Category: Advent

Power and Strength

Advent Series, Part 3 of 4

YouTube: Power and Strength

Audio: Power and Strength

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week and bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am. See and feel your soul radiating power. Power manifests in a wide range of ways, from the unfathomable power of the sun to the simple unfolding of a leaf. Power divides our cells and fuels all aspects of our being.

Power rises in your being as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength. You may call on strength to hold a steady course, to take one more step when your world seems to crumble around you, or to steady your faith in the well-being of a loved one. Strength may manifest as the courage to make an apology or it may express as the power to say no to behavior you know as destructive.

With your attention focused at your center, sense the power of your soul rising from your innermost depths and radiating throughout your being. Affirm:

I am an expression of pure power. The full radiance of my soul empowers me to steadfastness in all that I am and all that I do. My strength is boundless, my power has no limits.

If you are feeling powerless to do anything about some condition in your life, release the emotional energy of helplessness as you use this affirmation. Again, do not try to make anything happen or even look for changes in your life. Simply allow the flow of power to rise in your being and know it expresses as the strength you need, as you need it. Take a series of deep breaths. With each one, breathe in power and breathe out strength. Power is the essence of your being. You are never without it.

 

 

 

 

Inner Peace

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything here, as my attention has been on other things. I’m presently conducting a video series on my book, The Complete Soul, and have been busy re-editing the entire nine episodes. In addition to the normally busy Christmas season (thanks to my friend Al), I’ve discovered drone photography and have been working at wrapping my mind around the wonders of this marvelous and fascinating technology.

Each week I post the theme of my upcoming talk on Facebook. I’m using the Advent season to explore the four fundamentals of God: life, love, power and intelligence.  This week we’re on power, which manifests as strength in its many forms: strength of faith, strength of character, strength of body and so on.

It occurred to me that one of the most satisfying manifestations of power is inner peace. Centered in peace, we find all the strength we need to deal with life’s issues. The mistake we often make, however, is that we seek peace through the resolution of these issues. When I resolve this thing, I’ll be peaceful. The key is to experience peace first, as the resolution always follows. If our inner peace depends on resolving problems, then peace is elusive, conditional. When we learn to experience it prior to the resolution, then we realize its unconditional nature. This, I believe, is the peace that passes normal understanding that Jesus referred to, a peace not given by the world of resolved conditions, but by an inner experience of the ever-present power of God.

It’s easy to put a price on peace, to believe that something more must happen before we can be at peace. We’re taught in so many ways that being at peace in the midst of a storm is irresponsible. If we care, we’ll be frantically at work seeking a resolution to whatever issue confronts us. Jesus’ disciples couldn’t believe he could sleep in a boat being tossed about by a storm. Having been in a similar situation, I have to admit that I probably would have been among the disciples. But I found the more I learned of sailing, the less fearful I was of the wind. Likewise, the more we learn of the presence of spiritual power, the more we tap into the unconditional presence of the peace it gives.

For many, the holidays and all the preparations they call for become a rather stormy sea. Instead of enjoying the season, we stress our way through it, catching our spiritual breath only after it all passes. We should recall that we reside now in the full power of God and that power is now being imparted at our innermost level as the wonderful gift of inner peace.

 

Intelligence and Order

Advent Series, Part 4 of 4

YouTube: Intelligence and Order

Audio: Intelligence and Order

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week. Bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am.

Open your mind to the quickening presence of intelligence. Your entire being is already permeated with intelligence. The functions of your body are all governed by it. You see and experience intelligence as order in your breathing, the beating of your heart, and all the many activities within the universe of your body of which you are not even aware. You see intelligence in the flower, in your pet, in the birds, and the clouds that sail across the sky.

As you relax and let go, get the sense of this truth that you are completely immersed in intelligence and that your life is now unfolding in perfect order. Affirm:

The very essence of my being is intelligence. My mind is clear. My thinking is orderly. I see things in their highest relation to the whole. My vision is clear. My soul is imbued with the wisdom of the universe. In all I do, I move forward in confidence and in peace.

Release all feelings of uncertainty about your life and know the intelligence of your soul is guiding your every step. Lift your spiritual eyes away from all appearances and see yourself as a conduit through which infinite intelligence is expressing as you.

Everyone and everything becomes part of your success in living. If your life seems to be pushing you to the left when you think you should go right, then know the intelligence expressing as your soul is now at work. Do not strain to work out plans or struggle to control events. Hold fast to the truth that the wisdom of your soul is directing your life, that the order and success you desire is unfolding with every new development.

Power and Strength

Advent Series, Part 3 of 4

Click for Youtube: Power and Strength

Click for Audio: Power and Strength

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week and bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am. See and feel your soul radiating power. Power manifests in a wide range of ways, from the unfathomable power of the sun to the simple unfolding of a leaf. Power divides our cells and fuels all aspects of our being.

Power rises in your being as physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual strength. You may call on strength to hold a steady course, to take one more step when your world seems to crumble around you, or to steady your faith in the well-being of a loved one. Strength may manifest as the courage to make an apology or it may express as the power to say no to behavior you know as destructive.

With your attention focused at your center, sense the power of your soul rising from your innermost depths and radiating throughout your being. Affirm:

I am an expression of pure power. The full radiance of my soul empowers me to steadfastness in all that I am and all that I do. My strength is boundless, my power has no limits.

