UUAWOL laughter

Son to father: "Hey, dad, can you spell Mississippi?"

Father: "The river or the state?"

Daughter to mother: "Mom, is god a boy or girl?"

Mom: "Neither, dear. God is a verb not a noun."

UUAWOL weekly report 02/18/18 - 02/24/18

With the change of format of UUAWOL the views have dropped off dramatically and have settled around 75 per day.

It is the intention of UUAWOL staff to continue with a daily article about the spiritual life, and weekly articles about the interior spiritual life, Lent, prophetic voices and events, and a new topic of laughter.

The long term intention is to continue to develop a glossary of terms for the Spiritual Life, and a UU theology which is useful to people in thinking about their spiritual lives.

UUAWOL appreciates the core group of readers who read this publication, shares it with others, and leaves comments.

Laughing our way into heaven

Osho says,

 "Religion is dead without laughter. It becomes alive only when you can have a total laugh, a passionate, intense laugh, so that it dances in all your cells, it vibrates in your whole being. Then it becomes something bigger than you, so that you are just a small thing in it; it surrounds you like an aura and you disappear into it.

 That’s exactly what happens in laughter: your ego disappears. It may not disappear in your prayer; your prayer may even strengthen it. The prayerful become holier-than-thou. It will not go away because of your authorities and asceticism – it is even more solid and concrete. But when you have a good laugh, the ego is no longer there. For a moment a window opens, for a moment the ego is not there. And when the ego is not there, you are.

 Osho. First in the Morning: 365 Uplifting Moments to Start the Day Consciously p.51 Osho Media International.

  Editor's note:

 I agree with Osho. Without laughter religion is dead.

UUAWOL will be posting more articles that hopefully will make readers laugh.

More than laugh, I hope they will help the reader see things in a little different way.

 There is laughter that puts people down and makes the laugher feel better about him/herself at the targets expense. UUAWOL will be avoiding this kind of laughter.

What UUAWOL is after is the laughter that recognizes the absurdity and incongruity of our thoughts and minds. It is with this recogntion that we get a glimpse beyond the ego.

It is in sharing these kinds of jokes that the laughter doubles and becomes even more precious.

Getting back home - the video

Getting back home

Unitarian Universalism has a bit of a mystical tradition in its identification with the transcendentalists. Some UUs turn to them for inspiration and direction when they begin searching for a better way to live life. The transcendentalists are psychotherapists of sorts who questioned the path of the ego and began seeking on the path of the spirit. They remind us that there is more to life than the idols of this world which we conditioned to worship.

The initiation of an interior spiritual life begins when it dawns on a person that there must be a better way to live his/her life. The way of the ego isn't working any more. This can be called "the dawning."

With the dawning comes the desire to search for that better way. The person becomes a seeker.

Where does one begin such a search? The first place people begin, mistakenly, is in the ego world of idols. They want to make more money, they want to find a romantic partner, they seek power and glory, they seek adventure and titillation, they begin a new career, they turn to education, they turn to food, chemical substances, and sometimes religion. It is believed that the acquisition of these things will provide a sense of completeness and fulfillment but it doesn't work.

As one ages, one's sense of loneliness increases, and futility and depression sets in along with a fear of death, one's own and the death of a loved one.

Sometimes the person turns to psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is the healing of the mind. It is written in the Psychotherapy supplement to A Course In Miracles in the introduction, "Psychotherapy is the only form of therapy there is. Since only the mind can be sick, only the mind can be healed. Only the mind is in need of healing. This does not appear to be the case, for the manifestations of this world seem real indeed. Psychotherapy is necessary so that an individual can begin to question their reality."

Sometimes this psychotherapy occurs with interactions with friends, family, and others. Sometimes it happens with a credentialed, licensed psychotherapist. Regardless with whom this psychotherapy occurs, the spiritual task is the same, to move from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit which is the only path that will help the person get home.

Let's give up guns for Lent

The right decision in the end

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UU encourages the search but offers little guidance, other than its naming six sources for its "living tradition", in where to look. Like Moses and the Israelites, UUs have wound up wandering in the wilderness for 57 years since its merger in 1961. If UU is to thrive it must clarify its spiritual mission and provide more useful guidance for the spiritual journey.

When I was a child, about the age of 10, it dawned on me that "It's not a bad life if you know how to live it." Where this aphorism came from, I have no idea. I don't remember anybody telling me this. I just seemed to understand this from my intuitive mind. The aphorism arose from my "inner well." It seemed a right understanding then and it still does at age 72 all these years later.

Now, after all these years, I have a better understanding of what this aphorism means. According to A Course In Miracles, I can live my life on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit. I have tried, since age 14, to live according to the path of the spirit, and have learned how to do this reflecting on my experience.

Experience has been a great teacher. Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." I have tried to live an examined life. To live an examined life, the person has to admit that (s)he doesn't know. Knowing that you don't know is the first step on the path of the spirit. Knowing that you don't know, and that other people don't either, leads one to no longer trust the path of the ego to provide the satisfaction and fulfillment of the good life.

Throughout my life I have been well aware that bull shit abounds. Bull shit is abundant and we live our lives sinking deeper and deeper into it until we, sometimes desperately, become aware that there must be a better way. With this awareness, what I call, "the dawning," we initiate a search. We become a seeker for what that better way might be. I call this initiation of the search, "the turning." "The turning" is the turn from the path of the ego to the path of the spirit.

"The turning" is easier and ultimately must involve our asking our "Higher Power" for guidance. There are many formula's human beings have created for this requesting. One of my favorites is "What would Love have me do?" or more simply, "What is the loving thing?"

In the Christian prayer, the Our Father, we say in part, "...Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Bringing my will into alignment with what I think is God's will brings peace and joy and the "good life" which I have been seeking.

Sometimes my ego objects to my doing God's will. Doing God's will can fill me with fear sometimes and yet I have found that to move ahead in faith, in spite of the ego's objections, has always been the right decision in the end.