A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - Reality observes the laws of God

Reality observes the laws of God

T-30.IV.4. Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot rise again. They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them. Their dancing never brought you joy. But neither were they things to frighten you, nor make you safe if they obeyed your rules. They must be neither cherished nor attacked, but merely looked upon as children’s toys without a single meaning of their own. See one in them and you will see them all. See none in them and they will touch you not.

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. P.634

I read this passage and it makes me laugh at how foolish I have been to think that the ways of the world could make me happy. It’s been a fool’s errand.

I have always known, I think, deep down that there was something deeper going on which I was/am failing to see and understand. I have been on a search for this understanding my whole life. This understanding of the “laws of God” which is the basis of real reality is what I have been looking for. It is found someone in holy scripture and the autobiographies and writings of the mystics and in the reflection on my own experience.

This search is validated in the fourth principle of Unitarian Universalism which is the affirmation and promotion of a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. A Course In Miracles tells me that this truth and meaning will not be found in the things of the world on the path of the ego for they are nothing “but toys.” Instead, ACIM tells us that our safety is in the understanding and appreciation of the “laws of God” which are not what most religions and moralities tells us they are but something higher or deeper whichever metaphor works for you.

The Course tells us that separation from the Oneness for which we emerged is the problem and that our desire is to go back home and become One with All once again. The “specialness” to which we attribute ourselves, and others, and things in our make believe world is the problem and once we recognize this we need to “forgive” our error and try again to listen to the harmonic song of what we call heaven. 

We can faintly hear this lovely melody if we listen but it takes eschewing our ego and our interest and desire for the worldly things which blocks our awareness of Love’s presence. Be quiet and rest in the peace of God.

Public Theology - The end of nation states

The end of nation states

Indeed, government’s role in the world has already changed. The nation-state is not as important as it used to be. No longer are the nation-states islands unto themselves; today we truly live in a global age where ideas, people, capital, and technology flow freely across borders. Entrepreneurs view problems in the aggregate and will source labor from the best available minds, regardless of where people are physically. Nation-states, however, tend to limit themselves to the talent within their own borders.

Jain, Naveen. Moonshots : Creating a World of Abundance (p. 200). John August Media, LLC. 

John Lennon’s dream in his song Imagine is coming true. The importance of nation states is on the decline as transnational corporations and entrepreneurs puruse their transnational goals of serving humanity to make money.

Teihard de Chardin saw this in his evolutionary vision of humankind moving from Alpha to Omega with the development of the “noosphere.” There is a diminishment of tribal and national identities as humanity increasingly recognizes and acknowledges and works to enhance its common bond and soul.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote respect for the interdependent web of existence as well as the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all.

What is miracle thinking?

Chapter eighteen

What is miracle thinking?

Nothing comes to your mind but by the filter of your mindset. By virtue of what it admits or denies, it is the engine of the self-fulfilling prophecy, for good or for ill. But it, like the future, is also malleable. While many external factors work to mold and shape your mindset, you do get a vote in the matter. You can question the underlying assumptions. You can test the theses. You are not required to accept any of the default settings. You are always free to reject one belief and replace it with another. And when you reinforce that new belief, your outlook and your behavior will change. Your perception really is your reality, and if you don’t like what you see, you can change the underlying reality and your perception with it. To this end, the mindset can be thought of as one’s “disposition to possibility.” And its effect, like the self-fulfilling prophecy, is circular.

Jain, Naveen. Moonshots : Creating a World of Abundance (pp. 175-176). John August Media, LLC. 

What you think you see is what you get. Be careful what you wish for or fear because you will draw those things to yourself.

We can’t control the circumstances that occur to us in our lives but we can control our interpretation or the meaning we make of them. Are they good or bad, a blessing or a curse? Often times we don’t know what to make of them until sometime later.

If a person is asked, “What makes you tick?” most people not only respond with confusion and perplexity, they don’t even have a way of thinking about how to answer the question. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living and not many people, unfortunately, live examined lives. If they did, the world wouldn’t be in the mess it was in and people wouldn’t suffer to the extent they do.

