YouTube: Life, The Renewing Agent of the Mind

“Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind …” (Romans 12:2).

This oft quoted passage from Paul represents a common theme of Jesus. His references to things like new wineskins, new cloth, and the need to be reborn all carry the theme of renewal. As our first topic of this Advent season, we focus on the opportunity to release the old elements associated with the paradigm of separation from God and open ourselves to the renewing truth of oneness.

It is probably fair to say that most of us evolved to the idea of the kingdom of God as an internal rather than an external phenomenon. If so, we may still find ourselves stealing glances to the heavens as we pray our way through one of our life’s challenges. As this renewal of the mind, this shift in spiritual values occurs, so does our enthusiasm for our new, inner-directed approach to life. We are gradually learning how to avail ourselves to this inner fountain of guidance and comfort.

When Jesus suggested the need to become as children, he was pointing to the child-like trust that positions the mind in a receptive and inquisitive mode. The life-energy bubbling up in us is like the new fermenting wine that requires a mind free of the preconceived limitations of the old wineskins. Likewise, we do not want to try to simply patch our old-garment thinking with a few positive affirmations. We become willing to let our mind become an entirely new garment.

The fact that you and I have already responded to a new way of thinking of spiritual matters indicates that we are engaged in the transformation Paul refers to. This is not an overnight process. There will be times when we find ourselves clinging to the old even as we long for the new. As we affirm the renewing fountain of life welling up within our being, our enthusiasm for this new direction grows. The cosmic wave, as I now like to think of it, rises from within, transforming the way we experience the world around us.

This is the beauty of the renewal of the mind. We are not required to change the world, only to experience it in a new way.

YouTube: The Truth About Thanksgiving

It may seem presumptuous to give a talk on the truth of Thanksgiving. It’s a pretty straightforward topic, after all, and those of us in the US have had our share of formal Thanksgiving celebrations. My intention here is to focus more on the spiritual principle embodied in giving thanks

Giving thanks is something we would do after having received some desired good. We normally think of thanksgiving as an effect. From the standpoint of the soul, the act of thanksgiving is understood more as a cause, an activity we engage in before there is evidence of a desired good.

You recall that Jesus gave thanks before he had the disciples begin passing out the meager supply of loaves and fishes. His attention was not on the apparent limited quantity of food available but on God as his ever-present Source. He blessed the food, which means he was seeing it from a consciousness of wholeness. The action of having the disciples begin passing out the bread and fish was based on his awareness of God as his unfailing supply.

The focus we place on this story as a miraculous act performed by a supernatural being causes us to miss the lesson we can draw from it. We are often faced with circumstances that proclaim, “There is not enough to go around.” Maybe you are in such a situation now, where it seems your resources are inadequate. You may find yourself turning to God asking for help. Jesus’ example indicates the importance of first lifting our attention above the appearance and acknowledging God as our unfailing supply. We give thanks for the solution that is now forthcoming.

We can use our faith to know the answers we seek are present even before we perceive a problem. Our previous appearance-based training has us reacting to the problem in a way that degrades the quality of our inner life. Fear and a sense of helplessness often set in and we resort to pleading for help. We pause to let go of the negative energy we have placed in the appearance and we begin giving thanks that the proper solution is now forthcoming. Thanksgiving becomes a creative action rather than a simple reaction. 

YouTube: Flashlight on the Universe

A friend prompted me to think of this ten minute excerpt I created from a video I did 6 years ago. I think it illustrates a helpful principle that is worth revisiting. Think of this as a midweek bonus. : )

With a flashlight, you see a circle of light. Turn off the flashlight and you’ll see the universe.

YouTube: Striking a Balance Between the Heart and the Head

In our Unity approach to the spiritual path, we refer to the need to find balance between the head and the heart. In this regard we think of thought and feeling and, in a larger sense, intuition and intellect. It is not unusual for people to confuse intuition with emotion, so it is good to revisit this subject occasionally. 

For me, Unity introduced a spiritual logic that had been missing from my religious indoctrination. We were told that when a teaching did not make sense, we needed to take it on faith. This is an appeal to emotion. You may not know why you are saved; just know you are. This may feel good emotionally, but the whole question of salvation is a puzzle to the head. What exactly do I need to be saved from?

In the world of judicial law, there is a term called process crime. This is a crime that is committed, not against another individual, but against the judicial system. Lying under oath, for example, is considered a process crime. In the world of mainstream religion, most references to sin should be understood as process crimes. That is, they are breaches defined by the religious system, not by Divine edict. The religious system declares that all people are sinners. This assumption may not be based on any specific acts of our own. All have inherited this condition through the actions of Adam and Eve.

