For an overview of the concept of spiritual health and a way of working with the model to assess one's level of spiritual health, click here.
To review the twelve components of spiritual health, this list with links is provided:
Sunday, July 26, 2020
Spiritual health: the concept and a map.
For an overview of the concept of spiritual health and a way of working with the model to assess one's level of spiritual health, click here.
To review the twelve components of spiritual health, this list with links is provided:
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Explaining things to kids, Lying or telling the truth
Lying or telling the truth
Age 10 - 16
“Hey Dad I saw this thing on the Washington Post web site that the President has told 20,000 lies. He’s a billionaire and was elected President. Why do you keep telling me not to lie? How am I going to compete and get ahead in this world if I just tell the truth especially if it makes me look bad and gets me into trouble?”
“I guess if you want to lie like Donald Trump you can, son. I’m not going to tell you any more not to lie because you are right that liars can manipulate people with their deceit and get ahead in life. I wonder what kind of a life that would be never bring honest and never being able to be your real self but always a fake and foney?”
“What people don’t know can’t hurt you, dad. And if they think something about you or a situation that favors you that isn’t true, whose fault is that? As P.T. Barnum said, ‘There’s a sucker born every minute.’”
“You have to follow your own conscience son. If you think it is better to lie, then lie. Lying works for millions of people. It’s not my way though. I have never lied to you and I never will. That’s just the way I have chosen to live my life, but now it’s up to you to decide how you want to live.”
“So lyings okay.”
“I didn’t say that. I said it was up to you to decide.”
“So, if I said, Dad, that everything I say is a lie would you think that was the truth or a lie?”
“The truth.”
“But I already told you it would be false because I am always lying.”
“Sometimes, son, the truth appears to be a lie. It depends on the depth of your understanding. People rarely say what they mean. Most people lie most of the time. The president isn’t unusual. People do it all the time. A lot of the time people even believe their own nonsense when, in fact, they have no idea what they’re talking about. As Unitarian Universalists we affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. It sounds good in principle but people usually don’t pay much attention to the responsible part, So the question might be are you responsible or irresponsible instead of are you telling the truth or lying. President Trump is probably one of the most irresponsible leaders in the world. The question, son, is do you want to be responsible or irresponsible?”
“I guess I would rather be responsible so people trusted me.”
Well then it probably would be a good idea to tell the truth.”
The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin twelve: The need to be right, certainty, and arrogance
Cardinal sin twelve - The need to be right, certainty, and arrogance.
The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to improve spiritual health, reduce immoral and sinful behavior, and work across systems for positive societal change. This article is another in a series of articles on reducing immoral and sinful behavior. “Sinful” in the context of the UU A Way Of Life mission statement is defined as mistaken. The mission statement could read, “reducing immoral and mistaken behavior” but the mistakes being referred to are ones that cause spiritual injury and so we use the word “sinful.”.
The twelfth component of spiritual health is not knowing and curiosity. What is the opposite of not knowing and curiosity? It is certainty and arrogance.. It is asked in A Course In Miracles, “Would you rather be right or be happy?” Unfortunately, on the path of the ego we would rather be right and the need to be right can be a very destructive thing.
The need to be right leads to judgmentalism, bias, prejudice, discrimination, contempt, disdain, separation and exclusion. At the more extreme, it leads to attack, punishment, and death.
The root of many sins is certainty, arrogance, and pride which leads to attack, domination, subjugation, and oppression. Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Unitarian Universalism is relatively unique in its nonjudgmentalism, inclusivity, and open mindedness and open heartedness.
The skills of not knowing and curiosity for most people don’t come naturally because so much of human nature is fear based. The opposite of love is fear and most of us live our lives with anxiety and avoidance rather than love and security.
What helps us overcome our fears is intentional curiosity and acknowledgement of not knowing everything. To ask the question, “What would love have me do?” requires genuine and sincere questioning and curiosity. Oftentimes when genuinely curious we are easily surprised and satisfied with what we learn and become aware of. Setting aside pre-ordained assumptions and expectations, fills one with a delightful sense of mystery and awe. Socrates taught that the hallmark of a wise person is knowing what one doesn’t know. When a person is sixteen they think they know everything. By the time one is seventy six one knows how little they know and they approach life with awe, reverence, and curiosity.
Should we put our faith in certainty and authoritative texts and teachings or should we be open to the awe and mystery and the lifelong search for the holy and peace which is our birthright?
Friday, July 24, 2020
To go with the flow, give up attachments
The psychological slogan, "Go with the flow", refers to the ability to get into sync with the naturalness of the activity in which one is engaged. The opposite of flow is awkwardness, effort, deliberateness, self-consciousness.
There are times of oppression, misery, and depression when life seems very difficult and hard. It is exhausting to go on and we believe we have lost our connection with life's energy, enthusiasm, and joy. Such times are very hard and bring us to the brink of despair and suicide. And yet, the observing witness in us knows, or should know, that such states are temporary, they do not last forever. As we say in mental health, "suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems".
