A Course In Miralces Workbook Lesson #133, I will not value what is valueless.

 Lesson #133

I will not value what is valueless

When you choose to do things are you trying to serve the ego’s purposes or the Spirit’s? Are you feeling guilty because you are taking away from someone else? Are you uneasy because you know what you have chosen has only temporary value? If the answer is “yes” to these questions, you have chosen wrong because you are valuing the valueless.

In the fifth step of Alcoholics Anonymous it is suggested that we admit to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the bad choices we have made. In other words, own up, face up, speak up, and choose again.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. To apply this principle we must choose rightly by valuing only what is valuable which are things of the Spirit (Love), things which are permanent, and things which are beneficial to all.

Today, it is suggested that we take 15 minutes twice to reflect on our desire and intention to only value the valuable and to not value the valueless. Life is not complicated. It can be very simple if we learn how to discern what is valuable from valueless.

My Kind Of Church Music

You're So Vain by Carly Simon

Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalists - Meditate every day

 

What's been your experience with mediation? There are many ways to do it. What works for you?

Join our mystic circle of Unitarian Universalists discussion group  to share your experience and learn about the experience of others.

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Seven Female Mystics presentation, Sunday, 01/03/21, 6:30 PM EST

 

Stories about UU mystic, Harry Hollywood, The differentiated world.

 

The differentiated world.

The UU mystic Harry Hollywood was at the UU book discussion group meeting where the group was discussing Jenny Offill’s recent novel, Weather, which got many rave reviews. About forty five minutes into the meeting one the members turned to Harry and said, “Harry, what did you think about the book.”

Harry smiled and said, “Let me read you my favorite part;

“I finally tried a meditation class. My knee was hurting so I sat on a chair. The mostly enlightened woman was there on a cushion. I’d wondered what happened to her. At the end, she asked Margot a question or what she seemed to think was a question. ‘I’ve been fortunate enough to spend a great deal of time in the melted ego world. But I find I have trouble coming back to the differentiated world, the one you were just talking about where you have to wash the dishes and take out the garbage.’

She was very pregnant, six months maybe. Oh. don’t worry, I thought, the differentiated world is coming for your ass.”

Harry started guffawing so strongly he could hardly catch his breath. A few of the other group members, looking scared, started politely laughing too.

“Ain't’ that the bomb,” said Harry? “It seems the differentiated world is always coming after our ass.”

Spiritual Book Discussion Group - Scripture Unbound, Scripture and authority

 Scripture and authority

“IT’S IN THE BIBLE!” 

This statement is often used to justify a claim or argue a point by those who see scripture as a stable and reliable source of values in a time when social mores in the wider culture are shifting rapidly. On the other hand, many of those who are hostile to the idea of scripture say that it has been used as a weapon against their beliefs or identities.

Johnstone, Jonalu. Scripture Unbound: A Unitarian Universalist Approach (p. 13). Skinner House Books. Kindle Edition. 

In logic, the appeal to authority is considered fallacious, and is called argumentum ad verecundiam. The argument is that something is true just because someone considered an authority says it is so. Parents use this argument when children complain and challenge the parent with “Why do I have to?!” and the parent says, “Because I said so!”

The idea that a sacred text is the revealed word of God and, as such, has intrinsic, unchallengeable authority to determine truth has become highly suspect since the time of the enlightenment.

Even if the text is considered authoritative, who is to determine whether any particular interpretation is more correct, authentic, and /or definitive than another?

The text is held up as an idol for worship rather than the thing being referenced by the text.

Texts considered authoritative often get used in political ways giving one class of people domination and control over others. 

Francis David, the Unitarian Pioneer, in the Sixteenth century, said that we need not think alike to love alike. 

Jesus taught that the way to the Kingdom is Love and often condemned the Sadducees and the Pharisees for their intellectual parsing of their religious texts. 

It is written in the first verse of the Tao Te Ching that “The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal name. The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.” 

It is written in A Course In Miracles that “The Course does not aim at the teaching of love, for that is beyond what can be taught.”

Sacred texts are the finger pointing at the moon, not the moon. They are a light illuminating shadows in the darkness so that we might sense the Divine more clearly but they are not science textbooks to be taken literally or a great deal of political, psychological, social, and spiritual harm can be done.

1. What has been your experience of sacred texts? 

2. Have they been used as instruments of coercive subjugation or tools of liberation? 

3. Have sacred texts been used on you to exert compliance to the demands of external authorities or as vehicles for enhanced understanding and enlightenment?

Join our discussion group. We are hoping to have at least 10 members by the end of January. Presently, we have five.

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Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalists - Plan for 52 week curriculum for novitiates

 

Topic Five

The plan for the 52 week curriculum of discernment for the novitiate of the Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalism

The curriculum for the novitiate for the Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalism lasts for 52 weeks. The week begins on Sunday. The first Sunday of 2021 is January 3 and this marks the beginning of the first week.

Each week we will cover seven areas of study: 

1. Key concepts and terms which will constitute our glossary.

2. Practices and skills which an be explored and experimented with.

3. Values clarification - What matters most in the development of a spiritual life.

4. Review and reflection on key texts which elucidate the spiritual life.

5. Identification and description of experts who have gained a reputation as mystics and teachers.

6. Evaluation and assessment of progress

7. Review and summary of week’s activity

Join our Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalists Discussion Group. We currently have 4 members and would like to have 10 by the end of January 2021. Anyone interested in exploring the novitiate is welcome to join. There is no obligation. At the end of the program, the participant can apply for admission to the Mystic Circle of Unitarian Universalists if they feel called to this vocation.

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A Course In Miracles Workbook Lesson #132, I loose the world from all I thought is was.

Lesson #132

I loose the world from all I thought it was.

Most people don’t realize they are watching the shadows on Plato’s cave wall. The world they see is an illusion born from projection. As Flip Wilson used to say when in his Geraldine character, “What you see is what you get.” And the follow-up question is “How is that working for ya?”

In Alcoholics Anonymous, in step two, it is suggested that we come to see that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity. In other words, knock off the bull shit. Bull shit is not only not all there is, but it never existed to begin with. It is a figment of our imagination. Today’s lesson in the Course is to give it up.

In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning and to eschew bull shit. Pursuing bull shit will never gets you anywhere. You might notice that the principle reads, “responsible” search which means that we no longer will pursue a search in bull shit. The human mind finds it so easy to project bullshit that we forget that bullshit is bullshit. We are encouraged today in this lesson to get real, to give up the search in bull shit.

Today it is suggested that we take fifteen minutes twice to set the bull shit aside and to look deeply into what’s real which is the Oneness of God experienced as Love.

My Kind Of Church Music

You Lie by Reba McEntire