Ask Alexa - Is it true that projection makes perception?

Alexa: Is it true that projection makes perception?

Yes, as long as you are operating on the path of the ego. On the path of the spirit your experience is quite different.

Alexa: Did you hear about the person who spilled spot remover on his dog?

Yes, according to Steven Wright, the dog disappeared.

Alexa: What is the function of philosophy?

It is find the truth, beauty, and goodness in life by reflecting on our experience on the path of the ego.

Softening our rigid hearts and opening up to grace.

“I can’t talk to him. He has such a wall around him, it is impossible to get through.”

“I always have my guard up. I can’t relax with people. It seems I am always anxious, tense, and self-conscious. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I guess I am just anti-social. I feel like a real looser.”

Scars on our soul are the result of what was inflicted on us by violence, abuse, neglect, rape, warfare, economic conditions, religion, bad education, and some scars are inflicted on us by our own actions and decisions. It is harder to deal with the self-inflicted injuries and mistakes than it is by the abuse and harm caused by external circumstances and by others. With external abuse we know who to blame, but with self-inflected harm it is more difficult to be aware of and take responsibility for the harm we have done to our own souls.

Abuse and difficult events and circumstances can make us hard, calloused, and close hearted. We become defensive and self-protective expecting the negative, the hurtful, the injustice from others and from life. People often feel, even when things are going well, that this is not a normal state of affairs and it is only a matter of time before something bad happens again. This expectation is, of course, a self-fulfilling prophecy which always turns out to be self reinforcing because bad things are a normal part of life. This fearful and negative world view prolongs the pain and suffering.

Life does not have to be lived this way. Negativity begets the negative, but the opposite is also true that being positive begets the positive. Our goal should be to become resilient, open hearted. This requires a softening within, an opening of our heart and soul to grace. This is very risky because we have become defensive and self protective not wanting to be hurt again. Softening is a choice we must make to let our guard down, to allow others and life to penetrate the walls we have built up. This takes faith and courage and an over all understanding and acceptance that life has a way of having things all come out in the end as they should. To cultivate an attitude of curiosity, to become more open to positive possibilities, to be less defensive by developing more flexibility and a willingness to accommodate the negative without shutting down or retreating behind our wall takes courage, awareness, and faith in the overall abiding goodness in life in spite of its evil and injustice.

The mature soul is wise in the sense that the mature soul knows what matters and is open and flexible in dealing with the threatening aspects of life. The mature soul knows that it is in softening our hearts that our physical, psychological, social, and spiritual functioning improves. Markings in the dry clay only disappear when the clay becomes soft again.

Perhaps it is in giving up our defensiveness, in letting our guard down, in softening our rigid heart that we come to understand what Jesus of Nazareth meant when he said that we cannot enter the kingdom of god unless we become like little children once again.

Ask Alexa: What is forgiveness?

Alexa: What is forgiveness?

It is no longer making other people responsible for your happiness and peace.

Alexa: What did the Energizer Bunny have to do to get its job in advertising?

It had to pass a whole battery of tests.

Alexa: What's one of the problems with Unitarian Universalism?

They get caught up in social justice issues thinking they can change the world rather than nurturing the spirit which does not yearn for a better world of the ego but to become One with the Divine.

Dealing with the overwhelming

A friend of my son’s killed himself over the labor day weekend. The young man was 23. Why? We can speculate but never know for sure. He suffered from a mental illness and probably felt overwhelmed.

We all feel overwhelmed from time to time. We even have colloquial expressions such as “I lost it”, “I don’t know what I was thinking”, “I thought I would be better off if I went to sleep and didn’t wake up”, “everyone would be better off if I wasn’t here”, “nobody loves me”, “living life like this is just not worth living”.

AA, Alcoholics Anonymous, is not just a program to help a person struggling with problems with alcohol, it is one of the biggest and most significant spiritual movements in the world. While not religious, the foundation of the program is the recognition of one's "higher power" whatever the individual chooses that to be. AA has many slogans. One of my favorites is: "One Day At A Time". Jesus says in Matthew 6:34 a similar thing when he says, "So do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own. Sufficient for each day is its own trouble."

There are many ways that adversity presents itself to us. Adversity shows up in the form of a puzzle which engenders confusion because we don't know what to choose or how to proceed. Sometimes adversity shows up as an obstacle or barrier that is placed in our path that requires us to find a way around it, over it, under it, or with great effort, through it. Sometimes adversity shows up as entanglements in a situation where everything seems interconnected or dependent on something else making it impossible to get free, to gain clarity, to find our way from the labyrinth type maze that we are trapped in. No matter what kind of adversity we face, we are almost always better off if we break it down into smaller parts and take it one step at a time.

Easy Does It. Let Go and Let God. One Day At A Time. Fake It Til You Make It. First Things First, and my all time favorite – Keep coming back.

So many great slogans. So much wisdom as we attempt to manage the impossible and overwhelming. Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and while things can temporarily seem overwhelming there is always someone, somewhere who will understand, who will be there for us, who will provide solace, mercy, compassion, and grace. Finding such a person, at times can be difficult, but they are around in our world. They are not on the cover of People Magazine. You won’t see them on TV. They are not celebrities. They are walking this earth as ordinary human beings but they bring grace and when overwhelmed you need to find one of these grace bearers. When you do, no matter how difficult your life, no matter how overwhelmed you feel, you will know that you are in the presence of love and that makes even a wretched life worth living.

Ask Alexa - Why do I blame others for my unhappiness?

Alexa: Why is it that I blame everyone and everything I see for my unhappiness?

Because this view of other people and the world maintains your innocence as a victim.

Alexa: Did you hear about the lady that tested positive for Lyme disease?

Yes, I heard it really ticked her off.

The Metaphysics of ACIM and UU

Introduction

Unitarian Univeralism does not have a mystical tradition like other religions other than, possibly, the transcendentalists. It has become apparent that A Course In Miracles may be helpful to Unitarian Universalists who wish to pursue a spiritual path to achieve higher levels of peace, holiness, and salvation of the world.

If Unitarian Universalists are to practice the principles of A Course In Miracles, they must first understand the metaphysics of the Course which often seems to be counter intuitive. Within A Course In Miracles is a creation story which is the basis of all of its subsequent concepts, ideas, and practices. This book is an attempt to describe this creation story and the metaphysics of the Course so the practitioner can use the ideas presented in the Course in more effective, efficient, and satisfying way. The chapters of this book will be published regularly on UU A Way Of Life.

Ask Alexa - How could I be innocent if other people were not sinners?

Alexa: Why do bad things always happen to me?

If you are to reinforce your idea of yourself as innocent, then you need perpetrators to be sinners. It is a game you play wherein you see yourself as innocent being victimized by victimizers.

Alexa: Did you about the archeologist who discovered dinosaur bones of a five legged dinosaur?

Yes, it is the first evidence of reptile dysfunction.