Showing posts with label Spiritual practices for UUs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual practices for UUs. Show all posts

Monday, May 24, 2021

Spiritual practice for UUs - Letter writing


 Topic Four

The spiritual practice of letter writing

 

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. In the time of the Covid-19 this has been more difficult than ever because of the social distance required for public health reasons and the lack, therefore, of face to face church services. 

 

A spiritual practice which can help overcome this distancing and the consequent lack of social connection and support is the UU A Way Of Life pen pal program. Or, if not an organized pen pal program , picking up a pen and paper and writing someone a letter, a note, or a postcard to let them know you are thinking of them. 

 

There are many spiritual topics that can be written about. One of my favorites is gratitude. What are you grateful for? Another is admiration. What do you admire. Another is peace and comfort. What gives you comfort? Another is beauty. What have you found beautiful recently? Another is joy. What has given you joy in the last week? There are many other topics which you can identify and write about on your own.

 

It is taught in A Course In Miracles that we learn what we teach, we receive what we give. Writing down your thoughts and feelings and intentions and sharing them with another enhances our own spiritual life and hopefully the recipient. A morphogenic field is created with the joining and sharing which radiates from the center of your effort out into the interdependent web of all existence of which you are a creative part.


Friday, May 14, 2021

Spiritual practice - Explore outside your comfort zone.




 Topic four
Spiritual practices of UUs

 

For thousands of years, in almost all parts of the globe, human beings have engaged in practices to transform and balance their lives. From the magical rituals of ancient shamans, to the contemplative science of the mystical traditions, to the latest scientific breakthroughs in health, nutrition, and physical exercise—we have always sought a way to connect with deeper truths, to achieve well-being and harmony, and to realize our highest potentials. 

 

Now, in the information age, this incredible wealth of knowledge, teachings, and techniques—our evolutionary human legacy—is available to us like never before. The question is, how can we best use it? How can we put it all together? How can we make sense of the myriad approaches, from such diverse places and times, in a way that’s relevant to our individual and collective lives?

 

Wilber, Ken; Patten, Terry; Leonard, Adam; Morelli, Marco. Integral Life Practice (p. 1). Shambhala. Kindle Edition. 

 

We are exploring the various spiritual practices that are used to facilitate the spiritual development of Unitarian Universalists. We are attempting to use the seven principles and the six sources to guide our exploration. Are there spiritual practices uniquely relevant to people who identify as Unitarian Universalist?

 

Using the model of levels of consciousness: egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, and integral Unitarian Universalism is clearly a second tier religion based on worldcentric and integral levels of consciousness as compared to first tier religions which are based on egocentric and ethnocentric levels of consciousness.

 

All levels of consciousness are necessary for complete spiritual development and ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny meaning that individuals grow through all the stages of consciousness just as societies can evolve through all levels of consciousness.

 

Reflecting on UU principles, they all pertain to a worldcentric view. The first principle for example states that UUs affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person not just some people. This is a very unusual position to take in this day of identity politics and a resurgence of nationalism. The practice accompanying this principle is the adoption of curiosity about people different from oneself and one’s group. The unique practice of UUs is inclusion and not exclusion.

 

Have you explored today people different from yourself with an attitude of curiosity which leads to greater understanding of differences and similarities? You will know you are growing when you stretch outside your comfort zone.


Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Spiritual practice - Should I have spiritual practices?




Should I have spiritual practices?

 

For thousands of years, in almost all parts of the globe, human beings have engaged in practices to transform and balance their lives. From the magical rituals of ancient shamans, to the contemplative science of the mystical traditions, to the latest scientific breakthroughs in health, nutrition, and physical exercise—we have always sought a way to connect with deeper truths, to achieve well-being and harmony, and to realize our highest potentials. 