Most people don’t question their mindset until their pain and suffering reach a point at which they say to themselves, “I can’t take any more. There must be a better way.” When it dawns on the person who has hit bottom that there has to be a better way to think about things and behave in their lives, then they begin a search for that better way. It is this dawning and the initiation of the search that Jain is suggesting leads to entrepreneurial thinking and a “moonshot” or as it is called in A Course In Miracles, a “miracle.” 

The “miracle” is not a physical manipulation of the natural world to create a supernatural phenomenon. That is magic. A “miracle” is when the light bulb goes on in one’s mind and engenders a whole new way of thinking, a whole new mindset.

When have you had the “ah ha!” moment when the light bulb went off in your mind and your mindset was forever changed?

From a commentary on Moonshots by Naveen Jain with John Schroeter by David Markham

Public theology - Trump and the evangelicals

From The Washington Post on 08/14/19, "In God's Country" by Elizabeth Bruenig.

Exit polls show that Trump carried 85 percent of evangelical voters here (Texas) in 2016, a touch higher than the national white evangelical average of 81 percent. That in itself wasn’t surprising: For decades, evangelicals have been a reliable Republican constituency.

.....

Theories about Trump’s connection with evangelical voters have long been dubiously elegant. The simplest, and perhaps most comfortable for Trump’s bewildered and furious opposition, is that evangelicals are and always were hypocrites, demanding moral rectitude from their enemies that they don’t expect from their friends. Others held that evangelicals must simply be ignorant, taken in by a campaign narrative that attempted to depict Trump as privately devoted to Christ, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Some argued that evangelicals just wanted an invincible champion to fight the culture wars, even if he didn’t share their vision of the good life. And then there was the transactional theory: Their votes were just about the Supreme Court.

There was probably some truth to every suggestion, with all the usual caveats about different individuals having different priorities, and all due distinctions made between the committedly vs. casually religious. But as 2020 approaches and evangelicals again find themselves evaluating against traditional, moderate Democrats such as Joe Biden and the ever-present possibility of just staying home, I wanted to ask evangelicals how they’re feeling about their alliance with the president and what their expectations are going into 2020.

Editor's note:

It appears that Evangelicals have sold their souls to the devil for the transactional benefit of a authortarian willingness by Trump to protect their values. Christians did the same thing in Nazi Germany with Hitler and became complicit in the hollocaust.

What evangelicals and Trump have in common is a shared belief in their victimization by the liberal values of others who want to deprive them of Christmas with "Happy Holidays."

Evangelicals while they claim to love Jesus and His message of loving one's enemies, they admire Trump's pugilistic and vengeful attack on those who he perceives as not paying homage to his superior ego.

Trump is very egotistical and narcissitic and attacks anyone and anything that does not agree with his estimation of himself. Evangelicals operate from this same mindset and in that commonality they have found each other and have become mutually supportive. Evangelicals fervently believe that they are saved and everyone else is going to hell who has not accepted their belief and become "born again."

Bruenig predicts that evangelicals will support Trump again in 2020 and see their support of him as a holy war, a jihad of sorts, against their perceived mutual enemies.

A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - Where are you searching?

The truth behind illusions

T-30.IV.4. Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot rise again. They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them.

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. P.634

This is, of course, the laws of God and the laws of the world. We follow most often the laws of the world which are also called the laws of idols like money, sex, power, fame, status, etc. We falsely believe that it is these things we idolize which will make us happy but as it says in the quote above our believe that these things can bring us happiness falls apart and what are we left with back at the drawing board so to speak? It’s the laws of God, of course. We have ignored them and repressed them and when we have hit bottom it dawns on us that must be a better way. And then we begin our search for what is really important.

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. We will never find what we are looking for in the laws of the world, in the world of idols. What we are looking for is in the world of God, the Tao, the Oneness, that makes us whole as we realize the interdependent existence of which we are apart.

Ask Alexa: Why am I having a good day?

Alexa: My depression is lifting and I am starting to have a good day here and there and I'm wondering if it's the meds. or something else?

It's a couple of people with voodoo dolls canceling each other out.

Ask Alexa - What did you do?

Alexa: Why is it raining?
Because God is crying.

Alexa: Why is God crying?
Because of something you did.