Are you misunderstood?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations, but what they fail to explicitly acknowledge is that most things people think, say, and do are ridiculous.

Here is a fact of life - As soon as you say something it will be misunderstood.

People interpret statements according to their own minds. Most people's minds are biased; they are ridiculous.

This fact is not rocket science. It is very apparent. We experience it hundreds of times every day, and yet we continue on oblivious, impervious.

Most people's minds are fast asleep. They are sleep walking through life, conditioned by cognitive and emotional processes they have no awareness of.

Most people live under the illusion that they have free will. This is what the ego has tricked them into believing so that the ego can stay in charge.

Ask yourself or someone else, "What makes you tick?" Most people have no idea. They are not the least bit mindful. The want, and cling, and hide their sense of lack as they strive to attain whatever it is that they think will make them satiated and whole.

This striving is a sad thing to watch. It is a fool's errand based on fear.

Psychologists tell us that the biggest problem with people addicted to social media in our digital age is FOMO - fear of missing out.

No where is the phenomena of misunderstanding greater than on social media.

It has been described as "ridiculous."

It is time to turn off the path of the ego, and ridiculousness, onto the path of the spirit and peace.

This turning takes forgiveness. We can forgive ourselves for our ridiculousness and others and it is this act which makes all the difference.

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.

Beginning the spiritual journey

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This acceptance and encouragement requires the letting go of "bull shit." Have you noticed that there is tons and tons of "bull shit?"

UUs encourage what they call a " a free and responsible search for truth and meaning," but listening to the sermons and listening to the discussions at coffee hour, most appear to be lost and just wandering in the deserts of meaninglessness.

If it is true that what we perceive in the world is the result of our psychological set and projections, then what we think we perceive is meaningless. It is nonsense. It is drama. It is what we angrily and sarcastically call "bull shit."

Is your life full of "bull shit?"

Has the "bull shit" that you think you perceive tired you out, exhausted you, stressed you out? Even good things don't seem to last long or be as good as they are expected to be. Some days our meaningless lives are depressing, boring, upsetting, and, maybe, temporarily elating.

The path of the ego is always counterfeit and enervating. We get to the point where enough is enough and it dawns on us that there must be a better way. This dawning brings us to embarking on a search for what that better way might be, and this is the first step onto the path of the spirit and the beginning of a spiritual life.

How many UUs does it take to save the world?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

You know the old jokes about how many ____________does it take to change a light bulb?

How many psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but the bulb has to want to change. LOL

How many people does it take to save the world?

Only one, but it has to be one who has become one with the all like Jesus or Buddha.

Jesus made it simple. He said, "Love as I have loved."

How did Jesus love?

He joined His will with what He believed to be the will of His Higher Power.

He forgave those who killed Him. He loved everyone even the tax collectors, the adulterers, the prostitutes, the Samaritans.

He helped people wherever He went. He shared His love of Life with whoever would listen and even those who didn't or wouldn't listen.

Same with Buddha. Buddha said He had achieved enlightenment and was free to go to nirvana but He wanted to help His fellow human beings achieve nirvana as well and so He stayed on earth to teach people how to do what He had achieved.

Are there women too who have loved beyond measure? Billions. Their stories have not been preserved and told in a patriarchal society unless one considers Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day and hundreds and thousands of other saints.

You can save the world when you become enlightened. In the meantime work on yourself and one soul at a time.

UUs third principle and the function of the teacher of God

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. A person can't give what (s)he doesn't have.

The assumption in principle three is that UUs are already on the path of the spirit and have left the path of the ego. Observation will demonstrate that some UUs have left the path of the ego for the path of the spirit and some haven't. Jesus said to be aware of wolves in sheep's clothing and "by their fruit you shall know them."

A teacher of God is anyone who is on the path of the spirit and has left the path of the ego. What is the function of a teacher of God?

It is simply to remind people that they have a choice between the path of the ego and the path of the spirit.