 

Now, in the information age, this incredible wealth of knowledge, teachings, and techniques—our evolutionary human legacy—is available to us like never before. The question is, how can we best use it? How can we put it all together? How can we make sense of the myriad approaches, from such diverse places and times, in a way that’s relevant to our individual and collective lives?

 

Wilber, Ken; Patten, Terry; Leonard, Adam; Morelli, Marco. Integral Life Practice (p. 1). Shambhala. Kindle Edition. 

 

As the old saying goes, “If you don’t know where you’re going any road will take you there.” Another saying is, “Change is inevitable, progress is optional.”

 

And what is “progress” in terms of our aging? The best answer I have found is a higher level of consciousness. Steven Gaskin said one time something like this, “In the last analysis, all we have to offer another human being is our own state of being.”

 

The purpose of spiritual practice, then, is to develop our own state of being. Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living and a comedian said that an unlived life is not worth examining.

 

So, If one were to practice to raise one’s level of consciousness, where would one start? The first step might be to determine one’s base line. Where is one’s level of consciousness now and how has one passed through the previous stages?

 

The integral model which is an integration of many other models and research teaches that individuals and societies pass through what are called egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, and integral stages of consciousness. Unitarian Universalism is a religion for people at the worldcentric and integral levels of consciousness. It has little to offer people at the egocentric and ethnocentric stages. This observation explains why so many people in Unitarian Universalism are people who come from more traditional religious upbringings or none at all.

 

Where are you now in your level of consciousness? Are you at the egocentric, ethnocentric, worldcentric, or integral level? Knowing which level you function at predominately helps you choose spiritual practices that will facilitate your development to the next level.

 

All people can benefit from spiritual practices in whichever level they predominantly find themselves.

 

In determining one’s level of spiritual development and choosing spiritual practices appropriate to facilitate growth, a spiritual director, mentor, psychotherapist, guru can be an enormous help.


Tuesday, May 11, 2021

Spiritual Practice - Spiritual practices from a developmental perspective


 Spiritual practices from a developmental perspective.

 

As such, this “transcending and including” contains modules that address practices for the body, mind, spirit, and shadow dimensions of your own being. Because it is inclusive, this practice contains a distilled and condensed series of practices that are taken from premodern, modern, and postmodern approaches to growth and development. It is an “all-inclusive” practice in the sense that it takes the very best practices from all of them, and puts them together in a larger framework that uses—and makes sense of—all of them. Premodern practices include the world’s great wisdom traditions and the meditation practices that drive them. Modern practices include scientific studies of human growth and ways to induce it. Postmodern practices include a pluralistic and multicultural composite map of the human territory—the territory of you—and ways to include (and not marginalize) all of the important dimensions of your own being (physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—in self, culture, and nature). Putting all of these together creates a “cross training” for human growth and spiritual awakening, a cross training that dramatically accelerates all of its dimensions—body, mind, spirit, and shadow—producing faster, more effective, more efficient practices than were ever possible prior to this time.

 

Wilber, Ken; Patten, Terry; Leonard, Adam; Morelli, Marco. Integral Life Practice . Shambhala. Kindle Edition. 

 

Because Unitarian Universalism identifies six sources for its living tradition it draws on spiritual practices from premodern, modern, and postmodern stages of human development.

 

UUs draw on practices from the perennial wisdom of the world’s religions, from modern findings from the human sciences, and from transpersonal and views of the Transcendent from postmodernism. Unitarian Universalism has a little of something for everyone at any stage of spiritual development.

 

One of the difficulties of leading and participating in a Unitarian Universalist church is that people are at different stages of development and this can cause conflict which can lead to judgmentalism and exclusionary practices. Therefore congregations become fragmented and people either leave or form sub groups which are served, in larger congregations, by different services labeled as “traditional” and “contemporary.” etc.

 

In which stage are you most comfortable: traditional, humanistic, New Thought? Do you tend to focus on spiritual practices from one category or do you select from them all in a eclectic fashion?

 

What are your two favorite spiritual practices which you do daily or weekly?


