Spiritual humor

Jack asked Jill: "Do you know what the difference is between revelation and miracles?"

Jill answered: "A revelation is when I tell you something about yourself you didn't know before. A miracle is when you believe me."

Revelation and miracles

Unitarian Universalists aren't big on mysticism. They tend to be too rational and intellectual and caught up in their heads to encourage too much turning inward to their hearts. "The movement" as they like to refer to their religion is more about focusing on the path of the ego than the path of the spirit. This, though, has not always been the case, especially when one comes to understand the earlier Universalist roots.

The early Universalists understood and taught that we are all one and that "God" loves God's creation unconditionally. Since this early insight, the faith has lost its moorings and has become more focused on egoistic concerns much to its detriment. 

Currently, UUs eschew discussions or thoughts about revelation and miracles which robs it of its spiritual potential.

Revelation is about our experience of the Oneness, the nondual cosmic consciousness, the ground of our being, which some call God, others call Life, others call Love. Revelation cannot be described fully. It can’t be named and put into words. All the great religions teach the idea that God is unnamable.

The little boy, in Sunday school, was doodling while the teacher was explaining the lesson. The teacher irritated moved through the classroom to the boy’s desk, looked down at him and asked, “What are you doing?” The young boy looked at her sweetly and said, “I’m drawing a picture of God.” The teacher said, “Jordan, nobody knows what God looks like.” He said, “Well, you will when I’m done.”

People who tell you they know what God is, or what God is like, of what God wants are deluded or manipulative and running a scam. God is an experience not a person and some people can tune in and others don’t know it’s possible, have never tried, or have chosen not to. Most people can’t be bothered. They have other things on their minds that they are pursuing and it’s not until things are not going well for them that they wonder if there is a better way. It is written in A Course Of Miracles, in the text, Chapter 2, Section III, part 3, verses 5-10, “Tolerance for pain may be high, but it is not without limit. 6 Eventually everyone begins to recognize, however dimly, that there must be a better way. 7 As this recognition becomes more firmly established, it becomes a turning point. 8 This ultimately reawakens spiritual vision, simultaneously weakening the investment in physical sight. 9 The alternating investment in the two levels of perception is usually experienced as conflict, which can become very acute. 10 But the outcome is as certain as God.”

When the pain becomes high enough it dawns on the person that there must be a better way and this precipitates the turning to a search for what that better way might be. This search takes the person inevitably to miracle thinking and behavior. Remember, “revelation” is an experience, and “miracles” are thinking and behavior. Revelation is the experience of Love and this experience contributes to thinking on a different wave length and behaving on a different path. The person has left the path of the ego and is now traveling on the path of the spirit. Instead of asking, “What is best for me?” the person asks, “What would love have me do?”

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.

Leave ridiculousness behind and move to the Divine

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. How much of this search is ridiculous?

If it's true that what you think you see is what you get, how does this affect others?

If your perception is biased,what is the impact this has on your relationships?

No person is an island. Homo sapiens are social creatures and our "reality" is a social construction. Our biases not only impact our own perception, but are contagious and somtimes toxic.

What we think we see not only affects our own well being but the well being of others as well, especially those with whom we interact in more immediate and intimate ways.

Grandma said, "Birds of a feather flock together." What kind of birds do you flock with?

Is it true that you can tell a person by his/her friends or is this just another form of bias?

The path of the ego is littered with ridiculous people doing ridiculous things, and these ridiculous people doing ridiculous things leads to us being and acting ridiculous ourselves.

The path of the spirit is quite different. On the path of the spirit we leave ridiculous things behind and move on to Love and peace which comes from forgiveness and connecting with the Divine within ourselves and within others

Giving up our biases

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. If we turn off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, this search entails becoming aware of and giving up our biases.

Let's admit it. We are biased. When we look at things, we see what we think we are going to see not what is really there. Most people think it is the other way around, that the things we see trigger our thoughts, but it is more accurate to say that our thoughts influence what we see.

Tough thing to admit. Our egos rarely allow us to become aware of and acknowledge our biases. As the bumper sticker says, "Don't believe everything you think." We could tweak it to say, "Don't believe everything you see."

Turning from the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit involves giving up our thoughts, our biases, our assumptions, our prejudices.