeper reflections

In yesterday's post we discussed who the "person" is in UUs first principle that has inherent worth and dignity. The point was made that "the person" is not the body, but rather the spirit. And the inherent worth and dignity of the person's spirit springs from what Emerson called the "Oversoul" or the membership in the cosmic consciousness, in the ground of being which belongs to homo sapiens and all living things.

Once we remember that we are not our body but rather our spirit we have to decide to which, our body or spirit, we will give our allegiance. In most religious traditions this awareness is called "remembering" as in re-member, becoming again consciously aware of our membership in the body of Christ, the cosmic consciousness, the Oneness of Creation.

In A Course In Miracles, this decision to re-member the Oneness from which we have come and to eschew the separation is called "right mindedness." We no longer are insane in thinking that the egoistic world is real and recognize that we have created a world of illusion. It is written in A Course In Miracles: " The exaltation of the body is given up in favor of the spirit, which you love as you could never love the body." T-19.D.5:4

A friend of mine, Peter, said to me one time, "Dave, don't you think there is so much more to life that we just don't understand?"

I said, "Yes, sometimes I have that thought and feeling too. It's like there is a glimmer of something beyond. I reminded of that old Peggy Lee song, 'Is that all there is?'

"Yeah, well," said Peter, "I've decided to pay more attention to that feeling and sense and less to the drama of my every day life. It seems to make me happier. Do you think I'm nuts?"

"Many people would," I said. "But I don't. I get it, and I'm with you."

"Thank you," Peter said. "You're a good friend."

"Likewise, coming back to you," I said. "What about those Bills this year! Doing pretty well aren't they?"

The first principle derives from the spirit not the body

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the first of which is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This inherent worth and dignity springs from their spirit not their body. Bodies come in many shapes, colors, sizes, and abilities. Identification with and defense of the body leads to many spiritual problems such as racism, homophobia, discrimination against people with disabilities and other physical characteristics.

Did you ever notice that people who focus on the body to the exclusion of the spirit wind up becoming disillusioned and miserable? Have you ever noticed the fleeting pleasure that the body provides only to become satiated and then anxious again for another fix for whatever it is craving? Does it seem that nothing is ever good enough and there is a greedy belief that more and more is better? Have you noticed that this chasing after bodily pleasures deprives us from any lasting peace?

There is something perverse and sad about the preoccupation and obsessions and compulsions that drive our physical attempts to soothe our troubled cravings. We have misplaced our focus on the expected source of our desired peace and joy on the body instead of the mind.

It is written in A Course In Miracles:

"The body can bring you neither peace nor turmoil; neither joy nor pain. 5 It is a means, and not an end. 6 It has no purpose of itself, but only what is given to it. 7 The body will seem to be whatever is the means for reaching the goal that you assign to it. 8 Only the mind can set a purpose, and only the mind can see the means for its accomplishment, and justify its use. " T-18.B.i.10:4-10

The tendency to objectify the body and submit to lust rather than take interest in and appreciate the spirit is a mistake. This mistake, while momentarily can give us pleasure, robs us of longer term joy and well being. The mature person who has achieved a degree of wisdom knows this.

Principle 4 leads to principle 1

Seeking truth and meaning leads one to the awareness of the inherent worth and dignity of every person. How long will it take for human beings to learn this lesson?

"...you are not free to choose the curriculum, or even the form in which you learn it. You are free, however, to decide when you want to learn it. And as you accept it, it is already learned." A Course in Miracles, Manual For Teachers, 2.3:6-8

As a psychotherapist, and in examining my own life, I observe that people do the same damn things over and over again until they learn it's not working and try a different, hopefully, a better way.

Gurdjieff said the difference between winners and losers is not that they both don't suffer. Winners and losers suffer the same. The difference is that winners learn from their suffering and losers don't learn a damn thing. In other words we don't get to chose the curriculum of life only when we want to learn from it.

Socrates said an unexamined life is not worth living. How many people do you know who live examined lives? I am blessed to know some. I live one.

