An online magazine of faith based on a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The mission of Unitarian Universalism: A Way Of Life ministries is to provide information, teach skills, and clarify values to facilitate the evolutionary development of increasingly higher levels of spiritual development for human beings around the world.
"If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about the answers."
Thomas Pynchon
Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Without a fear of hell and punishment, and the greed of heaven and its luxuries, where does this search take us?
After church on Sunday, 03/17/19, I didn't go to the demonstration in front of the local Muslim Mosque to show solidarity with Muslims after the horrific killings in New Zealand, and I didn't go to the workshop at the Methodist Church on social justice policies. I went instead to the local art film theater to see Green Book.
So far, it seems like a great decision. I loved the movie, Green Book. It is inspiring, funny, down to earth, informative, and entertaining. It did win the 2018 Academy Award for the best film, and Mahershala Ali won the award for best supporting actor for playing the role of Dr. Donald Shirley.
The creative tension is developed between Dr. Shirley, an African American concert pianist, touring in the deep south of the United States in 1962 during the time of segregation, and his hired driver and body guard, Tony Vallelonga, who is a prejudiced Italian from Bronx.
A friendship and mutual regard develops as the two men spend two months on the road together ending on Christmas eve in Birmingham, Alabama.
This movie demonstrates how discriminatory behavior, and prejudicial beliefs change when we get to know people personally as human beings. The movie demonstrates how human relationship facilitates the awareness of the inherent worth and dignity of every person.
I do want to demonstrate my solidarity with my Muslim brothers and sisters, and I do care about social justice issues, and I am not sure whether my decision to spend my time at the movies watching Green Book was the best experience by comparison to my other options for spending time after church, but I am a better person for having seen this movie and knowing that it has gathered acclaim in our country and the world.
Having had my first principle values affirmed and promoted, I feel grateful and blessed.
I give this movie 10 out of 10 stars and highly recommend it to audiences, 10 and up.
Today's lesson, number 68 in A Course In Miracles, is "Love holds no grievances." It is written in this lesson in ACIM, "You who were created by love like itself can hold no grievances and know your Self. To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule you mind and condemn the body to death. Perhpas you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to the mind. It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike Him."
Grievances corrupt and are toxic to the person holding them. Playing the victim is deadly to spiritual health.
Holding grievances is the opposite of what Universalism teaches which is Unconditional Love.
The metaphysical philosophy of A Course In Miracles teaches that the world of the ego is not real but is based on illusions. Grievances come from our belief in special relationships which are based on the principles of "give to get" and "one or the other." These principles of special relationships violate the seven principles which Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote.
When UUs hold grievances something has gone wrong with the covenant. There has been a breach in the rapport. The person holding the grievance has made a mistake in misperceiving his/her brother and sister, and no longer holds precious the person's inherent worth and dignity, the first principle of UU.
Forgiveness is the path to letting go of grievances. Forgiveness in this context is the taking the person where they're at and rising above any sense of victimhood knowing that we all are God's creatures.
Forgiveness does not mean not setting limits or accepting abuse. It means dealing with dysfunctional and toxic situations with love recognizing that attacks by others are calls for love.
We have expressions like "water off a duck's back," "rolling with the punch," "developing thicker skin," etc. Holding no grievances means living above it all, not in a dismissive, avoidant, or condescending way, but rather acknowledging the attack and not taking it personally, refusing to see oneself as a victim.
"Holding no grievances" is a decision we make, and a position we take based on a new understanding of who we are and the place we have in the interdependent web of God's existence.
Stoic philosophy is a regular feature of UU A Way Of Life ministries blog which appears on Saturdays.
Most people keep very, very busy. What is all this business about? Some philosophers say business is a distraction from our fears of our mortality, that is the fear that we all will some day die.
Are we bodies with a spirits or spirits with bodies? This is not a cute quip but a serious question.
Most of us, all of us for some part of our lives, believe that we are primarily bodies. We are taught by others, and/or come to discover ourselves, usually with great pain and suffering, that in fact we are not bodies, but spirits. This is what Jesus was trying to teach us in His crucifixion. Most Christians have failed to get Jesus' point. The idea that Jesus died for our sins sacrificing His body as some sort of blood atonement is a sick and insane belief. Jesus was trying to demonstrate the opposite - that the body can be killed but the spirit is alive and well.
As Senca tells us, this lesson, that we are spirits not bodies, is hard to learn. It is difficult because we are focused on our fears instead of on our love and Creation's love for us.
Seneca encourages us to set our business aside and start living with an awareness of the Divine. It is outside of business, sitting with our fears of bodily death, and moving past them, that we find peace and bliss. Jesus told us clearly that the way to the Kingdom is "to love as I have loved."
