Where does greatness lie?

The Universalists know where greatness lies. It is this experience which has inspired the Unitarians. Together they have proclaimed that greatness lies in the interdependent web of all existence. They covenant together to affirm and promote this principle.

It is written in A Course in Miracles in the introduction in the section on clarification of terms in paragraph 2, verse 5, "A universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary."

Has this been your experience, too?

Truth lies beyond illusion. Illusion fragments and Truth unifies.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. It is that greatness which is Divine.

Greatness is found on the path of the spirit not on the path of the ego.

Taking the high road on the spiritual path

As I look around in Unitarian Universalism as I walk the path of the spirit, I don't find much company. The path is very uncongested. I find most people are discussing social justice issues and socializing, discussing "small talk." Most UU churches I have come to know seem more like social agencies and clubs. There is little interest in the interior spiritual life. That's a shame because the true function of a church is to facilitate the growth of souls into saints.

Gandhi supposedly said one time that he would convert to Christianity if he ever found a church that actually followed the teachings of Jesus.

What Jesus actually taught through His words and actions is miles away from what most Christian churches preach and teach. It has been debated whether Jesus ever intended to found a church. He was very interested in spirituality and He told people to be religious if they are so inclined but He also said that He intended to transform the teachings of religion, to take them further.

Jesus was certainly not legalistic. He taught that people are more important that the laws. The laws are to benefit the people, not people benefit the laws.

Jesus said that the way to the kingdom is "to love as I have loved."

When the rich young man asked Jesus what he had to do to get to the kingdom, Jesus' first answer is "follow the commandments." The rich young man follows up and says, "I already do that and I still am not happy. What more can I do?" Jesus says simply, "Sell all that you have; give the money to the poor and come follow me." The rich young man became sad and walked away.

That's what happens today in most churches. They preach the commandments, but they don't want to sell what they have, help the poor, and follow Jesus. And so churches are losing members. Young people are not following the teachings of the church. They eschew the legalistic teachings, the theological debates, and they turn to materialism, to drugs and alcohol, to video games, to virtual reality, and to suicide.

Churches are failing in their mission to facilitate and nurture the souls of saints. They engage in self preservation and social justice and political work. Churches have failed and are failing to nurture souls on the spiritual path. Nurturing souls on the spiritual path is intended here. Our work is unusual in our modern society.

The spiritual path calls us from the path of the ego. Has it dawned on you yet that there is a better way? Have you embarked on the search? Are you walking the path of Love? As Jesus said, "Come follow me." Indeed.

Is it time to go home?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where does truth and meaning lie: on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit?

Be careful what you pray for. You may be barking up the wrong tree. You may be whistling in the dark.

God is not part of the path of the ego. God is understanding and compassionate and is sad to watch God's creations struggle and suffer on the path of the ego which they have created, but respecting their free will, God does not intervene because God knows nothing of this fantasy which God's creations have built. This is the meaning of the Adam and Eve's sin in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve went their own way and decided to create their own world apart from the world which God created. Adam and Eve and their children can't have it both ways: either want to live in God's world or the world of their own making.

We have chosen to live apart from God's world on the path of the ego and then expect God to intervene and make things easier for us in a world not of God's making. This expectation is not only silly and stupid, it is arrogant and full of a false sense of entitlement which springs from the childish willfulness and naivete of a two year old.

An observer might want to shout, "Grow up!" Playing your childish games, and when they go awry, asking God to fix the mess you have made is based on a huge misunderstanding of what has happened and what is going on. You have been on the wrong track. Has it dawned on you that there must be a better way?

Indeed there is a better way. It is turning off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit. This turning initiates a searching for what one has left so long ago. It is a re-membering of the Oneness from which one has separated. This process of re-joining the Oneness is called the At-one-ment, Atonement.

Is it time to quit the nonsense and go back home?

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.

Willingness to appear crazy

I remember being on the sidewalk at a table at the village's sidewalk sale announcing the opening of our Unitarian Universalist church and a woman said to me accusingly, "Are you Trinitarian?"