Most people don't even know that a choice exists. The path of the ego is all they know because that is what they have been taught. It has been taught to them by parents who don't know either. It is a case of the blind leading the blind.

Usually in crisis, a person will question what they have been taught. In the midst of great disillusionment, it dawns on them that there must be a better way. It is at this moment, that the teacher of God appears, as an enlightened witness, to remind them of what is already theirs but which they have forgotten and not been consciously aware.

The teacher of God demonstrates from his/her own life and with his/her validating encouragement that "yes, there is a better way," and encourages the person to forgive their earlier mistakes in walking the path of the ego and all those who encouraged them to, and turn onto the path of the spirit which involves a surrender of one's will, one's ego to the Divine.

This surrender of one's ego can fill a person with great fear of engulfment and dissolution and it is with reassurance from the teacher of God that the seeker can take the risk.

People avoid the "risk of change." The person wants things to be different, but their fears keep them from initiating the steps to actually begin that change. They think that it may be better to "dance with the devil they know than the devil they don't know," but what they don't realize is that while they have been dancing with the devil on the path of the ego, there is no devil on the path of the spirit only Unconditional Love.

It is the encouragement from the teacher of God that allows the person to take the risk and let go of the path of ego and enter onto the path of the spirit which is within in them all along, but their awareness had been blocked by their worship of idols which had promised to make them happy.

The function of the teacher of God is threefold. First, the teacher of God is a reminder that there is, indeed, a better way. Second, the teacher of God validates the person's desire and wish to pursue it. Thirdly, the teacher of God encourages the person to take the risk of surrendering their attachment to the path of the ego and initiate their search on the path of the spirit for Oneness with the Divine which brings, peace, joy, and bliss.

Open-mindedness, open-heartedness is a milestone in spiritual development

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This accepting and encouraging presumes an open-mindedness which presumes forgiveness.

Unlike other religious traditions, forgiveness is not often discussed in UU circles which may account for its low membership. Without forgiveness, which is a fundamental need of all humans who have walked the path of the ego, the journey on the path of the spirit cannot occur.

Human beings make mistakes. That's how we learn. When mistakes are made, they need to be recognized, acknowledged, corrected, and any harm done, repaired. With this forgiveness, Love's presence emerges into our awareness and with our open heartedness, open mindedness, we are born again.

Another milestone on the path of the spirit is open-mindedness or open-heartedness. We give up judgment. We come to understand and experience that all of God's creations deserve our Love because God created and loves them. This is part of our Universalist heritage.

Open-hearted people walk with Love on the path of the spirit. Open-minded people are in Love with everybody all the time. This takes forgiveness.

We come to understand that anyone who walks on the path of the ego needs our forgiveness "for they know not what they do."

Mistaking the path of the ego as the road to happiness is a sad choice and the traveler on the path of the spirit gently reminds them to chose again. Mistakes are merely mistakes and the growth in consciousness is inevitable as we all proceed to the At-one-ment when everybody loves everybody all the time.

Ultimately, the open-minded, open-hearted milestone is experienced when forgiveness and Love becomes our experience and who we are. We have unlearned the ways of the path of the ego and pursued the walk with Love on the path of the spirit and this turning brings us peace, and bliss, and Oneness with the All.

Generosity is a basic virtue which UUs covenant together to enact.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This principle assumes generosity. Generosity is a virtue, in Buddhism a paramita, and is a behavior admired and yet raises great anxiety when generosity is called for.

On the path of the ego, generosity means to give away and the giver will have less. On the path of the spirit, generosity means to share with others and the giver will have more. It is like singing in a chorus. Does the generous singer have less in sharing his/her song with the group or does (s)he gain something by sharing her song with others? The same gain occurs in telling a joke or engaging in a conversation. We gain by giving.

A woman with nine children was asked how she divided her love between all her children. The woman replied, "You have your math wrong, honey, you don't divide, you multiply."

On the path of the ego, giving implies giving up something and having less. On the path of the spirit, giving implies the opposite, we get what we give and it is only in giving that we fulfill humanity of which we are a part.

