Make me One with Everything.

Evolution is a process in which you seem to proceed from one degree to the next. You correct your previous missteps by stepping forward. This process is actually incomprehensible in temporal terms, because you return as you go forward. The Atonement is the device by which you can free yourself from the past as you go ahead. It undoes your past errors, thus making it unnecessary for you to keep retracing your steps without advancing to your return. In this sense the Atonement saves time, but like the miracle it serves, does not abolish it. As long as there is need for Atonement, there is need for time. But the Atonement as a completed plan has a unique relationship to time. Until the Atonement is complete, its various phases will proceed in time, but the whole Atonement stands at time’s end. At that point the bridge of return has been built. T-2.II.6:1-9

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

This passage is dense. There are a lot of ideas expressed in it. If it were unpacked, deconstructed, here’s what we might learn:

1. Evolution is a process which moves forward absorbing the learnings from the past and making use of them in the future.

2. Evolution seems paradoxical because we return to our nondual oneness as we move forward shedding the events, activities, experiences of the ego world.

3. This evolutionary process seems to take time in the world of the ego and its culmination is the realization of the Atonement when time will end because it no longer has any purpose.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in step eleven, that we improve our conscious contact with God. This step encourages us to seek the Atonement, the healing of the separation of human beings from the Oneness.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person which resides in our shared Divinity. It is through division and separation that we have created hell and the recognition of our shared Divinity brings about the Atonement.

Today, we remind ourselves that we seek to be One again.

Acceptance of the Atonement brings peace

The Atonement is the only defense that cannot be used destructively because it is not a device you made. The Atonement principle was in effect long before the Atonement began. The principle was love and the Atonement was an act of love. Acts were not necessary before the separation, because belief in space and time did not exist. It was only after the separation that the Atonement and the conditions necessary for its fulfillment were planned. Then a defense so splendid was needed that it could not be misused, although it could be refused. T-2.II.4:1-6

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The “Atonement” in A Course In Miracles is the healing of the separation. The atonement is needed because of the “tiny mad idea” that we can separate ourselves from our Creator.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested in, step three, that we turn over our willfulness to our Higher Power. This “turning over” is a miracle and facilitates the Atonement.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. In affirming and promoting this respect we are working a miracle which hastens the Atonement of the whole world.

Today, it is suggested that we consider the Atonement, the giving up of our conditional love for unconditional love, as our natural inheritance, and abide in the peace this awareness brings.

Epictetus and the Serenity Prayer

 For an interesting article on the Serenity Prayer and the stoic philosopher, Epictetus, click here.

Where, pray tell, does our treasure lie?

You can defend truth as well as error. The means are easier to understand after the value of the goal is firmly established. It is a question of what it is for. Everyone defends his treasure, and will do so automatically. The real questions are, what do you treasure, and how much do you treasure it? Once you have learned to consider these questions and to bring them into all your actions, you will have little difficulty in clarifying the means. The means are available whenever you ask. You can, however, save time if you do not protract this step unduly. The correct focus will shorten it immeasurably.T-2.II.3:1-9

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

What you do depends on what you believe. What you believe depends on what you’ve been told. What you’ve been told depends on a multitude of things but the most basic factor is the power of those who have an incentive to get you to believe certain things. When we believe what we have been told rather than what we know deep down in our heart we perpetrate soul murder. As Polonius says in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet,”above all else to thine own self be true.”

Jesus suggests that when we are confused about the value of the goal we are being told to pursue, we should ask ourselves “What is this goal for?” The goal will be what we or others  treasure and what we treasure is where our mind is. We can be right minded or wrong minded. So at any given time we can ask ourselves which is it?

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in step four, that we do a fearless moral inventory What have been our goals? What are our beliefs? How have our beliefs led to certain actions? Have those actions based on those beliefs been constructive and life giving or destructive and life quelching?

In Unitarian Universalism we are asked to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The emphasis is on “responsible.” Responsible means that we should ask ourselves what is this search for? What is it we think we are looking for and want?

Today, it is suggested that we ask ourselves when we are making decisions about doing things, what is this activity for?

No cash donations needed.

We are getting deluged with end of the year requests for money from all kinds of non profit organizations. Many with the lure of "matching funds" from some mysterious source that will double the amount of your donation.