Carl told me that he was sitting at a stop light and noticed the other drivers sitting in cars around him. It dawned on him that they all had stories he knew nothing about. It seemed overwhelming to him for a moment and he asked me if I thought he was going crazy? On the contrary, I responded, it seemed like he was maturing. "You are breaking out of your narcissistic bubble and becoming empathic."

"You mean it's a good thing," he asked skeptically.

"Absolutely," I replied. "Your wondering and caring about your fellow human beings is an important step onto your spiritual path."

Carl seemed content and went on to talk about other things.

In A Course In Miracles this looking on our brother with love and seeing him as part of the whole of which we are also a part is what ACIM calls faith, It is written in ACIM, "To have faith is to heal. It is the sign that you have accepted the Atonement for yourself, and would therefore share it." T-19.I.9:1-2

UUs are here to share their awareness of the goodness of humanity. This faith is counter cultural. We are one of the lights in the darkness.

Radical understanding of the UU first principle

A radical understanding of the UU first principle, the inherent worth and dignity of every person, is to know the worst about someone and love them anyway.

As a professional Social Worker I was taught to take the client where they're at. Further, one of the primary values of the profession is to approach and accept the client with a nonjudgmental attitude. Carl Rogers, the famous psychologist who pioneered client centered therapy, taught that one of the therapeutic ingredients in a therapeutic relationship is unconditional positive regard. In my professional life of 49 years I still work on this. It is much easier in my professional life than in my personal life because professional relationships are short lived and developed for a therapeutic purpose. In my personal life, relationships have a history and a future and I have a personal investment and stake. However, it is suggested in A Course In Miracles that I apply the same approach, attitude, and focus on my personal relationships that I do on my professional ones. I should approach all my relationships with a nonjudgmental attitude and unconditional positive regard.

Lesson 181 in A Course In Miracles reads "I trust my brothers, who are one with me." It reads further, "We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now." " For the past is gone; the future but imagined."

It takes a spiritually mature person to rise above the drama of people's past lives (which we sometimes call baggage) and to set aside imagined future threats based on fears of hurt, and just be present in the moment focused on the divine spark which is within each person sometimes buried quite deep but there none the less.

Joe told me he couldn't get over his wife's affair, not only that she had engaged in it, but that she had kept it hidden from him for 10 years. Joe said that he just couldn't get over it, nothing would ever be the same again. She was not the person he thought she was. I pointed out that disillusionment is a powerful emotion and seems to make him angry not only at the fact that she had had the affair, and kept it secret (lied to him) all these years, but that he felt himself a fool for not knowing. I wondered with him if the most upsetting thing to him was his pride not what she had done.

We think we know and have a need to be right. To find out we are wrong is very difficult to recognize, admit, and incorporate into our sense of self without losing confidence, self esteem, and self worth. What is this pride that we feel we have lost for having been wrong and been a fool? It is a sense of shame which stems from feelings of inadequacy and defectiveness about who we are afraid we really are. Yet spiritually, we are children of God, loved and perfect in every way. Our fears stem from the drama on the ego plane not based on spiritual reality.

I suggested to Joe gently that he needed to get over himself and quit playing the victim. His wife's affair probably had nothing to do with him. Why is he taking this personally? Why is he making this all about himself? This occurred in the past and he seems afraid she could hurt him again in the future so he doesn't trust her even though this was a one night stand 10 years ago. Joe's feelings of disillusionment seem appropriate and I suggested he doesn't really know the person he is married to but he is now getting to know her better, for real,  and he must decide how he wants manage his emotions and thoughts about the relationship. I am reminded again of the ACIM lesson, "I trust my brothers, who are one with me." "We seek for innocence and nothing else. We seek for it with no concern but now." This is a very difficult lesson similar to Jesus' injunction to love our enemies.

At the end of the day, when we are dying, will all the mistakes we have made and others have made really make any difference? In the Christian prayer, the "Our Father," we pray, "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us."

Amen. And so it goes............