Generosity is the sharing of Unconditional Love and is a sign of  advanced spiritual development. It is a basic principle upon which UUs pledge to guide their lives.

A nonjudgmental attitude is a milestone on the walk of Love

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

This acceptance is employed with a nonjudgmental attitude and an unconditional empathic regard for the divine spark in each of our brothers and sisters in the world.

Another milestone on the walk of Love on the path of the spirit is a nonjudgmental attitude.

A nonjudgmental attitude is an unconditional empathic regard.

"To judge is to be dishonest, for to judge is to assume a position you do not have," is written in A Course In Miracles. It is written further, "Judgment without self-deception is impossible." In other words how could you know the heart and mind and soul of another? Most of us don't know our own heart and mind and soul, let alone that of another. At the best we can only guess. Who made us God?

And so the walk of Love is one of nonjudgment. It is not for us say or even to think. The recognition that there is more going on than meets the eye is a hallmark of wisdom and the sign of a more advanced soul on the path of the spirit.

Relationships have a purpose: they are teaching-learning opportunties

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to accept one another and encourage each other's spiritual growth. This acceptance and encouragement depends on the initiation and development of relationships.

The path of the spirit involves relationships at three levels.

First is the momentary. We smile at someone next to us in line at the supermarket cashier and even at the cashier her/himself.

The second type of relationship is more than a moment but temporary, a fellow student in a class, a co-worker, a neighbor, someone we play softball with.

The third type of relationship is life long, a parent, a child, a life long partner in a committed relationship, a friendship which has lasted decades.

All these types of relationships create a teaching-learning dynamic. To understand the teaching-learning dynamic we simply have to ask, "What is the purpose of this relationship?" Is the purpose of the relationship "give to get" or "me or them" or "one or the other," or is it "what's mine is yours," or "both together," or "one for all and all for one?"

To use the terms described in A Course In Miracles, is the relationship a "special relationship" or a "holy relationship?" A "special relationship" manifests a "give to get" dynamic while a "holy relationship" is about joining and sharing.

All relationships are learning opportunities and it is up to us what we will learn. What do we want to learn? Do we want to learn about our specialness or do we want to learn about Love? Do we intend to use this relationship as a means of our journey on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit? Is the relationship about me and you and how we are separate, or about us and how we are the same? Will we continue our journey separate and alone or together and connected?

There are teachers of God among us to help us find our way

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This encouragement requires that all UUs become teachers of God.

There are many ways to remembering the Love of God. And there are many teachers of these ways. They all lead to the same place, the experience of the Oneness of God's creation.

This experience arises when the blocks and obstacles to the awareness of Its presence are removed. What are the signs of this experience? The signs are peace, bliss, and gratitude.

The teachers of God hasten the experience by taking steps to help us remove the blocks and obstacles to the awareness.

The idols of the world that we worship bring a weariness to our souls that fill us with anguish and sometimes suicidal thoughts. We get to the point at which we don't want to go on. It dawns on us that there must be a better way. With this dawning, there is a turning to the search, and when we begin seeking, the teacher of God appears to guide us on better way.

The teacher of God may say a word, perform a kindness, manifest an example that removes a block or obstacle to our awareness of Love's presence. The teacher of God may not know what (s)he's lesson has meant to us and done for us, but a miracle has occurred. A breach between our detour on the path of the ego from the path of the spirit has been repaired and we feel we are back on the right track.

Teachers of God are a blessing in the world. They continue to learn right along with us. Helping us, helps themselves, and their work on themselves, helps us.

We are here, in this world, to learn. What we chose to learn makes the difference. Do we want to study and learn the ways of the ego, or do we want to study and learn the ways of the spirit? Do we want to continue our separation from God, or learn how to return to the Divine? The choice is ours to make and there are teachers of God among us to help.

What are you teaching?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. However, you can't give what you don't have, can't share that which is not yours to begin with.