Have you noticed that we never ask for money on UU A Way Of Life? There is a donation button in the right hand column but only one time in the existence of this blog over 10 years or so has anyone used it to donate money.

Bono from the band U2 said one time, "The god I believe in isn't hard up for cash." Here at UU A Way Of Life we seem to believe in the same god as Bono.

So, here at UU A Way Of Life we don't ask for cash. We do ask for a little bit of your time and energy in reading our material and thinking about the ideas we share. The thing you can do for our UU A Way Of Life ministry is pay it forward, meaning that you can share the ideas that you find useful and helpful with others as we work for the salvation of the world from the wiles and snares of the ego to return to the unconditional love of the creative force we call God.

May the year of 2022 be the best year ever for you and all the people of the world. Jesus said the way to the kingdom is "to love as I have loved." So let's get on with it and keep the faith as we move forward.

You, too, can work miracles.

You can do anything I ask. I have asked you to perform miracles, and have made it clear that miracles are natural, corrective, healing and universal. There is nothing they cannot do, but they cannot be performed in the spirit of doubt or fear. When you are afraid of anything, you are acknowledging its power to hurt you. Remember that where your heart is, there is your treasure also. You believe in what you value. If you are afraid, you are valuing wrongly. Your understanding will then inevitably value wrongly, and by endowing all thoughts with equal power will inevitably destroy peace. That is why the Bible speaks of “the peace of God which passeth understanding.” This peace is totally incapable of being shaken by errors of any kind. It denies the ability of anything not of God to affect you. This is the proper use of denial. It is not used to hide anything, but to correct error. It brings all error into the light, and since error and darkness are the same, it corrects error automatically. T-2.II.1:1-14

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

This is a very rich passage and it is quoted in its entirety because to deconstruct it seems to dilute its message.There are several points being made. First, we all can be miracle workers. All we need to do is decide to refocus from the world of the ego to the world of Spirit.. Second, the power to do miracles comes from giving up fear that anything in the world of the ego can hurt what we really are. Third, when we experience fear it is because we have given value to wrong things. When we value the right things we experience peace. Fourth, to deny the value of wrong things of the ego is the proper use of denial because denial is not being used to hide anything real but to allow the awareness of Unconditional love to arise.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in step one, that we admit we are powerless over the things of the ego and in step three that we make a decision to turn our willfulness over to our Higher power or as they say in A Course In Miracles to work a miracle.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which takes us to the world of Spirit, unconditional love, from the world ot the ego which is conditional love.

Today, we can recognize and acknowledge that we can work miracles by refocusing from the things of the ego to the things of Spirit, from conditional love to unconditional love. Begin with yourself and move outward from there.

What is ubuntu?

Ubuntu is an African concept which means that a person cannot be fully formed in isolation. Put simply we can say, "I am because we are."

In Unitarian Universalism ubuntu is recognized and acknowledged in our seventh principles which is to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

From, The Power Of Interdependence by Adam Russell Taylor in the Sept./Oct 2021 issue of Sojourners magazine p.24

Interdependence is not often considered a cornerstone of the American ethos, but it lies at the heart of what binds us together, in both a moral and a practical sense. It constitutes an essential beatitude of building the Beloved Community. A greater understanding of how our lives are inextricably linked opens up new possibilities for developing empathy toward others and helps us counteract the atomized, overly individualistic excesses of American culture. Ubuntu also provides a needed lens to understand the ways in which all parts of the globe have become increasingly interdependent. Both our security and our prosperity are increasingly tied to the rest of the world. Global crises such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic require shared global leadership and cooperation.

American culture is dysfunctional because of its belief in the primacy of the individual without recognition, acknowledgement, and gratitude for what others have provided for the person. Galen Guengerich has taught that a primary quality of Unitarian Universalism could be gratitude which is based on a recognition of what he calls "radical dependence." Without others we would not exist and survive.

At this time , the beginning of 2022, we are more aware than even because of climate change, the Covid pandemic, the proliferation of guns, that we are threads of a fabric which can be shredded or woven together. As the old saying goes, "United we stand. Divided we fall."

A major basis of our faith at UU A Way Of Life is Ubuntu. Will you join us as we pursue our mission of encouraging spiritual development to achieve our vision of salvation of the world?