Illuminating your blind spots.

Outside the Kingdom, the law that prevails inside is adapted to “What you project you believe.” This is its teaching form, because outside the Kingdom learning is essential. This form implies that you will learn what you are from what you have projected onto others, and therefore believe they are. T-7.II.3:1-3

A Course in Miracles (p. 246). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Comedian Flip Wilson doing his Geraldine routine would have her say, “What you see is what you get, honey.” A Course In Miracles is teaching this lesson when it says, “What you project you believe.” And then further teaches that you will learn what you are by what you project onto others and believe they are. If you believe people are bad, you must believe that there is badness inside of you. If you believe people are good then you must believe that goodness resides within you as well. The old proverb says, “Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it, or be careful what you fear because what you fear is more likely to appear.”

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This searching will eventually bring us to the point where we come to appreciate our projections, what social psychologists call, “confirmation bias.”

Today it is suggested that we reflect on our inner experience and uncover our biases. It is helpful to talk with a trusted other about this topic and ask for their feedback in an attempt to illuminate your blind spots.

Religious literacy enhances spiritual intelligence.

 

In Cindy Wigglesworth's model of Spiritual Intelligence, Awareness Of Own Worldview, is the first skill of twenty one. The question to be answered low, medium, high is "Do you think that you can explain to others the impacts of our culture, your upbringing, and your mental assumptions on how you interpret the world around you?"

Ariel Ennis in her book, Teaching Religious Literacy,  points to this skill in her quote above as one of the benefits of religious literacy. Unitarian Universalism is one of the view religious denominations which encourage this kind of knowledge.

Unitarian Universalism encourages the development of religious literacy and thereby enhances the level of spiritual intelligence in its members and the society of which they are a part.

The choice of distress or peace.

To heal, then, is to correct perception in your brother and yourself by sharing the Holy Spirit with him. This places you both within the Kingdom, and restores its wholeness in your mind. This reflects creation, because it unifies by increasing and integrates by extending. What you project or extend is real for you. This is an immutable law of the mind in this world as well as in the Kingdom. T-7.II.2:1-5

A Course in Miracles (p. 246). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

What is being referred to above by “the Holy Spirit” is unconditional love as contrasted with conditional love. The way of the world is based on conditional love while the Kingdom is based on unconditional love. When you perceive others with unconditional love the Kingdom of God is extended and integrated.

In Unitarian Universalism there is the unique belief in unconditional love. This belief is foundational to the Universalist faith.

Today it is suggested that mindfulness of the kind of perception being used is key to the choice between distress and peace.

What is atheism?

One might simply say, "God is a verb."

Neale Donald Walsh wrote that if you don't like the word "God" substitute the word "life."

Life is the Ground Of Being emanating from a Transcendent Source manifesting in Truth, Goodness, and Beauty which is continually evolving from a dualistic consciousness to Oneness which the Buddhists call "Nothing."

A person's view of God depends on their level of spiritual intelligence. The belief that god is a man up in the sky is anthropomorphic egocentrism. To believe that god is Oneness, and a Force is post integral.

People who say they don't believe in the man in the sky sometimes call themselves "atheists" but they doesn't mean that they don't recognize and acknowledge the Force of Life.

Would we have sickness or healing?

To heal is the only kind of thinking in this world that resembles the Thought of God, and because of the elements they share, can transfer easily to it. When a brother perceives himself as sick, he is perceiving himself as not whole, and therefore in need. If you, too, see him this way, you are seeing him as if he were absent from the Kingdom or separated from it, thus making the Kingdom itself obscure to both of you. Sickness and separation are not of God, but the Kingdom is. If you obscure the Kingdom, you are perceiving what is not of God. T-7.II.1:1-5

A Course in Miracles (pp. 245-246). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Sometimes the way language is used in the Course makes comprehension difficult. The passage above seems clumsily expressed. The idea being communicated is that healing, becoming whole, is of the Kingdom of God. Anything else, based on separation and division is not: separation and division are things of the world of the ego. Sickness is based on separation and division and if these separations and divisions are what is focused on you are missing the peace and bliss that is of the Kingdom.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote a love for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Today it is suggested that we be mindful about what we focus on: the Oneness of God or the separation and divisions of the ego. Would we have sickness or healing?

Giving up our attachments to the things of the ego.

God does not take steps, because His accomplishments are not gradual. He does not teach, because His creations are changeless. He does nothing last, because He created first and for always. T-7.I.7:1-3

A Course in Miracles (p. 245). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

God is One and steps and incrementalism is a construct of the ego based on separation and division. Space and time are a construction which allows the ego to measure based on separation and division. However beneath these constructions of the ego is the Ground of Being, the Force, the Transcendent Source. Being enamored with space and time we forget from where we have come and to what we are returning. The return requires giving up the things of the ego.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of all existence which, in the last analysis, doesn’t exist in the Kingdom of God. The drops merge back into the ocean which is the basis of the web.

Today it is suggested that we remind ourselves that we are one with everything and to merge into peace and bliss must give up our attachments to the things of the ego.

Merging into the Oneness of peace and bliss.

To think like God is to share His certainty of what you are, and to create like Him is to share the perfect Love He shares with you. To this the Holy Spirit leads you, that your joy may be complete because the Kingdom of God is whole. I have said that the last step in the reawakening of knowledge is taken by God. This is true, but it is hard to explain in words because words are symbols, and nothing that is true need be explained. However, the Holy Spirit has the task of translating the useless into the useful, the meaningless into the meaningful, and the temporary into the timeless. He can therefore tell you something about this last step. T-7.I.6:1-6

A Course in Miracles (pp. 244-245). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

When we turn our will over to the Holy Spirit our consciousness is raised all the way to heaven’s door. Entrance is up to God but entrance could not occur were we not to arrive at the door.

In Unitarian Universalism we join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. This search is best untaken with the Holy Spirit as our guide.

Today bring your will into alignment with God’s will by asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in this alignment until you merge into the Oneness of peace and bliss.