The choice for unconditional love can be a no brainer.

The third step, then, is a statement of what you want to believe, and entails a willingness to relinquish everything else. The Holy Spirit will enable you to take this step, if you follow Him. Your vigilance is the sign that you want Him to guide you. Vigilance does require effort, but only until you learn that effort itself is unnecessary. You have exerted great effort to preserve what you made because it was not true. Therefore, you must now turn your effort against it. Only this can cancel out the need for effort, and call upon the being which you both have and are. This recognition is wholly without effort since it is already true and needs no protection. It is in the perfect safety of God. Therefore, inclusion is total and creation is without limit. T-6.V.C.10:1-10

A Course in Miracles (p. 242). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The third step which the Holy Spirit encourages is “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom '' which means to eschew the world of the ego and conditional love for the world of God which is unconditional love. We have created the world of the ego and have been socialized and conditioned by it forgetting the world of God from which we have come and to which we will return. This turning from the world of the ego to the world of God requires that first we become conscious that we have a choice and secondly that we, if we so choose, turn from the world of the ego to the world of God. This is a choice we make many, many times and if we persist the choice for the world of God becomes natural. The choice for unconditional love is a no brainer.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning and this search will take us to the world of God which the Universalists told us is unconditional love of our Transcendent Source.

Today it is suggested that we reflect on the choice we have between the world of the ego and the world of God. The Holy Spirit suggests that we be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom. In making this choice we experience peace and bliss.

Markham's Behavioral Health: Generational cohorts and the differentiation of self

Markham's Behavioral Health: Generational cohorts and the differentiation of self: The idea of the socializing and conditioning of children which occurs facilitated by the culture the child grows up in, of which parents are...

Experiencing peace and bliss.

Truth is without illusions and therefore within the Kingdom. Everything outside the Kingdom is illusion. When you threw truth away you saw yourself as if you were without it. By making another kingdom that you valued, you did not keep only the Kingdom of God in your mind, and thus placed part of your mind outside it. What you made has imprisoned your will, and given you a sick mind that must be healed. Your vigilance against this sickness is the way to heal it. Once your mind is healed it radiates health, and thereby teaches healing. This establishes you as a teacher who teaches like me. Vigilance was required of me as much as of you, and those who choose to teach the same thing must be in agreement about what they believe. T-6.V.C.9:1-9

A Course in Miracles (pp. 241-242). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

At the incarnation of our soul into our body at our birth we were the objects of socialization and conditioning by society and forgot from whence we came and to which we will return. What we experience in the world of the ego as a result of our socialization and conditioning is an illusion and distracts us from the truth of our non duality with Oneness. To consciously desire to know nothing is to heal and become whole again.

What Roman Catholic Unitarian Universalism calls “salvation” the Course calls “healing.” Healing is the repair of the breach in the rapport with our Transcendent Source.

Today it is suggested that we eschew the distractions of the world of the ego and relax and abide in the Kingdom of God which brings peace and bliss.

We are drops of the ocean.

To teach the whole Sonship without exception demonstrates that you perceive its wholeness, and have learned that it is one. Now you must be vigilant to hold its oneness in your mind because, if you let doubt enter, you will lose awareness of its wholeness and will be unable to teach it. The wholeness of the Kingdom does not depend on your perception, but your awareness of its wholeness does. It is only your awareness that needs protection, since being cannot be assailed. Yet a real sense of being cannot be yours while you are doubtful of what you are. This is why vigilance is essential. Doubts about being must not enter your mind, or you cannot know what you are with certainty. Certainty is of God for you. Vigilance is not necessary for truth, but it is necessary against illusions.T-6.V.C.8:1-9

A Course in Miracles (p. 241). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Today’s passage is referring to non duality or what mystics call “Divine Union.” Today’s passage also makes a distinction between perception and awareness. To perceive requires a subject and an object which requires separation while awareness is knowing that the subject and the object are one.

In Roman Catholic Unitarian Universalism it is understood that God’s creations are part of God unconditionally. This is known as the “beatific vision” and seeing beyond the veil.

Today it is suggested that we realize that we are drops of the ocean and are, in essence, one with it.

What would love have me do?

The third step is thus one of protection for your mind, allowing you to identify only with the center, where God placed the altar to Himself. Altars are beliefs, but God and His creations are beyond belief because they are beyond question. The Voice for God speaks only for belief beyond question, which is the preparation for being without question. As long as belief in God and His Kingdom is assailed by any doubts in your mind, His perfect accomplishment is not apparent to you. This is why you must be vigilant on God’s behalf. The ego speaks against His creation, and therefore engenders doubt. You cannot go beyond belief until you believe fully. T-6.V.C.7:1-7

A Course in Miracles (p. 241). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The third step or lesson of the Holy Spirit is “Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom.” This step has to be taken whole heartedly without any distraction from the world of the ego. The ego wants you to believe that it can make you happy. This belief is what is being referred to in the Our Father prayer which says “...lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil…”

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is to be found beyond the world of the ego and in the Kingdom of God.

Today it is suggested that we eschew the temptations of the world of the ego and focus instead on the question, “What would love have me do?”

How many people read UU A Way Of Life?

 Dave: 

How many people read UU A Way Of Life?

Ben

Dear Ben:

The readership of UU A Way of Life is very low. On a good day maybe 10 or 15 and on a bad day maybe only 5 or 6.

Readership has been higher in the past if the topics were emotionally arousing. If articles and headlines were sensationalized and provocative the clicks and views were much higher sometimes in the hundreds. There was a deliberate editorial decision to write for the serious minded and stop with the sensationalized articles. Since the change in focus the readership has dropped.

If you learn what you teach, I wanted to learn more about the spiritual life and so changed the focus of the writing to the Course In Miracles and its thought system. The thought system of the Course does not lend itself well to the current level of spiritual intelligence in our society. I would guess only about 5 - 10% of the population is attuned in any disciplined way to further developing their spiritual life. Jesus said “Many are called but few are chosen.” I think this is a poor translation of what Jesus actually said. I think what Jesus said is that all are called but few choose to listen.

One of the purposes of the publication of UU A Way Of Life is to facilitate and nurture a learning community that is interested in the development of spiritual intelligence. The first step of spiritual intelligence is even recognizing that spiritual intelligence is a valid concept and that there are levels and that people can grow in spiritual intelligence. This development is what Ken Wilber calls “waking up.”

UU A Way Of Life is geared toward a quality of readers not the quantity. Everyone is welcome, but few are interested in the teaching. If you know people interested in the development of spiritual intelligence and the formation of their interior spiritual life, refer them to the group here.

Keep the faith, moving forward,

David Markham

Teach what you want to learn.

You learn first that having rests on giving, and not on getting. Next you learn that you learn what you teach, and that you want to learn peace. This is the condition for identifying with the Kingdom, since it is the condition of the Kingdom. You have believed that you are without the Kingdom, and have therefore excluded yourself from it in your belief. It is therefore essential to teach you that you must be included, and that the belief that you are not is the only thing that you must exclude. T-6.V.C.6:1-5

A Course in Miracles (pp. 240-241). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

So many of the ideas in A Course In Miracles are paradoxical and therefore counter intuitive. One such belief is that if you would have something like love you must give it away to get it. Second is the idea that you learn what you teach. The third idea is that if you want to get to heaven you must get rid of the idea that you are not already there.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Truth and meaning is often paradoxical, incongruous, and absurd.

Today it is suggested that you attempt to teach what you want to learn.