Are UUs the yeast in the dough rising to a better society?

In fact, history reveals that increasing the quantity and quality of spiritual experience in a given social context results in cultural evolution. In other words, spiritual experience, broadly understood, is what causes consciousness to evolve. And when consciousness evolves among a critical mass of people, their larger culture also evolves in the process. Our personal encounters with a transcendent or infinite dimension of reality can therefore have indirect political implications. Accordingly, as I will argue, deepening our understanding of what spiritual experience is and how it can be fostered in ourselves and others is one of the most direct ways we can make the world a better place.

McIntosh, Steve. The Presence of the Infinite . Quest Books. P.2

Stephen Gaskin said one time that the only thing we have to give to another human being is our own state of being. And what happens when we share our best selves with one another? Does this happen in our Unitarian Universalist congregations? 

The sharing of our best selves seems rare in UU as compared to other religious institutions, traditions, and practices. Why?

There are many reasons. Perhaps one of the most fundamental is the lack of mission and vision. From where will a clarity of mission and vision come?

Choose the awesome and not the mundane.

A major contribution of miracles is their strength in releasing you from your false sense of isolation, deprivation and lack. T-1.1.42

A miracle is a shift in perception from the world of the ego or conditional love to the world of Spirit or unconditional love. When we shift our perception from the ego to Spirit it releases us from our loneliness, our sense of inadequacy, our guilt, and our fears of scarcity.

In Alcoholic Anonymous it is suggested in step three that we turn our willfulness over to the care of God and in so doing tap into the wondrous vastness of the Oneness of which we are a part. When we shift our perception, who could ever feel lonely again?

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. With the shift in perception from conditional love to unconditional love we are filled with a joy and peace that is beyond description and understanding.

Today, we are encouraged to choose the awesome and not the mundane.

Do you want a piece or the whole?

Wholeness is the perceptual content of miracles. They thus correct, or atone for, the faulty perception of lack. T-1.1.41:1-2

The miracle is the shift in perception from the world of ego which is a world of separation, division, scarcity, and lack to the world of Spirit which is a world of wholeness, abundance, and fulfillment.

In Alcoholic Anonymous, in step eleven, it is suggested that we improve our conscious contact with God. This conscious contact with God instead of the ego is a choice we always have. We have not always been aware of our choice, but now that we are as the result of the program, we know that we have the power in our minds to choose either ego or Spirit.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and this search takes us eventually from the world of the ego to the world of Spirit. When we arrive in the world of Spirit we become joyously aware of the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Today, we have a decision to make: do we focus on lack or fullness, separation or union, pieces or the whole?

The vision that is holy.

The miracle acknowledges everyone as your brother and mine. It is a way of perceiving the universal mark of God. T-1.1.40:1-2

The miracle is the shift in perception from the world of the ego to the world of Spirit. It is a shift from seeing separation and division to the unified Oneness of creation. The miracle is right mindedness which becomes aware of the nondual reality of creation.

In Alcoholic Anonymous it is suggested in step eleven that we improve our conscious contact with God.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

As John Donne wrote in his poem, “No man is an island unto himself. Every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” 

There is a meme on the internet which says that no individual is an individual alone.

Today we are reminded that the miracle is seeing the big picture, seeing the whole, and this vision is holy.

Happy to be here.

The miracle dissolves error because the Holy Spirit identifies error as false or unreal. This is the same as saying that by perceiving light, darkness automatically disappears. T-1.1.39:1-2

Jimmy Cliff’s great song “I can see clearly now” could be the anthem for Miracle Principle 39. Cliff sings, “I can see clearly now the rain has gone. I can see all the obstacles in my way. Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind. It’s gonna be a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day.”

In Alcoholic Anonymous it is suggested, in the eleventh step, to improve our conscious contact with God. This contact requires that we clean away the obstacles to our awareness of our natural inheritance which is God’s unconditional love for us.

In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. What does it take for us to perceive this inherent worth and dignity? We must forgive making other people and circumstances responsible for our unhappiness. Aligning our will with God with the help of the Holy Spirit we experience great peace and joy.

