Our choice is between unconditional love or conditional love.

T-5.V.8. The continuing decision to remain separated is the only possible reason for continuing guilt feelings. We have said this before, but did not emphasize the destructive results of the decision. Any decision of the mind will affect both behavior and experience. What you want you expect. This is not delusional. Your mind does make your future, and it will turn it back to full creation at any minute if it accepts the Atonement first. It will also return to full creation the instant it has done so. Having given up its disordered thought, the proper ordering of thought becomes quite apparent.

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

What you want to see is often what you get. The psychologists call it “confirmation bias.” Another term often used is “self fulfilling prophecy.”

So do you want heaven or hell? Do you want unconditional love or conditional love? Do you want the world of the ego or the Kingdom of Heaven?

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth. This means that UUs strive to help people become aware of their choices. It is up to the person to choose.

Today, it is suggested that we reflect on the choices we have for heaven or hell, for unconditional love or conditional love.

The choice is between the world of the ego or the Kingdom of God.

Irrational thought is disordered thought. God Himself orders your thought because your thought was created by Him. Guilt feelings are always a sign that you do not know this. They also show that you believe you can think apart from God, and want to. Every disordered thought is attended by guilt at its inception, and maintained by guilt in its continuance. Guilt is inescapable by those who believe they order their own thoughts, and must therefore obey their dictates. This makes them feel responsible for their errors without recognizing that, by accepting this responsibility, they are reacting irresponsibly. If the sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself, and I assure you that it is, then the responsibility for what is atoned for cannot be yours. The dilemma cannot be resolved except by accepting the solution of undoing. You would be responsible for the effects of all your wrong thinking if it could not be undone. The purpose of the Atonement is to save the past in purified form only. If you accept the remedy for disordered thought, a remedy whose efficacy is beyond doubt, how can its symptoms remain? T-5.V.7:1-12

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

When we think in terms of the world of the ego it is irrational because the world of the ego is an illusion, a world we made up. We want to believe the world of the ego is real even though it separates us from the Kingdom of God which is always there whether we are aware of it or not. The disordered thoughts of the world of the ego make us feel guilty about separating ourselves from the Kingdom of God. When things go wrong in the world of the ego we think we have made a mistake and try to correct it but this attempt at correction of something that is disordered to begin with is misguided because the correction of things in the world of the ego is not where the problem lies. The solution lies in shifting our minds from the world of the ego to the Kingdom of God, from conditional love to unconditional love. When we shift to unconditional love we have chosen the Atonement and the guilt over separated thinking, which was never real but only a dream, disappears.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is to be found in the Kingdom of God not in the world of the ego.

Today, it is suggested that we refocus from the conditional love of the world of the ego to the unconditional love of the Kingdom of God.

How to enhance one’s spiritual intelligence?

What if I could name those Spiritual Intelligence skills and describe them on a spectrum from “novice” to “expert”? Could a framework of skills and levels of development help me and others know what to work on next?

Wigglesworth, Cindy. SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence . SelectBooks, Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

If a person wanted to enhance their spiritual intelligence where would they start? If an organization existed whose mission it is to teach spiritual intelligence what would be the pedagogy?

A first step might be to define spiritual intelligence. Cindy Wigglesworth in her book Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence defines spiritual intelligence as “the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation.” p.8

There may be other key components to spiritual intelligence as well such as sincerity and genuineness and discerning God’s will.

Does religion enhance people’s spiritual intelligence? Does your church provide teachings and experiences that enhance the congregation’s level of spiritual intelligence? Does your religion and church have the competence to do so?

In Roman Catholicism there was an emphasis on “spiritual formation” and people were encouraged to focus on their “interior spiritual life.” In Unitarian Universalism these concepts are rarely mentioned, and no consistent effort is made to provide the resources necessary for the development of spiritual intelligence. The mission of UU A Way Of Life is to enhance spiritual intelligence among its members and in the society of which it is a part.