Now let’s bring in the head. On the spiritual path we are moving toward the light of illumination. Jesus, in fact said, let your light shine. The question now becomes, am I letting my light shine or am I hiding it under a bushel? If we think of sin as missing the mark or falling short, the mark, from this perspective, is no longer a target set up by mainstream religion. The mark is whether or not we are letting our light shine. If we are not so bright today, we are not sentenced to hell. We simply are experiencing less light. This is not a divine condemnation but rather a passing state that has no impact whatsoever on the condition of the soul.

Spiritual logic is straight forward. You are already whole. Are you living as if this is true or have you mentally and emotionally fallen short of this truth? This is where we strike the balance between the head and the heart. The amount of light you let shine on any given day has nothing to do with the truth that you are an eternal expression of the light of God.

YouTube: Nothing Hidden

“Nothing is hid that shall not be made manifest, nor anything secret that shall not be known and come to light.”

Luke 8:17

This passage provides a good statement concerning the relationship between our everyday thinking and the condition and quality of our life. It really points to the importance of being true to your highest and best self.

If we are honest, however, we will admit that our everyday thinking does not always reflect the best self we aspire to be. This may be a concern if our most negative thoughts come to light as our experience. How do we deal with our mental and emotional shortcomings while maintaining hope for the best?

One insight I have gleaned from my NDE research is that during a life review, the experiencer is often given the opportunity to relive the best and the worst of what they have done. They not only recall the cringeworthy moments when they harmed another, they actually experience the feelings of those people. The same is true of the good they have done for others. The amazing thing is that the reviewer is not judged in any way for their actions, bad or good. They are their one and only judge.

What this very interesting observation suggests is that the way things come to light is not for the world to see, but for our eyes only. It is in some way brought to our attention. In this light, the following passage makes perfect sense:

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Matthew 7:2

Everything that concerns us happens in real time, that is, in this now moment. Any pain we may inflict on another is brought to light as our current experience. The world may not see it, but we do. I cannot say how it is possible to experience such a detailed, full life review, but this is one of the most commonly reported features of the NDE so I have no reason to doubt that it happens.

We can engage in an exercise of conducting our own life review. In a contemplative manner, we can spend quality periods of time allowing our mind to drift over the good and not so good things we have done in our life. We do it for the purpose of bringing to light all pent up energy that could be weighing us down.

YouTube: Toss, Salvage, or Keep?

J Douglas Bottorff

The moving process has been quite interesting. We look at each object in the church, whether it is a desk, chair, silk plant, or piece of office equipment with this question in mind: Toss, salvage, or keep? Toss is landfill, salvage is Goodwill, keep is our new place. It’s funny when doubts have risen but the decision to toss or salvage is made, how natural items look resting in the landfill or in the Goodwill bin.

It occurs to me that there is a mental/emotional cleansing exercise embedded in this process. During this move, I’ve encountered several people where the topic of religion has been raised. I notice in others strongly assumed, unquestioned religious views that I myself once held. Most of these now rest in my own personal landfill or salvage bin. I do not say this to be critical or arrogant, but to simply make the observation concerning my own process of change. I could no more go back than I would attempt to retrieve tossed items that no longer serve.

Early metaphysicians often referred to race consciousness. I think of this as culturally programmed group thinking. The field of religion is particularly prone to establishing rigid parameters of thought, probably to avoid giving the appearance of instability. However, instability can be the beginning of an entirely new experience in thought. Emerson put it this way: “People wish to be settled; only as far as they are unsettled is there any hope for them.” While I look forward to getting through this church move, the unsettled aspect of it has been quite invigorating.

Spiritual growth is an inside-out process. We often get so comfortable with our mental and emotional furniture that we fail to notice the wear that has set in. We may find ourselves going along to get along with our culturally programmed group thinking. In one recent conversation, a man wanted to know where Jesus fits in to our religious thinking. Rather than give him a standard Unity response, I just said, “Our focus is on where we fit in. Do you believe Jesus when he said, The kingdom of God is within you?” He said, “Of course.” I then said, “That’s where Jesus fits in. He told us where to look for the very thing we are looking for.”

I do not know that my answer was what he wanted to hear, but it was what I wanted to say. I did sense that he appreciated something new to think about, to consider whether he would do some tossing, salvaging, or keeping of his own.

YouTube: I’m Here By Choice

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?”

Matthew 6:25

I have always found it interesting that I can read a passage like this countless times only to read it again and discover a new layer of meaning. This time, one line jumped out: the body is more than clothing. Thinking of the soul and our desire to make sense of our earthly experience, I always considered the body and clothing as two aspects of the same problem—that sometimes cumbersome external aspect of our being. Yet Jesus makes a point to distinguish the two, saying the body is more important than clothing. The imagery that suddenly flashed through my mind came in an unexpected form.

