Happy Hanukkah!

 Happy Hanukkah! Let the light eliminate the darkness.

Are we looking for love in the right place?

Perceived without your part in it, God’s creation is seen as weak, and those who see themselves as weakened do attack. The attack must be blind, however, because there is nothing to attack. Therefore they make up images, perceive them as unworthy and attack them for their unworthiness. That is all the world of the ego is. Nothing. It has no meaning. It does not exist. Do not try to understand it because, if you do, you are believing that it can be understood and is therefore capable of being appreciated and loved. That would justify its existence, which cannot be justified. You cannot make the meaningless meaningful. This can only be an insane attempt. T-7.VI.11: 1-11

A Course in Miracles (p. 262). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The Buddhists have known forever that the only constant is impermanence, and the cause of suffering is attachment. Jesus, in A Course Of Miracles, is telling us the same thing.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion knowing that justice, equity, and compassion are not to be found in the world of ego but in the Kingdom of God.

Today it is suggested that we ask ourselves if we are looking for love in the right place.

Choose the idols of the ego or the Kingdom Of God.

Your mind is dividing its allegiance between two kingdoms, and you are totally committed to neither. Your identification with the Kingdom is totally beyond question except by you, when you are thinking insanely. T-7.VI.9: 1-2

A Course in Miracles (p. 261). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The passage above reminds us that we have a choice between the world of the ego or the Kingdom of God, between conditional love and unconditional love. The Kingdom of God is always there for us even when we think otherwise. The world of the ego is very convincing until we hit bottom and then wonder if there is not a better way. This is called “the dawning,” and the dawning precipitates the search for Truth and meaning.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for Truth and meaning and this search takes us to the Kingdom of God and unconditional love.

Today it is suggested that we periodically remind ourselves that we have a choice: we can choose the idols of the ego or the Kingdom of God. It is helpful to ask ourselves “What would Love have me do?”

Is our search working?

If you will keep in mind what the Holy Spirit offers you, you cannot be vigilant for anything but God and His Kingdom. The only reason you may find this hard to accept is because you may still think there is something else. Belief does not require vigilance unless it is conflicted. If it is, there are conflicting components within it that have led to a state of war, and vigilance has therefore become essential. Vigilance has no place in peace. It is necessary against beliefs that are not true, and would never have been called upon by the Holy Spirit if you had not believed the untrue. When you believe something, you have made it true for you. When you believe what God does not know, your thought seems to contradict His, and this makes it appear as if you are attacking Him. T-7.VI.7: 1-8

A Course in Miracles (p. 260). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

What is the opposite of the non dual Oneness of God, our Transcendent Source? It is the belief in the idols of the ego. So what is it that we think, deep down, will make us happy? The answer is only the Truth of God. But we get tempted to believe that the idols of the world of ego will make us happy. We are told this continually and most of us not only believe it, we turn these idols that promise us happiness into gods whether it be money, power, sex, knowledge, etc.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The biggest factor in success in our quest is where we search. As the song says, we are looking for love in all the wrong places. So today's passage from ACIM encourages us to be vigilant. And as long as we are conflicted about where happiness is to be found, vigilance is helpful. When we know, though, that happiness is to be found in the non dual Oneness with our Transcendent Source, vigilance is no longer necessary.

Today it is suggested that we consider where we are looking for happiness and how our search is working for us and whether we are looking in the right places.

Focus on unconditional love not conditional love.

The Holy Spirit undoes illusions without attacking them, because He cannot perceive them at all. They therefore do not exist for Him. He resolves the apparent conflict they engender by perceiving conflict as meaningless. I have said before that the Holy Spirit perceives the conflict exactly as it is, and it is meaningless. The Holy Spirit does not want you to understand conflict; He wants you to realize that, because conflict is meaningless, it is not understandable. T-7.VI.6:1-5

A Course in Miracles (p. 260). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

It is written in the introduction to A Course In Miracles “The course does not aim at teaching the meaning of love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is your natural inheritance.” In the passage above, Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit does not perceive conflicts and therefore does not attack them. The Holy Spirit is focused on the Kingdom of Heaven which is the realm of unconditional love.

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

Today it is suggested that we remind ourselves to stay focused on the Kingdom of God, unconditional love, and not get distracted by conflicts which are illusions based on conditional love.

Are we afraid to love unconditionally to protect our egos?

 

What makes us afraid to love unconditionally?

Produced by fear, the ego reproduces fear. This is its allegiance, and this allegiance makes it treacherous to love because you are love. Love is your power, which the ego must deny. It must also deny everything this power gives you because it gives you everything. No one who has everything wants the ego. Its own maker, then, does not want it. Rejection is therefore the only decision the ego could possibly encounter, if the mind that made it knew itself. And if it recognized any part of the Sonship, it would know itself. T-7.VI.4:6-12

A Course in Miracles (p. 259). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The ego is produced by the separation from the non dualistic Oneness which some call “God.” This separation induces fear of punishment from what it has done in separating itself from its Source. Our Source is unconditional love and in this resides our creative power when we extend it. When we are unaware of this power of unconditional love, or deny it, ignore it, or refuse to extend it because the extension would undermine our separateness, and specialness, then we are anxious, depressed, and distressed. The choice we have is between the hell of the ego or the heaven of our Transcendent Source. This can be simply put as “to have a friend, be a friend.”

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement of spiritual growth. The Universalists taught that God’s love is unconditional.

Today it is suggested that we consider what it is we are afraid of if we were to engage in unconditional loving.