I said, "No, mame."

She huffed, "I thought so!" in an indignant and contemptuous manner.

One of my co-workers said, "What was that about?"

"She wanted to know whether UUs believe in the Trinity," I said.

"What's that, " my co-worker asked.

"The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," I replied.

"Don McLean, American Pie. Right?" he said.

"Yeah, right," I said.

When we turn from the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, people will call us crazy. They will say we are mad, madder than the mad Hatter.

St. Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians that those who have chosen to walk the path of the spirit instead of the ego appear to others to be fools. We appear to be misfits and indeed we are. We no longer are going along with the herd. We are going against the grain, upsetting the apple cart, disturbing the status quo. This scares people. The things they have believed in and done and value are, by us, no longer believed in, no longer valued, and we no longer are going along in the same direction traveling on the accepted and "normal" path.

At first they criticize and say we are wrong and bad. Then they call us crazy and mad. And lastly they exile us or even try to kill us either socially through shunning or literally as they did to Jesus, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and John and Robert Kennedy, and Malcom X, and Gandhi.

Assassination, whether psychologically through gossip and false accusations, or socially through exclusion, shunning, and exile, or physically by murder, torture, and deprivation is often the price paid for choosing not to continue on the path of the ego and, instead, walking the path of the spirit.

And in making that choice, and taking the path less traveled, we experience such Love and joy and peace that the sufferings inflicted by those on the path of the ego seem inconsequential and like a mosquito on an elephant's behind.

And so, those who embark on the mystic's path appear crazy to the rest of the world. And it is this willingness to appear crazy that empowers a person to pursue the way of Love.

Laugh or cry?

Unitarian Universalists tend to be a serious bunch. They laugh once in a while but they are known for taking themselves very seriously.

One of the signs that a person is on a spiritual path is laughter. The spiritual person is full of comic delight. Once one understands the wiles and cares of the ego, how could one take the path of the ego and the things on it seriously any more?

The absurdity, the incongruity, the insanity is simply funny. And the hurt and pain which accompanies the works of the ego only add to the comedy.

When Jesus was being crucified and said, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do," I imagine Him saying this with amusement. He was right. They didn't know what they were doing. It was so tragic, the whole thing was a joke.

They say "you can either laugh or cry." The difference is which path you are walking on. The path of the ego is a vale of tears. The path of the spirit brings laughter and bliss.

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.

Bringing truth to light

Unitarian Univeralistis covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Truth often, though, is kept in the darkness and is hidden. Finding it entails fear and loathing. The search takes courage and bravery and patience and persistence.

According to researchers anxiety disorders are the biggest mental health problem in the United States. As a psychotherapist, I have observed that what people are most afraid of is the truth.

Truth haunts people, if not consciously, then unconsciously. Experiences have been buried deep in the psyche and the truth of them leaks out creating a terror that is confusing, unexpected, baffling, and seems foreign.

The psychotherapist gently and supportively asks the client to re-member those things the person has repressed and alienated from his/her conscious awareness. The truth has been kept in the dark and because of what the darkness hides, people become afraid of the darkness itself.

The release from darkness entails two stages: first the recognition that darkness can only hide the truth so long and that eventually the truth will find its way to the light either with conscious articulation or in symptoms, and second, that the energy it takes to hide the truth is a waste and that life is lived much more easily and happily once the truth is set free.

Setting the truth free from the darkness is a relief and in the long run brings much peace and bliss. When we come to accept that "it is what it is" we are born again onto the path of the spirit and we leave the path of the ego behind.

Performing miracles

Do Unitarian Universalists believe in miracles? The answer is no, not in the usual sense of the word. Might they believe in miracle thinking? Yes, because it is an expression of their fourth principle, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Where does truth and meaning lie? It is not on the path of the ego, but rather on the path of the spirit.

Miracles, according to A Course In Miracles, are not magic. Miracles are not supernatural behavior. Miracles, in A Course In Miracles, is a different way of thinking. Miracles are getting off the path of the ego and onto the path of the spirit.

