Ask Alexa: Does God talk to us?

Alexa: Is it true that I can hear God if I am just willing to listen?

Yes, God speaks to us all the time, but we are so distracted with worldly concerns that we shut God out and don't hear God's whispers.

Alexa: Did you hear about the person that was fixated on the pain from a bad tooth and couldn't talk about anything else?

Yes, the person was abscessed with it.

My Kind Of Church Music - Meaning Of Loneliness, Van Morrison

In a bluesy mood, now-middle-aged Morrison explores the “existential dread” of life’s second half.

 "Meaning Of Loneliness"

Lost in a strange city
Nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets that
I came from
It can get lonely
When you're travelling hard
But you can even be lonely
Standing in your own back yard

Nobody knows the existential dread
Of the things that go on inside
Someone else's head
Whether it be trivial
Or something that Dante said
But baby nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

No matter how well you know someone
You can only ever guess
How can you ever really know somebody else?
It takes more than a lifetime
Just to get to know yourself
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

[Instrumental break]

I have to say a word about solitude
For the soul it sometimes they say can be good
And I'm partial to it myself, well I must confess
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Well there's Sartre and Camus, Nietzsche and Hesse
If you dig deep enough
You gonna end up in distress
And no one escapes having to live life under duress
And no one escapes the meaning of loneliness

Well they say keep it simple when it gets to be a mess
And fame and fortune
Never brought anyone happiness
I must be lucky
Some of my friends think that I'm really blessed
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

[Scatting and instrumental break]

No, no, no, no, nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
No, no, no, nobody knows the meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

[The published lyrics include the following verses:]

Bright lights, big city nowhere to turn
Far cry from the streets where I was born
I've been doing some travelling
Sometimes the road gets hard
But you can also be lonely
Standing in your own backyard

No, no, no, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
No, no, no, no, nobody knows
The meaning of loneliness
Nobody knows the meaning of loneliness

Editor's note:

We will be exploring the spiritual journey in the second half of the human life cycle in coming weeks.

First, we will be discussing Richard Rohr's book, Falling Upwards: Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, as well as Maturity: The Responsibility Of Being Oneself by Osho, Gail Sheehy's New Passages, Seneca's little book, On The Shortness of Life, and other texts.

Something happens in the second adulthood, 50 - 80 which our society does little to prepare us for. It is a time for either despair and death or gratitude and peace. A life squandered is always too short, and a life well lived is fulfilling at any span.

Stoic philoshophy Saturday - The life well spent.

Articles on Stoic philosophy appear on UU A Way Of Life ministries blog on Saturdays.

From "On The Shortness of Life" by Lucius Seneca

Comment:

These are the first two sentences of Seneca's little book entitled, "On The Shortness Of Life."

Seneca raises right at the outset the question of what is a life well spent?

If a person spends their live well any time span is enough. If a person wastes their time no life span is long enough.

With all the crap, kids are taught in high school, has any teacher helped them consider what a well spent life might look like? Has any teacher helped them investigate the answer to the question, "What will make me happy?"

Why isn't philosophy taught in high school?

For the investigation of the answer to this question of what will make me happy one turns to marketing in our society, and religion.

Unitarian Universalism offers some answers to this question of "What will make me happy," and "what is a life that is well spent" but I have rarely heard these questions directly tackled.

Perhaps it is about time.

The third principle of Unitarian Universalism is the affirmation and promotion of the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. The first question of the student might be, where do I search? The UU answer is "everywhere and anywhere" and, of course, this answer is so broad, vague, and ambiuous it is useless and more than useless, defeating.

Stoic philosophy is not the only place to look for the answer to the question of what will make me happy, but it is a start. And Seneca tells us that it is a well lived life and of course the next question is what is that?

Seneca, like a Universalist, tells us that "Nature has been good to us." "Nature" meaning for some of us "God."

A Course in Miracles tells us that love is our natural inheritance if we want it. Most of us prefer our own willfulness rather than love. A Course In Miracles asks us, I imagine, giggling, "Would you rather be right or be happy?"

Spiritual book discussion - Maturity: The Responsibility Of Being Oneself.

