Immigrants have rights - pass the word

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.

You miss so much when............

From the New Yorker, 07/08/07/15/19

A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - What is a miracle?

It is written in A Course In Miracles:

T-21.V.3. There is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. And if you place your faith in Them, you will perceive another self in you. This other self sees miracles as natural. They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the body. They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one it makes. 

Miracles seem unnatural to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can influence each other. Nor could they do so. But minds cannot be separate. This other self is perfectly aware of this. And thus it recognizes that miracles do not affect another’s mind, only its own. They always change your mind. There is no other.

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. pp.456-457

Comment:

This passage in A Course In Miracles makes no sense to the average reader who does not understand the metaphysical thought system of the Course. Once the reader understands the metaphysical thought system of the Course, the passage makes perfect sense.

One of the primary ideas of the metaphysical thought system of the Course is that the ego divides and separates and the Divine is One. The metaphysical thought system is based on nonduality. There is only the Oneness and all else is an illusion, a dream. There is no difference as far as the Course's metaphysical thought system goes betweens the dreams that occur during sleep and the dreams that occur when one is "awake." Whether asleep or awake, the ego dreams continually. Daytime dreams are projections just as much as sleeping dreams are.

The "mind" is Oneness. It is the awareness of the interdependent Oneness which Unitarian Universalists refer to in their seventh principle. Since all egos don't exist because they are projections and the Mind is One, whatever a mind chooses affects the All since it is part of the All. When the text articulates "And it recognizes that miracles do not affect another's mind, only its own, They always change your mind. There is no other." it is to pointing to the idea that when the Mind, being One, chooses, whatever is chosen affects the whole.

When UUs covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person it can be thought of as not referring to separate egos but to the Divine Nature of which we all are a part.

And so, the "miracle" is not something that happens to external phenomena but the choice of an awareness of the Nature of Existence which operates above the dream of separation. We experience happiness when we awake from our dreams of separation and divisiveness and come to the realization that we all are One. This is one way of thinking about the basis of our Universalist faith in the Unconditinal Love which is God which can be thought of  in the ego world as a "miracle.".

Ask Alexa - Why was I born?

Alexa: Why was I born?

This is the primary existential question that all human beings struggle with and we must each figure this out for ourselves and the satisfying and fulfilling life in one in which we are true to ourselves as we explore the question as we go along living our lives.

Alexa:What happened to Pope Gregory XIII introduced his calendar in October of 1582?

From then on Pope Gregory XIII's days were numbered.

Spiritual reading discussion, Maturity by Osho, Article #2, The rejuvenation of innocence.

Maturity, Article Two

The rejuvenation of innocence.

What happens with the original face of the child, with the child’s original innocence?

The child was conditioned by society, and stuffed with knowledge. The process is called by many names and my favorite is “socialization.” Children become socialized into the values, beliefs, opinions and practices of the herd, first, their family of origin, and then by neighbors, school, peers, media, etc.

Osho puts it like this:
In the second birth he is going to gain what was available in the first birth, but the society, the parents, the people surrounding him crushed it, destroyed it. Every child is being stuffed with knowledge. His simplicity has to be somehow removed, because simplicity is not going to help him in this competitive world. His simplicity will look to the world as if he is a simpleton; his innocence will be exploited in every possible way. Afraid of the society, afraid of the world we ourselves have created, we try to make every child be clever, cunning, knowledgeable—to be in the category of the powerful, not in the category of the oppressed and the powerless.
 Osho. Maturity: The Responsibility of Being Oneself (Osho Insights for a New Way of Living) . St. Martin's Press. Kindle Edition.

 Comment: The corruption on the path of the ego can be almost complete. And yet, deep down within, there is a Divine Spark that is with us always.

 Things often have to get worse before they get better in terms of the consequences of our socialization. When we hit bottom, it dawns on us that there must be a better way. With this dawning begins the search which is captured in our Unitarian Univeralist fourth principle which is the affirmation and promotion of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. It is this search which takes us to the regaining of our lost innocence. Jesus has told us that unless we become like little children we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. It is this recapturing of our innocence through the shedding of our socialization and conditioning that creates our salvation.

In A Course In Miracles this shedding of our socialization, our conditioning, in a conscious way, is what the Course calls “forgiveness.” We are forgiving our mistakes and the mistakes of others in thinking that our socialization is real.

The Course tells us this socialization is all an illusion. Maturity is the recognition that our socialization is small stuff and not to be taken seriously.

At a deeper level, where we recognize our inherent worth and dignity, our true Self is to be found. We are precious diamonds encrusted with the dirt and slag of sociali

A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - What is your reality?

T-21.V.2. Reality needs no cooperation from you to be itself. But your awareness of it needs your help, because it is your choice.

Listen to what the ego says, and see what it directs you see, and it is sure that you will see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. You will experience depression, a sense of worthlessness, and feelings of impermanence and unreality. You will believe that you are helpless prey to forces far beyond your own control, and far more powerful than you. And you will think the world you made directs your destiny. For this will be your faith. 

But never believe because it is your faith it makes reality.

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. p456

Comment:

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and where does this search take them? Of what do they become aware? Is it a further exploration of the world of the ego, or is it an exploration of the world of Spirit?

Does the exploration for truth and meaning take them down a linear, reductionistic path of further divisiveness and separation  or does it take them to a systemic awareness of the interdependence of existence?

God is the Oneness of which we are all a part and UUs affirm and promote the respect for the interdenpendent web of existence.

If you believe you are a victim of circumstances something is wrong. You are on the wrong path. When you can forgive the circumstances and rise above them and become aware of your holiness being part of the whole, joy and peace arise and in this joy and peace is where your awareness can abide.

Ask Alexa - Why was I born?

Alexa: :Why was I born?

You were born to become the person God created you to become and to do with your life what God is calling you to do with it?

Alexa: Why didn't the person in the rowboat go any where?

Because the rower couldn't choose either oar.