The miracle is getting off the path of the ego and walking on the path of Love. Jesus said that the way to the kingdom is "to love as I have loved." Jesus is talking about miracle thinking. He is not talking about turning water into wine, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, walking on water, multiplying the loaves and fishes. Jesus is not a circus performer although many people have turned Him into one and totally missed His teaching.

Magicians in Las Vegas put on dazzling shows of slight of hand which give cheap thrills to the ego. They pull rabbits out of a hat, cut pretty women in half, make objects appear and disappear, and suspend objects off the floor. Their acts can be very entertaining.

Miracles are not about entertainment, they are about authentic life. Miracle thinking is eschewing the works of the ego for the life of the Spirit. The miracle is understanding our experience of Life in a whole new way.

With miracle thinking time stands still and we rise above our resentments as we forgive ourselves and others for our ridiculousnesses. We undo and purify our intentions and motives that block our awareness of Love. This shift in consciousness feels like a revelation of a whole new way of experiencing life which is full of peace, Love, and bliss. Some might call it meditation and here we are calling it miracle thinking.

Miracle thinking requires silence, centeredness, mindfulness, forgiveness, and gratitude. We are entering a time here on this blog when we will be describing how a person might shift his/her thinking and start performing and living with more miracles.

Engendering heaven on earth

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all is not to be reached, though, on the path of the ego. The change we are seeking is a spiritual one. Materialists will be continually disappointed until they realize that the heaven they seek and aspire to create is not of the ego world.

We have a choice. We can walk the path of the ego or the path of the spirit.

The path of the ego is a path in hell, and the path of the spirit is a path in heaven.

The path of the ego is the path which society conditions us to walk, and we walk it unconsciously until we hit bottom. Our tolerance for pain is very high. When the pain becomes great enough it dawns on us that there must be a better way, and then we turn from the path of the ego and begin to search. That search takes us on the walk with Love on the path of the spirit.

You might think that the walk with Love on the path of the spirit would be easy, and it is, if we are not continually seduced back onto the path of the ego. This seduction is insidious. Temptation abounds. We forget our decision to walk with Love on the path of the spirit until we become aware, once again, that we have a choice.

We must choose again, and again, and again, and gradually, walking with Love on the path of the spirit, becomes our new habitual way of life. Mindfulness is our tool and when tempted we are now aware of the temptation and ask ourselves, "Is this what I really want?" We know, deeper down, that walking the path of the ego is not what we want and we re-focus on walking with Love and the path of the spirit. We find that walking with Love on the path of the spirit fills us with peace and joy and we realize that we have engendered heaven on earth.

Can I experience your experience?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. If this takes one on an external journey, it is a wild goose chase, what we, in Boy Scouts, used to call a Snipe hunt. If this becomes an inward journey there is more hope.

Postmodernism teaches us that our thoughts and perceptions are the result of a social construction. Our thoughts would not have meaning outside of context, and context comes from others.

Sometimes we wonder what other people are thinking and we might say, "A penny for your thoughts," and the person might reply, "They're not for sale at any price." Or maybe they are and the person attempts to share some story of what (s)he is thinking about.

The fact of the matter is, even if we don't want to admit it, that our minds are joined. They are joined in many ways by many things, but the easiest thing to see is language. Beyond language are the common understandings that we assume are shared even when meanings and interpretations of the same word can be quite different. On the path of the ego we become indignant and sometimes even arrogant that our way of thinking is "right." The question arises in A Course In Miracles, "Would you rather be right or happy?"

A simple word like "chair" can lead to all kinds of thoughts about various types of chairs and there is a common understanding at a conceptual, if not specific, level. A word like "God" though instigates many thoughts which, on the path of the ego, are rarely shared but, on the path of the spirit, would be highly shared. For God is not a word but an experience and the experience of God is the sign of salvation which we all share.

The question here is not what thoughts and perceptions do we share, but what experiences? We share very few,if any, experiences on the path of the ego, but on the path of the spirit we are all one experience.

