Beholding the Greater Good

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28

What was your initial reaction when you read the above line? Read it again, and take note. Do you agree with that extraordinarily bold and positive assessment of life? If so, you are among the rare and fortunate among us who take a sanguine view of life.

For the rest of us, who may tend to see the glass as half empty, and default to noticing what's missing in our experience, we can take comfort in the knowledge that we come by it naturally. That is, our psyches are wired for a negative bias, meaning we are more likely to pay attention and retain memories of those situations that are harmful or disturbing than the positive and uplifting circumstances.  Brain science explains this phenomenon is a basic instinctual survival response. Stemming back to our earliest history on this planet, when our environment was more hostile, and the threat of attack was a realistic daily concern, it was essential that we be on the lookout for what could harm us.  Compared to noticing and storing the memories of the good and pleasant situations, our penchant for survival dictated that we be vigilant in awareness of the "bad" stuff that could hurt us. Psychologist and author, Rick Hanson, PhD says it this way, "We are Velcro for the negative, and Teflon for the positive."

Does that mean that we are doomed to negativity? Not at all. It's just an explanation of our human tendency. Thankfully, we are more than a body/mind! We are children of the Divine, and if children, then heirs to all that is Spirit.  Our spiritual nature is more essentially who we are than the mortal limitations, and dualistic perspectives of our human self. It is in this milieu of knowing ourselves and beholding life that we can find an essential goodness, a wholeness and peace that surpasses ordinary human perception and understanding.

While our essential and spiritual nature readily offers us a view of the good, the true and the beautiful, it remains latent and under the radar of our awareness unless we consciously intend to see it.  This is the consequence and criterion of free will. Much like the electricity that runs through the walls of your home, the light does not flood the room until you flip the switch. In parallel fashion, we must incline our minds toward the sacred view of life, which floods our world with the qualities of love, compassion, kindness and gratitude.  As much as we think we must get what we want to feel good, it is our intention that brings the enlightened perspective.  As poet Hafiz noted,

Ask the Friend for love, Ask Him again. For I have heard that whatever one's heart prays for the most, that's what one gets.

So frequently, our desire for life to be a certain way is only the visible tip of a much deeper need. If we are willing to probe, we may discover the true need that then can become the focus of our prayer, our intention. For example, you may want somebody in your life to behave differently. You could pray for that outcome, hold out for that to happen. (Good luck and I hope you are eternally patient.) Alternatively, you could ask yourself, what do I really want?  Such deep inquiry might lead you through several layers to a core need, which might be that you want a loving connection with that person. Now you are in God's domain of influence. Now you are answering the call "according to God's purpose." Intending for a loving connection will bring you back to your deepest nature, where love can be actualized in your experience.  Here you are shown how to restore the love that is your true yearning. This is the practice of the masters, which can reveal the presence of Good in every situation, for the deepest inquiry will always lead us back to our deepest self, where, in the company of Divine Presence we can behold the good, the true and the beautiful. May it be so for you.

Peace and blessings
Rev. Larry

Emergence: A Welcome Change

When you learn to shift your identity from that of the egoic “local self” to the magnificence of your “non-local” Essential Self and then beyond to your Universal Self, the highest frequency of your being, you become fully available to BE the change and become an activation point and catalyst for conscious evolution.- Barbara Marx Hubbard

Like many ambitious men, I spent a good deal of my life trying to achieve my way to success, acquire my way to happiness. I achieved and I acquired but the success was ephemeral and the acquisitions ultimately could not satisfy my deepest hunger.  The American dream morphed into an endless season of discontent. I hit bottom. This was great news to my higher self, the part of me that was waiting patiently in the wings for me to call off the fruitless search, turn the ship around and head home.

I did make that about face a score of years ago and began a search for inner success, an honest appraisal of what mattered most to me in life, and I got in touch with a deeper purpose. In my case, the inward journey lead me to the spiritual path of Unity, and a career in ministry.  It's important for me to emphasize that ministry is only one of a myriad of forms that authentic self-expression can take.  It happens to be mine and it's just another form. 

Form, no matter how much importance you might ascribe to it is still just form. It’s merely an external accessory to who we are, and not of our essence. It has no life of its own.  No meaning. No purpose. No value. A job describes what I do, not what I am.  We can forget that and many of us do lose ourselves in our careers. We also lose ourselves in the roles we assume in life, our socioeconomic conditions, how others see us, etc.  Soon our entire self-concept is invested in a stock that has no intrinsic value. It's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down. Who we thought we were is laid waste, and eventually laid to rest.  It can be the worst and best of times.

