Anybody Out There Reading This Blog?

One of my volunteer jobs is to research quotes on different spiritual topics to be used for readings at the Unity Center I attend. A number of people at my church know about this job, and often ask if I can give them the quotes they heard in the service. I originally started this blog to provide a place for easily sharing those quotes. However, now the Unity Center actually has a spot on their web site where they post the readings each week, so this is redundant.

I'm contemplating several possibilities for this blog:
!) Just delete it.
2) Just continue as things are now - occasionally posting my favorite quotes, or perhaps a few of the ones I like that don't end up getting used on Sundays.
2) Re-purpose it - instead of using it to post the quotes, share the short little prayers I use at the top of the emails I send out with prayer requests (another of my volunteer jobs is to send emails to our prayer partners with the prayer requests the church has received.)

Anybody out there? Anybody care which option I choose?

Jesus Without Dogma

This week's topic - following that Third Jesus, without getting bogged down in the dogma of the second one that many churches focus on exclusively.

~ Eckhart Tolle
"Dogmas - religious, political, scientific - arise out of the erroneous belief that thought can encapsulate reality or the truth. Dogmas are collective conceptual prisons. And the strange thing is that people love their prison cells because they give them a sense of security and a false sense of "I know." Nothing has inflicted more suffering on humanity that its dogmas. It is true that every dogma crumbles sooner or later, because reality will eventually disclose its falseness; however, unless the basic delusion of it is seen for what it is, it will be replaced by others. What is the basic delusion? Identification with thought."

So perhaps the dogma itself is the veil that hides Reality from us?

And this one ...

~ Felix Adler
"Every dogma, every philosophic or theological creed, was at its inception a statement in terms of the intellect of a certain inner experience."

So someone in history had the inner experience, tried to put it in words and capture it in thought, to create a template for others to match their experience. But maybe we don't need the words, or someone else's thoughts, but just a direct experience of our own.

A New Way of Being

Wendy's topic this week was a New Way of Being, again based on Deepak Chopra's The Third Jesus. In looking for quotes, I came across an author who is new to me - Daphne Rose Kingma. She has such a lovely way of expressing this new way of being - I definitely plan to check out some of her books.

~ Daphne Rose Kingma, The Future of Love
"Something wonderful is happening in all of this chaos but nobody knows what it is. ...
There is a grand transformation afoot. A mysterious energy seems to be taking quietly over, and things just aren't the way they used to be. A new world, a new way of being, is being born in our midst. We can feel it.
There's a new softness in our midst, a way of being with one another, that is gracious and gentle and kind. There is also a beautiful strangely infiltrating awareness, a mystic pulse of connection that seems to be gathering us together. Love is trying to find us."

Isn't that lovely? Like the wind change in Mary Poppins, it's a delicious feeling, anticipating grace.

~ Daphne Rose Kingma, The Future of Love
"I believe that we were all together once as a single, vast, pulsating, luminous consciousness that was divided bit by bit, person by person, into the tiny shining fragments that are our individual souls. Love is the river, each human being a droplet of water, and together, in spite of our fears and resistance, we are returning to love, melting and flowing toward home.
No one can escape the divine upheaval of love. I haven't; you won't; your neighbors and strangers and family won't either. Love is coming to find us. All of us. Because love is our essence. Love is who we are.”

Path to God Consciousness

Wendy's topic this week was Opening the Path to God Consciousness, based on Deepak Chopra's book, The Third Jesus. The first quote is from one of my favorite authors, Paul Ferrini. He often writes about the principles in A Course in Miracles, and from the perspective of Jesus.

"Right now, in this moment, you are either listening to the voice of God or you are needlessly enmeshed in your own psychodrama. Right now, you are either happy or you are finding fault with the circumstances of your life. Let yourself be present to your thoughts and ask, "am I aware of God's unconditional love for me right now." If the answer is yes, you will feel the warmth of the Divine Presence in your heart. And if the answer is no, your awareness will cause you to remember that Presence and draw it to you. This simple practice cannot fail." ~ Paul Ferrini, Love Without Conditions

Most of the time, I'd say I'm enmeshed in my own psychodrama, definitely! It helps to have that pointed out, since as he says, simply being aware of that is an invitation to a new realization.

"The second coming of Christ is not some historical event in the future. The second coming is an awareness - a person's recognition of the Christ presence within him or her. In other words, when the awareness of the Christ within "dawns" on a soul, the second coming has taken place. We say that the Christ is born in that individual. Rather than an incident to take place at some future time, the second coming is a possibility in each present moment - a possibility in each one of us. "

~ Richard and Mary Alice Jafolla, The Quest

This is one of the key points in Chopra's book. Jesus isn't somebody "out there" - some magical event in the future "out there" - he's a consciousness, always available within. No magic pills, no incantations, no secret codes needed. Cool.

The Power Within

This week's topic was Discovering the Power Within You, based quite a bit on the book by that name by Eric Butterworth.