Is there such a thing as time?

As a student of A Course In Miracles I have learned that there is no such thing as time. Time, the Course teaches, is merely a mechanism of the ego which gets created to provide a sense of control in the physical world.

I have noticed that time can fly and that time stands still. Sometimes I get a sense that time is timeless.

I get asked often, "Do you have the time?" or I say, "I'm sorry I don't  have the time."

I have said, "I'm sorry I'm late I don't know where the time has gone."

I say at 5 minutes before the end of a therapeutic hour, "Our time is about up, is there anything else you would like to discuss before we finish?" This leads to the observation that time is a commodity and has a value that lawyers and psychotherapists charge for. If I allow a session to run over, often the client will ask if there is an additional charge? I become flummoxed and wonder, "Golly gee, what is my time worth? Was allowing the session to run over worth the time?"

At the age of 72 I think every day about how much time I have left in this life? At at my age I often say, "There was a time when ......"

There of course is transitional time and a time to be born, a time to die, a time to laugh, and a time to cry. A time to come and a time to go, a time for fast and a time for slow. A time for later and a time for now, a time that's precious and a time that's tao.

Kurt Vonnegut said in his old age that he realized the purpose of life is farting around. God bless Kurt! So if anyone told me to do it now, I would gently laugh and say, "Silly man/woman....." 

What is the end of the world?

The Unitarian Universalist preacher said from the pulpit that the goal of UUs is not to get people into heaven but heaven into people. UUs believe in heaven on earth. It is not some other place one journeys to but right here, right now, among us.

A person was telling me last week about the apocalypse, the end of the world. It was a story full of judgment and punishment that he claims his church taught him.

I smiled and listened. I didn't say it but was thinking, "Golly gee, what kind of a God is it that this church is promoting? What kind of a world is this church painting a picture of?"

I said to this fellow at the end of his description, "Wow, that's some story."

He said, "So, are you saved?"

I said, "Oh, yes."

He said, "Good. God bless you."

And indeed, I am saved by a God of Love and forgiveness not the gods of vengeance, judgment, condemnation, and punishment.

Forgiveness is necessary for churches who teach such nonsense, and their missionaries who promote and spread their misguided teachings about a vengeful, judgmental, condemning, and punishing God who is a projection of this God's believers own guilt, suffering and anguish.

With this forgiveness comes a compassion which is not condescending or patronizing, but rather is empathic and understands the pain which contributes to such warped and distorted beliefs.

God is Unconditional Love and generates a gratefulness for existence and an extension of peace and joy into the world.

The Atonement is when everybody loves everybody all the time and when this occurs the end of time will have come because there will no longer we any need for the world of the ego in which we must learn the lessons of the spirit. We all will become one with all of existence, God.

All that you've got is your soul

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where will this search take them: down the path of the ego or the path of the spirit?

Religion makes a big deal out of sacrifice and giving things up. There is an attraction to asceticism which, as it moves to an extreme, can become masochistically sick.

Buddhism is clear, in its teachings, about the importance of the middle path, and balance.

Giving up of the path of the ego, though, is no sacrifice, because, once properly understood, the idols of the ego would not have provided the yearned for fulfillment anyway. Pursuing the idols on the path of the ego is a wild goose chase and never comes to the desired fruition. It is barking up the wrong tree.

Where is the sacrifice, then, in giving up the idols on the path of the ego?

The things on the path of the spirit lead one to authentic fulfillment and wholeness. To pursue the things of the path of the spirit one has to leave the path of the ego. This is no sacrifice, but a turning away as the idols on the path of the ego no longer seem relevant, meaningful, desirable.

Turning from the idols on the path of the spirit is not a sacrifice but a liberation, and freedom from and thereby a freedom to.

As it is written in A Course Of Miracles, the fraudulent motto of the path of the ego is "Seek and do not find."

Jesus says in Matthew 16:25-26:

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a person if that person gains the whole world, yet forfeits their soul? Or what can a person give in exchange for their own soul?