So, the first thing for Unitarian Universalists to consider is their own state of spiritual well being. Are you walking the path of the ego or the path of the spirit? What is it that you believe about yourself and others fundamentally?

You teach what you believe you are and what you believe others are to you. It is not so much about what you say but how you say it. It is not so much about what you say as what you believe to be true about yourself and others.

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "The self-deceiving must deceive, for they teach deception. And what else is hell?"

When I encounter the self-deceiving I either laugh or cry. What else is there?

Sometimes with a gentle laugh I will say, "You know that thing that you do?" or "You know that thing that always seems to happen to you.?"

For most people, self-deception is unconscious. They are not aware of the habitual patterns of behavior, fueled by false beliefs, reinforced by misperceptions and faulty generalizations that have trapped them into a hell which they think will provide them with happiness.

Along comes a teacher of God who suggests to them that there might be a better way. There is a better way to think, and a better way to behave. With this better way there is a feeling of peace and not just happiness but joy and bliss.

The teacher of God often has no idea what (s)he has said or done to nudge the person onto a better path. The teacher of God has no control over the outcome. The teacher of God just does what (s)he does and turns the consequences over to their Higher Power.

All the teacher of God has done is make a choice to leave the path of the ego and journey on the path of the Spirit. This choice generates forgiveness and in forgiving themselves and others for their previous mistaken choices, gratitude for Love's presence in their lives wells up and exudes a fragrance as beautiful and lovely as one has ever experienced. This experience of God's Love is contagious.

Walking the path of the ego, people teach hell, and walking the path of the spirit people teach heaven. What are you teaching? What do you wish to learn?

As Stephen Gaskin taught, in the last analysis all we have to offer another is our own state of being. What state is your state of being in? What path are you walking?

Teach what you want to learn

The third of seven principles of Unitarian Univeralism asks us to covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This "encouragement" is a form of teaching. We teach all the time by demonstrating through our thoughts, feelings, and behavior what we believe.

Are you a teacher of God or a teacher of the ego?

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less."

Stephen Gaskin said that the only thing we have to share with others is our own state of being.

It also is important to understand that we are teaching all the time and that we learn what we teach. It is written in ACIM "It (the course) also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well." A little further it is written, "Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe."

We must choose what we wish to learn and what we wish to teach. Do we want to teach about the idols on the path of the ego or about the attributes of the Divine on the path of the spirit?

It is simple really. Do we want money, power, fame, sex, social status, approval, drama, or do we want peace, love, and bliss?

Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth is a miracle

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations (and in the world).

When we look deep into the soul of another what do we see? Don't look at their body for the body is but a container for what lies within. And when we look at the contents within the container the outer layers may be moldy and contaminated in some ways but beneath this there is a light, a divine spark like a brilliant diamond twinkling in the darkness. It is this brilliant diamond, this divine spark, like the proverbial needle in a haystack that we seek.

When the divine light within us joins with the divine spark in the other a light manifests which illuminates the world and Love has been found and a peace descends like no other.

These can be rare moments that seem serendipity until we know what we are looking for and seeking. With intention and the request of help from the Holy Spirit these moments can occur more regularly. It is taught in A Course In Miracles that awareness of this Love is our natural inheritance. It is written in principle 6 of the 50 principles of miracles, "Miracles are natural. When they do not occur something has gone wrong."

If we are to experience miracles we must choose the path of the spirit and leave the path of the ego. The path of the ego does not lead to Love. On the path of the ego we believe in "give to get" and "one or the other." These beliefs on the path of the ego take us to hell. On the path of the spirit we believe "what's mine is thine," and "one for all and all for one." The path of the spirit takes us to the peace and bliss of heaven.

Once we become aware that we have a choice about how we can live our lives, we can exercise our power in embarking on the path of the spirit which means we must leave the path of the ego behind. This is a courageous choice empowered by faith because we fear the loss of the conditioning with which we have grown accustomed. Jesus tells us we can be in the world but not off the world and in this awareness the miracle occurs.

