YouTube: The Way

For many of us, one of the most memorable and assuring passages in the Gospels is when Jesus prompted his audience to observe the wildflowers, how they do not labor but are still cared for and clothed in natural beauty (Luke 12:27). The assurance comes from the idea that God, our spiritual source, has a beautiful and natural way of expressing through us as the fulfillment of our daily bread (needs).

The Way can be thought of as the natural consequence of the realization of our oneness with God. In the above passage, Jesus is pointing to a spiritual order, a flow that has been acknowledged by mystical traditions of all ages. This order is grounded in the understanding of the omnipresence of God as Spirit and the soul as the expressed image and likeness of this Spirit. We can momentarily forget but we can never be separated from unity with this omnipresence. Jesus made it his life’s mission to bear witness to, or to remind people of this truth.

Statements that embody one or all of these principles are, in my opinion, prime candidates for being considered as original teachings of Jesus. They often contradict the mainstream narrative of Jesus as the only son of God. For example, “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). In this instance, he acknowledges that all people are sons and daughters (expressions) of God. In another place he says, “… he who believes in me [believes what I am saying] will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (John 14:12). The practical and appealing aspect of the Way is that it places Jesus and his listener on equal spiritual ground.

We should always bear in mind that the Gospel accounts are not a communication from Jesus to his audience. They are a communication from the writers to their respective audiences, long after the death of Jesus. The teachings of Jesus (the Way), become the teachings about Jesus (Christian dogma). The Way is transformed from a body of teachings to a movement.

The popularity of Jesus among the common people can in all likelihood be attributed to the practical nature of his teachings. He was helping people improve their lives with a working understanding of the omnipresence of God as a constant, all-providing companion through the experience of day-to-day living.

12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery

YouTube: Step 11: The Power of Stillness

I set aside quality time daily to know the presence of God through quiet meditation.

A well-known story from the Old Testament (1Kings 19:11-12) places the prophet Elijah on a mountain in the wilderness. Four things happen. First, a great wind blows so hard that it smashes rocks, but the Lord is not in the wind. Then, there is a mighty earthquake, but the Lord is not there either. Next, there is a great fire, but the Lord is not in the fire. Finally, there is a still small voice, and this is the voice of the Lord.

The story presents a graphic way of depicting the power of stillness. Thanks to our modern media, we have all seen the great power of the tornado and hurricane. We have seen the aftermath of earthquakes. And we have all been close enough to wildfires to know what they can do. The point of the story, however, is to call attention to a quiet power, a still small voice that remains when the brute forces of nature pass. This is the voice of the Lord of our being, that quiet inspiration that can become our greatest assurance in times of uncertainty.

Most of you have read Emilie Cady’s book, Lessons in Truth. Two chapters worth reviewing are, The Secret Place of the Most High and Finding the Secret Place. These chapters present the classic Unity view of the value of meditation and how to practice it.

When most of us close our eyes to seek stillness and guidance, we are, like Elijah, confronted with the winds, earthquakes, and fires of our own chaotic mind. With persistence, however, we can move beyond these and begin to experience an inner peace and stillness. Rather than blindly groping after an experience, Cady suggests, like the sunbathing fowl, that we passively await while keeping our mind actively alert to the stirring of spiritual energies. This is Elijah’s still small voice. We can neither describe it nor give it to another. Each person must seek until we find this inner power.

With practice and with our growing insights, we begin to look forward to our times of quiet and to come to a true appreciation for the power of stillness.

12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery

YouTube: Step 10: Spirituality or Religion?

I continue to examine my old religious beliefs and seek to recognize them when they interfere with my desire for greater freedom.

