Tag: god

Soul Searching

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“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20

While this seems like a personal warning to the modern reader, it will help to get some context. The scribes and Pharisees were religious professionals whose positions gave them special recognition. Seeking such positions often meant that it was the position itself, and not the spiritual quest, that drew their interest. If we think of Jesus referring to the kingdom of heaven as the spiritual dimension rather than a place you go when you die, then this makes sense.

To be productive, the spiritual quest must be pure, based on an honest desire to know God. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matt. 5:8). If we are seeking God simply as a means of solving a problem, then our spiritual quest will only take us as far as the end of the problem. Meister Eckhart addressed this issue with this famous quote:

“Some people want to see God with their eyes as they see a cow, and to love Him as they love a cow – for the milk and cheese and profit it brings them. This is how it is with people who love God for the sake of outward wealth or inward comfort. They do not rightly love God, when they love Him for their own advantage.”

Soul searching, at its best, is really about understanding our spiritual motive. Are we seeking an understanding of the bigger picture, and how we fit in, or are we simply looking for a little milk and cheese? If we actually want to enter the kingdom of heaven, that is, if we want to experience genuine spiritual revelations, then we need to become pure in heart, to seek God for the sake of knowing God. This is why Jesus put this at the top of the list, to seek first the kingdom and all other things would be added.

We all appreciate people who want to get to know us, not for what they can get from us, but because they value us as people. These are the relationships that are most meaningful and most reciprocal.

Let There Be Light

Watch YouTube Presentation: Let There Be Light

When our space program took us to the moon, we were enthralled when we saw for the first time our gorgeous gem of a planet rising through the black backdrop of space to a place just above the horizon of the moon. We’d never seen an earthrise. Taken by the beauty and wonder of this image, we may not have quickly gleaned all the implications that it so clearly demonstrated.

We see the earth in this photo because it reflects the sun’s light. What this tells us is that the sun’s light is just as present in the apparent blackness as it is on earth’s surface. In this sense, sunlight is omnipresent, but it is only apparent to us when an object capable of reflecting light is present.

In the Genesis account of creation, God says, “Let there be light.” This first step can be accomplished and still appear only as the black of space. Place an object in this stream of light, however, and you see that the light was present before the introduction of the object.

The Big Bang theory contradicted this order of creation, suggesting that matter came first and then life (thanks to something like a perfect combination of chemicals and an extraordinarily lucky lightning strike). This would be a little like saying that the earth in our photo produces the light that enables us to see it.

I can more easily grasp the idea that the energy we know as life, the light of every living creature, permeated the otherwise formless universe. The biological objects that were capable of reflecting or expressing this life then came along. All that makes up the life, love, power and intelligence that we know as God was present long before the biological reflecting agents appeared. God does not evolve; the biological reflecting agents do, but probably not in the way we imagine.

When we refer to ourselves as spiritual beings, we are, by analogy, referring to an aspect of ourselves that is equivalent to the primordial light. The light that we are does not evolve. It is already complete. Nor does our ability to reflect this light evolve. As with any object placed in the path of sunlight, our ability to reflect this divine field of energy is inherent in our makeup. The light actually made us for this single purpose of reflecting itself. It did not start with an inferior product that it would eventually perfect. It started with that perfection.

That we are capable of believing God is absent or in any way separate from us is like the earth saying, “I’m surrounded by blackness. When will the light dawn?” The whole time the light is present, powering all the many systems of earth, asking nothing more from the earth in terms of its awareness or deserving. Nor does the sun ever say to the earth, “You owe me big time for giving you all this free light.”

Although we are capable of capturing and reflecting the unseen light, our senses-based, intellectual orientation has prompted us to invent the illusion that something more must happen prior to our immersion in the light. Many have accepted the false belief that if enough of the race evolves, the rest will be carried in on its coattails. This superstition stands like a great shield blocking the ever-present light. We abide in the shadows of ignorance, passing on from one generation to the next that this shadow is a thing with which we must contend, that there is more than one presence and one power in the universe, and that in some near or distant future we will all know only the one. The metaphysician, in this regard, is as prone to superstition as the Christian fundamentalist awaiting the second coming.

The groping in darkness we see currently in our world perpetuates the myth of spiritual evolution. The presence of strife, however, is no measure of the presence of Truth.

Emerson observed, “We sell the thrones of angels for a short and turbulent pleasure.” Those who strive only for the short and turbulent pleasure provided by the shiny objects of material gain overlook the deeper, all-sustaining truth of that divine, infinite sea of light forever shining in the darkness, a light without which nothing else would exist.