As Tracy Chapman sings, All That You Got Is your Soul.

Do we choose death or life, victimhood or well being?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where does that search take them? Further down the path of the ego or up the path of the spirit?

What is called for if one would have a happy life is a shift in belief and perception. Do we choose to walk the path of the ego or the path of spirit?

We come to a fork in the road and we have to choose. We cannot walk both paths at the same time. They go in different directions.

The choice is about belief and perception. We see what we believe we see. The life we create for ourselves is a life of never ending self fulfilling prophesies. We develop a mindset set that governs our perceptions. "Perception is reality," says the bumper sticker.

If we choose sickness and death we will get it. If we choose healing and life we will get it.

We think our body can control our mind and we give it powers it doesn't have with using terms like "instincts," and "reflexes," and the names of various diseases which victimize us. Is it "mind over matter," or "matter over mind?"

No circumstances in the world we have created can make us believe, feel, or do anything. Over circumstances we may believe we have no control, but in our response to those circumstances we always do.

What will be our response be to the circumstances of our lives? Do we choose sickness, suffering, and death, or healing, peace, and Life? Are we victims or the beloved creation of the Divine?

Our choice. Choose wisely because our ultimate happiness and well being depends on it.

The peace that is timeless on the Walk of Love

The Universalists have taught that God loves us unconditionally. Most people don't know this. This lack of awareness is a shame. However, sooner or later all of humankind will come to know what the Universalists already know. It's only a matter of time, awareness, and choosing.

Univeralists are called to preach the good news that human beings have a choice. They can choose now or later but ultimately we all have to choose whether we continue down the path of the ego or whether we embark on the path of the spirit.

We are all here to learn the walk of Love.

For some it takes a long time how to learn the walk of Love. For others the time is quicker. It is our destiny to learn the walk of Love. In ultimately fulfilling our destiny we have no choice. This is the basis of our faith. But we can choose when we want to learn it.

Some resist learning the walk of Love. There are other things which distract them. Many detours are taken. In arrogance and desire, idols are identified and worshiped. These false starts and mistakes create a hurt that leads to anguish and despair. The tolerance for pain by human beings can be very high.

However, when the pain becomes great enough, it starts to dawn on the person that there must be a better way. This dawning leads to a turning from the path of the ego for a search on the path of the spirit. This search creates a a teaching-learning situation in which the person simultaneously becomes both a teacher and a student for we learn what we teach and we teach what we want to learn.

This teaching-learning dynamic was created by the Divine at the moment of our separation and were it not to have occurred we could not, would not have survived in this life on earth. From the moment of our birth we began learning and with our cries began teaching others how to interact with us. The teaching-learning dynamic is a basic building block of life. We constantly teach, whether we are conscious of it or not, what we are to others and what others are to us.

On the path of the ego we "give to get" and behave based on the belief of "you or me," "us or them," which comes from fears instigated by our beliefs in scarcity.

After "the dawning," "the turning," and "the search," we come to realize there is a better way and we enter into the "walk of love" where we learn that "giving is receiving" and "one for all and all for one." The walk of love brings peace and bliss that is timeless.

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?

Knockin on heaven's door

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles the fourth of which is the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where will "the search" take us? Where should we look? Where is true truth and meaning to be found?

Life's main existential question is very simple: do we want to live in hell or heaven?

Identifying with body and the path of the ego will be hell. Identifying with the spirit and the path of the spirit will be heaven.

The "miracle", the shift from ego to spirit, is based on forgiveness. Forgiveness not in the usual sense, but forgiveness for ourselves and others that we ever separated ourselves from God, the path of the spirit to begin with.

Our separation from the divine began with our worship of idols whom we thought and were taught by our society would make us happy. It can take years, if not decades, to become aware that this is not true.

This growing awareness born out of depression, anxiety, frustration, discouragement and anguish is called "the dawning." We become aware that there is a better way to live our lives here on earth and we begin to turn from the world to the divine within. Jesus told us that the kingdom of God is within us.