Today, it is becoming more common to hear people declare that their focus has shifted from organized religion to a more personal approach to spiritual ideas. In many ways we can see this as a shift away from the group-think statement of theological faith to an exploration of the inner prompting that beckons us all to go deeper. Like Emerson, they have reached the conclusion that,  

“Theological problems … never presented a practical difficulty to any man, never darkened across any man’s road who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul’s mumps and measles and whooping coughs.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The four Gospels represent a religious vehicle that transmits many spiritually-based principles. To glean these principles, it is important that we understand the nature of the religious vehicle. None of the Gospels, for example, claim to represent the work of Jesus. They are Gospels according to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Their purpose is not to show us what Jesus actually taught. Their purpose is to show us how we are to think of Jesus.

In contrast, the message of Jesus was spiritually rather than religiously focused. This attitude is beautifully summarized in his statement: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath” (Mark 2:27). In this case the Sabbath represents the sum of institutionalized formulas that are laid out for followers to adopt and profess as true. These are not the natural promptings of the soul but are the intellectually constructed doctrinal points that serve to define a given religion.

Spiritual recovery is about the establishment of a first-hand experience with God. This does not require the belief in a religion any more than it requires the rejection of religion. As we learn for ourselves what is spiritually true and what is not, we can see for ourselves any religious thinking that binds rather than sets us free.  

YouTube: An Eye for God

[Note: this week we ran into difficulties projecting the graphics. This issue should be resolved with the next program.]

Step 9: I treat each day as an opportunity to see and experience God in all people, places, and things.

For those who think of God as the man upstairs, this 9^th step may seem impractical. However, when Jesus said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship God must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24) he was presenting a different kind of picture. The Greek word for spirit is pneuma, which can translate as breath, wind, spirit, or soul. The author of Job was in line with this idea when he wrote, “It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand” (Job 32:8). Likewise, today’s dictionary defines spirit as “an animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms.”

When we think of God as the omnipresent, animating, vital principle that permeates all aspects of life, we understand how it is possible to see and experience God in all people, places, and things. A simple affirmation like, I am in God and God is in me will help us tune into this truth. What is true for us is true for all. There is no place where God is not. I am now in the presence of pure Being.

As we go through our day, it is very easy to lose the awareness that in God we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). In our spiritual recovery, we can utilize triggers that help us remember what is true. Someone rightfully said that we are not to pray to God; we pray from an awareness of God. We live in a vibrant field of energy that, like the breath, is unseen but intuitively felt as the living essence of all things.

Instead of thinking specifically of people, places, and things as entities that exist apart from one another, try thinking of every aspect of your life as the activity of God. Remember Jacob awakened from his dream with the revelation, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I did not know it … How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen. 28:16-17). Our own revelation may not be this dramatic, but how we think of God can have a profound influence on how we think of our life.

Treat each day as an opportunity to see and experience God in all people, places, and things and see what a difference it can make!

YouTube: The Magic Moment

Step 8: I seek to be fully present in this now moment, the only place I can be.

When I was growing up, we used to play the game known as tether ball. A soccer ball is suspended to a pole by a small rope. One end of the pole is planted in the ground. Two players compete to hit the ball and get it to wrap the rope around the pole. Each player tries to block the success of the other. The winner is the one who succeeds in wrapping the rope around the pole first.

This game came to mind as I was thinking of the 8^th step. Someone has rightfully said, whatever gets your attention gets you. Our attention is a lot like the tether ball that is constantly slammed in different directions by competing forces. We can find ourselves in a fierce competition between a matter of concern and our need to resolve it.

Pulling our attention out of this game is the key to finding peace of mind. We’re not suggesting that we ignore life’s issues that require resolution. A large part of spiritual recovery is found in our ability know the difference between our spiritual center and a mental and emotional disturbance.

If the tether ball is left undisturbed, it naturally unwraps the rope and comes to rest against the pole. The pole, the unchanging center of the game, is like the now moment. We make a conscious decision to stop allowing the ball of our attention to be slammed back and forth, and simply let it go. Doing so, we come into the now moment and rediscover our center of power.

