A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson # 93, Light and joy and peace abide in me.

 Lesson #93

Light and joy and peace abide in me.

If we imagine a person like an onion with layer upon layer upon layer of sludge, dirt, and detritus burying a brilliant, glistening, luminous diamond at our heart, we get a sense of what today’s lesson is conveying. Light and joy and peace abide in me although I may not see it yet, or be aware of it yet. But it’s there whether we see it and are aware of it or not. That brilliant diamond in our heart is the Divine Spark from which we emerged in our incarnation and which is part of us eternally.

In the third step of Alcoholics Anonymous, we make the decision to set all the sludge and dirt and detritus aside and focus on the brilliant diamond within. In the eleventh step we decided to seek through prayer and meditation our conscious awareness of the Divine Spark within where light and joy and peace abide.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which emanates from the light and joy and peace which abide deep down in our minds and which our faith tells us is there even though it often seems buried so deep that we might doubt its existence.

Today, we are asked to remind ourselves and reflect for 5 minutes at the beginning of every waking hour that light, joy, and peace abide within. Connecting with this Divine Spark we can sing, “Joy to the world.”

My Kind Of Church Music

Jeremiah was a bull frog, Three Dog Night

Spiritual book discussion, The Spiritual Child, The Developmental depression

 

Topic Twenty Seven

The Developmental depression

Adolescent depression is set up to answer the question: Will the hard times be met with resilience or with deepening hopelessness, and perhaps recurrent depression? This is all based upon the outcome of individuation: Who am I? Who am I going to be, given this challenge or loss? What am I really here for? How am I going to understand and engage the bumps in life? The more resources a teen has for resilience—and spirituality is a significant one—the better equipped she is to understand and engage those bumps.

The research data and our evolving understanding of spiritual development and adolescence call for a new, more flexible, variable, and nuanced model of adolescent depression. We need a more discerning understanding of depression that enables us to conceptualize a developmental depression in which transcendent opportunity has been blocked or foreclosed upon. The fact that spiritual awakening co-occurs with such a robust protective effect during a biologically timed window of onset for depression suggests that we are looking at a shared underlying process, essentially two sides of the same coin. We will see in the data in a moment that depression can be viewed as foundationally spiritual in nature, with a potential spiritual resolution. We know from Alcoholics Anonymous and research into spiritually engaged treatment approaches for substance abuse and eating disorders that the transcendent faculty can support healing and recovery.

Miller, Dr. Lisa. The Spiritual Child (p. 276). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

The developmental task of adolescence is the forging of one’s identity and figuring out where one belongs and will fit in the society one is a member of. 

What are the major socializing influences in our modern society? Prior to the 1960s they were, in this order: family, church, school, peers, media. Now in 2020 it is family, media, peers, school, church. Some might say it is peers, media, family, school, church.

Church, and spiritual formation, has slipped to last place . Research has found that this is a problem. The inner compass has been supplanted by an external compass that is fickle and impermanent. The orientation to external compasses does not provide the proper guidance for mentally healthy individuation. Being other directed leads to increased symptoms of anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and other dysfunctional behaviors.

Research has found that spiritual formation is a basis for resilience which helps the teen weather the stresses and struggles not only of adolescence but of later life.

The primary question rarely discussed with adolescents today is “What is the good life? How should one live? What really matters? Parents and adults need not have the answers, but they are catalysts, facilitators to help the developing teen find meaningful answers for oneself.

Teens need to be challenged to go on their vision quest. The vision quest is a challenging situation where one finds out what one is made of. The vision quest is the transition from childhood to adulthood. Can religious institutions provide appropriate opportunities for the vision quest or will it be left to the teens peer group to provide this experience which often involves risky and destructive behaviors?

Was there a milestone event or activity which facilitated your growth from childhood to adulthood? What was it? How did it play out in your life? Did it make you more resilient or more vulnerable and fragile? What role might you play in creating a vision quest experience for your children and grandchildren?

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #92, Miracles are seen in the light, and light and strength are one.

 Lesson #92

Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.

The miracle, according to A Course In Miracles, is that shift in perception from the things of the ego to the things of the Spirit. In today’s lesson we are told that miracles are seen in the light of Love and the light of Love and strength are one.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, in the eleventh step we improve our conscious contact with the Light through prayer and mediation and seek the power that comes from bringing our will into alignment with the Light of Love. In doing so we experience the strength which the Light of Love empowers us with.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to accept one another and encourage spiritual growth which entails seeing the Light of Love and realizing that in this sight strength abides.

Today, we are asked to take twenty minutes twice to go within ourselves to see the Light and be empowered by its strength. We also are asked whenever we find ourselves feeling stressed, anxious, angry, sad, to go to the Light of Love and consider what Love would have us do.

