From where does peace and joy arise?

Peace is a natural heritage of spirit. Everyone is free to refuse to accept his inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance is. The problem everyone must decide is the fundamental question of authorship. All fear comes ultimately, and sometimes by way of very devious routes, from the denial of Authorship. The offense is never to God, but only to those who deny Him. To deny His Authorship is to deny yourself the reason for your peace, so that you see yourself only in segments. This strange perception is the authority problem. T-3.VI.10:1-7

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

John Cougar Mellencamp sang his great song, Authority, with the chorus being, “I fight authority and authority always wins.” From where does our authority come? The ego tells us it is from ourselves. Young children sometimes say to adults “No! You’re not the boss of me.” This strong willfulness can carry into adulthood. To certain extent it is good and called “agency” and “empowerment” but having gone too far it becomes stubbornness and “pig headedness.” Not realizing from where our authority comes and arises, deprives us of our peace and joy which is our natural inheritance.

In Alcoholics Anonymous, in step one, it is suggested that we admit that we are powerless. Our egos are not the valid source of our authority. In step three, it is suggested that we turn to the will of God as we understand God.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. From where does this inherent worth and dignity come? It is not self manufactured but is born from an intrinsic nature created by something beyond the egotistical self.

Today, it is suggested that we deepen our understanding of who and what we are and who and what is the author of our spirits. When we turn our willfulness over to the will of God and claim our inheritance, peace and joy arise.

From whence does our authority come?

The issue of authority is really a question of authorship. When you have an authority problem, it is always because you believe you are the author of yourself and project your delusion onto others. T-3.VI.8:1-2

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

The three main existential questions all humans deal with are: Why was I born? What is the purpose of my life? What happens when I die? The ego would have us believe that we can make up any answers we want to these questions since we are “free” and no one is the boss of me and can tell me what to do? Sometimes the universe asks “How is that working out for you?”

We learn in Alcoholics Anonymous that our lives are unmanageable and that we would do better if we turned our willfulness over to the will of God.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning especially when we find out that what we have been taught and have been doing isn’t working and there must be a better way.

Today, it is suggested that we deeply consider who and what is the author of our lives. Did we create ourselves? No. So where did we come from when our spirit was incarnated into our physical bodies, and where are we going, and where will we wind up? As the Tao Te Ching says, “The Tao that can be described is not the eternal Tao.” The authority the ego promised us was a lie.

Drop our judgment and awaken to God consciousness.

The strain of constant judgment is virtually intolerable. It is curious that an ability so debilitating would be so deeply cherished. Yet if you wish to be the author of reality, you will insist on holding on to judgment. You will also regard judgment with fear, believing that it will someday be used against you. This belief can exist only to the extent that you believe in the efficacy of judgment as a weapon of defense for your own authority. T-3.VI.5:6-10

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

We humans, in the world of the ego, think, mistakenly, that we can create our own reality. This insight leads to the humorous phrase from the Course, “Would you rather be right or be happy?” Most of us, until we awaken, prefer to be right and thus we judge.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in the rooms, that we take our own inventory and not everyone else’s. This refers to the fourth step which suggests that we do a fearless moral inventory of all the times that the ego led us astray.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search takes us from the world of the ego to the world of Spirit and requires that we drop judgment and tune into the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Today, it is suggested that we stop trying to create reality and turn our willfulness over to God.

Basking in the unconditional love of our Transcendent Source

You have no idea of the tremendous release and deep peace that comes from meeting yourself and your brothers totally without judgment. When you recognize what you are and what your brothers are, you will realize that judging them in any way is without meaning. In fact, their meaning is lost to you precisely because you are judging them. All uncertainty comes from the belief that you are under the coercion of judgment. You do not need judgment to organize your life, and you certainly do not need it to organize yourself. In the presence of knowledge all judgment is automatically suspended, and this is the process that enables recognition to replace perception. T-3.VI.3:1-6

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

If you would have peace, drop the judgment and enter into the space of unconditional love. The Universalists taught this a few centuries ago in contrast to the Calvinists who preached “hellfire and brimstone.” To this day Unitarian Universalists have believed in the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Affirming and promoting this principle is the first principle of the UU tradition.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in the twelfth step, that the AA members carry the message of spiritual awakening of the program to others. When one knows that they are unconditionally loved by their creator the intrinsic motivation is to share this peace and joy with others.

Today, it is suggested that we set our judgment aside and bask in the unconditional love of our Transcendent Source.

Give up the unreal for the real.

In the end it does not matter whether your judgment is right or wrong. Either way you are placing your belief in the unreal. This cannot be avoided in any type of judgment, because it implies the belief that reality is yours to select from. T-3.VI.2:10-12

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

In teaching the metaphysics of A Course In Miracles, a key concept is that the things of the ego world are illusions, they are not real. When we perceive illusions, like mirages, or optical illusions, our judgment about them is neither right nor wrong because they do not exist to begin with. As in Plato’s cave if what we think is real is only shadows on the wall, how can our judgments about the shadows have any reality?

In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is suggested, in step eleven, that we improve our conscious contact with God. This means that we turn away from the things of the ego and drop our judgments about them. In improving our conscious contact with God we are encouraged to develop a nonjudgmental attitude.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning which will take us from the unreal to the real, from the world of the ego to the world of spirit, from the world of conditional love to the world of unconditional love.

Today, it is suggested that we give up the things of the ego and rest in the world of Spirit, that we avoid judgment in the unreal so that we can abide in the real.

Foundational block of UU faith: inherent worth and dignity.

Judgment is symbolic because beyond perception there is no judgment. When the Bible says “Judge not that ye be not judged,” it means that if you judge the reality of others you will be unable to avoid judging your own. T-3.VI.1:3-4

The choice to judge rather than to know is the cause of the loss of peace. T-3.VI.2:1

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

Judgment is based on perception. In the world of Spirit there is no perception, only knowledge. In Alcoholics Anonymous members are told not to take other people’s inventory. They should focus instead on God’s unconditional love which is theirs to realize.

In Unitarian Universalism, members covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This affirmation and promotion is based on knowledge not on perception which involves judgment. The awareness of inherent worth and dignity is based on knowledge, not perception. It is the foundational block of the UU faith.

Today, it is suggested that we give up perception based on judgment and rest in the knowledge of God’s unconditional love which provides great peace and joy.

Our natural state is unconditional love.

Communion, not prayer, is the natural state of those who know. God and His miracle are inseparable. How beautiful indeed are the Thoughts of God who live in His light! Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. Do not perceive yourself in different lights. Know yourself in the One Light where the miracle that is you is perfectly clear. T-3.V.10:4-9

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

Enlightenment is our natural state. Being one with the all, undoing the separation, is the miracle. When one’ s consciousness is cosmic there is no longer any perception because we know. Doubt disappears because we have arrived where we have been headed all along.

In Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested, in step eleven, that we increase our conscious contact with God. This involves taking things one day at a time, first things first, easy does it.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which ultimately takes us to communion with the unconditional love of God from whence we came and to which we return.