In the end, there is only Love

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Often they start off looking for truth and meaning in all the wrong places.

If you ask people "What makes you tick?" most people cannot answer coherently.

Self knowledge is a rare phenomenon. People are busy taking everybody else's inventory, and spend much less time on their own.

On the spiritual path, though, self knowledge is the key to understanding the universe. Knowing better what makes one tick opens doors which previously had been shut and usually not even noticed.

Without self knowledge we are victimized by emotional and cognitive forces which are confusing, perplexing, frightening, incoherent. These emotional and cognitive forces can create an experience of hell.

A teacher of God may come along and ask ever so gently, "What's happening to you?" This question can trigger anxiety, anger, sadness, and even more confusion because we haven't a clue. Like a loving parent, the teacher of God encourages us to "use our words" and try to articulate as coherently as we are able some explication of what is happening to us.

As the story becomes more coherent over time, we begin to remember who we are and what has happened to distort what is now experienced as a more accurate perception of ourselves and the world.

Jesus told us that the kingdom of God is within us and among us. Most of us have no way of relating to this information because we have never explored that kingdom.

This exploration is more easily facilitated by a guide. The guide's job is merely to suggest the path we can take but the journey must be ours. The journey is one of self exploration which can be terrifying.

Finding the courage to engage in the journey of self exploration is a great day, a significant achievement. The journey of self exploration requires bravery to confront our demons and dissolve them so they no long haunt our lives and block our experience of Divine Love which is our natural inheritance.

As we confront our demons, dissolve them, and clear the way for the experience of Divine Love and peace, we realize that there never was anything real for us to fear. We had imprisoned ourselves in the dungeons of hell of fear's making. We come to realize that once we overcome the fears, there is only Love. Our life changes and we begin to embark on the walk of Love.

Would you rather be right or be happy?

Do you think you know what things mean?

Is the glass half full or half empty? It the lamp high or low? Is $20.00 too much or too little? Is she pretty or ugly, thin or fat, tall or short, nice or mean, helpful or uncooperative?

Will today be a good day or a bad day. Will people like me or not? Will I be kind or dismissive?

Let's face it. We don't know what things mean. It's all relative. It depends on our mood. It depends on what happened previously. It depends on what we have been told and people are saying.

We get in a rut. We experience the same old thing. We don't think that things will ever change.

As my brother used to say, "There is no such thing as gravity. The whole world sucks." And indeed, for him, it did.

And so, we make up our reality. What we see is what we get or better yet, what we think we will see is what we will get.

Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.

Be careful what you fear for fearing something will bring it closer to you.

Don't be afraid but love and let go. Do your best and God, Life, The Universe will do the rest.

It must be admitted, when examined closely, that we don't know shit.

Adopt a position of "not knowing" and live your life with curiosity. Life is a search for the Divine. Greater powers than ours generate the universe of which we know very little if anything. Life is a mystery.

Jesus' life hacks

Who is Jesus to Unitarian Universalists? Most UUs don't consider Him God anymore than anyone else.

Years ago the National Council of Churches expelled Unitarian Universalism deciding that it is not a "Christian church."

I was talking to a woman one time about UU and she said, "Is UU trinitarian?" Fancy word and I knew what she meant so I said, "No." She huffed, rolled her eyes in a dismissive way, and walked off.

Jesus asked His apostles, "Who do you say that I am?"

After two millennia people are still asking that question of one another.

What do you say? Who is Jesus to you?

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "The name Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol. But it stands for love that is not of this world." MT-23:4:1-2

That's works for me although I would capitalize love, as Love because Jesus tells us "The Father and I are One."

The same thing is true for each one of us, the Father and We are One, except that most of us aren't aware of it and so don't experience it on a consistent basis.

It is written in the introduction to A Course In Miracles, "The course does not aim at the teaching of the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love's presence, which is your natural inheritance."

A life time, well spent, is consciously working to remove the blocks to the awareness of Love's presence. Jesus came along two thousand years ago and gave us some tips, what now days are called, life hacks.

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

Okay, I get it. Jesus is a coach, a consultant, a teacher, a mentor. I have learned a lot from Him and continue to every day. If you want the Cliff Notes version of Jesus' life hacks read the Sermon on the Mount for starters.

