Co-creating a beautiful future.

We all are leaders to the degree we help to create a better today and a better tomorrow. The true hero does not undertake the journey for personal glory, but for the benefit of all. While there is a great deal of good news globally - higher literacy rates, cures for many diseases, increased longevity, and decreasing levels of abject  poverty over the last one hundred years - there is much, much more that needs to be done to relieve suffering and create a sustainable health future for humanity and this planet. We can each do our part by developing ourselves, finding our higher purpose, and taking the wisest most compassionate actions we can. Collectively we will decide how the future turns out. I hope we co-create a beautiful future. SQ can help us do that.

John Mackey in forward to Cindy Wigglesworth’s book, The Twenty-One Skills Of Spiritual Intelligence. P. ix

When one becomes enmeshed in the onslaught of sensationalized hourly news from cable news shows and social media platforms, it is understandable how people become cynical, depressed, angry, and feel helpless.

While we cannot do much to influence external circumstances, we can always work on our own level of spiritual intelligence. When we become more spiritually intelligent our presence in the world has a salubratory, beneficial influence.

There are steps we can take to increase our spiritual intelligence. There are maps people can acquire to plan their journey and mark their progress. One of these maps are the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism. Another map is provided by Cindy Wigglesworth in her book, The Twenty-One Skills Of Spiritual Intelligence.

Is virtue a necessary qualification for public office?

The idea of virtue rarely is discussed in public any more. When we consider which candidates to vote for virtue is rarely a consideration. Certainly Donald Trump was no paragon of virtue nor some would argue was Hillary Clinton.  

It would seem that politics is a dog eat dog kind of enterprise and virtue, good character, is not considered a necessary or even a desirable qualification.

 

How important is virtue and character when you choose a political candidate to vote for?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm nd promote the right of conscience and the use of the democratic process...

Would we choose conditional love or unconditional love?

 How can you who are so holy suffer? All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction and beyond guilt. They came from the Holy Spirit within you, and we know what God creates is eternal. You can indeed depart in peace because I have loved you as I loved myself. You go with my blessing and for my blessing. Hold it and share it, that it may always be ours. I place the peace of God in your heart and in your hands, to hold and share. The heart is pure to hold it, and the hands are strong to give it. We cannot lose. My judgment is as strong as the wisdom of God, in Whose Heart and Hands we have our being. His quiet children are His blessed Sons. The Thoughts of God are with you.  T-5.IV.8: 1-15

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

St. Paul writes in a letter to Corinthians something like “If God is with you, who can be against you?” In the above passage from A Course In Miracles we are told by Jesus that goodness, truth, and beauty is forever. It is in knowing this that peace and joy arise.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. One aspect of this search is the purification of the things of the ego and focusing on the things of God. Another way of saying this is that we purify our conditional love to find the unconditional love within. It is this unconditional love, as the Universalists have taught, which are the thoughts of God which abides within us.

Today, it is suggested that we reflect on the differences between conditional love and unconditional love and choose in which we would abide and offer to others.

The whole is holy.

The full power of creation cannot be expressed as long as any of God’s ideas is withheld from the Kingdom. The joint will of the Sonship is the only creator that can create like the Father, because only the complete can think completely, and the thinking of God lacks nothing. Everything you think that is not through the Holy Spirit is lacking. T-5.IV.7:3-5

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

Non duality is a challenging concept for the Western mind. Separation and division is the work of the ego which has given homo sapiens the illusion of being able to control and manipulate phenomena in the ego world. Indeed, separation and division has provided the ego mind with this power but there is always something missing, something lacking, something subtracted from the whole. It is the whole that is holy and the Holy Spirit reminds us of this experience and helps us to understand and enjoy it.

Unitarian Universalists join together to affirm and promote a love for the interdependent web of all existence of which they and everything else is a part.

Today, it is suggested that we remember that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts and that this wholeness is of God and very holy.

What is the "Higher Power"?

The new metanarrative is "spirituality." The answer the "nones" give to the question of identification with a religion is "I'm not religious but I'm spiritual?"

The problem that arises with a statement like "I'm not religious but I'm spiritual" is that no one knows specifically what "spiritual means."

Spiritual usually means a relationship with a Higher Power whatever one conceives as their Higher Power being. This conception of  Higher Power though is not widely shared because there are "different strokes for different folks." 

Is there a definition of the Higher Power that a large percentage of people could agree on?

It has been suggested  that the characteristics of the Higher Power are the good, the true, and the beautiful. The good, true, and beautiful is an experience more than a cognitive perception.

Experience peace and joy.

The Atonement gives you the power of a healed mind, but the power to create is of God. Therefore, those who have been forgiven must devote themselves first to healing because, having received the idea of healing, they must give it to hold it. T-5.IV.7:1-2

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

The Atonement is the nondual experience of Oneness which is union with our Transcendent Source. This union with our Transcendent Source is shared and only in the sharing can it be experienced.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth.

Today, when able, rest in the Oneness and experience peace and joy.

Spiritual Intelligence Skill #1 - Awareness of Own Worldview

One of the 21 skills of spiritual intelligence is understanding where you are in your world view. Having some idea of the next step you might want to take in the development of spiritual intelligence is a challenge and a good skill to practice.

The question that might be asked in this first SQ skill, "Awareness of Own Worldview" is :

"Do you think that you can explain to others the impacts of your culture, your upbringing, and your mental assumptions on how you interpret the world around you?"

Never            Rarely               Sometimes                  Often                  Consistently

In other words, do you know what makes you tick?

I don't know about what percentage of the population knows that makes them tick or could tell you their worldview. The level of spiritual intelligence in the United States in general is very low.

People who have lived in foreign countries, know foreign languages, live in diverse communities probably would score better on this skill. 

As a Unitarian Universalist we join together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This takes a person beyond the golden rule to the platinum rule. "Do unto others as they would have you do unto them." This requires that you know something about their culture, their values, their beliefs, their practices. This takes curiosity and interest and empathy.