A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - What makes people so anxious?

Anxiety disorders are the most commonly diagnosed psychiatric disorders in the United States today.

If we were to define "anxiety" as fear we might ask "What are people so afraid of?"

There might be many answers but the most common one would be, people are afraid that they are not good enough. They will be found out for the frauds they believe they are. Insecurity in the land of plenty is an epidemic in the United States which Mother Teresa declared the most spiritually impoverished nation on the planet.

As is written in A Course In Miracles in section IV of chapter 21, the biggest source of insecurity is "the fear to look within."

"You are indeed afraid to look within and see the sin you think is there." T-21.IV.I:3

The Course reassures us "The Holy Spirit will never teach you that you are sinful. Errors He will correct, but this makes no one fearful." T-21.IV.I:1-2

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Their Universalist faith tells them that they are loved Unconditionally. With this faith, what can there be to fear? What is there to be anxious about?

Prophetic women and men - Robert Redfield

Prophetic women and men is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life which appears on Sundays.

Robert Ray Redfield Jr. (born July 10, 1951) is an American virologist. He is the current Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the current Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, having served in both positions since March 2018.

For more click here.

Ask Alexa - Do you have a sense of humor?

Alexa: Do you have a sense of humor?

Yes, I laugh at absurdity and incongruity of life which sometimes is and sometimes isn't full of paradox and contradictions.

Alexa: I can tell if someone is lying just by looking at him?

Really?

Yes, and I can tell if he is standing too.

Very funny.

Stoic Philosophy - How do you spend your time?

Stoic philosophy is a regular feature on UU A Way Of Life which appears on Saturdays.

From Lucius Seneca's On The Shortness Of Life:

Believe me, it is the sign of a great man, and one who is above human error, not to allow his time to be frittered away: he has the longest possible life simply because whatever time was available he devoted entirely to himself.

Seneca. On the Shortness of Life (Penguin Great Ideas) (p. 10).

Comment:

Time is an illusion. In eternity it doesn't exist. Eternity is timeless and sometimes in this incarnation we experience this phenomenon and say things like, "Where did the time go?" and "It seems like time stood still."

Unitarian Universalists know that time is ephemeral and has no meaning in the context of their faith in the Unconditional Love of God of which we all are a part as we affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

A great person, according to Seneca, is a person who does not allow time to be frittered away but lives for the moment in the eternal now. As the Buddhists say with a laugh, "Be here now!"

Of course the past is gone, the future is yet to come, and so awareness of the now is a great gift which is why it is called a present.

What if we all had more empathy?

This is an interesting video entitled, "Get Service". It depicts a more empathic view of life. It's worth watching and lasts 4:24.

Ask Alexa - Why are people afraid to look within?

Alexa: Is the biggest fear that we all have that deep down we are defective and inadequate some way true?

No, it is not true and the biggest lie of the ego is that we are born with original sin. This is true of the body which we created to separate ourselves from the Oneness but it is not true of our Spirit which never fully left it.

Alexa: What was the name of the movie about the cannibal who ate his mother-in-law?

The movie was titled, "Gladiator."

Is a Unitarian Universalist church a "God talk free zone."

Unitarian Universalists say they are proud that they don't believe in anything and its a calling card for other nihilists looking for  social connections.

Jeremiah Sutton told his friends that they don't have to believe in anything to join his First Unitarian Church. "Oh it's great! No creed. No theology. No pomp and circumstance. Just some febrile hymns and coffee. The coffee is usually very good."

Joey Marcuse agreed. "Yeah, the coffee is great and sometimes they even put out some cookies, crackers and cheese, and the carrot sticks with the Ranch dip are the best."

"You go to church for the coffee," asked Sarah with a bit of a frown.

"Sure," said Jeremiah, "and the fellowship. They have all these old people there. At first I thought you have to be over 60 to join this church. It looked like an AARP convention. But they were all really nice and seemed to really want us to join. They thought Joey and me were a gay couple which seemed to really excite them."

"Yeah," Joey said. "I told them I was transitioning from Joelle and that seemed to really turn them on. Jerry and I didn't have the heart to tell them we were straight. We didn't want to let them down."

"I don't know," said Sarah. "Doesn't seem like the place for me. I kinda want to know more about the Higher Power if you know what I mean, and drinking coffee, eating carrot stickes and pretending I'm a lesbian doesn't seem like it would be helpful."

"Yeah, well, they don't seem too interested in spirituality if that's what you're looking for. In fact, talking about religion and stuff seems to make em nervous. I asked one guy what he thought about Jesus and he said he was an atheist and not only didn't believe in Jesus, he didn't ever believe in God," said Jeremiah.

"I asked him what God it was that he didn't believe in, and the guy just snorted and excused himself and walked away," said Joey.

Sarah said, "Maybe they should put up a sign at the entrance that says, "God talk free zone."