Heaven is born

Unitarian Universalists' seven principles help them navigate the path of the ego and the path of the spirit and yet they kind of miss the point.

The compass the principles attempt to provide sometimes leads people astray because the compass points to a path that takes them askew.

What is the function of a person on the spiritual path? It is to join with others in forgiveness and Love.

We can't do this half way. We can't do this for some and not for others. It is an all or nothing deal. Either we are one with the All or we are not. Either we see the Divine spark in all people or we don't.

On the path of the ego it is difficult sometimes to see the Divine spark in all people, and yet, our faith tells us it is there if we are on the path of the spirit.

The path of the spirit asks that we walk with Love. Jesus is very clear about this for He tells us that the way to the kingdom is to "Love as I have loved."

We hesitate, though, thinking that some people are deserving of love and forgiveness and other people aren't. Or some people are deserving under certain conditions but not under other conditions. We act as if we are prosecutor, judge, and jury.

In our judgment we have lost our way. We have forgotten that the bull shit on the path of the ego isn't real in the spiritual world. The bull shit is stuff we humans have made up and promulgated and performed.

As we enter onto the walk with Love on the spiritual path we laugh and say, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do," and we extend our love and forgiveness to the Divine in everyone and heaven is born.

UU A Way Of Life podcast, episode 8 - third milestone on the walk with Love is a nonjudgmental attitude.

The UU Away Of Life podcast is available on Itunes and most other podcast distributors.

Heaven or hell is based on the things in your heart

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where is this truth and meaning to be found? In the last analysis, it is to be found in one's own heart.

It is written in A Course In Miracles in the Manual For Teachers, "Let us not forget, however, that words are but symbols of symbols. They are thus twice removed from reality." MT-21.1:9

The word is a symbol denoting a thing or an idea and, according to the course, the thing or the idea is a symbol of our interpretation and meaning making which the Course teaches is not real but an interpretation we have made up.

We see a chair and say to ourselves, "A chair is ______________." This is a meaning we have made up having been stimulated by the sensory perception of the chair.

The Course teaches that what we are after is an experience. The Course teaches that God is not interested in our words, God is interested in our experience. The Course teaches that prayers with words mean nothing to God, because God knows nothing of words. Words are things humans have made up during the separation and to maintain the separation. God cares nothing for words but only what is in our hearts.

It is written in A Course In Miracles in the Manual For Teachers, "The prayer of the heart does not really ask for concrete things. It always requests some kind of experience, the specific things asked for being the bringers of the desired experience in the opinion of the asker. The words, then, are symbols for the things asked for, but the things themselves but stand for the experiences that are hoped for." MT-21.2:4-6

The question becomes, then, what is in our heart? What are the things hoped for? What is in our heart and the things hoped for, are the basis of our religious experience which can be either heaven or hell.

Peace comes from surrendering to the Love of the Divine

Most Unitarian Universalists have control issues. They have been called heretics and rebels because they don't like authority. UUs want to be the boss of themselves and don't like clerical authority of any kind. Consequently, UUs have difficulty finding the peace that is not of this world because they find it difficult to surrender, to give up control.

What is the peace that is not of this world? What is the peace that goes beyond all understanding?

This peace comes from the awareness that nothing real can be threatened and die.

It follows that nothing unreal exists.

This understanding, my friends, is the peace of God which is beyond all understanding and is not of this world, meaning not on the path of the ego.

The basic doctrine of Buddhism is based on the idea of anica or impermanence. The only thing unchanging on the path of the ego is that all things change, and change continually. In physics this is called the law of entropy.

Buddhism teaches that attachment causes suffering because we will lose on the path of the ego whatever we become attached to.

This suffering is the opposite of the peace we seek.

If all things on the path of the ego change and bring us suffering if we become attached to them, where then does peace abide?

Peace abides in the Love of God. This peace is manifested in Loving Kindness which flows from forgiveness and gratitude.

So if you would have peace that is not of this world, forgive yourself and others who cling to the path of the ego, and encourage yourself and others to surrender themselves to the Love of the Divine.