Daily Reflection, Day Fifty eight, Human being or human doer?

Day Fifty eight

Human being or human doer?

“I said before that only revelation transcends time.” ACIM.T-2.V.10:5

We say, “Where did the time go?” “It seemed like time stood still.” “It seemed like I was somewhere out of time.” “I felt timeless.” We are describing an altered state of consciousness where we lose our sense of ego boundaries. We experience ourselves as pure spirit without a body. We are pure being.

If you are a Buddhist, you would call this state of mind “bodhi” or enlightenment, if an Hindu you would call it “moksha” or freedom or “sahaja samadhi” or ongoing oneness, if a Sufi you would call it “baqa” or abiding in God, if a Christian you would call it deification or union with God. These are the descriptions of the mystical experience of spiritual awakening.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and if one were to engage in such a search where would one look? The path of the ego takes us outward in search of external things while the path of the Spirit takes us inward in search of union with the Transcendent.

Today, I will take several moments to relax and look within for the “no mind.” I will clear away the clutter of external cares and concerns which the ego populates my consciousness with. I will relax into the Oneness of timelessness and just be. After all, I am a human being not a human doer.

Climate justice - It's worse than you think.

Chapter one

 It’s worse than you think

It is worse, much worse, than you think. The slowness of climate change is a fairy tale, perhaps as pernicious as the one that says it isn’t happening at all, and comes to us bundled with several others in an anthology of comforting delusions: that global warming is an Arctic saga, unfolding remotely; that it is strictly a matter of sea level and coastlines, not an enveloping crisis sparing no place and leaving no life undeformed; that it is a crisis of the “natural” world, not the human one; that those two are distinct, and that we live today somehow outside or beyond or at the very least defended against nature, not inescapably within and literally overwhelmed by it; that wealth can be a shield against the ravages of warming; that the burning of fossil fuels is the price of continued economic growth; that growth, and the technology it produces, will allow us to engineer our way out of environmental disaster; that there is any analogue to the scale or scope of this threat, in the long span of human history, that might give us confidence in staring it down.

Wallace-Wells, David. The Uninhabitable Earth (p. 3). Crown/Archetype. Kindle Edition.

The biggest moral issue of our age is climate change. Those using a geological model for cosmology call it the “Anthropocene” meaning that the planet Earth is being shaped by human activity.

For all of human history, human beings have seen climate as a “force of nature” or as is written into our insurance policies “an act of God.” We have been in denial with our extraction technologies to enrich ourselves at Mother Nature’s expense and our naive practice of throwing “away” our garbage and the unwanted remains of utilization processes without being aware that there really is no “away.”

We human beings are coming to realize due to the consequences of our own actions that we are fouling our own nest. We are coming to realize that we have been arrogant, prideful, exploitative, and disrespectful of the interdependent web of existence which has given us life and sustains us here. We have taken the interdependent web for granted and lived with a grandiose sense of entitlement and Mother Nature has been very kind and supportive of our childish behavior until now when we have gone too far.

Mother Nature is telling us we need to grow up and take responsibility. We can’t just suckle at her breast forever. It is time for us to be responsible for ourselves and to treat her with gratitude, respect, and cooperation which she deserves. How long, after all, can we continue to take advantage?

The greatest moral issue of our age is stewardship and humble cooperation with the interdependent web. No faith tradition states this responsibility more clearly and visibly than the Unitarian Universalists who, in their seventh principle, covenant together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of which we are a part.

The question is: “How do we affirm and promote this respect for the interdependent web?” How are we doing? If we were to grade our performance what grade would we get?

To be continued.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty seven, The Choice between two paths

Day Fifty seven

The choice between two paths.

“Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable love. Awe should be reserved for revelation, to which it is perfectly and correctly applicable.” ACIM.T-1.II.2:7,3.1

Some people call revelation a mystical experience. While we use the word mystic to apply to saints of the past, it is rarely applied to people in contemporary times. Are there mystics among us and should mysticism be something that a person should aspire to?

The mystic aspires to have their consciousness united with God on a permanent basis while living in the world of the ego. Jesus taught that we can be in the world but not of the world.

The awakening process of spiritual development goes through five stages according to a scholar of mysticism, Evelyn Underhill, which are: the awakening of Self, purgation, illumination, dark night of the soul, and union with God.

This spiritual development of awakening is an intentional process that the seeker engages in voluntarily once the seeker realizes they have a choice between living on the path of the ego or the path of the spirit. Will I choose forgiveness and Love or fear, guilt, and attack?

Few, in our contemporary times, choose the way of the mystic because they don’t know such a path exists. It is a shame that the mystical tradition of the world’s religions is not taught as a choice that one has in how to live one’s life. If the mystical path is mentioned, it is described as an esoteric practice of old that is beyond the reach of “normal” people in our society. Seekers, though, often stumble across information about the mystical life. It is the choice of a small percentage of the population who have been seduced by the idols presented by the ego.

It is good to know that you have a choice: the way of the ego or the way of the Spirit. The way of the mystic, seeking revelation, is the path of unspeakable love that fills one’s awareness with awe and bliss.

Today, I will take several moments and reflect on my choice to pursue the idols of the ego or the path to God. One way is involved in fear, guilt, anger, and attack, and the other is involved with Love, forgiveness, peace, and compassion.