It’s amazing how this simple act of letting go can bring new clarity to our thinking. Our center of power truly resides in this now moment, the only place we can actually be. As we observe the activity of our attention, we can learn to recognize when it is engaged in frivolous pursuits. This 8^th step helps us become mindful of this important aspect of our spiritual recovery:

I seek to be fully present in this now moment, the only place I can be.

YouTube: Step 7: Spiritual Freedom

12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery

Step 7: Spiritual Freedom

I desire greater freedom because my soul is already free. Through study and introspective thought, I seek to understand the truth of this statement.

When Jesus told his audience that they would know the truth and the truth would make them free, they took issue, saying they had never been enslaved. While technically we can also make this claim, few of us can deny that we have had times when we were enslaved by fear and anxiety. For many, fear is a constant companion that has become so familiar it is accepted as a standard feature of the human experience.

If we grasp the truth that God did not give us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power (2Timothy 1:7), we have a clear starting point for our experience of spiritual freedom. What is this spirit of power and how do I claim it? Many will utilize guided meditations or music to calm unruly thoughts and emotions. But this will not go far enough, for the freeing power we seek is not found in the realm of thought and emotion that changes from one moment to the next. We must look deeper to find the freedom we seek.

Remember, spiritual recovery is not about gaining something we do not have. It is about reclaiming something that has been ours all along, but we have misplaced or lost sight of it. In quiet stillness we wait, we listen, we feel for that subtle energy of Being that stirs in and as our true essence.      

While our attention readily scurries to the realm of thought and emotion, we practice pulling it back to our quiet center. We do this in special times when we are alone, but we also do it in the midst of our active day. If fear or anxiety creep in, we deny it the right to seize our attention. We remind ourselves that our soul is already free, and we let its light of freedom shine through our consciousness.

Practice this 7^th step every day this week. I desire greater freedom because my soul is already free. Through study and introspective thought, I seek to understand the truth of this statement.

YouTube: Step 6: The Complete Soul

12 Steps to Spiritual Recovery

I accept that I do not need more possessions and positions of power to complete or fulfill my soul.

This step requires mindful consideration. Step 5 affirmed that our desire to be more is the activity of God seeking greater expression through us. Step 6 seems to be saying that we should not desire to have and be more, that what we are is enough, and we should learn to be happy with it. However, this step has less to do with possessions and accomplishments and more to do with motivation. If we are attempting to fill an inner void with things, then nothing we accomplish in this ever-changing world will satisfy for long.

The notion that we are already complete at the soul level runs counter to most of our religious, spiritual, and secular training. Religion says our completeness depends on whether we are saved. Spiritual teachings tend to hang our hopes on the achievement of a more evolved soul. And the world of economics has given most of us the unflattering designation of consumer.

An important step in our spiritual recovery is to rethink ourselves, not from the basis of our material needs and desires, but from our spiritual foundation. Jesus recognized that our heavenly Father knows we have need of material things, and these should not be denied. But there is a deeper spiritual grounding required to experience a more wholistic balance between body and spirit.

This is the rock of Jesus’ oft quoted house on rock and house on sand parable. Bedrock is solid and, relatively speaking, unchanging. If we are seeking to strengthen our worldly position through material means, we may not have touched our center of power, which manifests as true strength. This is the strength of knowing the truth of our being, the truth that our spiritual essence is at this moment a pure expression of God and is in lack of nothing.

As we take time to meditate on this truth and, more importantly, allow it to rise into our awareness as knowing, we will naturally accept that we do not need more possessions and positions of power to complete or fulfill our soul. We are complete already.

YouTube: The Prospering Presence

Step 5: I accept that my desire to have and be more is the activity of God seeking greater expression through me.

The desire to be free, unhindered by lack and limitation of any kind, is universal among all living things. Catch an insect in your hand and it will struggle with all its force to escape. While we may not give much thought to such a mundane incident, it is worth noting that you and I share the same desire to be free.

