UU and ACIM - Becoming aware of Love's presence

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. The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”

This passage takes us to the teachings of Universalism where we are taught that God not only loves us but loves us all unconditionally because we all are an extension of God’s creative powerful, awesome love. But, as the introduction says we are blinded by our fears which are based on a fear of scarcity or lack and it is this sense of lack that we attempt to address by our grasping and manipulation of others and the world and thus the drama begins.

The sense of lack motivates us to move in multiple directions to fill it in the external world and our grasping and attaining of external objects never seems to quite fulfill us, to satisfy us, and it is not until we ask why we are unfulfilled and unsatisfied that we turn within and slowly become aware of Love’s presence which was there all along.

It is the awareness of Love’s presence which Universalism is about. Universalism is an interpretation of the Jesus story that finally gets to the root of the matter. In this sense of getting to the root of the matter that Universalism is so radical.

The teaching of Universalism is to become aware of Love’s presence by overcoming all the distractions of the ego world and realizing that in the end they don’t matter. As Jesus said, Be in the world but not of the World.

The introduction of the course ends with this saying:

Nothing real can be threatened.

Nothing unreal exists.

Herein lies the peace of God.

A noun and a verb were dating. They were happy for a while, but eventually broke up because the noun was too possessive.

UU and ACIM - The time is now

Today begins a series of articles on A Course of Miracles and Unitarian Universalism. Unitarian Universalism draws from many sources and usually identifies six. This series will outline and suggest a seventh, A Course in Miracles.

A Course In Miracles is a metaphysical text composed of three parts which was channeled by Dr. Helen Schucman in the 70s and transcribed by Dr. William Thetford. Dr. Schucman was channeling the voice of Jesus. It is a wonderful and sacred document which provides the student with a whole new way of viewing life and “reality”.

ACIM begins with a short introduction. We will begin here.

“This is a course in miracles. It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It only means that you can elect what you want to take at a given time.”

Life is the course in miracles. It became required of you when you were delivered into the world from your mother’s uterus. It is a good life if you know how to live it. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living and most people do not live an examined life until they hit bottom, there is a crisis of some sort that leads them to the realization that there must be a better way. When they realize that there must be a better way they begin to engage in what the UU fourth principle calls “a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.”

Sometimes the engagement in this search does not require a crisis, a hitting of bottom, but is an early quest or a growing restlessness that leads to an awareness that we cannot establish the curriculum of our lives, but only observe it and thoughtfully figure out how to best manage the experiences and challenges which come our way. The “curriculum” provides us with opportunities to learn and become more aware.

Gurdjieff said that winners and losers suffer alike, but that winners learn from their suffering and losers don’t learn a thing.

As the Jewish mothers say, or the Italian mothers, or the Irish mothers, “there’s always something!” Indeed there is and it is called Life. We create our own heaven and hell not by the external circumstances we are confronted by, but by the way we respond to those circumstances. One aid in this learning is the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth as it says in our third UU principle.

As for the curriculum, while it is a required course and we cannot establish the curriculum, we can decide when we want to take it. I think now is as good a time as any if you are ready. Please join me.

Suppose that we approach our fears with love?

Rev. Marlin Lavanhar, All Soul's Church, Tulsa, OK on 02/15/15 in a sermon entitled, "Ordinary problems".



You can watch the whole sermon by clicking here.

Tuesday night class #11 - Undermining the ego is like taking the scissors from a two year old

Universalism turns Christianity upside down

Richard Trudeau writes in his book, Universalism 101 on page 19 "While mainstream Christianity viewed God as having turned away from humanity because of human sin, Ballou's view was that it was humanity that had turned away from God; and that God sent Jesus not to pay the price, but to remind human's of God's love."

Jesus says in A Course In Miracles: "I was not punished because you were bad. The wholly benign lesson the Atonement teaches is lost if it is tainted with this kind of distortion in any form." T-3.I.2:10-11

We humans create our own hell by separating ourselves from God. God loves us unconditionally, but out of our guilt and fear of punishment we can't believe that God loves us. What kind of God is this that exudes unconditional love? It is the God of Universalism and of Jesus and not the God of mainstream Christianity that has manipulated people with hellfire and brimstone and engendered a belief in a vengeful God who damns people to hell for all eternity. What kind of people would make up and teach such a God? This teaching is what John Bradshaw has called the "poisonous pedagogy."

Jesus was never vengeful, and never engaged in retribution. He said He came to change the Code of Hammurabi which influenced the depiction of a wrathful Old Testament god. Universalism teaches quite of different gospel, one of truly good news, that Love is ever present if we can overcome the blocks to our awareness of Love's presence.

Do UUs need God?

A Unitarian Universalist was running late for his own wedding. He sped to the church and circled the parking lot three times looking for a parking spot. Frustrated, the man became religious and pleaded, "Oh God, give me a parking spot and I'll quit all my vices, to to church every Sunday, give to charity, forgive everybody, and never use you name in vain again. Please, please, I can't lose my beautiful bride!"

Just then, he noticed an open spot right in front of church. Instantly, he stopped sobbing and said, "Never mind, I found one."

Do UU ministers manifest an awareness of the inner altar?

Richard Trudeau writes in his book, Universalism 101, "I call on my fellow UU ministers - and, recognizing that it can be hard for old dogs to learn new tricks, I especially call on UU seminarians - to recommit themselves to their role of teachers. Teachers shape tastes and do not merely accommodate to them." p.16

Unitarian Universalism does not need more teachers. What would they teach? You cannot teach what you do not know. Unitarian Universalism needs more holy men and women who have a personal experience of the divine, the sacred, the spiritual. Where are the holy men and women of Unitarian Universalism? Where are they formed and upon what is their spiritual practice based? You cannot find, and do not achieve a spiritual life from books and from teaching. Books and teaching can point to the holy and divine, but they are fingers pointing at the moon, they are not the moon.

Holiness, sacredness comes from an experience of the authentic wholeness of which we are apart. It comes from sincere and genuine inner exploration. It comes from what has been called prayer and meditation and the development of cosmic consciousness and enlightenment. Most of UU "teaching" is too distracting. It focuses on the world. Trying to change it and fix it a fool's errand based on hubris and resentments and this is not holy work nor does it manifest a positive example of where holiness resides which is on the inner altar of our being.

Would that UU ministers were able to access this inner altar and manifest this awareness. As Steven Gaskin said one time, in the last analysis all we have to offer is our own state of being. UU ministers need to look within and share what they find with others by their presence not by their teaching in the usual sense of that word. Their lives and manifestation of their awareness of the inner altar is what is nourishing, edifying, and facilitative of spiritual growth in others.

We all should be accessing our inner altars and in the process becoming more genuine, sincere, authentic and aware of the All. We need ministers who can facilitate this process because they have been there themselves and they manifest these qualities of authenticity, genuineness, sincerity, and cosmic consciousness to the world. Leave the teaching to Fox News and Pat Robertson.

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Doris.

Doris who?

Doris locked - that's why I'm knocking!

Matthew 7:7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

There are many searchers knocking, but UU ministers are not opening the door. Perhaps it's because they don't hear the knocking, or they don't know where the door is. UU seminaries should be helping students find the door.