Heaven on earth

Unitarian Universalists gently laugh when they say they are not interested in getting people into heaven, but heaven into people. And it is in the third principle of Unitarian Universalism that covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations ( and it should be added, "and in the world.")

It is taught in A Course In Miracles that in our ego mind we have just made our lives up. It is written, "Into eternity, where all is one, there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which the Son Of God remembered not to laugh. In his forgetting did the thought become a serious idea, and possible of both accomplishment and real effects. Together, we can laugh them both a way, and understand that time cannot intrude upon eternity. It is a joke to think that time can come to circumvent eternity, which means there is no time." T-27.VIII.6:2-5 And it is this "tiny mad idea," that is the separation which has caused all the drama, all the problems, all the wars, all the pain and suffering, all the anguish, and grief, and sorrow. In short, it is this "tiny mad idea" that has caused hell on earth.

There is a saying, "Religion is for people afraid of going to hell. Spirituality is for people who have been there." Those of us who have chosen the path of the spirit and have left the path of the ego understand the consequences of the "tiny mad idea" that we are separate from Godliness and separate from our brothers and sisters.

Forgiving our mistake thinking that the path of the ego is real and turning our attention and intention to the Love of Godliness we create for ourselves and others a heaven on earth.

Don't worry. Be happy

Unitarian Universalists would be the happiest people in the world if they took their faith seriously. The Universalists teach us that God loves us unconditionally and yet most of the world and even UUs don't really believe this and live their lives accordingly. If they did, they would be happier and their happiness would exude a fragrance that would be noticeable around their communities and the world.

In the early Christian church, it was said that outsiders would remark about Christians in amazement, "Look how they love another." That kind of love radiates in waves and people should be warmed by it. In most UU churches there is a coolness that is chilling. That coolness comes from UUs not knowing enthusiastically and passionately who they are. They are a tentative and skeptical bunch who will lapse into argument at the drop of a hat so often jokes are made about it. They form committees to study their issues which are deadly. When did love ever come from a committee? Did you ever feel loved by a committee? No?

UUs are haunted by their past and disaffection for the faith, or lack of faith, of their childhoods. They are looking for that something they have been longing for and can't name. They have their baggage they are hopping to jettison and connect with something more satisfying and fulfilling in exploring UU.

The third principle asks UUs to covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual grown, but to fully accept one another we must know who we are and the skepticism and ambivalence of most UUs are such huge barriers and obstacles to the implementation of the third principle that the UUA is shrinking not growing.

Some people live in their past. Even more of a concern, some people are haunted by their past.

For some people their past is hard to get past. Their past holds them down, torments them, and will not let them go.

What's the answer for managing the demons that haunt us?

Forgiveness.

Forgiveness brings us to the present moment, the Holy Instant, the here and now. The Holy Instant is a dropping of all the ego illusions and a surrender, a joining with the Oneness. This is best done with awe and a laugh. It is a realization that every person is better than their worst act(s).

Our fears of future hurts keep us trapped, but if God is with you who can be against you? They can kill your body, your reputation, take your belongings and resources, take your loved ones and the people and things to which you are attached, and in the last analysis, so what? Some day you have to give them up any way. Can't take them with you as they say. You can't live in the past or the future. You can only live in the now. In Alcoholic Anonymous they say, "One day at a time." Sometimes its one hour at a time or one moment at a time.

So as Bobby McFerrin sings, "Don't worry. Be happy."

Don't give up - change your mind

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. The application of this principle is based on a vision of abundance not scarcity. It is based on an intention to share not compete for scarce resources including love and support. The primary action that makes this change in attitude possible from the ego to the spirit is forgiveness. We need to forgive ourselves for our selfish actions and intentions and forgive others. We say to ourselves as Jesus did as they were killing Him, Father forgive them for they know not what they do, and they don't. They have been so conditioned by the path of the ego, they don't know that there is a better way. That's where our Unitarian Universalist faith comes in - to describe and support enactment of a better way.

