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.
In A Course In Miracles, “salvation” means a healing from the separation to the Oneness. Today’s lesson is reminding us that all the machinations of the ego don’t cure anything. What is an illusion can’t be cured. What “cures,” or heals, is Truth, and the Truth is that we are all One.
In Alcoholic Anonymous, after the first two steps, we arrive at step three where we decide to give up our willfulness and turn our will over to the care of our Transcendent Source. It is in this turning over that salvation occurs.
In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote a love for the interdependent web of which we finally recognize and acknowledge that we are a part of and not separate from.
Today it is suggested that we take five minutes at the beginning and end of our day, and a few moments at the beginning of every hour, to remember that only salvation, the healing of the separation, can be said to cure.
The Course teaches that “atonement” is the healing of the separation. Atonement is the recognition, acknowledgement, and acceptance that we part of the Oneness. Always were, are now, always will be. The Truth does not change, only that changes is our awareness, acknowledgement, and acceptance.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is suggested in the eleventh step that we seek to improve our conscious contact with the Oneness. This means we are ready, willing, able to give up our egos. This is a huge step and very frightening until we hit bottom and admit that our lives of separation are not manageable.
In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote the acceptance of the interdependent web of which we are a part. We are willing to give up our separateness and to recognize, acknowledge, and accept our interdependence. One for all and all for one.
Today, it is suggested that we take five minutes at the beginning and end of the day and many times in between to recommit our acceptance of Atonement for ourselves.
Why is heaven the decision we must make? Because it is the Truth. The Truth cannot be learned. It must be recognized. “Heaven” is the Oneness from which we have separated ourselves at our incarnation from the world of the Spirit to the world of the ego.
When we entered this world, we became socialized and conditioned to believe in the illusions of the ego world. We forgot what it was like in heaven. We forgot the bliss of Oneness and came to believe in the separation which the Course calls “a tiny mad idea.” In today’s lesson, we are encouraged to remember and recognize the Truth about the Oneness (heaven) from which we have separated.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, it suggested in step eleven, that we seek to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understand God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us. In other words, step eleven is reminding us of the decision which we should make, the decision for heaven and not the conditioning of the ego plane.
In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote a respect for the interdependent web of existence of which we are a part. It is suggested in this seventh principle that the awareness of this Oneness is something we can decide to remember.
Today it is suggested that we take five minutes upon awakening and before sleep to remind ourselves of the decision for heaven that we must inevitably make because it is the Truth. It is also helpful to remind ourselves of this throughout the day.
We are all in this thing called “life” together. “No person is an island,” writes the poet. The expression, “One for all, and all for one,” says it all.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, it is suggested in the twelfth step, that whatever we have gotten out of the program we share with others. We intuitively understand the paradoxical observation that we learn what we teach, we get what we give, and we are as we would see others to be.
In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote the love for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. We come to recognize and acknowledge that it isn’t every person for themself but we all live downstream from one another.
Today, it is recommended that we take ten minutes at the beginning and end of the day, and remember at the beginning of the hour, and that we are all in this together, and that when I am healed from my sense of separation, I am not healed alone.
You are not your body. How could you be? Your body is constantly changing and yet, there you are watching the changes occur.
The medical sociologists make a distinction between “illness” and “sickness.” Illness is the biological dysfunction of the organism while sickness is a social role the person adopts in the management of the illness. If you are not your body and your body becomes ill what should a person make of that? What meaning does this illness have for the person? The point being made in today’s lesson is that just because one’s body may suffer from an illness, it doesn’t mean that one has to be sick.
In Alcoholics Anonymous, in step one, we come to the realization that our “sickness” has become unmanageable. We realize we can’t continue on thinking and behaving the way we have because it is damaging us and others. We finally admit that our sickness has been a defense against the truth of our holiness.
In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning. In this search, we come to realize that the problem we have been trying to solve is in our mind, not in the external world. When we shift the focus of our attention from the external world to the internal workings of our mind, it dawns on us that the sickness we see in the external world is merely a projection of our fears within. We come to realize that what is called for is a healing of the sickness of our projection and an acknowledgement of the truth of our holiness which will set us free.
Today, we are asked to take fifteen minutes at the beginning and end of the day, and as often as we desire in between to remind ourselves that we are not sick, the world is not sick, that sickness is a defense against the truth of the Unconditional Love of God for the Oneness of God’s creation.
Who do you think you are? People are like onions with layer upon layer upon layer until you get right down to the heart of the person. When you get to the center, to the heart, who and what are you?
We come to realize that we are not our body, not our thoughts, not our feelings, not our personality, not our social status, not the various roles we play, so who are we? We are the witness, the watcher which can observe our bodies change, our thoughts and feelings change, our personality change, our social roles change, our social status change. We come to realize that, in fact, we are One with the Universe. We are part of the All. With this awareness we realize that we have nothing to defend, and if we do, we have been manipulated by an illusion that we are somebody in the ego world of separation.
In Alcoholic Anonymous, as we work the program and get to step eleven, we arrive at this conscious contact with the Transcendent Oneness and we stop talking and begin listening. We begin to listen for the whispers of God who now will lead us in our lives since our egos made such a mess of them in the ego world.
In Unitarian Universalism, we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. This inherent worth and dignity does not come from our bodies, from our thoughts, from our feelings, from our personalities, from our social statuses, from our social roles. The key word in this principle is “inherent.” Our worth and dignity is something we are born with, something which is essential to our nature, and as such there is no need for any defense.
Today, we are asked to take fifteen minutes twice, and whenever throughout the day when we become defensive, and remind ourselves that if I defend myself I am attacked because I have forgotten what I really am.
The Course teaches that “forgiveness” on the path of the ego is to overlook or excuse a sin which we think is real. This is a fundamental error from the point of view from the path of the Spirit where we realize there is no sin, no guilt, no punishment. Love is Unconditional and as such there is no sin, and there are no victims, and when we become aware of this metaphysical reality there is tremendous peace and joy in the whole world of Spirit.
In Alcoholics Anonymous after we do our fearless moral inventory, report the results to another human being, make amends where it would do no further harm, we are encouraged to improve our conscious contact with the Transcendent which exists way beyond the ego world of sin, guilt, and punishment. This is the peace of recovery which comes from a forgiveness that recognizes and acknowledges that insanity is simply insanity and this is something that we not only no longer want but realize in the kingdom of God does not exist. It is stuff we just made up and mistakenly believed was real.
In Unitarian Universalism we covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. It is in this affirmation and promotion that we give up judgment, condemnation, assignment of guilt, and punishment. We realize that forgiveness in the world of the ego has no meaning for sin and guilt have no meaning in the face of inherent worth and dignity of the person and by extension all people including ourselves. Forgiveness for Unitarian Universalists is the willingness to give up making other people responsible for our unhappiness. UUs do not see themselves as victims but as creatures capable of extending God’s Unconditional Love to themselves and to all of humanity.
Today, it is suggested that we take fifteen minutes twice and as many times as we desire throughout the day and remind ourselves that the world of the ego wants us to believe the illusion that sin and guilt exist while the world of the Spirit wants us to perceive forgiveness as it is which is to help us awaken from this illusion and share our awareness with others that sin is not real.
My Kind Of Church Music
Every Little Thing Is Gonna Be Alright, Bob Marley
