Would you rather be right or know the truth?

The communication system of the ego is based on its own thought system, as is everything else it dictates. Its communication is controlled by its need to protect itself, and it will disrupt communication when it experiences threat. This disruption is a reaction to a specific person or persons. T-4.VII.2: 3-5

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

In psychology when the thought system encounters thoughts that don’t fit with its own, the person experiences what is called “cognitive dissonance.” This cognitive dissonance triggers anxiety and distress. The ego then insists that it is right. Thus the phrase from ACIM, “Would you rather be right or be happy?” The ego would rather be right.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UUs would rather know what is true regardless of whether the idea validates their thought system or not. In applying this principle, UUs are “open minded.” UUs know that ultimately the truth cannot be threatened which makes them happy and gives them peace.

Today, consider whether you are close minded or open minded. Consider whether you would rather be right or know the truth?

Find the Divine Spark in every person.

As you come closer to a brother you approach me, and as you withdraw from him I become distant to you. Salvation is a collaborative venture. It cannot be undertaken successfully by those who disengage themselves from the Sonship, because they are disengaging themselves from me. God will come to you only as you will give Him to your brothers. Learn first of them and you will be ready to hear God. That is because the function of love is one. T-4.VI.8: 1-6

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

Jesus said, “Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be.” We are part of a larger entity. We are drops of the ocean. As a single drop we could not exist. No person is an island as the poet, John Donne, wrote. Jesus is telling us here that if we are to know God we must engage with the Divine Spark in all our brothers and sisters.

The third principle of Unitarian Universalism is to join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. Jesus tells us that this is the way to heaven.

Today, look for the Divine Spark in every person you meet and connect with it.

Deliver us from evil.

My trust in you is greater than yours in me at the moment, but it will not always be that way. Your mission is very simple. You are asked to live so as to demonstrate that you are not an ego, and I do not choose God’s channels wrongly. The Holy One shares my trust, and accepts my Atonement decisions because my will is never out of accord with His. I have said before that I am in charge of the Atonement. This is only because I completed my part in it as a man, and can now complete it through others. My chosen channels cannot fail, because I will lend them my strength as long as theirs is wanting. T-4.VI.6: 1 - 7

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

Jesus says to us that our mission is to drop the ego and be a manifestation of the Divine. Jesus says that he did it and he will help us do it too. Jesus says that he is in charge of the Atonement which is the undoing of the separation. Jesus’ life and teaching has exemplified the choice that we always have between the world of the ego and the world of the soul.

Today,  it is well that we recite the Lord’s pray which, in part, says “...and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

What is of ultimate concern?

I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. You have taught yourself the opposite. You are still free to choose, but can you really want the rewards of the ego in the presence of the rewards of God? T-4.VI.5: 6 - 8

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

When people make a mistake sometimes someone will say, “What were you thinking!?”

We have been conditioned and socialized by society, the world of the ego, to desire certain things thinking they will make us happy. We find out that we made a bad choice. The choice for the ego was a mistake. This recognition sometimes leads to the awareness that there must be a better way. This awareness motivates a search which takes us from the world of the ego to the world of the soul.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to encourage each other's spiritual growth. Spiritual growth is facilitated by a map and a compass and we begin to move from an egocentric and ethnocentric worldview to a world centric and integral worldview. Having a map shows us what is possible and a working compass helps us find the way.

Today, it is suggested that a decision be made to explore the world of the soul instead of the world of ego. We simply need to ask ourselves, “considering everything in my life, what really matters?”

Do you believe in the ego self?

The ego and the spirit do not know each other. The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. Having done this, it denies all truly natural impulses, not because the ego is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that you are. The ego is a device for maintaining this belief, but it is still only your decision to use the device that enables it to endure. T-4.VI.4:1-4

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

At magical and mythic stages of consciousness we believe we are something special. We have yet to wake up from the dream of separateness from our Divine Source. We think this thing we call ourself is real when it is really an illusion. Jesus tells us in the Course that we maintain this belief through dissociation. Then, Jesus tells us that it is belief in this illusional self that allows the illusion to continue. It is like magic which seems so real at the time we perceive it but afterwards we get curious about how the magician performed the trick. As we ask this question we start to wake up and move from the magical and mythic to the rational and then to the nondual level of consciousness. This waking up and growing up is a further development of spiritual intelligence.

How does Unitarian Universalism facilitate the growth of spiritual intelligence? Sadly, it doesn’t because it has lost its way and no longer is interested in facilitating spiritual growth but rather in social justice issues which are the concern of lower levels of consciousness because we are led to believe that they are real and not the result of our own illusional making.

Today, it is suggested that we consider the stages of spiritual intelligence and discern at what stage we primarily reside and that of our congregation and spiritual leaders.

SQ - Levels of moral development

Practically all human problems (except natural disasters) can be understood, at least partially, as problems of consciousness.

McIntosh, Steve. The Presence of the Infinite . Quest Books. P.225

The purpose of the psychoanalytic method is to make the unconscious and the subconscious conscious. Jung believed this to be true at the cultural level as well as at the individual level. Therapists who work from interpersonal and systemic models also believe this to be true of long term committed relationships and in high functioning families.

So if Steve McIntosh is right and practically all human problems can be understood as problems of consciousness, why don’t we have and use more models of the stages of consciousness? If we had such models perhaps we could discard our dependence on the DSM.

If you are curious, integral philosophy and psychology describes such models.

One model I have found very helpful is Kohlberg’s model of moral development which is based on preconventional, conventional, and post conventional viewpoints. The conflict most often seen in psychotherapy is the struggle between the preconventional and the conventional. People stuck at a preconventional level of morality are described as lacking empathy and compassion while people at the conventional are described as anxious and obsessive being codependent and people pleasers. People at the post conventional level are often seen as wise and mature and more mentally healthy.

I have never heard a sermon preached on the stages of moral development although there is plenty of research now on these stages and how they develop. This would be useful information of people seeking to further grow in their spiritual life.

It would seem that most UUs are at a post conventional stage of moral development but they quickly regress to the conventional stage when confronted with conflict and disagreement. The spiritual teachings and practice most helpful at the post conventional stage of moral development is not the Golden Rule but the Platinum Rule.

The Platinum Rule is "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them." To enact this rule and practice it assumes that the actor knows what values, beliefs, opinions, and practices the other has. This knowledge is based on curiosity and interest and empathic understanding.

What would love have me do?

No one who learns from experience that one choice brings peace and joy while another brings chaos and disaster needs additional convincing. T-4.VI. 3: 3

A Course In Miracles

We have a choice to listen to the ego or the Holy Spirit. To whom do you turn for guidance and assistance when making choices? The passage above suggests that we learn from experience that the ego’s guidance leads to chaos and disaster while the Holy Spirit’s to peace and joy. Observing the experience engendered by our choices indicates from where we are getting our advice.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and from where is truth and meaning to be found: from the ego or from the Holy Spirit? The process of this search is called “discernment.” How do we discern what God’s will for us is? A Course In Miracles is a course in mind training which encourages us to eschew the voice of the ego in favor of the voice of the Holy Spirit.

Today, we can simply ask for help in asking our Higher Power, whatever we conceive our Higher Power to be, “What would love have me do?”