Remember the saying, "One for all, and all for one?" How about the bumper sticker which reads, "We're all in this thing called life together?"

Our egos want us to see ourselves as separate and having different interests from our brothers and sisters. The ego encourages us to see life as a competition for scarce resources and what our brothers and sisters have means there is less for us. We live in a hell of deprivation and fear.

Why not turn the whole game on its head and see our brothers and sisters not as our adversaries but our allies? How about if we decide that there is enough for everyone and helping each other and sharing is the best way to security mitigating our fears? This is heaven on earth when everybody loves everybody all the time.

All we have to do to enjoy the comforts of heaven is to decide our point of view: do we chose competition and deprivation or cooperation and abundance? The choice is simple.

When we revert to our egoistic thinking and behavior of every dog for himself we need to correct our thinking and behavior and forgive ourselves and others and try again. With patience and persistence we can get it right. Don' give up.

 

To stand on the side of love we must diminish if not eliminate our fears

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. How do we help the people in our society with their fears? How do we act as agents of healing instead of hurt?

There are certain people who can't trust anyone. Everyone is suspect as being a potential for hurt and pain. The attitude is "get them before they get you." If you doubt this observation look at the popularity of guns in the United States. There are more guns in the United States than there are people, more guns than one for every person in the U.S. And it is statically more likely a person will die by a gun if they own a gun than if they don't.

Why the fear? Where does it come from? Fear is generated by the belief that one's fellow citizens are enemies not friends. We have created hell on earth for ourselves and this hell is a major symptom of our spiritual poverty as a nation. In our attempts to manage our fears of the other by arming ourselves we inadvertently wind up damaging ourselves up to an including over 30,000 deaths per year.

Supposing we decided to see people as friends and not enemies? Supposing we decided to help others and not defend ourselves because of our fears of their possible attack? Supposing we decided to heal our nation and no longer hurt ourselves and others because of our defensiveness?

Supposing we asked ourselves how we really wanted to live our lives and worked together to create heaven on earth instead of the hell we have made? Jesus tells Peter to put his sword away and says, "Those who live by the sword will die by the sword." Matt 26:52. The spiritually mature get this and not only have put their guns away but reached out to the people who frighten them in a spirit of radical hospitality. They have decided to live lives of peace, joy, contentment, and healing instead of fear, anguish, stress, and war.

We could not survive alone. We need one another.

Unitarian Universalism can be a godless religion. It welcomes atheists, agnostics, humanists, secularists as long as they agree to covenant to affirm and promote UUs seven principles. All of the seven principles are important and perhaps one of the most interesting and the one least understood is the third principle which is "acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth..." This principle along with the first which is the belief in "the inherent worth and dignity of every person" have no meaning were we not to assume the communal nature of our well being. No person is an island. Homo sapiens could not survive were the members of the species not interdependent on one another for physical, social, emotional, and spiritual development.

The atonement, at-one-ment, is when everybody loves everybody all the time. When you love your brother and sister, their spirit not their body, then Love joins you bringing comfort and peace and joy. These relationships are called "holy", "holy relationships," in A Course In Miracles. ACIM describes "Holy relationships" as God's will. It is stated in ACIM,

"If you attack whom God would heal and hate the one He loves, then you and your creator have a different will. Yet if you are His Will, what you must then believe is that you are not yourself. You can indeed believe this, and you do. And you have faith in this and see much evidence on its behalf. And where, you wonder, does your strange uneasiness, you sense of being disconnected, and your haunting fear of lack of meaning in yourself arise? It is as though you wandered in without a plan of any kind except to wander off, for only that seems certain." T-22.1.1:2-7

One of the slogans in AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, is "You are as sick as your secrets." Our biggest secret, which often is unconscious, is that we care nothing for God's will and just want to be left alone to do our own thing. Even worse, we try to hid from people, and God, what we are doing and what our intentions are because we are ashamed of the secrets we keep and what they will think of us, and do, should they find out. Because of the secrets we keep, we see our brothers and sisters as a threat to our safety and so we lie to them, manipulate them, attack them, and say we hate them. We hate them because of our fears of being found out. This fear of being found out robs us of our peace and joy.