To continue the journey home, to deepen understanding of our truest nature we must be willing to abandon form in favor of content.  This can be difficult, painful, and counterintuitive, yet the exfoliation of the false self is the only way to uncover our true essence.  Jesus understood the process, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. (John 12:24)

Once the false form dies, the real work begins, but it is fulfilling work. You're not “workin' for the man” anymore - you're working for the soul. It's the hardest job you'll ever love. The way the world measures you may have less, but the heart overflows. You are simultaneously humbled and exalted, at once motivated and surrendered. It's the paradox that Jesus described. You have lost your life, and found new life.

Forms are still interesting and even attractive, but not compelling or defining. The only thing that matters is the feeling that something Great and true and real is coursing through your veins, running your life. You come to agree with the Taoist, Only in being lived by the Tao can you be truly yourself.

This is emergence that you can truly welcome. This is the change that transforms you at depth and brings healing and wholeness that surpasses any form the world can offer.

How Many Gods Do You Need?

Okay, how did you answer this title question? I’m guessing you said, “One – just one!” That is the “correct” answer – correct for a monotheist, a keeper of the commandments, or a good Unity truth student who is steeped in the tenet that, “there is only one Presence and Power in my life.” So okay, you and I can pass the “correctness” test on this question, but can we be brutally honest for a moment and really see if our singular God affirmation holds up under scrutiny in our moment to moment thoughts and actions.

If we truly believe that God is the supreme Power in our life; the singular source of all that we could ever need, the very fountain of Love that never runs dry, the enduring peace that we seek, and the source of all joy and happiness then why, oh why, do we:

Worry (about anything)?

Fear – anything?

Look to others for love?

Get angry, upset, depressed, frustrated, etc., etc.?

Pray for …healing, prosperity, weather changes, anything?

If I/we truly believed that God is the alpha and omega of our fulfillment, we would want for nothing, other than an intimate relationship with the Divine. And that, of course, is just what Master Teacher, Jesus taught, repeatedly:

Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven…and all these things shall be added unto you

When you pray, pray believing you have received and it will be yours.

When we entreat for specific outcomes that we want to happen in our lives, we are in effect, worshiping false idols, lesser gods, merely wish fulfillers.  When these demands upon the universe are the preeminent conditions for my well-being,  I, in effect, dethrone the only true and enduring Power, the Eternal Source of All good and in so doing I become so much flotsam on the shifting sea of caprice and circumstance.

When Jesus told the rich man, who wanted to find eternity, that he needed to first sell all that he owned, he was symbolically laying out the conditions for our oneness with God. Simply (but not easily) we must look at all those things, persons, conditions, beliefs, thoughts which we believe are either taking the place of or keeping us from our good, and give them up!  NO that doesn't mean we have to literally give them up, it means they must be demoted from god status because they promise falsely and will  wear out, or change thus guaranteeing that we'll be left wanting once more.

“A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need to correct.” A.C.I.M.

The kind of prayer that that our souls yearn for brings us into union with the Divine. It is pure communion. It asks for nothing because it has everything already. The purpose is to know ourselves as inseparable from Love, to claim and realize the inheritance bestowed upon us as progeny of Spirit. When I touch into this knowing place, then I find all my needs fulfilled, and need no other gods to separate me from the One that is All. The fruits of this kind of prayer are a complete change of mind and heart that will transform our world, from inside out.

Of course you know that this message was just for you? No it was for me of course. Unless it applies to you in which case I'm glad we could share a moment of remembrance once more!

Namaste,

Rev. Larry

Freedom: A Moment to Moment Declaration

Today is a good day to think about freedom as we celebrate the birth of an independent nation, founded on the principles of self-determination and inalienable rights.

Actually, any day is a good day to think about freedom. To be really free transcends the rights of a people to live under a permission-giving system of laws. True freedom goes beneath all external forms of liberty. I’m referring to the essential freedom that is imbued within our true nature. It is the freedom to choose our very perception of all that arises within and without us.  It is a freedom contained within our minds that allows us to choose how we will respond to the vagaries of life. The problem is that we are much less acquainted with this internal freedom than the rights which allow us to live where we choose or to vote our conscience in a free election. 

Lacking recognition of my ability and freedom to choose how I will see a particular situation can be as oppressive to my experience as living under a dictatorial regime might be.  If I fail to exercise this right to choose, I’m going to have difficult time enjoying life or liberty, let alone the pursuit of happiness.  And I notice that most of the time I forget that I have this choice of perception and allow circumstances to dictate my reaction to life. However, our deepest Truth reminds us that we are not victims of the world unless we live on the surface where we can be tossed about by shifting winds of fortune and misfortune.

