Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts

Sunday, May 6, 2018

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.


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