Showing posts with label The turning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The turning. Show all posts

Sunday, July 8, 2018

What is the path to peace?

Do Unitarian Universalists want peace? It is mentioned in the sixth principle as "the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all." The way the principle is worded would make one think of political peace more than spiritual peace.

Catholics make a big deal out of spiritual peace asking worshippers to extend to one another the wish for peace during their worship services and ritually say, "Pax vobiscum," peace be with you during their liturgies.

Peace is considered in the perennial psychology as a major sign of spiritual attainment. It is inner peace that is being referred to however.

The third step of the twelve step program for people in recovery is to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.

This decision to "turn it over" comes after the dawning that there must be a better way. This turning initiates the search. What is that better way? What does it look like? How can I stay on the right track and not get lost again? Are there trail markers I should look for or am I to blaze the trail all on my own only following an intuitive compass that points at God's will for me?

What are the differences I should be alert to to discern the differences between the path of the ego and the path of the spirit?

The two biggest trail markers on the path of the spirit are: What is the loving thing? and Will this bring us peace? Notice the word "us". What will bring "us" peace includes "me" but not "me" alone. My relationships with others must be brought into consideration as well.

The body is the not the temple of the Holy Spirit as so many of us have been incorrectly taught. The temple of the Holy Spirit is in relationships. Remember the Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be." Jesus was referring to the Divine when He said "I" not his personification.

Giving up our ego is a scary thing. We feel like we are giving up control, and indeed, we are intentionally giving up control, and turning it over to the Divine. We come to not only learn that we are not in control of the universe but we gladly give up the fantasy and illusion.

Let it go. There are far greater things going on than we could ever understand. Give up our attempts to control every thing. As they say in AA, "Let go and let God."

A genuine surrender is the path to peace.


Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Is it time to turn off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit?

Unitarian Universalists, and many other Americans, look at what's happening on the U.S. southern border and are horrified and deeply upset. This is not the first time the world has witnessed such governmental child abuse.

U.S. President, Donald R. Trump, is not the first leader in the world to abuse children. King Herod does it in Palestine at the beginning of the Christian era when he ordered all the male babies under two to be killed.

It is written in the gospel of Matthew, chapter two, verse 16, "When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi."

There are similarities in the personalities of Donald Trump and King Herod. They both are narcissistic, grandiose, paranoid, and brutal bullies.

What should we make of Herod killing babies and Trump separating children from parents at the southern U.S. border?

One of the lessons to be learned is that the path of the ego is littered with death, destruction, and aggrandizement at the expense of others for power. The quest for power, the maintenance of power is an exploitative enterprise which deprives the human community of health and happiness.

When an ego has riches, the other thing to crave is power, domination, subjugation to enhance one's own willfulness.

The will to power is the antidote to Love.

Love does not exploit, it supports. Love does not harm, it nurtures. Love does not bully, it collaborates. Love does not demean, it uplifts. Love does not bully, love respects the dignity of others.

Millions of Americans voted for a narcissistic, grandiose, paranoid, rich, brutal bully. They are getting what they voted for and the children and their families and the human community has been brutalized and are suffering.

It's time to remind ourselves that we are all part of the same human family and turn off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit and get on the Love train.

It also is time to make changes in our U.S. government at the mid terms so that the abuse can be stopped and respect and collaboration restored.



Saturday, May 19, 2018

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.



Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Enjoy your existence such as it is

Unitarian Universalists know that God loves them unconditionally. This understanding is the foundation of their Universalist faith. What they may not know, even though they convenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, is that the search is inward not outward. The search referred to in the seven principles is not on the path of the ego but on the path of the spirit. To embark on the path of the spirit requires a dawning that there is a better way to live life than on the path of the ego, and then, a turning onto the path of the spirit.

The biggest mistake we human beings make is to think that we have separated ourselves from God, the font of our being, the Force which animates the universe.

Oh, we are arrogant, and proud, and blind, and ignorant, but deep down we know better. We are part of the Divine, but we forget when we get caught up in our pursuits on the path of the ego.

On the path of the ego we believe that all kinds of nonsense and ridiculousness will make us happy. Be become frustrated, angry, sad, and then scared when they don't. We wonder what's gone wrong in our lives and we run off to our doctors who give us drugs to numb the pain. We stop searching thinking that the drugs will fix the problem.

So, how is that working for you?

At the deepest level, we only have one choice to make: Love or fear. Which would you rather have?

If we choose Love, we have to move off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, and many of us are not ready to make that turn. We want things to be better but we cling to the familiar. We rather dance with the devil we know than the devil we don't know.

Steven Wright said one time, "A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me. I'm afraid of widths." And there are those who are agoraphobic, they are afraid of wide open spaces.

There is always something to be afraid of. The news scares us, our relationships scare us, our fear of scarcity scares us. God knows we love to be afraid because it keeps us from looking within where our biggest fear is the supposed wrath of God because of our willful separation from Him/Her.

We are being silly because God loves us unconditionally. We are part of God and God is part of us.

Relax. Chill. Enjoy your existence such as it is.


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