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.
An online magazine of faith based on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The mission of Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life ministries is to provide information, teach skills, and clarify values to facilitate the evolutionary development of increasingly higher levels of spiritual development for human beings around the world.
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sacrifice. Show all posts
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Sunday, August 13, 2017
The love of God does not require sacrifice
Unitarian Universalists have a rich tradition of believing in the unconditional and universal love of God. UUs do not believe that unconditional love requires sacrifice of any kind. UUs do not believe in the traditional Christian God that requires sacrifice of His son's to appease His anger at His creatures' sins.
As human beings we are very confused believing that love requires sacrifice. This may be true of conditional love of the ego but it is not true of the unconditional love of God.
As human beings we are very confused believing that love requires sacrifice. This may be true of conditional love of the ego but it is not true of the unconditional love of God.
What is not love is fear and the ego relishes fear. It is written in A Course In Miracles, "You believe it is possible to be host to the ego or hostage to God.”
More specifically it is written, “Your confusion of sacrifice and love is so profound that you cannot conceive of love without sacrifice. And it is this you must look upon; sacrifice is attack, not love. If you would accept but this one idea, your fear of love would vanish.” T-15.X.5:8-10
And so we fear the Love of God because we believe that God’s love demands the ultimate sacrifice, the loss of our ego whether through enlightenment or death.As human beings we are very confused believing that love requires sacrifice. This may be true of conditional love of the ego but it is not true of the unconditional love of God.
What is not love is fear and the ego relishes fear. It is written in A Course In Miracles, "You believe it is possible to be host to the ego or hostage to God.”
Heather's mother, Joanne, told Heather repeatedly in so many words, "I'll love you if you get good grades, do your chores, keep your room clean, and stop fighting with your brother." Heather craved her mother's love and so felt guilty when she didn't please her mother. It seemed her mother always wanted something and whatever Heather did was not good enough.
Heather's older brother, Michael, told her, "Mom is a bottomless pit. Nothing you do will ever be good enough for her. Mom reminds me of the joke about the little girl who asked her mother why it was raining and the mother said, 'Because God is crying.' and when the little girl asked her mother why God was crying, the mother said, 'Probably because of something you did.'"
Heather didn't laugh much. She said, "Is God like mom?"
Michael said, "That's what they say. That's why I don't believe in God. What kind of God would want His son to suffer and die on a cross to appease His disappointment with His creations' mistakes? Why did He create them that way to begin with? The whole story seems screwed up to me."
"I don't believe in a God like mom," said Heather. "That would be a hell."
Michael said, "My God loves us unconditionally just the way we are. We having nothing to fear from my God."
Heather said, "I like your God. Can I believe in Him too?"
Michael said, "Yes, of course. It's up to you."
"Is there a church that believes in your God," asked Heather.
"No," said Michael, "but you can read about Him in a book called A Course In Miracles when you get older."
"I love you, Michael," said Heather.
"I love you too, Heather," said Michael, "no matter what."
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