The God Perspective

In the New Testament letter of James, we find this reference to God as the, “Father of lights with whom there is no shadow or variation due to change” (James 1:17). Presenting God as changeless is a significant departure from the traditional view of a Deity bearing human emotions of likes and dislikes, moods and changing attitudes. We so routinely and casually ask for God’s special blessings or favors that we may not stop to realize we are indeed addressing a perception of a Creator whose attitudes and behavior are quite subject to change. Could James’ changeless Father of lights bless and not bless, or pass out serpents and stones when we really need fish and bread?

It is certainly easiest to think of God in terms of our human relationships. There are times when we feel close to those around us, and times when others or we seem more distant, depending on prevailing moods. For some we would grant favors without question. For others, our favors would come with conditions.

Many think of their relationship to God in much the same way we might think of our relationship to the sun. We have full sunny days and we have cloudy days. We have daytime when the sun is out and nighttime when the sun is not. We experience the sunrise and the sunset, the skin-burning summer sun and an icy cold winter sun. The sun, we might conclude, has many moods.

All of these variations, however, have less to do with the nature of the sun and more to do with our relationship to it. When you think from the perspective of the sun itself, you see a very different picture. How many days has the sun seen, for example? We say this closest star is something in the neighborhood of fifteen billion years old. How do we measure a year? That would be 365 sunrises and sunsets. Multiply that by fifteen billion and you have more days than most of us can wrap our minds around.

The sun itself has seen but a single day, and that day has stretched throughout the duration of its life. The sun has never risen, never set, never known the cold of winter or the dark of night. It has never seen a shadow or experienced the dark corner of a cellar. If the sun peers into the corner of a cellar, it sees its own light. Nor can the sun see the long shadows cast over the evening landscape. There is no variation due to change.

Like the sun, we cannot understand God from the ever-changing human perspective. Impossible as it may seem, we have to think of God from God’s perspective. From the sun’s perspective we can understand how it can never see a shadow, how there is only one condition and that condition is light. It is only as we think of God from God’s perspective that we can begin to grasp the truth that there is only one Presence and one Power. There is not good and evil, not light and shadows, but absolute good, as in absolute light.

Using this familiar example of the sun, the abstraction of a changeless God of absolute good does not seem so abstract. And the abstraction lessens even more when we consider that eternally shining light at the center of our being. We sift through our ever-changing moods, our senses-based definitions of God to find that true core where there is no shadow or variation due to change. As the sun sees only light, so we see only light when we view our lives from our own radiating center of light.

It is a comfort to me in my darker moments to think of God from God’s perspective. There are no darkened moments in God. Why should I succumb to shadows I see only because I have lowered my vision to the spinning earth and the affairs of the human condition and turned my back on the life that is the “… light of men”, the light that “shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn. 1:4-5).

The light that you and I seek is here now, has always been here, and will always be here. As we commit to opening our minds and hearts to the God perspective, every shadow dissolves into the nothingness from which it came.

What Is Truth?

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In Unity, we refer to our teachings as Truth. What is interesting is that another religious organization might look at us and question this. They have their own version of Truth. Of course, we’ve all heard people refer to my truth and your truth. So, I raised this question some months ago: With approximately 7.9 billion people on this planet, are there also 7.9 billion truths?

Referring to our teachings, we arrive at our understanding of Truth using three points. How we view the nature of God, how we view the nature of the individual, and how we view the nature of the relationship between God and the individual. The sum of how we address these three areas is Truth, as we understand it. Because other religious organizations will address them differently, they will have a different understanding of Truth.

Our foundation statement simplified is this: There is but one presence and one power in the universe; God, the good, omnipotent. This covers our understanding of God. Each individual is an expression of this one presence and one power, the image and likeness of God. As such, the relationship between God and the individual is oneness.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve been exploring the truth about prayer, that prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. The reasoning behind this is reflected in our understanding of God as the one presence and one power in the universe. Changeless. Prayer, therefore, becomes an inside/out proposition. We make an adjustment in our thinking and feeling. When we pray for healing, for example, we affirm that we are already whole, that the one presence and one power is now expressing this wholeness through us. That we are in a relationship of oneness with this presence of wholeness allows us to accept we have already received what we ask for in prayer. Asking, in this sense, is affirming wholeness is ours already.

What we call Truth teachings are all based on this trinity of ideas. If we get this firmly in our mind, we have the Truth that will set us free.

