Look for the Divine Spark in others.

The miracle is the act of a Son of God who has laid aside all false gods, and calls on his brothers to do likewise. It is an act of faith, because it is the recognition that his brother can do it. It is a call to the Holy Spirit in his mind, a call that is strengthened by joining. Because the miracle worker has heard God’s Voice, he strengthens It in a sick brother by weakening his belief in sickness, which he does not share. The power of one mind can shine into another, because all the lamps of God were lit by the same spark. It is everywhere and it is eternal. T-10.IV.7:1-6

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (pp. 347-348). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Peace Pilgrim said that when she met other people she would look for the Divine Spark in them and then focus on that. Together, joining with another, the spark bursts into flame and the miracle is manifest in the world.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth. The acceptance is based on the faith in the Divine Spark in every person we meet, and the nurturance of spiritual growth is in encouraging the awareness of the miracle of Atonement or the understanding that we are all one with our Creator as the Universalists taught us.

To what extent is there an understanding in yourself and in your congregation about the unconditional love of God? Are there practices which manifest this understanding? To what extent is there a sense of purpose that motivates one’s life and work with others to bring about the salvation of humankind from the wiles and snares of the ego world?

Experiencing the no thing of the All, the non dual Oneness.

When you have experienced the protection of God, the making of idols becomes inconceivable. There are no strange images in the Mind of God, and what is not in His Mind cannot be in yours, because you are of one mind and that mind belongs to Him. It is yours because it belongs to Him, for to Him ownership is sharing. And if it is so for Him, it is so for you. His definitions are His laws, for by them He established the universe as what it is. No false gods you attempt to interpose between yourself and your reality affect truth at all. Peace is yours because God created you. And He created nothing else. T-10.IV.6:1-7

A Course in Miracles (p. 347). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

When we experience the non dual Oneness, the cosmic consciousness, we don’t want the idols of the world of the ego. We have an experience of peace and bliss and the eternal now. We experience being one with God our Creator of which we are an extension.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us covenant together to affirm and promote a love for the interdependent web of all existence which is beyond our understanding or apprehension. The love of God’s creation is beyond understanding and yet we can remove the blocks to the awareness of this love when we eschew the idols of the ego. This is done in meditation when we relax into the no thing of the All.

Some of us set aside times during our days to meditate. In meditation we remind ourselves from whence we have come and to which we yearn to return, our true home with our creator.

To what extent do Unitarian Universalists have a meditation practice? Is meditation taught in our congregations? Is meditation encouraged? Are UU clergy and other leaders skilled in accessing the Transcendent Oneness?

The third principle series

 One of the motives in moving the posts for UU A Way Of Life back to blogger from substack is so that the brand of UU A Way Of Life can be more visible and accessible.

A new effort will be made to develop a theology both public and private based on the seven principles and the six sources.

The first focus will be on the third principle which is to promote and affirm the acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth.

Come back for the series of articles on the third principle and share them with friends, family, and others and perhaps use them for small group discussions.

Dwell in the peace and bliss of the Divine

You are not free to give up freedom, but only to deny it. You cannot do what God did not intend, because what He did not intend does not happen. Your gods do not bring chaos; you are endowing them with chaos, and accepting it of them. All this has never been. Nothing but the laws of God has ever been, and nothing but His Will will ever be. You were created through His laws and by His Will, and the manner of your creation established you a creator. What you have made is so unworthy of you that you could hardly want it, if you were willing to see it as it is. You will see nothing at all. And your vision will automatically look beyond it, to what is in you and all around you. Reality cannot break through the obstructions you interpose, but it will envelop you completely when you let them go. T-10.IV.5:1-10

A Course in Miracles (p. 347). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

We are not free when we have been lied to, and we have been lied to continually by the world of the ego which tells us that its idols will make us happy. Once we get these idols of the ego out of the way we become aware of our freedom in the unconditional love of God.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the acceptance of one another and the encouragement to spiritual growth. This encouragement focuses on giving up the idols of the ego in favor of the unconditional love of God. This involves a rising above the things of this world of the ego so that we can dwell in the peace and bliss of the Divine. Jesus put it very accurately when He said, “Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.”