With this turn within, called "the turning," we begin to realize that we are not our bodies but part of the transcendent oneness. Our spirit is part of an oceanic pool of spirit-hood which we share with everyone. We become aware that we are not separate, but joined.

If "the turning" is brought about by forgiveness what does forgiveness take? Merely a decision to turn our separate wills over to the Will Of The Universe. As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, "Let go, and let God", or simply, "Let go."

Ask the Holy Spirit, Jesus, God, your Higher Power, the muse to help you. Jesus says, "Ask and you shall receive. Knock and the door will be opened for you."

 

Flesh or spirit: that is the question

It is written bluntly in A Course In Miracles, "You see flesh or recognize spirit. There is no compromise between the two."

So which is it for you? Do you see a body with a spirit or a spirit with a body?

God lets us decide how we want to view our experience. God lets us decide if we want to live in hell or in heaven.

Unitarian Universalists, when they are being cute, like to say, "We aren't interested in getting people into heaven. We are interested in getting heaven into people." What UUs aren't clear about is how they intend to do that, get heaven into people. Bottom line is, they can't. It's up to the individual whether (s)he wants recognize the heaven within them. They have to make the choice.

The choice means changing routes. The choice means getting off the path of the ego to the path of the spirit. Not everyone is ready. Not everyone is willing.

Giving up the ways of the world is scary. We are leaving the familiar ruts for unfamiliar territory and that feels risky. It's better, some people say, to dance with the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

Supposing, though, on the path of the spirit there is no devil at all, only divine bliss?

The buddhas that travel among us tell us that the path of the spirit brings peace, bliss, Love. The buddhas tell us to overcome our fears of setting aside the flesh and bask in the joy of the spirit.

The metamorphosis can be scary for the caterpillar to leave its cocoon and be born again as a butterfly, for the acorn to burst out of its shell and become a mighty oak tree, for any seed to crack its brittle shell and germinate into the being of its true potential.

The things that metamorphize in the natural world have no choice, but we humans, with our consciousness, must decide. Instead of God's will being done, God says, "your will be done." We alone have to decide whether we want to recognize the birth of heaven within us.

To vanquish death we must move from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Where does this search take us? There are plenty of paths to hell we can go down. Which path will take us to Truth?

We eventually learn that all the paths we go down in this life lead to death. We can't escape it no matter what we do.

All the idols we worship, all the world has to offer, leads to one place. We avoid facing this fact as long as we can. We are encouraged to fight death right up to the end even though death always wins.

So, the Latin expression, "carpe diem," seize the day, becomes the ego's modus operanti. We are encouraged by the ego to enjoy the trip as the boat on which we are riding goes down. The band played on as the Titanic sunk.

What would you do if you knew today was the last day of your life? Will money help you? What would winning the lottery do for you then?

We come to the point when we realize that all the idol worship we engage in in this world does not change our fate. The idols of the ego do not offer us true salvation. There is nothing on the path of the ego which in the last analysis has any lasting value for us, that can help us defeat death.

The dissolution of death comes in the awareness that we are not an ego. What we think of as our self is not real but a social construction. The animating energy of this social construction does not change but continues to exist forever. This animating energy is part of the All, the total package of which we just a minuscule manifestation. This manifestation will change, but it will not die.

We become aware that we are One with our brothers and sisters and that this Oneness is experienced by us during our current manifestation as Love. We come to understand, along with the Beatles, that Love is all we need. We don't need idols. Idols are counterfeit salvation. They lead us down a dark alley to disappointment and futility. No idol is ever enough to satisfy our longing for completeness.

And so the questions that guide the purpose of our lives are not "How do I acquire more money, more power, more fame, more sex, more worldly pride," but rather "What would Love have me do?"

Before we can get to the question, "What would Love have me do?" we must first forgive ourselves and others for our mistaken efforts of worshiping and obeying the idols which seduced us from our authentic path of the spirit. After forgiveness we can move to Love which is on the path of the spirit a whole new ball game.