Our deepest nature, being spiritual, takes it perspective from the Wells of Unconditional Peace and Limitless Love. No matter what shows up on the landscape of my life, I have the (God given) right and ability to choose my response; to let Love lead the way, and let Peace be my ultimate aim.  We are only imprisoned by a belief that circumstances determine our experience, and we are freed in claiming the freedom to respond according to the experience we want. As A Course in Miracles says,

“I could choose peace instead of this.” and

 “Love will enter into any mind that truly wants it.”

I know this all sounds like such lofty ideas, perhaps unrealistic, impractical, maybe not possible you may argue (I hear you – I have similar reactions) but why should it be so difficult to live from our deepest nature, to be spirit centered? The reason has parallels to the struggle for independence of these United States of America. The King does not relinquish power without a battle. That is, our Ego (sense of separate self) has enjoyed sovereignty for so very long and it is not about to roll over and give in to our mind’s declaration of Independence from its oppressive practices. Like other formidable changes of behavior it requires big time motivation and willingness.  When we've suffered under ego’s rule long enough we will muster the motivation and resolve to “rise up” and put Spirit on the throne.   Only in such a revolutionary reversal of power will our True Self be empowered to rule, and guide our choices and behaviors under a mandate of Love and a Declaration of Peace. This is the freedom that we have been granted by our Creator, and it will take a moment to moment declaration to enjoy its fruits in our lives.  

Let’s celebrate all the freedoms we enjoy today, and send up a virtual flare in every moment we are able to light up the sky with our Love and shower our homeland with Peace.

Happy 4^th of July.

Serenity - Rarely on the surface

This morning I was greeted by the perfectly still glass reflector of Serenity Lake.  I captured it with this photo as a reminder of that which is so very rare in our human experience - finding serenity on the surface of things. We kid ourselves with a frustrating hope that we can get things arranged in such a perfect way that all disturbances would be gone from our sight and then we would find peace and well being. But the winds of change are constant in this world and there will be no happy ending if we expect the surface of things to settle into perfection.  Stillness is beneath the surface. Peace is in the depth, 

where the winds of change cannot disturb the equanimity, changeless nature within us.  I come to this place to find this place within me, and bring back the photo as precious memory of my time here and as a symbol of the timeless truth in my deeper self.

Ego location or God Positioning

Amongst a few species of mammals there is a capacity to navigate by way of merely hearing, not seeing. Its called echolocation and it allows bats and whales to determine where they are and navigate a course by sending out sounds into their surrounds and determining where they are from the echo that comes back to them. This permits them to know where they are and continue to move forward assuredly even in complete darkness.

There is a parallel, metaphorically, to the way I find myself and navigate my way through life. When I rely only on my physical senses and surface awareness to determine my sense of self and where I want to go I am using ego-location.  I have thoughts about myself that are based on my physical attributes, my roles, my relationships, the expectations that go with these representations of me. The reverberations of these thoughts inform my sense of self. I am a father, or a teacher, or counselor, or husband, or a trusted friend, a citizen, or neighbor. Nothing wrong with ego-location in navigating our world except when it obviates a deeper inquiry and realization of our true self. 

Sometimes life will hand us circumstances that strip us of one of these “representations” of self or we can by design choose to decommission ourselves for a time from the roles we play. In either case we are given a perfect opportunity to reacquaint our sense of self using a “God positioning system” – intentionally seeking an internal locus of self-awareness that did not originate in the world nor derive its value from our actions or accomplishments. This is what I am seeking during this hiatus from pulpit ministry.

Thus far my time has been one of releasing the tension bound up in expectations as I extricate myself temporarily from the public image of my current process and allow myself to be radically honest and vulnerable and open to who I think I am, and, more vitally, open and receptive to the truth of my Being. There is a time for egolocation and there is a time to a turn a deaf ear to its assessment that would only get you lost again.  It is, after all, the reverberations of Love that give us the singular true sense of what we are and position us most precisely in a state of peace and well-being. May it be so.

Open out a way

This morning as I was remembering that I have been given a significant hiatus from my Sunday speaking duties I felt something unfamiliar and wonderful.  I recognized the care and love that was behind the decision to support my request for this time away. I actually did what I normally don't do, and that is I opened my heart to feel the love of the gift and then let it flow from me to our trustees and all those who have extended their support.  Up until this moment, I had been aware of the privilege and grateful for it but I hadn't let it in to feel the care, feel the compassion and feel the love. As I've shared before it's been a challenge for me to open my heart and let the love in. Of course if I can't let it in then I can't let it out either. There is a singular ventricle to the sharing and receiving of love. A blockage in one direction restricts the other. 
This insight recalls Robert Browning's observation "to know rather consists in opening out a way...than in effecting entry for a light supposed to be without."

- L