How many UUs does it take to save the world?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

You know the old jokes about how many ____________does it take to change a light bulb?

How many psychotherapists does it take to change a light bulb?

Only one, but the bulb has to want to change. LOL

How many people does it take to save the world?

Only one, but it has to be one who has become one with the all like Jesus or Buddha.

Jesus made it simple. He said, "Love as I have loved."

How did Jesus love?

He joined His will with what He believed to be the will of His Higher Power.

He forgave those who killed Him. He loved everyone even the tax collectors, the adulterers, the prostitutes, the Samaritans.

He helped people wherever He went. He shared His love of Life with whoever would listen and even those who didn't or wouldn't listen.

Same with Buddha. Buddha said He had achieved enlightenment and was free to go to nirvana but He wanted to help His fellow human beings achieve nirvana as well and so He stayed on earth to teach people how to do what He had achieved.

Are there women too who have loved beyond measure? Billions. Their stories have not been preserved and told in a patriarchal society unless one considers Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day and hundreds and thousands of other saints.

You can save the world when you become enlightened. In the meantime work on yourself and one soul at a time.

My will or Thy will makes all the difference

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where does this search take them? The search can take them further down the path of the ego or they can turn onto the path of the spirit. Observers have noted that many UUs are confused about which path to take. The problem is that you can't take both. Eventually you have to choose. The denomination, itself, struggles with that decision and its membership dwindles because of it.

The comedian, Flip Wilson, when he performed his comedic character, Geraldine, would have her say in a sassy, sexy way, "What you see is what you get!" This line always got a laugh. It is funny. Part of the humor in the line is that it is true and we all see a little of ourselves in it.

Are you an optimist or a pessimist? Do you love yourself and the world you are living in, or don't you like yourself and the world you are living in? The way you regard yourself and the world you are living in is the lens through which you will perceive and interpret yourself and the world.

The deeper question is "how do you think God sees you and world?" If you think that maybe God sees you and the world different from the way you see yourself and the world, what are these differences?

The path of the ego involves seeing ourselves as sinful and the world as a dangerous place based on the law of scarcity. The path of the spirit involves seeing ourselves as extensions of God's love for the world and the world as a place of abundant Love and peace.

Our experience is not based on external circumstances but on the lens we are using to perceive and interpret the meaning of these circumstances.

We often insist on our own judgment rather than on the judgment of our Higher Power. We want to be the boss and in control for a whole bunch of reasons until we begin to laugh when we realize that we hear God laughing because we have told God our plans and judgments.

In our spiritual development we come to a point where we realize there must be a better way to live our lives and with this dawning realization comes a turning from the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit. This turning initiates the search for that better way and our openness to God's will for us rather than insisting on our own, makes all the difference.

Judgment is impossible

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. If we are to truly respect the interdependent web we must give up judgment.

One of the milestones on the walk with Love on the path of the spirit is the giving up of judgment. On what could our judgment possibly rest since we lack omniscienceness?

When we judge we delude ourselves. The bumper sticker says, "Good judgment comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgment."

The phenomenon we observe and even the perceptions we experience our multi-dimensional. How could we ever know totally? At the best, we guess and often are wrong.

As the Buddhists say, "It is what it is." With that, let it go and recognize and acknowledge that we really don't know, can't know. We learn to turn our judgment over to our Higher Power and we are grateful and experience a new found peace.

How to make decisions

Unitarian Universalists convenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. How does this apply to an individual's life?

People struggle to make life decisions. Should I stay married or get divorced? Should I stay in this job or look for another? Should I say here or move? Should I talk to her anymore or give up on the friendship?

The person is torn between choices and finds it hard to make a decision. The longer one ponders the more one starts to ruminate. If the rumination increases so does the consequent anxiety and depression sometimes leading to fear at disabling levels.

As it is written in A Course In Miracles, the tolerance for pain may be high but not without limit.

What should a person do?

Simple. Turn your will over to God's will for you. God's will be done. Can you bring your will into alignment with what you believe is God's will for you? The word for seeking God's will is "discernment."

How does one discern God's will?

We will make suggestions for how to discern God's will in future articles.

For now be assured that you don't need to make decisions all by yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit, Jesus, God, the Spirit of Life, the Muse, Mother Nature, the Great Spirit, your Higher Power for guidance and be open to what you sense as the answer.

Make me one with everything

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

To dichotomize means to distinguish one part  from another. We have deconstructed the whole into component parts but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and so we must ask ourselves what is real?

The distinctions we make are illusionary. We think they serve a purpose and on the path of the ego they do for the ego, but on the path of the spirit they serve no purpose and interfere with our understanding of the truth.

The goal on the path of the spirit is to appreciate and understand the interconnectedness of God's creation. The path of the spirit takes us to an awareness of nonduality and with this awareness differences have no meaning.

The monk said to the hot dog vendor, "Make me one with everything." On the path of the spirit that also is our prayer.

Help offered should be done so unconditionally

Unitarian Universalists are a generous people who covenant together to affirm and promote seven principles all of which pertain to creating heaven on earth. However, like many such aspirants, they engage in their mission with strings attached which hamper their efforts.

When we wish people well and help them, if we worry about the outcome of our well wishes and efforts we have not really helped them. Our well wishes and help is conditional on the giver's expectations and requirements being fulfilled. What was offered was conditional and not freely and unconditionally given. The question then arises should the well wishes and help be offered again? The answer is "no" not until the giver gets his/her frame of mind in the right place first.

What is the right mind? It is one of Unconditional Love for oneself and others. With Unconditional Love the giver has turned his/her will over to his/her Higher Power who is working through him/her. The giver has decided to become one with the all and sees the recipient as part of oneself and therefore any help extended to another is help extended to oneself. In this right mind, well wishing and help never fail, indeed, cannot fail. Failure is impossible.

When well wishing and help is extended from the right mind, it never has be repeated because it's goal is always achieved.

When you wish people well and extend help, do so unconditionally as a conduit of grace of the Higher Power, the Spirit of Life to further the achievement of the Atonement.

Unitarian Universalists are a group of well wishers for the world

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. This is the sixth of seven principles with which UUs covenant. With this principle, UUs are called to be "well wishers." Our ministry is to wish our fellow sentient beings well.

When we wish someone well, we benefit whether the wish is of help to the person or not.

A gift is not given with results guaranteed. It is the thought and intention that counts. What happens after that is out of the giver's control.

Wishes well meant are never wasted though they may lie dormant until the receiver is ready to accept what has been offered.

Well wishes and actions last forever on the path of the spirit. They are from the Divine spark within the giver to the Divine Spark in the intended receiver, and an attempt at joining and becoming One has occurred. This attempt at building the At-one-ment is never wasted. The gift is not given to impose or imprison but to liberate, and is sometimes perceived as a threat and distrusted. It is best, then, to turn the outcome of the wishes over to the Higher Power to do with them as is Wished.

It is in relinquishing control over the outcome of the wishes well meant that the true meaning of the gift is fulfilled for in maintaining some control and expectation the gift was never wholly given.

Wishes for well being are never wasted even if sometimes defensively dismissed or even twisted into an attack. If this occurs, forgiveness is suggested and the continuation on the path of the spirit by the well wisher.

The law of karma teaches us that we get what we give, we learn what we teach, as we sow we will reap. The walk with Love is a path of unconditional well wishing which brings peace, and bliss.