To be continued

Discerning the will of God

The Holy Spirit, like the ego, is a decision. Together they constitute all the alternatives the mind can accept and obey. The Holy Spirit and the ego are the only choices open to you. God created one, and so you cannot eradicate it. You made the other, and so you can. Only what God creates is irreversible and unchangeable. What you made can always be changed because, when you do not think like God, you are not really thinking at all. Delusional ideas are not real thoughts, although you can believe in them. But you are wrong. The function of thought comes from God and is in God. As part of His Thought, you cannot think apart from Him. T-5.V.6:6-16

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

At its most elemental level, life is very simple: you can think with the Holy Spirit or with the ego. When Christians pray the prayer that Jesus taught, the “Our Father”, they say in part “...Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…” If we take the prayer seriously, we ask “What is God’s will for me and the world?” This question begins a search which is called “discernment.” How do we discern what is God’s will?

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The Course teaches that the world of the ego is delusional and that truth is be found in the world of the Holy Spirit.

Today, it is suggested that we discern the will of God by asking “What would Love have me do?”

Are you operating from your lower self or your Higher Self?

The ego cannot oppose the laws of God any more than you can, but it can interpret them according to what it wants, just as you can. That is why the question, “What do you want?” must be answered. You are answering it every minute and every second, and each moment of decision is a judgment that is anything but ineffectual. Its effects will follow automatically until the decision is changed. T-5.V.6:1-4

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

We can choose knowingly or unknowingly to separate ourselves from the will of God. People side with the ego and do it all the time. And then they wonder why they suffer and are unhappy.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This truth and meaning is to be found in the will of God. The search for this truth and meaning according to the will of God is called “discernment.”

Today, it is suggested that we step back from our ego desires and attempt to discern the will of God, our Higher Power, our Transcendent Source, the Ground of Being, the Tao, whatever we wish to call it. It is our Higher Self as compared to our ego based Lower Self.

Does justice require restoration or punishment?

The ego does not perceive sin as a lack of love, but as a positive act of assault. This is necessary to the ego’s survival because, as soon as you regard sin as a lack, you will automatically attempt to remedy the situation. And you will succeed. The ego regards this as doom, but you must learn to regard it as freedom. T-5.V.4:10-13

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

A Course In Miracles is very cryptic. The verses take a lot of unpacking to understand their meaning. 

In today’s verses, it is written that the ego does not see sin as a lack of love but rather as an attack of some sort. Redemption, exoneration, the undoing of the harm caused by sin makes it even more real and consequential when what really is necessary is the rising above the illusion of sin as attack and instead see it as a lack of love which requires a move from the perpetrator role with concomitant guilt  to the position of forgiveness which entails the giving up of the ego and returning to the place of unconditional love which is a healing that the Course calls “Atonement” or the becoming one with the All and healing the separation..

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations.. This principle encourages restorative not punitive criminal justice practices.

Today, it is suggested that we  consider sin as a lack of love instead of attack. Reframing sin in this way contributes to much more beneficial ideas about redemption and salvation.

What do you believe: conditional love or unconditional love?

Whatever you accept into your mind has reality for you. It is your acceptance of it that makes it real. If you enthrone the ego in your mind, your allowing it to enter makes it your reality. This is because the mind is capable of creating reality or making illusions. I said before that you must learn to think with God. To think with Him is to think like Him. This engenders joy, not guilt, because it is natural. Guilt is a sure sign that your thinking is unnatural. Unnatural thinking will always be attended with guilt, because it is the belief in sin. T-5.V.4:1-9

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

The bumper sticker reads, “Perception is reality.” Psychologists call it “confirmation bias.” What we think we are going to see, or what we want to see, we tend to see. Do we believe in conditional love or unconditional love? Conditional love is based on a fear of scarcity while unconditional love is based on a belief in abundance. Jesus often would say to his disciples something like “Why do you worry? Worry is unnecessary if you only knew how much your Father in heaven loves you.” The question now becomes, “Do you believe you are loved?”

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth. This encouragement involves a sense of unconditional love which washes away a belief in sin and feelings of guilt, and in their place a sense of peace and joy.

Today, it is suggested that we choose what we want to believe: in the ego and conditional love or in Spirit and unconditional love.