A drop of the ocean

One of the metaphors I like best about our spiritual selves is that we are drops of the ocean. We evaporated from the ocean as mist, and separated ourselves from the whole, and we will eventually return to the ocean from which we were separated.

It is amusing when people insist on being their separate drop. The look for ways to improve their drop through self- cultivation. With all the self-cultivation in the ego world, though, they are still going to be just a drop, a single drop, ignoring the awareness that they are really part of the ocean.

It is written in A Course In Miracles, "The specialness of God's Sons does not stem from exclusion but from inclusion. All my brothers are special." T-1:V.3:5-6

Steven Wright has said, "They say that the universe is expanding. That should help with the traffic." With global warming the oceans are rising because the ice crystals of the planet's glaciers are rejoining their source. Sooner or later our separate egos will meld with the cosmic consciousness. The illusion of our separateness cannot withstand the truth of our being.

Indeed, the old cheer, "One for all and all for one," is more than just a cheer. It is a basic understanding of our spiritual life.

My mother

Holy humor - Jokes on you

Jack made a date with Jill to go out for dinner. When the day came, Jack went ot Jill's house to pick her up. However, Jill wasn't home. 

Jack angrily took his pencil out of his pocket, wrote "Asshole" on Jill's door, and then left.

Jill finally came home later and saw this. She quickly realized that she had missed the date, and she darted off to Jack's house.

"Please, please forgive me," Jill told the Jack when she got there. "I totally forgot about our date today. But when I got home and saw that you had written your name on my door, I came here as fast as I could."

Spiritual Reading - Ah, this! - The lustrous diamond within

This is the first post in a new feature on UU A Way Of Life which is called, "Spiritual Reading." I average 15 minutes of spiritual reading every day and will be featuring notes on the books I am reading. If you have a book you would like to feature or comment on, please forward the information to me in the comments or by sending me an email at davidgmarkham@gmail.com.

The book being discussed is "Ah, This!" by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh who later changed his name to Osho. This is a book on Zen and based on talks which Bhagwan gave at the Shree Rajneesh Ashram on Poona, India from January 3 - 10, 1980.

The Bhagwan says, "Before we enter into this small anecdote it will be good to understand a few things. The first: the Masters do not tell the truth. Even if they want to they cannot; it is impossible. Then what is their function? What do they go on doing? They cannot tell the truth, but they can call forth the truth which is fast asleep in you. They can provoke it, they can challenge it...........So anybody who pretends to give you the truth is simply exploiting your stupidity, your gullibility...........Truth cannot be given;it is already in you. It can be called forth, it can be provoked." P. 4

This is the meaning of education which comes from the Latin word, "educare" which means to lead out or call forth.

Unitarian Universalists know that there is no single path to Godliness, the Divine. UUs teach that there are many roads to Rome, many ways to skin the cat, and if you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!

We must find our own way and this free and responsible search for truth and meaning is within not without. The Master can not give you the truth. The Master helps you find your own truth which is already buried within you like a lustrous diamond.

Bringing truth to light

Unitarian Univeralistis covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Truth often, though, is kept in the darkness and is hidden. Finding it entails fear and loathing. The search takes courage and bravery and patience and persistence.

According to researchers anxiety disorders are the biggest mental health problem in the United States. As a psychotherapist, I have observed that what people are most afraid of is the truth.

Truth haunts people, if not consciously, then unconsciously. Experiences have been buried deep in the psyche and the truth of them leaks out creating a terror that is confusing, unexpected, baffling, and seems foreign.

The psychotherapist gently and supportively asks the client to re-member those things the person has repressed and alienated from his/her conscious awareness. The truth has been kept in the dark and because of what the darkness hides, people become afraid of the darkness itself.

The release from darkness entails two stages: first the recognition that darkness can only hide the truth so long and that eventually the truth will find its way to the light either with conscious articulation or in symptoms, and second, that the energy it takes to hide the truth is a waste and that life is lived much more easily and happily once the truth is set free.

Setting the truth free from the darkness is a relief and in the long run brings much peace and bliss. When we come to accept that "it is what it is" we are born again onto the path of the spirit and we leave the path of the ego behind.

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?”