Though we are not held captive by a giant hand, we may be caught in the grip of fear or in a circumstance that threatens to limit our options. Someone has pointed out that we desire more because in truth we are more. As expressions of God, we are part of the ever-expansive activity that defines our universe. We recognize limitation because we intuitively know absolute freedom. If this were not true, we would accept limitation as natural and be comfortable with it.

While it is true that we tend to develop comfort zones, conditions in life that we would protect from change, our true spiritual comfort zone is one of constant renewal and expansion. This is the vision set forth by the author of Revelation:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away … and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them;he will wipe away every tear from their eyes … for the former things have passed away.’” (Rev. 21:1-4).  

 This renewal does not necessarily take place in our circumstances but in our innermost awareness. Like a fountain of living water, our soul bubbles forth as a constant flow of new life, love, power, and intelligence, the very life essence that is God. Understanding this, I accept that my desire to have and be more is the activity of God seeking greater expression through me.

YouTube: The Teachable Mind

Step 4: I am willing to release all preconceived beliefs about God, myself, and my relationship with God.

This may sound overly simplistic, but all formal religious teachings are based on the belief that we are either separate or one with God. The mystical aspect of the Christian teaching affirms our oneness with God. In contrast, the more prevalent, mainstream Christian teachings assume that we are separate from God.

Roughly 75% of America is Christian, which means most of us were programmed on how to think of God, ourselves, and our relationship to God. It is important that we understand all religious doctrines are products of the human mind. One of the greatest challenges we encounter in spiritual recovery is learning to recognize and set aside this programing and seek direct knowledge of what is spiritually true. This requires a teachable mind.

When Jesus talked about new and old wineskins, he was referring to two states of mind. One is expandable, the other is not. The lesson he was teaching concerned the need to let go of our old, preconceived beliefs so that we may truly have a deeper, more meaningful spiritual life. Then as now people were taught what to think concerning spiritual matters. Much of the power of Jesus’ ministry lay in the fact that he encouraged his followers to go alone, to pray to their Father in secret. In other words, seek a firsthand experience with their own spiritual source, to be inspired and instructed by it.

When Jacob fled his homeland, he feared he was leaving the presence of God, for this is what he had been taught. In the night he dreamed of a ladder with angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. He awoke realizing that he could never leave the presence of God, that wherever he was, God was also. The experience gave him a teachable mind, one that could expand far beyond what he had been told. He knew for himself the truth of omnipresence.

Make a habit of practicing this third step of spiritual recovery: I am willing to release all preconceived beliefs about God, myself, and my relationship with God.

Step 3: Recognizing Divine Guidance

I affirm that I am guided by the infinite wisdom of God.

Learning to trust the positive direction of an activity we cannot see is an important aspect of spiritual recovery. The activity we cannot see is the quiet working of Spirit guiding our every step. Unlike hope that leaves room for doubt, trust is a definite set of the mind, an intuitive assurance that the thing we affirm is true.

We have learned that water always seeks the lowest level. As we sit mesmerized before a waterfall, we take for granted the fact that the water is fulfilling an irrefutable law of physics. Its nature and environment propel it to the lowest level possible.

In a similar way, Spirit is also governed by law. In this case, it is the law of expansion. The life, love, power, and intelligence of God is seeking to always expand through each of us. Like water, it finds the path of least resistance. We use spiritual affirmation to create in our consciousness a path of least resistance to the expansive activity of Spirit.

You have probably seen an irrigation ditch that has become so silt-bound that the water barely flows through. It becomes necessary to dredge out the silt so the canal can do what it was created to do. Negative mental and emotional states can act as a kind of silt in our consciousness. When you affirm that you are being guided by the infinite wisdom of God, you are agreeing to dredge out the mental and emotional states that hinder your experience.

When you think of your life, see yourself as an open canal that allows Spirit to do its expansive work through you. As you affirm that you are guided by the infinite wisdom of God, feel all doubt, fear, and feelings of uncertainty fall away. Know that the life, love, power, and intelligence of Spirit are all doing their perfect work in you now.