I came into the kitchen from the back door and Larry, who was staying with me temporarily,  was standing in the dark  making something to eat. I was startled at first and I asked “Why are you making a sandwich in the dark?” Larry said, “Well, if people are going by and they see the lights on  they might see that I am up and stop to hang out and I don’t want to hang out with anybody right now.”

I said, “Okay. How are you doing?”

Larry said, “I’m happy to be here.”

We both laughed. I said, “That’s a good one. I’m going to steal that from you.”

Ever since when someone greets me and asks me how I’m going, I reply, “Happy to be here.” Most people don’t know what to say. The response seems to startle them and stop them cold. But once in a while someone will reply, “Well, it’s good to see you.” To which I reply, “It’s good to be seen.”

Today, wherever you are, be happy to be there in the present with love in your heart no matter what.

The shift of apprehension from the world of the ego to the world of Spirit is a miracle.

The fifty principles of miracles provides the student with an overview of the metaphysics of A Course In Miracles. The metaphysics of A Course In Miracles is the undoing of our belief that we are separate from God. This shift in perception and understanding is the miracle.

The major themes in A Course of Miracles are nonduality and undoing of the perception of separation. In the commentary here the attempt has been made to tie these themes to the teachings of Alcoholics Anonymous and Unitarian Universalism. The purpose of the attempt at this alignment is synergy which allows the ideas to expand and extend in widening circles of spiritual development of people on our planet. These ideas are foreign to the majority of the population of the earth at the present time. There is a tremendous need for spiritual growth for humanity if we are to survive as a species. The spiritual growth to the appreciation of nonduality is the next step in human evolution as we come to appreciate the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

A Course In Miracles teaches that our perception of the ego world is an illusion. Quantum physics teaches the same thing. Is the table you see as a material object a real thing or simply a collection of atoms, and waves of energy condensed and solidified undetectable without x ray vision?

A Course In Miracles, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous and Unitarian Universalist theology, helps us apprehend our lived experiences in a mindful instead of a mindless way. These commentaries on the fifty principles of miracles are intended to assist in the development of this apprehension.

Do your best and turn it over.

The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles. He recognizes both God’s creations and your illusions. He separates the true from the false by His ability to perceive totally rather than selectively. T-1.1.38:1-3

In this principle the Holy Spirit is introduced as a help mate in discernment. What is God’s will for me? What would Love have me do? If we are unsure, we can ask. The Holy Spirit is that part of our mind which helps us figure it out. The Holy Spirit does so by helping us apprehend and understand the big picture.

In Alcoholic Anonymous it is suggested, in step ten, that we continue to take a personal inventory and when we make mistakes to promptly admit it.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We can put an emphasis on “responsible” and what does “responsible” mean? It means we ask for help when we don’t know something. Help can come from many sources. The best perhaps is prayerful reflection in which we invite the Holy Spirit to guide us.

Jeremiah wondered whether he should stay married or get a divorce. Jermiah’s wife would say abusive things full of contempt and disdain. Jeremiah understood that she was an unhappy woman with a lot of baggage but the abuse was starting to overwhelm him. Jermiah sought consultation from his pastor who told him to pray on it. Jeremiah then went to see a psychotherapist who asked him if Jeremiah was taking good care of Jeremiah what would Jeremiah tell himself to do? “In other words,” said the counselor, “what would be the most loving thing for yourself as well as for your wife?”

The therapist said, “If you aren’t taking good care of yourself you will not be able to care for others. Like the stewardess says before your plane takes off when she is giving the passengers emergency instructions, ‘If the cabin loses air pressure an oxygen mask will fall down from the overhead compartment for you to breathe from. Put yours on first before you assist other people.’ It sounds, Jeremiah, like you need to put your oxygen mask on first.”

The psychotherapist was asking Jeremiah to look at the big picture. What would happen if Jeremiah chose divorce is difficult to know but to continue on the same path was not good for either Jeremiah or his wife. Perhaps Jeremiah needs to learn new ways of loving his wife which is from a place of detachment from the abusive behavior. Asking the Holy Spirit for guidance is a search for the whole, the big picture. The whole is holy.

Today, we are to do our best and ask the Holy Spirit to do the rest. We “turn it over having done what we can do.” When we bring our will into alignment with God’s will for us, miracles occur.