If you are feeling powerless to do anything about some condition in your life, release the emotional energy of helplessness as you use this affirmation. Again, do not try to make anything happen or even look for changes in your life. Simply allow the flow of power to rise in your being and know it expresses as the strength you need, as you need it. Take a series of deep breaths. With each one, breathe in power and breathe out strength. Power is the essence of your being. You are never without it.

 

 

 

 

Love and Understanding

Advent Series, Part 2 of 4

YouTube: Love and Understanding: Will publish on Monday

Audio: Love and Understanding

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus is on the meditative process. Follow the same preparations from the first week and bring your awareness into the region of the solar plexus using the simple statement, I Am.  See and feel your soul radiating love. This beautiful energy of love works for the highest good of all concerned, sometimes attracting and sometimes repelling or dissolving, depending on how the highest good is to manifest. Whether love attracts or dissolves is not a decision you make, but one you trust love to sort out as it flows in and through every aspect of your being and your life. Love lifts your vision in a way that imparts the understanding to see and know what needs to be done. Affirm:

I am guided by the understanding that love imparts.

Love is my essence. Love is my being.

Love is the balancing action in all my relationships and all conditions in my life.

See your body immersed in love. See every aspect of your life, especially those areas that are troubled, completely engulfed in the love that radiates as your soul. See love doing its perfect work and become willing to do your part in that work when the understanding dictates. Loving your neighbor may result in strengthening your relationship or dissolving it. This is a much better alternative than trying to force yourself to love them because you think you are supposed to. You may not always be able to muster the kind word or take that right action that will bring agreement with another. Still, you can know that invoking love will fit all the pieces together, will tie up the loose ends, and move all concerned to their best and highest good. Love reveals that this is true even when your good intentions at diplomacy fail miserably, or fear drives your own actions. The love that expresses as your soul is greater than all human frailty. Your unloving thoughts and actions or the unloving thoughts and actions of another do nothing to alter love itself. Love does not depend on how loving or unloving you are.

Let all of this go and simply see your entire being immersed in love. Experience love’s healing warmth. Let it melt away your stress and your struggle to be loved. You are more than loved. You are love itself.

 

 

Life and Enthusiasm

Advent Series, Part 1 of 4

Youtube: Life and Enthusiasm

Audio: Life and Enthusiasm

In this four-part series, we are treating Advent as an intuitive awakening. Our focus, therefore, is on the meditative process. Choose a regular time and a place where you will not be disturbed (allow 30 minutes to an hour). Relax your mind and body. Bring your awareness to the area of the solar plexus (abdominal region) and focus your attention with this simple statement: I Am. Slowly repeat these words, letting go of all stress-inducing distractions. After a time, begin speaking quietly the affirmations that follow. Allow yourself to envision and experience the action suggested by each line before you move on to the next:

My soul radiates the pure, unrestricted energy of life.

There are no blockages. There are no restrictions.

I am filled with boundless life and unbridled enthusiasm.

The pure radiance of my soul shines in its fullness now.

In perfect peace, I let this pure energy rise.

As you relax with your awareness at your center, see the radiating energy of your soul as the energizing life that permeates all aspects of your being. It is natural to visualize life as the light that animates and heals every cell of your body and brings a sparkle of enthusiasm to your eye. You need not direct the energy of life, for life knows how to express itself. We see it animating countless forms at a variety of levels everywhere in the world. Life never stagnates. It is only our mundane focus of attention that becomes dull and lifeless. Acknowledge the free reign of life as it radiates its natural expansive movement through and as your being.

Don’t try to pump up your enthusiasm and strive to be the life of the party. Doing this will expend your energy by directing it to that bottomless pit of your unenthusiastic self-image.

Any forced positive attitude you generate will be short-lived and costly. A forced expression of enthusiasm is a performance you’ll have to continually maintain. Those who do this might be entertaining, but they can also be quite wearisome. You don’t have to instruct fire to be hot and you don’t have to inform life that it needs to express as enthusiasm. This is what it does naturally.

Natural enthusiasm manifests as genuine interest in whatever you happen to be doing, from creating a piece of art to taking out the trash. Enthusiasm is as unconditional as the energy of life itself. You need no particular reason to be enthusiastic. It is life’s gift to you. As you affirm life in your meditative experience, quiet enthusiasm will naturally grow.

A New Approach to Advent

This year I will be introducing an alternative Advent Series that is based on what I call the four fundamentals of God. These are life, love, power, and intelligence. These four fundamentals express as enthusiasm, understanding, strength, and order. Through December, each Sunday talk will carry the corresponding themes of Life/enthusiasm, Love/understanding, Power/strength, and Intelligence/order.

Our Advent wreath will consist of five candles. At the center is the white Christ candle. A different color candle will be lit each Sunday to match the topic. Life = green, Love = red or pink, Power = blue, and Intelligence = yellow. The series will culminate as our Christmas Eve candle lighting service, which is based on my spiritual interpretation of each of the elements of the Christmas story.

The traditional tone of Advent is one of hope for a brighter future with the advent of the return of Christ; that is, the second coming of Jesus. The tone of this series will be one of a present awakening to the underlying Creative Life Force we call God. This is the source of our soul, our individuality. Touching this realm frees us from the rote restrictions of tradition-thinking and opens us to the living essence that stirs us to new levels of genuine inner peace and freedom.

If you can’t join us in person for this series, you can certainly join us online. As usual, links to the talks will be posted here, on our Unity Talks Online page, and on our website: http://unitygj.org.