Monday, May 10, 2021

Spiritual practice of UUs - Cultivating religious literacy is a key practice of UUs

 

Developmental models are in general agreement that human beings, from birth, go through a series of stages or waves of growth and development. The lower, earlier, junior stages are initial, partial, and fragmented views of the world, whereas the upper stages are integrated, comprehensive, and genuinely holistic. Because of this, the earlier stages are often called “first tier,” and the higher stages are called “second tier.” The difference between the two tiers is truly profound. As pioneering developmental researcher Clare Graves put it, with second tier an individual “goes through a momentous leap of meaning.” That leap is what Integral is all about—Integral Thinking and—yes—Integral Practice. At the Integral stages of development, the entire universe starts to make sense, to hang together, to actually appear as a uni-verse—a “one world”—a single, unified, integrated world that unites not only different philosophies and ideas about the world, but different practices for growth and development as well.

Wilber, Ken; Patten, Terry; Leonard, Adam; Morelli, Marco. Integral Life Practice . Shambhala. Kindle Edition. 

 

Unitarian Universalism is not what is usually meant by the term “religion”. UU integrates the six sources in an integral fashion. It’s goal is to provide a more holistic, comprehensive, and integrated understanding of the perennial wisdom which has been accumulated by humanity.

 

Participation in Unitarian Universalism meaningfully assumes a level of consciousness that only a small percentage of humans on this planet currently possess. This is not to say they are superior or elite but rather have simply incorporated understandings at previous stages of development into the subsequent stage.


The manifestation of this level of consciousness is embodied in two of its seven principles: the inherent worth and dignity of every person, and a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. These two principles require what Clare Graves calls a “momentous leap of meaning.”

 

What is the practice that facilitates this stage of consciousness? It is the development of religious literacy involving the knowledge of the world's great religions and wisdom traditions. This requires study and experience interacting with people from multiple religious traditions. This requires an open mindedness and curiosity that allows investigation and adventure.

 

People who engage and participate in Unitarian Universalism have passed through the egocentric and ethnocentric stages of consciousness into the worldcentric and integral. The egocentric and ethnocentric are sometimes referred to as the “first tier” of consciousness while the worldcentric and integral are “second tier.” Unitarian Universalism is a “second tier” religion. Probably only 20% of the American population in 2021 has a worldcentric or integral level of consciousness so as a second tier religious denomination, UU will has relatively small percentage of the population as members, only about 200,000 in the United States.

 

The practice of cultivating religious literacy is key practice of UUs.


Saturday, May 8, 2021

Spiritual Practices for UUs - Mortality and death


 Mortality and death

What are UU practices in regards to mortality and death? Send me your experiences and understandings to davidgmarkham@gmail.com or leave a comment.


A recent survey found that only about a third of people had discussed making wills with their partners, or their wishes concerning their funerals. It’s almost as though we believe that dying doesn’t actually happen. At least not to us. The fact is, death is a universal certainty. Yet most Americans’ interactions with it are limited to times of crisis. In a culture that’s obsessed with prolonging life, death is seen as a failure—dark and depressing, macabre and morose. Death is the stuff of thrillers and sad poems. Lauren Bohn, YES!, October, 2019

Friday, May 7, 2021

Spiritual practices for UUs - Ask, before making decisions, "What would Love have me do?"

                                                       What would Love have me do?



UUs covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where is this search to take place, and how is truth and meaning to be found? Applying this principle in one’s daily life takes consistent practice. One way of practicing this principle is to ask oneself whenever one is faced with a choice about how to respond during the course of one’s daily life, “What would Love have me do?”


At first implementing this practice takes a great deal of awareness, intention, and effort. With practice, the question guides our actions in a much more natural and flowing way. When learned, our lives become much more peaceful and joyful no matter the external stress.


This practice of asking “What would Love have me do?” brings us to a place of truth and meaning just as the principle intends.


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