Escape the drugged world of sleep and align ourselves with God’s will.

How you wake is the sign of how you have used sleep. To whom did you give it? Under which teacher did you place it? Whenever you wake dispiritedly, it was not given to the Holy Spirit. Only when you awaken joyously have you utilized sleep according to His purpose. You can indeed be “drugged” by sleep, if you have misused it on behalf of sickness. Sleep is no more a form of death than death is a form of unconsciousness. Complete unconsciousness is impossible. You can rest in peace only because you are awake. T-8.IX.4:1-9

A Course in Miracles (pp. 306-307). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

So much of Jesus’ teachings in A Course Of Miracles are counter-intuitive. They don’t make sense from the thought system of the world of the ego. They do make sense from the thought system of Spirit. In this passage Jesus teaches us that sleep is withdrawal as if we are drugged and when the drug wears off our consciousness is shifted but this does not mean that we are spiritually awakened. To be spiritually awakened is to join with the Holy Spirit in the healing of the separation or what the Course calls Atonement where we experience the peace and bliss of the non dual Oneness.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which is the pursuit of awakening. This awakening involves aligning our will with God’s will for us and the many become one.

Today it is suggested that we escape the drugged world of sleep which is the denial of the non dual Oneness and align ourselves with God’s will.

What would Love have me do?

Wholeness heals because it is of the mind. All forms of sickness, even unto death, are physical expressions of the fear of awakening. They are attempts to reinforce sleeping out of fear of waking. This is a pathetic way of trying not to see by rendering the faculties for seeing ineffectual. “Rest in peace” is a blessing for the living, not the dead, because rest comes from waking, not from sleeping. Sleep is withdrawing; waking is joining. Dreams are illusions of joining, because they reflect the ego’s distorted notions about what joining is. Yet the Holy Spirit, too, has use for sleep, and can use dreams on behalf of waking if you will let Him. T-8.IX.3:1-8

A Course in Miracles (p. 306). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Sleep is a way of leaving the world of the ego by withdrawing from it. It is a hiatus from hell. When we return from sleep into our conscious mind most of us are not awake in the spiritual sense. To be awakened, enlightened, is to become cosmically conscious joining the non dual Oneness with our Transcendent Source by leaving the hell of the ego, rising above it, for peace and bliss.

In Unitarian Universalism, some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning which takes us beyond the world of the ego to the world of Spirit, from the world of conditional love to the world of unconditional love.

Today it is suggested that we choose to awaken to the world of Spirit and leave the world the ego behind. When we leave sleep we can ask the Holy Spirit to help us be a conduit of God’s unconditional love in the world by asking continually throughout the day, “What would love have me do?”

Which choice will I make today: conditional love or unconditional love, reality or delusion?

Wrong perception is the wish that things be as they are not. The reality of everything is totally harmless, because total harmlessness is the condition of its reality. It is also the condition of your awareness of its reality. You do not have to seek reality. It will seek you and find you when you meet its conditions. Its conditions are part of what it is. And this part only is up to you. The rest is of itself. You need do so little because your little part is so powerful that it will bring the whole to you. Accept, then, your little part, and let the whole be yours. T-8.IX.2:1-10

A Course in Miracles (p. 306). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

The bumper sticker is “Reality cares nothing about your beliefs.” The Buddhists say, “It is what it is.” However, the ego wants something different from reality and tempts us to act, believing its lies, thinking that what the ego holds out can be achieved much to our eventual dismay.

In Unitarian Universalism some of us join together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UUs, more than other believers, tend to believe in reality even though we are no better than others at finding it.

Today it is suggested that we consider that reality, unconditional love, is different from unreality, conditional love. We have a choice in which world we want to live. Which choice will I make today?