Showing posts with label the dawning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the dawning. Show all posts

Friday, August 31, 2018

My Kind Of Church Music - Don't Give Up - Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush



The path of the ego leads us to the point where we want to give up and it dawns on us that there must be a better way. At UUAWOL ministries we call this "The Dawning."

Sunday, July 8, 2018

What is the path to peace?

Do Unitarian Universalists want peace? It is mentioned in the sixth principle as "the goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all." The way the principle is worded would make one think of political peace more than spiritual peace.

Catholics make a big deal out of spiritual peace asking worshippers to extend to one another the wish for peace during their worship services and ritually say, "Pax vobiscum," peace be with you during their liturgies.

Peace is considered in the perennial psychology as a major sign of spiritual attainment. It is inner peace that is being referred to however.

The third step of the twelve step program for people in recovery is to make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.

This decision to "turn it over" comes after the dawning that there must be a better way. This turning initiates the search. What is that better way? What does it look like? How can I stay on the right track and not get lost again? Are there trail markers I should look for or am I to blaze the trail all on my own only following an intuitive compass that points at God's will for me?

What are the differences I should be alert to to discern the differences between the path of the ego and the path of the spirit?

The two biggest trail markers on the path of the spirit are: What is the loving thing? and Will this bring us peace? Notice the word "us". What will bring "us" peace includes "me" but not "me" alone. My relationships with others must be brought into consideration as well.

The body is the not the temple of the Holy Spirit as so many of us have been incorrectly taught. The temple of the Holy Spirit is in relationships. Remember the Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered in my name, there I will be." Jesus was referring to the Divine when He said "I" not his personification.

Giving up our ego is a scary thing. We feel like we are giving up control, and indeed, we are intentionally giving up control, and turning it over to the Divine. We come to not only learn that we are not in control of the universe but we gladly give up the fantasy and illusion.

Let it go. There are far greater things going on than we could ever understand. Give up our attempts to control every thing. As they say in AA, "Let go and let God."

A genuine surrender is the path to peace.


Monday, June 25, 2018

Jesus is knocking. Will you answer the door?

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Where does that truth and meaning lie?

Jesus tells us in the book of Revelations, chapter 3, verse 20, "Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I'll come right in and sit down to supper with you."

But we don't really want to see Jesus. He calls us to leave our egos behind and join Him on the path of the spirit and we don't want to. The ego offers us all kinds of pleasurable and distracting things to amuse us, and Jesus only offers us peace and love.

We are still children who like our ridiculous play things and if there is a threat to take them away from us we cling to them and run away and hide.

What Jesus offers us is there at the door. Can we overcome our fear and answer the knock?

Not yet. Things will have to get worse. We have yet to hit bottom. Then maybe when we are desperate we will look for a better way. Sometimes it takes great suffering for the dawning to occur that the way of Jesus is a better choice if we want to become truly happy.

Answer the door.






Tuesday, May 15, 2018

Enjoy your existence such as it is

Unitarian Universalists know that God loves them unconditionally. This understanding is the foundation of their Universalist faith. What they may not know, even though they convenant together to affirm and promote the free and responsible search for truth and meaning, is that the search is inward not outward. The search referred to in the seven principles is not on the path of the ego but on the path of the spirit. To embark on the path of the spirit requires a dawning that there is a better way to live life than on the path of the ego, and then, a turning onto the path of the spirit.

The biggest mistake we human beings make is to think that we have separated ourselves from God, the font of our being, the Force which animates the universe.

Oh, we are arrogant, and proud, and blind, and ignorant, but deep down we know better. We are part of the Divine, but we forget when we get caught up in our pursuits on the path of the ego.

On the path of the ego we believe that all kinds of nonsense and ridiculousness will make us happy. Be become frustrated, angry, sad, and then scared when they don't. We wonder what's gone wrong in our lives and we run off to our doctors who give us drugs to numb the pain. We stop searching thinking that the drugs will fix the problem.

So, how is that working for you?

At the deepest level, we only have one choice to make: Love or fear. Which would you rather have?

If we choose Love, we have to move off the path of the ego onto the path of the spirit, and many of us are not ready to make that turn. We want things to be better but we cling to the familiar. We rather dance with the devil we know than the devil we don't know.

Steven Wright said one time, "A lot of people are afraid of heights. Not me. I'm afraid of widths." And there are those who are agoraphobic, they are afraid of wide open spaces.

There is always something to be afraid of. The news scares us, our relationships scare us, our fear of scarcity scares us. God knows we love to be afraid because it keeps us from looking within where our biggest fear is the supposed wrath of God because of our willful separation from Him/Her.

We are being silly because God loves us unconditionally. We are part of God and God is part of us.

Relax. Chill. Enjoy your existence such as it is.


Saturday, May 5, 2018

The dawning - "I need help."

Unitarian Universalists covenant together to affirm and promote the inherent worth and dignity of every person. Notice that the principle reads, "inherent" and not "apparent" or "ostensible" or "assumed." The worth and dignity of every person is qualified.

I was talking with a 12 year old 7th grader yesterday who is having trouble in school with his grades and his teachers as well as with his fellow students. His biggest complaint was, what he called, "ridiculous people." I agreed with him that most people are, indeed, "ridiculous." We both laughed about this observation and then I said, "Given that most people are 'ridiculous', how do you think you can best manage this fact in your life?" This began a very interesting discussion based on the presumption that superficially most people are "ridiculous" and yet, deeper down, they all have inherent worth and dignity. How do you get past the "ridiculousness" to something more precious?

We think in images we call thoughts. We make these up. Our thoughts are not real.

The bumper sticker says, "Perception is reality." Most people seem to believe that what they think is real, and they "see" it when they look. They are not "seeing" they are projecting and displacing. What they think they are seeing is an "illusion."

And so when we think things, and see things, we need to remind ourselves that what we are thinking and seeing isn't real but rather perceptions and experiences we have made.

Off we go, "half cocked" as they say, "making shit up" to fit our preconceived notions and preferences.

My favorite bumper sticker says, "Reality is when it happens to you."

Dr. Freud called the checking of our beliefs and perceptions with our experience, "reality testing." We come to learn that life is not the way we thought it was and is, at the bottom, quite different.

We come to the point where we realize that "there must be a better way." As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous and other twelve step programs with step one, "We have come to realize that our lives are unmanageable."

And so the moral of the story is "Don't believe everything you think."




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