Imagine flying into a city and renting a car. Why would you rent a car? You may have business to conduct, family and friends you wish to visit, sightseeing you want to do, or all the above. The car enables you to do these things. Yes, it requires fuel, and it needs to be in good working condition. These needs, however, are secondary to your reason for renting it. You don’t want to spend your time thinking about the needs of the car. You have more important things to do.  

Think of your body as a rental car and your earth-life as the city you flew into. You rented this car for a reason, probably many reasons. Yes, this rental car needs fuel, and it requires care. But I think Jesus was urging his audience to put things in perspective. The fact that you have a body indicates you had a reason for renting it.

If you worked at the airport’s car rental agency, you would see that people rent cars for a wide variety of reasons. There is no cosmic mandate that says a car must be rented only for business, for example. There is no required, universal purpose for renting. Every person shows up at the rental counter by choice, and for reasons of their own.

We may have taken on a body simply because we wanted to experience the full spectrum of the human venture, from infancy to old age. Perhaps this experience was cut short in a previous incarnation. Or, maybe there was an earthly career we wanted to pursue and the only way we could get to it was to rent this vehicle. It is possible that other souls we adored took the plunge and we followed just so we could share the experience with them.

The most freeing aspect of this is that my having a body means that I’m here by choice. Now, where is it that I would like to go today?

YouTube: Another Way to See the Way

A member of our YouTube audience, Tomi, asks this question: “How do you interpret this verse? John 14:6: ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.’”

The first thing we observe is that this passage makes the man Jesus the only way to the Father. This tells us that if the saying originated with Jesus, it has been Christianized. A mystic would not call attention to himself as the way to the Father. How do we know? Because the recurring foundational principle, a perennial truth embodied in the mystical tradition is that the Father (God, the Absolute) is within every person.  

In all likelihood, Jesus was not calling attention to himself but to the Way he taught. The Way was the name given to his body of teachings. Because he put none of his teachings in writing, he truly was the embodiment of the Way. Had he written everything down, he could have held up the manuscript and said, “This is the Way, the truth that I have taught. If you follow these teachings, you will see they lead you to life, to the very Father within.”

This, of course, is pure speculation on my part. But the alternative is to assume that Jesus, the man, is the one and only way to God. A careful study of the sayings attributed to Jesus reveals the Way is built on the understanding of God as omnipresent, centered in every individual, in a relationship of eternal oneness that can never be broken.

The Chinese Tao is also referred to as the Way. It is described as the natural order of the universe. If a person is in tune with it, their life works. If they are out of tune with it, things don’t go so well. Jesus was not a Taoist, but all spiritual systems of truth rest upon the exact same principles. Jesus pointed out that the truth he taught, the Way, would set one free. He told Pilate that his single purpose in life was to teach this truth to others. Those who had already gained an understanding of it would resonate with what he was teaching (John 18:37).

I part company with the mainstream Christian dogma that considers Jesus as the only way to God. This tradition teaches God is afar, man (humankind) is born in sin, and God and man are separated by sin, with Jesus as the only way to oneness with God. But Jesus says, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone” (Mark 10:18). I am absolutely convinced that Jesus taught there is only one way to God and that is not through him, but through his teachings. The kingdom of God is within you. The Way involves the omnipresence and accessibility of God to all, the divine nature of each person, and the relationship of absolute oneness between God and the individual.

YouTube: Atonement and Repentance

Lisanya from South Africa asked if I would write and speak of the two concepts of atonement and repentance. What is the difference and what role do they play in our spiritual endeavor?

Drawing from two simple definitions, to atone is to make amends or reparation. To repent is to express sincere regret or remorse about one’s wrong-doing or sin. Christian theology states that Jesus offered himself as “the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2). It is interesting that this idea goes way back into the Old Testament book of Leviticus (16:20-22). The priest, Aaron, placed the sins of Israel on the head of a goat which was then released into the wilderness, freeing people from the burden and consequence of sin. This is where we get the term and the concept of scapegoat.

Repentance is tied to baptism which represents a fundamental change in consciousness. One goes into the water as one thing, a sinner, and comes out cleansed of sin. The simple meaning of the word is to change one’s mind.

Both terms involve a realignment of an individual’s consciousness with the truth of his or her being. When we sin, or fall short of our divine potential, that potential is not affected. The soul remains whole and complete. What changes is our attitude toward ourselves. If we feel we are miserable sinners, worms of the dust, we live a very compromised life. In truth, we are expressions of God. Nothing we do changes this. Neither does it change God’s attitude toward us. Both atonement and repentance are all about self-forgiveness.

For example, if you lock yourself in a dark cellar, the sun continues to shine. It does not condemn you for your action. You are, in a sense, condemned by your action. The moment you change your mind—repent—and come out of the cellar, the sun greets you with its light and warmth.

So it is with Spirit. No one can remove your sense of guilt or remorse (vicarious atonement). Only you can do this. And you do it by coming to know yourself as a complete soul, created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:26).