Showing posts with label Atonement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Atonement. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Are you looking for Love?

Unitarian Univeralists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. UUs, though, aren't clear what this search entails and where it will take the seeker.

Unconsciously, and sometimes consciously, we feel guilty and ashamed for separating ourselves from the Oneness, the Divine, God. How do we resolve this shame and guilt? A Course In Miracles calls this "Atonement" or At-one-ment. Christians call it the Body of Christ. It is the drop rejoining the ocean.

The atonement is oceanic. It is ascending to a cosmic consciousness. It is rejoining and becoming one again with the all.

The major tool and activity of the Atonement is forgiveness. Forgiveness, in this sense, does not mean excusing an offense, an unfairness, harm that was done to us, but rather a recognition that all the shenanigans on the path of the ego are illusory. We rise above the bull shit, the drama, the ridiculousness, the illusions on the path of the ego and enter onto the path of the spirit. As Kenneth Wapnick has written in his book, Christian Psychology in A Course In Miracles, on page 29, "The Course teaches that every form of distress reflects some form of unforgiveness in ourselves. We call to God for help, not always understanding the help we need, for we do not recognize the real problem."

The path of the spirit involves the recognition, acknowledgement, and connection with the Divine within us and between us in Creation. The sign of being on the right track is rejoicing in Life.

Look for the Divine spark in yourself and in others and connect the dots. It will build a roaring fire of Love on earth as it is in heaven.


Wednesday, September 6, 2017

Our UU faith bolsters us in the storms of life

Gerald, you told me about your wife's behavior and verbal constructions which seem to you delusional and abusive. Her statements are full of recrimination and false blame which used to be very distressful to you until you considered the dysfunctional and erroneous thought system she has conjured up to justify her view of the world and especially of you, and you have learned to rise above it and forgive her.

It is written in A Course in Miracles, "The insane protect their thought systems, but they do so insanely. And all their defenses are as insane as what they are supposed to protect." T-IV.5:4-5 This observation is accurate at the individual level as well as at the national governmental level as we witness the functioning of President Trump and the congress. These insane thought systems appear to change reality because that is their purpose, but at a higher level, we sense that these thought systems not being true, they do not change the reality of the Love of God which we UUs have chosen to join with.

Our UU faith in Love and the seven principles bolsters us in the storms of life which lately meteorologically and metaphorically are at hurricane intensities. We realize that at the spiritual level, "it's all good" while on the ego plane it is what some people refer to as a "clusterfuck."

To some it seems absurd that we elected to represent us, people whose thought systems are so disturbed, and we marry and get involved in special relationships with people who are as crazy or even crazier than we are. Peace occurs when we realize that the answer is to forgive ourselves and others for our insane belief that special relationships can save us from ourselves. The President and the congress can't save us nor can your wife, Gerald. In the end, hope is found in the epiphany that no one outside ourselves can save us, we each have to take responsibility for turning our will over to the Oneness of life or the independent web, as we UUs like to call it, of which we are just a part.

Part of our Universalist faith is the idea that God loves us all unconditionally. I know that is hard to believe sometimes but deep down we know it is true. At some point humanity will realize this, and accept and join the Atonement which will be achieved when everybody loves everybody all the time. We are making progress as a species and we have a long way to go.

May you be aware of the force that is with you,

David

 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

More unum, less pluribus

Dear Jason:

I am glad you enjoyed the bumper sticker, "Too much pluribus, not enough unum." It made me laugh as well and there is nothing that joins people together in a holy instant of communication like a good laugh, and a song.

We get so hung up on bodies and we get aroused sexually by the fantasy of their interaction that we forget that the joy and the bliss of such togetherness comes from the rapport, the deep communication not from physical friction. And so we might appreciate that heaven would be the joyous rapport without the necessity of bodies, only pure communication and a sense of beloved oneness. It says in A Course In Miracles, "For communication embraces everything, and in the peace it re-establishes, love comes of itself."

When, Jason, you find a friend that you can talk to without any effort or sacrifice, only pure joy and openness, you no doubt, if you are mindful, will be aware of a blessing which we call grace. If we are skilled enough to listen deeply to a person and we look for the divine spark and focus on that we can establish this kind of rapport with any of our brothers and sisters. These skills do take a purity of mind, an intention of generosity of our effort and energy, and the deliberate diminishment, if not elimination, of our fears. These skills are a very tall order, but achievable of development with sincere intention.

Our Unitarian Univeralist covenant calls us to this kind of life in our first, second, and third principles. We promise to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person,  to strive towards justice, equity, and compassion in all our human relations, and to accept one another and encourage the spiritual growth of ourselves and those we interact with in our congregations, our work places, our families, our communities, our states, our nation, and the whole wide world.

If you wonder, Jason, if this can be done, we can study and reflect on the lives of Jesus, Buddha, St. Francis, Martin Luther King, Jr. and any number of other enlightened masters and saints who have walked the earth. You may have your own heroes and heroins whom you admire and would like to emulate. We UUs call these people "prophetic women and men" and their lives and witness are the second of six sources of the UU tradition.

If there is one quality which I would encourage you to look for it would be a cosmic consciousness, what we UUs call a respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. There seems to be a minority of human beings who achieve this level of awareness and I don't know if UUs are any more developed than our fellow citizens, but at least we intellectually acknowledge this value which is far more than most human organizations and individuals do.

Let us work together, Jason, for more unum and to respect and appreciate the pluribus without attacking it as threatening.

We should strive Jason to create heaven right now, right here where we presently find ourselves. We can accomplish this with the establishment of loving communication. I define the atonement as that time in human history when everybody loves everybody all the time. Each time we ask the Holy Spirit to help us with this activity, we decrease the length of time before human kind achieves this state.

Blessings to you and your family,

Uncle David

Tuesday, July 4, 2017

Nonbeing is the origin of heaven and earth. Being is the mother of ten thousand things

While "us" and "not us" is biologically programmed into our brains to insure our physical survival on the ego plane, our spiritual survival requires us to transcend this instinct and to recognize that we all one for all and all for one.

This first reflection (on the first principle) entails the tribal history of homo sapiens where one group often perceived other groups as competitors for the scarce resources needed for survival. Some brain scientists theorize that human beings are neurologically programmed to defend and attack the “not us”. 

Religions have thrived on their exclusionary tactics and appeal to humans that they are special while the” not them” are a threat of some sort to be excluded from the circle of the group if not extinguished. 



Jesus taught something very different when He said we should love our enemies. 

Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote something very different when they acknowledge the worth and dignity of every person.


Markham, David. 16 Reflections On The First Principle of Unitarian Universalism (The seven principles of Unitarian Universalism) (Kindle Locations 11-13).  . Kindle Edition. 




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