Question of the day

The patient asked her psychotherapist, "Do you believe in God?"

The therapist answered, "Depends on what God it is you are asking about?"

Was this a good answer to the patient's question? Why or why not?

Question of the day

God calls up the Pope. "I've got some good news and some bad news," God says. "I've decided that there should be one church and one religion. No more confusion."

The Pope says, "That's wonderful."

God says, "The bad news is, I'm calling from Salt Lake City."

What is funny about this joke? How funny did you find it?

Love is giving what we want to share - acceptance and encouragement

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This as good a definition of love as has ever been made. True love is acceptance and encouragement because the lover wants to share what the lover has already developed and achieved. The law of Karma teaches that we get what we give, we amplify what is in our own hearts.

Most people are not aware that there are two kinds of love: conditional and unconditional. The foregoing statement is not correct because in reality there is only one kind of love and that is unconditional. Conditional love is counterfeit, fraudulent, and even if called "love" by many is not love at all but a business relationship based on the principle of "give to get."

Unconditional love is a rare and beautiful thing when a person, already complete, satisfied, and fulfilled within him/herself loves just because (s)he wants to extend what they have.

Ben was asked by his friend, Jacob, if he would get married again. Ben replied that he would if he could meet someone who was happy with herself. And then Ben said, "Are there any?" Jacob laughed and said, "They are a rare creature. You are serving up a tall order."

Ben said, "Well, like Diogenes looking for an honest person, I am roaming the world looking for a woman who is happy with herself."

"How about you," asked Jacob? "Are you a happy man? Can you love someone unconditionally without expecting anything in return?"

"I aspire to that," said Ben. "Like everyone I know, I have my baggage, my fears, my frustrations, my depressions, but I am getting there. I have learned that you get what you give, you enhance what you extend, you learn what you teach."

Jacob, with a smile, said "Dominus vobiscum."

Ben laughed and replied as he did in his altar boy days, "Et cum spiritu tuo."

Question of the day

Having a sense of humor where a person can laugh at the absurdities and incongruities and paradoxes of life is considered to be a sign of advanced spiritual development. To what extent are you able to experience the innocence of a child and laugh at the ridiculousness of the human predicament?

Most popular post on UUAWOL in October, 2017

The most popular post in October 2017 on UUAWOL was "The first principle deprives from the spirit not the body". To access it click here.

Clear away the clutter of ego made nonsense and drama to become one with God

The Unitarian Universalist first principle  is the covenant with one another to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. What is that inherent worth and dignity made up from? In the perennial philosophy it is called by many names such as "the ground of our being," the "tao," the "divine spark." Luke Skywalker called it "the force."

It is written in A Course In Miracles, Workbook For Students, Lesson 189,

Today we pass illusions, as we seek to reach to what is true in us, and feel its all-embracing tenderness, its Love which knows us perfect as itself, its sight which is the gift its Love bestows on us. 2 We learn the way today. 3 It is as sure as Love itself, to which it carries us. 4 For its simplicity avoids the snares the foolish convolutions of the world's apparent reasoning but serve to hide.
W-189.7.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. 2 Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. 3 Hold onto nothing. 4 Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything. 5 Forget this world, forget this course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God.

W-189.8. Is it not He Who knows the way to you? 2 You need not know the way to Him. 3 Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. 4 God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. 5 Ask and receive. 6 But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. 7 The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. 8 For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.

The only thing we have to do to hear God speak to us and to be one with God is to clear away the clutter, the blocks and obstacles to our awareness of God's presence. In Psalm 46, verse 10, it is written, "Be still and know that I am God." In ACIM this is called the Holy Instant. To achieve this on a regular basis takes practice which involves intention and also relaxation in the sense of "letting go" of all the nonsense of the monkey mind. To achieve this state is a sign of highly developed spiritual awareness.

Amen

Question of the day

Neale Donald Walsh in his Conversations With God books tells us that God is talking to us all the time. We just aren't listening and paying attention. What do you think of this idea?