Good news - Jaythan Kendrick exonerated and released after 25 years in prison for a murder he didn't commit.

 Jaythan Kendrick was arrested for the murder of a 70-year-old woman during a robbery in Queens, New York in November 1994 — but he didn’t commit this crime.

Today (11/19/20), after 25 years of wrongful incarceration, Jaythan has finally been freed. A judge vacated his conviction based on newly discovered DNA evidence and witnesses that strengthened his long-standing claims of innocence.

For more click here.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations. UU A Way Of Life is a proud supporter of the Innocence Project.

Spiritual book discussion, The Spiritual Child, Interior spiritual life and the development of resilience.

 Topic Twenty six

Interior Spiritual life nurtures resilience based on purpose and meaning.

Confused, unprepared, and unmet in his spiritual burgeoning, a teen’s struggle is often misunderstood. Research suggests that a significant portion of teens who are depressed do not have a biologically based medical depression, but have developmental depression originating in the struggle for spiritual individuation and responsive to spiritual support.

Miller, Dr. Lisa. The Spiritual Child (p. 268). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

In our modern society we do not have clear cut and widely shared rights of passage. Some might point to the age 16 and getting one’s learner’s permit for driving a car, or age 18 and the right to vote, or a confirmation in a church or a Bar Mitzvah or Bat Mitzvah in a synagogue as examples of a right of passage of sorts. For others it might be going off to college or the one of the Armed Services or having a child and/or getting married..

For many, the end of high school is a time of a sense of loss, structure, purpose and social support. What is one to do with oneself next in life? Without a spiritual compass and a sense of transcendent purpose in life, adolescents are cast adrift and are vulnerable to substance abuse, psychiatric, criminal justice, and other forms of social dysfunction. An interior spiritual life is a protective factor contributing to resiliency and constructive positive functioning.

Does Unitarian Universalism provide the much needed guidance for finding a sense of purpose and meaning in life? In what is this sense of meaning and purpose grounded? Is it substantial enough to base a life on?

All too often do UUs miss the mark when they try to anchor teens and young adults in social justice issues rather than the development of an interior spiritual life?

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #91, Miracles are seen in light.

 Lesson #91

Miracles are seen in light.

A miracle is a shift in perception from the world of the ego to the world of the Spirit. Are you a body with a soul or a soul with a body? The answer to this question makes all the difference.

If you say that you are a body with a soul you dwell in darkness in the world of the ego. If, however, you say you are a soul with a body you are miracle-ready moving into the light where the world of the Spirit is in your line of vision.

Today’s lesson tells us that the Light is always there, but the clouds of darkness hide the light from us. When we get above the clouds, the light illuminates a shift in consciousness which is called miraculous.

In Alcoholic Anonymous, we are told in step eleven that through prayer and meditation we can improve our conscious contact with our Higher Power (the Light) asking to understand It’s will and the power to carry it out. In AA we rise above the darkness by turning our will over to our Higher Power by letting go and letting God.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which is in the light if we can get past the darkness which enshrouds many people and blocks our perception of it. When we practice looking above the darkness we find the crack where the light comes in. And as we become aware the source of light grows and we find a miraculous sense of peace and bliss.

Today we are asked to take ten minutes three times and look above the clouds of darkness for the light. We are asked to accept that this light is our true home which has always been there but which we could not see because our vision was clouded by the barriers and obstacles of the ego.

A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #90, Review of lessons 79 and 80

 Lesson #90

Review of lessons 79 and 80.

79 - Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.

80 - Let me recognize my problems have been solved.

I like to say, “If you can’t name it, you can’t manage it.” So, what’s the problem?

The basis of all problems is our willfulness. When things don’t go our way we are aggrieved. We feel like a victim and this sense of victimization fills us with fear, anger, guilt, and resentment. 

Once we are aggrieved, our grievances seem to spiral and make things worse not better. Oftentimes, we hit bottom, and if we seek help in a twelve step program such as Alcoholics Anonymous we, at step one, finally admit that we were powerless and our willfulness has made our life unmanageable. We come to recognize in this admission that if we turn our will and lives over to our Higher Power, the problem, our willfulness, has disappeared and in this moment our problems have been solved.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning which takes us within where we become aware of the inherent worth and dignity of every person and the interdependent web of which we are a part which transcends our separation that misleads us to believe that we are an authority and power unto ourselves. When we realize that the problem is our separation from the Oneness we come to the awareness that this separation is a false belief and that the problems created by our false belief in our separateness have already been solved because they never, in truth, ever really existed.

Today, I will take 2 10 - 15 minute periods of silence to recognize that the basis of all my problems is my willfulness which is based on the false belief in separation, and recognizing that the separation is an illusion, and my willfulness is a problem which has already been solved.