From Maturity: The Responsibility Of Being Oneself by Osho

"Listen to your being. It is continuously giving you hints; it is a still, small voice. It does not shout at you, that is true.

And if you are a little silent you will start feeling your way.

Be the person you are. Never try to be another, and you will become mature.

Maturity is accepting the responsbility of being oneself, whatever the cost.

Risking all to be oneself, that's what maturity is all about." p.xxii

Comment:

This idea of being oneself and not trying to be like someone else is part of the perennial psychology which comes up repeatedly in most religions and philosophy.

We seek the genuine, the authentic, the sincere, the "real deal."

We spend a life time comparing ourself to others, and trying to belong. We compete to succeed and take pride in our success in becoming superior to others, outperforming others, wanting to be special, wanting to be "the best."

There is something about this striving which is antithetical to maturity. This comparsion with others and competitiveness seems childish.

While striving, competing, comparing may be necessary in the first stage of life, it blocks are further spiritual awareness of our true self and our natural inheritance of recpients of Unconditional Love as the Universalists have taught us.

Osho reminds us that true maturity is becoming aware of our ordinariness, our lack of specialness, that we like everyone else are unique but part of the Oneness.

A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - Whose will is being done when we pursue truth and meaning?

From A Course In Miracles:

T-21.II.3. It is impossible the Son of God be merely driven by events outside of him. It is impossible that happenings that come to him were not his choice. His power of decision is the determiner of every situation in which he seems to find himself by chance or accident. No accident nor chance is possible within the universe as God created it, outside of which is nothing. 

Suffer, and you decided sin was your goal.

 Be happy, and you gave the power of decision to Him Who must decide for God for you. This is the little gift you offer to the Holy Spirit, and even this He gives to you to give yourself. For by this gift is given you the power to release your savior, that he may give salvation unto you.

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (p. 448). Foundation for Inner Peace.

Comment:

This is a very dense passage and takes some unpacking.

We, all of us together, are the "Son of God."  And the Son of God is not merely driven by external events. There is something far deeper going on which we are not consciously aware of most of the time. We are sleep walking in the world of illusions which some mystics call "the dream."

We are dreaming the dream so the happenings that appear to be coming to us are things we made up and so, at an unconscious level, are our choice. We decide what our reality is by our interpretation of the events that seem to happen to us. Our third principle in Unitarian Universalism is the "free and responsible search for truth and meaning." What is the truth and meaning that you are seeking and where do you think you will find it?

If we are seeking truth and meaning in God's universe that is one thing, but if we are seeking it in the world of ego that is another. The world of the ego is the external world while God's universe, the "kingdom" as Jesus called it, is within as Jesus told us.

"Sin" in the passage means "separation." If our goal is to separate ourselves from the kingdom of God to pursue our happiness in the world of the ego we will suffer.

If we are to be happy we must give our will to the Holy Spirit to help us find the Kingdom of God. It is this willingness to surrender to our Higher Power, to give our will to the Holy Spirit which brings us home with the Holy Spirit leading the way. It is this willingness to follow God's will for us that is our saving grace, that brings us salvation.

The search for truth and meaning, the third UU principle,involves what Twelve Step programs call "surrender." In the Christian Prayer which Jesus taught us, the Our Father, we say "Thy kindgom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." It is this willingness to even say this prayer let alone, apply it in our lives which is the source of our true happiness. We surrender and let the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Muse, Life, Mother Nature, whatever we want to call the Higher Power to do its work and carry out its function in our lives.

Ask Alexa - Is it true I create my own reality?

Alexa: To what extent do I create my own reality?

You create it all, not in the external circumstances in your life, but in the meaning you make of them.

Alexa:Did you hear about the clock that ate its dinner and was still hungry?

Yes, the clock went back for seconds.

You might think it's okay to harass and abuse immigrants, but UUs think it's not okay.

You might think that it's okay to abuse, lock up, separate families, deport undocumented immigrants but it's not okay because Christian tradition teaches that we should welcome the stranger because all of God's children have inherent worth and dignity and are to be treated with justice, equity, and compassion.

This, we Unitarian Universalists have covenanted together to affirm and promote.