Showing posts with label miracle mindedness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label miracle mindedness. Show all posts

Sunday, August 18, 2019

What is miracle thinking?



Chapter eighteen
What is miracle thinking?

Nothing comes to your mind but by the filter of your mindset. By virtue of what it admits or denies, it is the engine of the self-fulfilling prophecy, for good or for ill. But it, like the future, is also malleable. While many external factors work to mold and shape your mindset, you do get a vote in the matter. You can question the underlying assumptions. You can test the theses. You are not required to accept any of the default settings. You are always free to reject one belief and replace it with another. And when you reinforce that new belief, your outlook and your behavior will change. Your perception really is your reality, and if you don’t like what you see, you can change the underlying reality and your perception with it. To this end, the mindset can be thought of as one’s “disposition to possibility.” And its effect, like the self-fulfilling prophecy, is circular.

Jain, Naveen. Moonshots : Creating a World of Abundance (pp. 175-176). John August Media, LLC. 

What you think you see is what you get. Be careful what you wish for or fear because you will draw those things to yourself.

We can’t control the circumstances that occur to us in our lives but we can control our interpretation or the meaning we make of them. Are they good or bad, a blessing or a curse? Often times we don’t know what to make of them until sometime later.

If a person is asked, “What makes you tick?” most people not only respond with confusion and perplexity, they don’t even have a way of thinking about how to answer the question. Socrates said that an unexamined life is not worth living and not many people, unfortunately, live examined lives. If they did, the world wouldn’t be in the mess it was in and people wouldn’t suffer to the extent they do.

Most people don’t question their mindset until their pain and suffering reach a point at which they say to themselves, “I can’t take any more. There must be a better way.” When it dawns on the person who has hit bottom that there has to be a better way to think about things and behave in their lives, then they begin a search for that better way. It is this dawning and the initiation of the search that Jain is suggesting leads to entrepreneurial thinking and a “moonshot” or as it is called in A Course In Miracles, a “miracle.” 

The “miracle” is not a physical manipulation of the natural world to create a supernatural phenomenon. That is magic. A “miracle” is when the light bulb goes on in one’s mind and engenders a whole new way of thinking, a whole new mindset.

When have you had the “ah ha!” moment when the light bulb went off in your mind and your mindset was forever changed?


Thursday, July 11, 2019

A Course In Miracles and Unitarian Universalism - What is a miracle?


It is written in A Course In Miracles:

T-21.V.3. There is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. And if you place your faith in Them, you will perceive another self in you. This other self sees miracles as natural. They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the body. They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one it makes. 

Miracles seem unnatural to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can influence each other. Nor could they do so. But minds cannot be separate. This other self is perfectly aware of this. And thus it recognizes that miracles do not affect another’s mind, only its own. They always change your mind. There is no other.

A Course in Miracles . Foundation for Inner Peace. pp.456-457

Comment:

This passage in A Course In Miracles makes no sense to the average reader who does not understand the metaphysical thought system of the Course. Once the reader understands the metaphysical thought system of the Course, the passage makes perfect sense.

One of the primary ideas of the metaphysical thought system of the Course is that the ego divides and separates and the Divine is One. The metaphysical thought system is based on nonduality. There is only the Oneness and all else is an illusion, a dream. There is no difference as far as the Course's metaphysical thought system goes betweens the dreams that occur during sleep and the dreams that occur when one is "awake." Whether asleep or awake, the ego dreams continually. Daytime dreams are projections just as much as sleeping dreams are.

The "mind" is Oneness. It is the awareness of the interdependent Oneness which Unitarian Universalists refer to in their seventh principle. Since all egos don't exist because they are projections and the Mind is One, whatever a mind chooses affects the All since it is part of the All. When the text articulates "And it recognizes that miracles do not affect another's mind, only its own, They always change your mind. There is no other." it is to pointing to the idea that when the Mind, being One, chooses, whatever is chosen affects the whole.

When UUs covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person it can be thought of as not referring to separate egos but to the Divine Nature of which we all are a part.

And so, the "miracle" is not something that happens to external phenomena but the choice of an awareness of the Nature of Existence which operates above the dream of separation. We experience happiness when we awake from our dreams of separation and divisiveness and come to the realization that we all are One. This is one way of thinking about the basis of our Universalist faith in the Unconditinal Love which is God which can be thought of  in the ego world as a "miracle.".

Friday, May 11, 2018

Performing miracles

Do Unitarian Universalists believe in miracles? The answer is no, not in the usual sense of the word. Might they believe in miracle thinking? Yes, because it is an expression of their fourth principle, the free and responsible search for truth and meaning.

Where does truth and meaning lie? It is not on the path of the ego, but rather on the path of the spirit.

Miracles, according to A Course In Miracles, are not magic. Miracles are not supernatural behavior. Miracles, in A Course In Miracles, is a different way of thinking. Miracles are getting off the path of the ego and onto the path of the spirit.

The miracle is getting off the path of the ego and walking on the path of Love. Jesus said that the way to the kingdom is "to love as I have loved." Jesus is talking about miracle thinking. He is not talking about turning water into wine, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, walking on water, multiplying the loaves and fishes. Jesus is not a circus performer although many people have turned Him into one and totally missed His teaching.

Magicians in Las Vegas put on dazzling shows of slight of hand which give cheap thrills to the ego. They pull rabbits out of a hat, cut pretty women in half, make objects appear and disappear, and suspend objects off the floor. Their acts can be very entertaining.

Miracles are not about entertainment, they are about authentic life. Miracle thinking is eschewing the works of the ego for the life of the Spirit. The miracle is understanding our experience of Life in a whole new way.

With miracle thinking time stands still and we rise above our resentments as we forgive ourselves and others for our ridiculousnesses. We undo and purify our intentions and motives that block our awareness of Love. This shift in consciousness feels like a revelation of a whole new way of experiencing life which is full of peace, Love, and bliss. Some might call it meditation and here we are calling it miracle thinking.

Miracle thinking requires silence, centeredness, mindfulness, forgiveness, and gratitude. We are entering a time here on this blog when we will be describing how a person might shift his/her thinking and start performing and living with more miracles.
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