Be Ye Transformed

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Myrtle Fillmore’s Healing Journey

The Unity Movement was founded on prayer. Myrtle Fillmore, one of our co-founders, was a frail child who suffered from tuberculosis and was not expected to live a long life. She grew up hearing that her disease was inherited and there was nothing she could do about it. As an adult, she attended a lecture by Dr. E. B. Weeks, who was a student of Emma Curtis Hopkins, a noteworthy name in early New Thought. Dr. Weeks made a statement that changed Myrtle’s life. He said, “You are a child of God and you cannot inherit sickness.” This captured Myrtle’s attention. She spent the next several years in designated prayer time speaking affirmative healing statements to her body. She kept an empty chair in front of her and imagined Jesus sitting in it, offering healing guidance.

Her healing was not instant. She devoted herself to changing her mind. Imagining healing energy directed by her own words was a powerful change of thinking. Envisioning Jesus as a great healing presence became a strong aid in her healing process.

It is also worth noting that prior to her spiritual approach, she tried every medication available, but to no avail. Her healing journey supports our basic understanding that prayer changes us, not God. Her change of mind, her healing affirmations, and her powerful visualizations brought her complete healing and the ability to live a very full life to age 86. At the end, she told her fellow workers at Unity that she felt it was time for her to move on, that she could be more effective working from the other side.

Myrtle has been an inspiration to millions of people. She was very down to earth, very practical, and totally committed to the spiritual truth taught through Unity. In terms of her writings, I’ve always considered her more accessible than Charles, who did most of the writing. Before Unity became a movement, she conducted healing services from her home, we’re told, with marvelous results.

Paul said, “Be ye transformed by the renewal of your mind.” Myrtle Fillmore truly exemplified this principle.   

The Prayer Principle

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Someone has said, and I believe rightfully, that prayer does not change God, it changes us. This seems to agree with the statement of James, who referred to God as the “ … Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). If we accept this, then we want to know how we are to change if our prayer is to be effective.

In Matthew 5:37, Jesus emphasized the importance of simplicity in our words by saying, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.” This principle holds true with prayer. Saying “yes” affirms a truth, while saying “no” denotes denial. In our prayer, we acknowledge the truth and release any negative energy we may have attached to a certain situation. Fear, as the most prevalent form of negative energy, often requires our attention and release during prayer.

The way we perceive things and think about them affects how we engage with the creative life force that we refer to as God. When we seek healing through prayer, for instance, we begin by acknowledging that deep down, our soul is already complete. We embrace our inherent wholeness and reject any conflicting appearances. Rejecting these appearances does not imply that we deny or disregard them. Rather, it signifies that we let go of any uncertainty surrounding our healing, and instead, we fully trust that it is already manifesting. There are no barriers or hindrances. Just like a river, God’s energy flows in a single direction: from within ourselves outward. This same principle applies to any other need we may have.

Whenever we notice any sign of lack, we take it as a reminder to embrace the power of prayer. As we live in a physical form, our prayer practice might also require us to make adjustments in areas such as our diet or overall lifestyle. I noticed my car was leaking oil, for example. My prayer for healing involved taking it to a mechanic. As much as I would like such an issue to self-heal, such things usually involve participation at the physical level.

If we think of the prayer principle as the act of putting everything in motion, beginning with our state of mind, then we are open to the perfect outworking of our need at all levels.  

The Perfection Trap

YouTube: The Perfection Trap: Five Ways to Get Out

When Jesus said we should be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect, we may think he was setting a pretty high bar. Sometimes just being good is a tough job. Being perfect? Living through one day without making a single mistake may be asking a bit much.

While we should all strive to be the best we can be, there are some areas where we strive for perfection, at least conceptually, that we would do well to revisit. I’ve listed five.

1. Spiritual Perfection: The trap is the belief that we are supposed to reach a place where no more growth is possible, we’re at the top. We do not reach spiritual perfection; we realize that we are already spiritually perfect.

2. Earth is a school: This is a common model held by many. The trap here is the possibility of feeling like you are perpetually stuck in the fifth grade. The way to avoid this trap is to release this model.

3. The condition of your body reflects the condition of your soul. The trap is believing that if your body is aging or ill, your soul is flunking its tests.

4. Your thinking can impact the health of your soul. The trap is the belief that your thinking is powerful enough to alter the nature of your soul. Thinking affects the quality of your experience, but it has no impact whatsoever on the makeup of your soul.

5. Your spiritual imperfection interferes with your relationship to God. The trap is the belief that God responds to your states of consciousness like a human being would. Nothing you think, say, or do can change your relationship of oneness with God.

These, of course, are not hard and fast rules, but it never hurts to take a fresh look at the basic ideas that guide our spiritual thinking. We may have latched onto ideas that made sense in our early, exploratory years, but no longer do. Earth as a school was a big one for me. Laboratory might be a more stimulating metaphor. The point is, we want to make the most of our life in the body. Finding ways to free ourselves from false or limiting beliefs will go a long way in this direction.