In the dark night of every spiritual journey there will come a glimmer of light, an opportunity to get out of the darkness and to start moving again in a positive direction. As Leonard Cohen sings in his great song, "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". Be looking for the crack for the opportunity to move, and when it comes, go with it. Move forward with faith even if it is scary and unfamiliar, and move lightly, weightlessly, leaving no ties to the past, no recriminations, no fanfare or public notice. Move silently, and with impeccability leaving nothing left undone, with no strings attached.
The rich young man asks Jesus, "Master what must I do to find eternal life?" and Jesus says to him in Mark 10:21-23, "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
Are we willing to give up everything to pursue the spiritual life? "Going with the flow" is not without its sacrifices. It does not come easily. It takes patience, perseverance, awareness, openness, willingness to give up our attachments, and love God and God's creation. It requires us to eschew worldly rewards like money, power, fame, lust, and other addictions.
Look for the crack, because there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. Follow the light; go with the flow.
There are times of oppression, misery, and depression when life seems very difficult and hard. It is exhausting to go on and we believe we have lost our connection with life's energy, enthusiasm, and joy. Such times are very hard and bring us to the brink of despair and suicide. And yet, the observing witness in us knows, or should know, that such states are temporary, they do not last forever. As we say in mental health, "suicide is a permanent solution to temporary problems".
In the dark night of every spiritual journey there will come a glimmer of light, an opportunity to get out of the darkness and to start moving again in a positive direction. As Leonard Cohen sings in his great song, "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". Be looking for the crack for the opportunity to move, and when it comes, go with it. Move forward with faith even if it is scary and unfamiliar, and move lightly, weightlessly, leaving no ties to the past, no recriminations, no fanfare or public notice. Move silently, and with impeccability leaving nothing left undone, with no strings attached.
The rich young man asks Jesus, "Master what must I do to find eternal life?" and Jesus says to him in Mark 10:21-23, "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
Are we willing to give up everything to pursue the spiritual life? "Going with the flow" is not without its sacrifices. It does not come easily. It takes patience, perseverance, awareness, openness, willingness to give up our attachments, and love God and God's creation. It requires us to eschew worldly rewards like money, power, fame, lust, and other addictions.
Look for the crack, because there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in. Follow the light; go with the flow.
Tuesday, July 21, 2020
The Moral Unitarian Univeralist - Cardinal sin eleven: conditional love and indifference
Cardinal sin eleven: conditional love and indifference
The eleventh component of spiritual health is unconditional love, What is the opposite of unconditional love? It is conditional love and indifference. Conditional love is “I’ll love you if……………………” of “I’ll love you when……….” Another form of conditional love is indifference, avoidance, and rejection and abandonment.
If you ask people what is the opposite of love they most likely will tell you hate. But this is not true. What do love and hate have in common? You care about your relationship with the person sometimes passionately one way or the other. What is the opposite of caring? It is not caring. And so the opposite of love is indifference, avoidance, rejection, and abandonment. These four things:indifference, avoidance, rejection and abandonment are another form of separation. Separation from the Unconditional Love of the Oneness which is the original sin when we began to think that we had separated ourselves from the love of God. This “tiny mad idea” as A Course In Miracles names it, gave birth to the ego and all its idols, and led to the worship of false gods.
The cardinal sin, mistake, is made many times a day and thousands of times in a life time. Every time we think and treat someone as “the other” we have sinned. There is no other. We are all part of the Oneness. When we have abandoned, judged, and rejected the other we have harmed our Self. The navigational north star as we decide on our own conduct and our relations with others, is the question, “What would Love have me do?” Love would have us extend the unconditional love of the universe to others. As Peace Pilgrim said, “I look for the divine spark in every person and focus on that.”
In what do we put our faith: conditional love or unconditional love? Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is in this inherent worth and dignity of every person that we put our faith. It is the foundational belief of the Universalists that God loves all of God’s creation unconditionally and there is no hell other than that of our own making. We put our faith in Unconditional Love on earth as it is in heaven.
Monday, July 20, 2020
Sunday, July 19, 2020
Explaining things to kids - Love everybody, even the ones who hate us
Over the last week, you would ask me questions at bedtime and I would answer them, kiss you goodnight, and go to the bathroom to sit alone and shake.
“If Trump doesn’t like boys who look like me, does that mean the government won’t like me? The army? What about the police?” How Do I Explain This to My Kids? . The New Press.p.9
Yes, the Trumpists don’t like people who look like you. You need to be careful around them. They will discriminate against you, attack you, try to exclude you, take you from me, and put you in cages, if not kill you. Many Americans will support them and allow them to do it because they have been told and taught to be afraid of people who look like us.
At church though they don’t think that and act that way. The people at church believe that everybody has worth and dignity. They love people who look like us and want everyone to treat everyone fairly. Even though there are millions of Americans who hate people who look like us, there are a few hundred thousand who don’t hate people who look like us but love people who look like us.
There are people who love you just like there are people who hate you. You need to grow up to learn the difference and to love everybody whether they love you or hate you. Only love gets love. Hate never gets love. So we need to love everybody even if some of them hate us.
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