Topic of the month - Revelation

The topic for this month, February, 2020, on UU A Way Of Life is Revelation.

Revelation is direct experience of the Oneness which some call God and leaves one with overwhelming sense of peace and well being.

In order to experience Revelation one must completely shed one's ego and turn one's will over to the Higher Power. This is terrifying for most people and they are unable to do it on their own.

One can always ask for help from the Holy Spirit who is the mediator between the Oneness and us, the one's who have separated ourselves from the Oneness.

The first step in achieving an experience of the Oneness is to forgive ourselves and others for our egos, our separateness which we cling to with the tenacity of idolatry.

When we become one with the All, all doubt and fear are suspended and we experience abiding bliss.

Revelation, the Oneness with God, is the foundational belief of the Universalists. The Universalists have taught that this is an experience not a creed or thought system.

There are many paths to the experience of Revelation. Some call this enlightenment and others call it cosmic consciousness. Steve Taylor calls it the leap meaning the step from our ordinary state of being in the ego world to a more expansive state of wakefulness experiencing Oneness with our Source and Essence of our being.

Revelation has nothing to do with belief, but it has to do with knowing. Carl Jung said that he didn't believe in God, he knew there was a God. Have you ever had a time of confidence and experience in this knowing? Some people call this Grace. It is a harmonious combination of thoughts, feelings and intentions.

Colloquially, we sometimes talk about learning something which has come as quite a revelation. There is no greater revelation than to experience the Unconditional Love of God and realize that the world of the ego is an illusion and the only thing real is the Unconditional Love which sometimes we call "God" or the Tao, or the Unspeakable.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty Six, The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

Day Fifty six

The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.

“Revelation is intensely personal and cannot be meaningfully translated. That is why any attempt to describe it in words is impossible. Revelation induces only experience.” ACIM.T-1.II.2:1-3

The Tao Te Ching says the same thing when it opens in its first chapter with these words: “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth. The named is the mother of ten thousand things.”

What is revealed to each of us about the transcendent Higher Power cannot be put into words. It is an experience not a dogma or orthodox creed. Francis David, one of the pioneers in Unitarianism back in the sixteenth century said, “We need thought think alike to love alike.”

If you think you know what God is or who God is you have been dabbling in the lies of the ego. When we have actualized our potential for spiritual development we simply can say, “God is………………” and fall silent.

Today, I will avoid bombastic creeds and vain attempts to explain the Ultimate Oneness of the Spirit. I realize that any attempt to explain leads to separation and deductive thinking which will lead me astray. I will take several moments to just relax, clear my mind, and be at One with Everything.

Daily Reflections, Day Fifty five, The Power Of Choice

Day Fifty five

The Power Of Choice

“Revelation unites you directly with God. Miracles united you directly with your brother. Neither emanates from consciousness, but both are experienced there. Consciousness is the state that induces action, though it does not inspire it. You are free to believe what you choose, and what you do attests to what you believe.” ACIM.T-1.II.1:5-9

Actions speak louder than words. If you notice that a person is saying one thing, but doing something else, and you don’t know what they truly believe, you decide for the truth based on what they do.

Most people are not spiritually mature enough to know their own authentic beliefs. If you ask most people, “What makes you tick, they can’t tell you.” How about yourself, do you know what makes you tick? 

The bumper sticker says, “Don’t believe everything you think.” We can read the bumper sticker and the slogan makes us laugh with a glimmer of recognition that we don’t know ourselves very well, we have not been living examined lives, and we have given our lives over to the ego rather than joined with the Spirit.

As the quote above reads, “You are free to believe what you choose…” And if you choose the path of the ego, you will get judgment, guilt, fear, resentment, anger and grievance. If you choose the Spirit you will get Love, peace, forgiveness, Atonement, and bliss. The choice is ours. The choice has always been ours although, on the path of the ego, we may have forgotten our power of choice until a Teacher Of God reminds us that we have a choice.

Today, I will remind myself, especially when I am upset, that I have a choice to ask “what would Love have me do” or to make other people and events responsible for my unhappiness.

The most important justice issue for the survival of humanity - climate stewardship

The impact of The Uninhabitable Earth by David Wallace-Wells on my life has been significant. 

It's not that I didn't know and wasn't aware of many of the ideas and facts he describes in his book, but to see them put together in one place with such stark explicitness helped me appreciate the enormity of the Anthropocene which our species has created on the planet Earth.

Without awareness we are doomed to the negative consequences of our own behaviors as a species of mammals on the planet. Knowledge gives us power even though the truth hurts and can be horrifying.

I have been inspired to learn more, and do more, about the climate change issue. I am inspired to change my own personal habits of consumption and disposal, and also to engage in collective and political action to change the macro systems that affect the environment on this planet.

At age 74, I am lucky if I have another 10 or 15 years on this planet, and learning what I have learned now from this book, my life has new meaning and purpose, to work with the succeeding generations to assure, as best we are able, their health and well being, and the highest quality of life for them and their co-inhabitors on the planet and in the solar system.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Advocating for policies which protect this interdependent web, respect it, love it, live in harmony with it, is the most important justice work any congregation can be working on with great reverence and a sense of piety.