The Gift

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When we think of the gift Jesus gave to humankind, our doctrinal conditioning will take us to his death, the notion that he gave his life as a sacrifice for our sins. I like to think of this gift in a dramatically different way. He dedicated his life to teaching the truth of our oneness with God.

The Franciscan monk, Richard Rohr, made a very telling observation that he calls the great comma. It refers to a statement found in the Apostle’s Creed. The line and comma in question is this:  

“…I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried …”

The comma Rohr points to is the one between the “…born of the virgin Mary, He suffered under Pontius Pilate…” That comma represents 33 years, the entire life and teachings of Jesus. This is the gift he gave and the creed passes right over it.

Matthew’s account of the immaculate conception embodies the gift of Jesus’ teaching. This conception, imparted by the Holy Spirit, is symbolic of our receptivity to the deeper aspect of our own soul. Jesus taught his followers to go into the inner room, close the door, and pray to the Father in secret. That is, lay aside for a time the influence of the intellect, the Joseph aspect, and assume an intuitively receptive attitude. Advocating a direct experience with God was a refreshing approach. For those who were raised believing they were separate from God, the notion of the kingdom of God within would not have been an easy concept to grasp. But once that seed was planted, it would not be easy for the new believer to return to the old way of thinking.

The Christmas story is our story. I am not convinced that Jesus envisioned his message reaching beyond the world that he knew, but I think he would have found great satisfaction in knowing that his gift is still being given to people like you and me.  

Gateway To Intelligence

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Call upon the wisdom of the Infinite

This week we’re exploring divine intelligence and its expression through us as order.

Life and enthusiasm were the first topics for our Advent season. Love and understanding were the subject of last week. Today we’ll look at power and strength as the third of this four-part, pre-Christmas series. Intelligence and order will be the fourth.

How do we come to identify and name a characteristic of God? We can look for biblical passages such as this one: “Ah Lord God! It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). We can look at tradition that declares the omnipotence (all power) of God. Or through simple observation we can see countless expressions of power in everything from the volcano to the seed growing silently.

The power of God empowers us with the strength we need to carry on with our life. Those times when we feel our strength is waning, we affirm God’s limitless power works in and through us to give us the boost we need, when we need it. We remember Jeremiah’s inspiring words, “Nothing is too hard for thee” and we might add, “for thou art centered in me.” As an inlet and outlet to the everlasting power of God, I meet each day knowing that nothing is too hard for me.

Visualize God as a power center within your being. Imagine this power radiating out through your every atom and cell, expressing as the strength of optimism. One of Charles Fillmore’s favorite affirmations goes as follows:

“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”

Such an empowering prayer! As we saw in our first lesson on life, we know that life, zeal, enthusiasm, power, and strength are all interconnected, one power expressing in a variety of ways. This one power is our God center, our very center of power. Stir up this power with words, visualizations, meditations, actions, and any way that comes to you. A simple smile given to a passing stranger can empower them in ways you never know. Remember, nothing is too hard for thee, and thou art centered in me.

Tapping Your Center of Power

YouTube: Tapping Your Center of Power

Life and enthusiasm were the first topics for our Advent season. Love and understanding were the subject of last week. Today we’ll look at power and strength as the third of this four-part, pre-Christmas series. Intelligence and order will be the fourth.

How do we come to identify and name a characteristic of God? We can look for biblical passages such as this one: “Ah Lord God! It is thou who hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and by thy outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for thee” (Jeremiah 32:17). We can look at tradition that declares the omnipotence (all power) of God. Or through simple observation we can see countless expressions of power in everything from the volcano to the seed growing silently.

The power of God empowers us with the strength we need to carry on with our life. Those times when we feel our strength is waning, we affirm God’s limitless power works in and through us to give us the boost we need, when we need it. We remember Jeremiah’s inspiring words, “Nothing is too hard for thee” and we might add, “for thou art centered in me.” As an inlet and outlet to the everlasting power of God, I meet each day knowing that nothing is too hard for me.

Visualize God as a power center within your being. Imagine this power radiating out through your every atom and cell, expressing as the strength of optimism. One of Charles Fillmore’s favorite affirmations goes as follows:

“I fairly sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things that ought to be done by me.”

Such an empowering prayer! As we saw in our first lesson on life, we know that life, zeal, enthusiasm, power, and strength are all interconnected, one power expressing in a variety of ways. This one power is our God center, our very center of power. Stir up this power with words, visualizations, meditations, actions, and any way that comes to you. A simple smile given to a passing stranger can empower them in ways you never know. Remember, nothing is too hard for thee, and thou art centered in me.