Honesty is the best policy. We should strive for authenticity, genuineness, and sincerity. This striving is manifested in our discerning and attempting to do God's will for us. In the great Christian prayer, the "Our Father," we pray "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." When we bring our will into alignment with what believe is God's will for us we experience great peace and joy, and this peace and joy we want to extend to our brothers and sisters. We can say sincerely and with deep genuineness, "Pax vobiscum."

This desire and ability to extend the joy and peace we have achieved through aligning our wills with what we believe is God's will for us is an important indicator of advanced spiritual development.

Love is giving what we want to share - acceptance and encouragement

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This as good a definition of love as has ever been made. True love is acceptance and encouragement because the lover wants to share what the lover has already developed and achieved. The law of Karma teaches that we get what we give, we amplify what is in our own hearts.

Most people are not aware that there are two kinds of love: conditional and unconditional. The foregoing statement is not correct because in reality there is only one kind of love and that is unconditional. Conditional love is counterfeit, fraudulent, and even if called "love" by many is not love at all but a business relationship based on the principle of "give to get."

Unconditional love is a rare and beautiful thing when a person, already complete, satisfied, and fulfilled within him/herself loves just because (s)he wants to extend what they have.

Ben was asked by his friend, Jacob, if he would get married again. Ben replied that he would if he could meet someone who was happy with herself. And then Ben said, "Are there any?" Jacob laughed and said, "They are a rare creature. You are serving up a tall order."

Ben said, "Well, like Diogenes looking for an honest person, I am roaming the world looking for a woman who is happy with herself."

"How about you," asked Jacob? "Are you a happy man? Can you love someone unconditionally without expecting anything in return?"

"I aspire to that," said Ben. "Like everyone I know, I have my baggage, my fears, my frustrations, my depressions, but I am getting there. I have learned that you get what you give, you enhance what you extend, you learn what you teach."

Jacob, with a smile, said "Dominus vobiscum."

Ben laughed and replied as he did in his altar boy days, "Et cum spiritu tuo."

Our most important choice is acknowledgement of Oneness or persistence in our separation

Unitarian Univeralists acknowledge in their seven principles that people need one another when they covenant together to affirm and promote their third principle which is the acceptance of another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

At a deep level people have a choice between the drama of the ego world or the peace and joy of Oneness with creation. Hopefully, people come to a point where they are aware of this choice because often they are unaware and feel trapped in vicious cycles and assume the role of victim of circumstances they perceive as beyond their control. While people cannot always control the circumstances which they perceive, they can, with awareness and intention, control their response and management of those circumstances. When people become aware that they have a choice, the further question, then, is what will they choose?

When people become aware of their errors and mistakes, these errors and mistakes call for correction and repair. This correction and repair cannot be done in isolation and on one's own but requires joining with others. This joining usually requires a request for help. It is not only okay to ask for help, it is necessary for in the requesting and obtaining help two and more become joined in improving their mutual welfare and in doing so the ripple effect blesses the whole world in ways beyond our comprehension.

The person and his/her brother/sister are joined together in the work of salvation which is a theological term meaning liberation from the bonds of error and mistakes to a place of peace and joy and well being.

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "You are your brother's savior. He is yours." T-21.VI.9:1-2

There is a powerful paragraph in ACIM which states, "God is not mocked; no more His Son can be imprisoned save by his own desire. And it is by his own desire that he is freed. Such is his strength, and not his weakness. He is at his own mercy. And where he chooses to be merciful, there is he free. But where he chooses to condemn instead, there is he held a prisoner, waiting in chains his pardon on himself to set him free." T-21.VI.11:5-10

And so another sign of spiritual maturity is the awareness that one has a choice and God is not mocked meaning that God's love for us is constant, universal, and our natural inheritance and what is required of us is simply the choice of acknowledgement instead of denial.