"Christ is your God-essence or the Self, as it is sometimes called in the east. The only difference between Christ and presence is that Christ refers to your indwelling divinity regardless of whether you are conscious of it or not, whereas presence means your awakened divinity or God-essence.
Being can be felt as the ever-present I AM that is beyond name and form. To feel and thus to know that you are and to abide in that deeply rooted state is enlightenment, is the truth that Jesus says will make you free. "
~ Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

I think that's one of the most powerful teachings of New thought - that the light, the presence, is not "out there" somewhere, but within each of us. I am a golden Buddha, buried in a clay statue. I am divinity, imprisoned in a human body. Each time I choose to act on the thoughts that come from my Higher Self, I chip away a bit more of the gunk that hides the light within me, and take one more step toward freedom.

Namasté

Success

This week's topic at the Unity Center was Partnering with God for Success. She talked about a variety of issues - including moving out of your comfort zone, setting your aim high, and inviting God to assist you. Here are a few of the quotes I found:

These were my favorites on moving out of your comfort zone.....

"Comfort zones are most often expanded through discomfort."

~ Peter McWilliams

And the amazing part of this is that the reward for the willingness to go through that discomfort is, a bigger comfort zone!

"Nobody ever died of discomfort, yet living in the name of comfort has killed more ideas, more opportunities, more actions, and more growth than everything else combined. Comfort kills!"

~ T. Harv Eker, author of Secrets of the Millionaire Mind

And these quotes were about setting your aim higher .....

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."

~ C. S. Lewis

And my favorite quotes about inviting God into the mix...

"What higher goal could there be for anyone than to learn to call upon God and hear His Answer? And what more transcendent aim can there be than to recall the way, the truth and the life, and to remember God?"

~ A Course in Miracles

I've become enchanted by the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, so I will finish with my favorite, a poem he addressed to God:

"You have given me Your love, filling the world with Your gifts.

They are showered upon me when I do not know them, for my heart is asleep and dark is the night.

Though lost in the cavern of my dreams, I have been thrilled with gladness.

And I know that in return for the treasure of Your great worlds, You will receive from me one little flower of love in the morning when my heart awakes."

~ Rabindranath Tagore

Peace be with you!

Quotes on Beingness and Right Action

This week's topic was Being in God Consciousness...

Do you have the patience to wait
till your mind settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
~Lao-Tzu, Tao-te-Ching

Yep, I do have the patience to be still. The part I don't have downpat yet is getting over the worry that I'll stay still and never kick into action. Which means, of course, that perhaps I don't really have the patience to be still.

"You, no less than all beings have Buddha Nature within. Your essential Mind is pure. Therefore, when defilements cause you to stumble and fall, let not remorse nor dark foreboding cast you down. Be of good cheer and with this understanding, summon strength and walk on. Faith is like a lamp and wisdom makes the flame burn bright. Carry this lamp always and in good time the darkness will yield and you will abide in the Light."
~ Dhammavadaka

That last line gives such a sense of release and relief.

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
~ William Wordsworth, Ode on Intimations of Immortality

Isn't that lovely? And doesn't it feel like most of life is a struggle to remember a deep truth within us, getting glimpses from time to time, but never quite being able to hold onto the clarity we once had, and will return to.

Peace Be With You

Peace Be With You

This week's quotes are on the topic of "peace."

What would we have to hold in compassion to be at peace right now? What would we have to let go of to be at peace right now?
~ Jack Kornfield

Just reading those questions makes me feel peaceful. They remind me that peace is always everywhere, and to be aware of it, I simply need to remove whatever is going on in my mind that is not peaceful. Sometimes, that's easier said than done, but it helps to be reminded that is my choice and fully in my power to do that.

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.
~ Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Today, go to whatever place gives you a sense of peace. Enjoy it. Appreciate it. And then take that peace with you wherever you go.

There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost.
~ A Course in Miracles, Lesson 164

The light is behind whatever we see "out there", and what a lovely reminder from ACIM that we carry that light within.

Peace Be With You!

Stoplight Sutra

One practice that helps us to maintain an awareness of the ever presence of God is to form a habit of frequent, informal prayer. This is usually inspired by whatever problem or crisis we are currently facing, and the kind of prayer that results is often the "beg and bargain" variety. A more effective technique is to connect the act of praying with common occurrences in our lives - using the mundane as an invitation to place our attention on the qualities of Spirit.

My favorite practice of this sort is something I call the Stoplight Sutra, and it's very very simple. Whenever you come to a stoplight, you say a quick prayer.

If the light is green, the prayer is Green Light Gratitude - "Thank You Spirit for making the way before me easy. I am grateful for your grace and blessings today."

If the light is red, the prayer is Red Light Reflection - "Thank You Spirit, for this moment, this opportunity to pause, to be aware of Your Presence."

Easy!

Let Spirit Flow

"Let your mind and heart release all that disturbs you. Let your body be still, and all the frettings of your body, and all that surrounds it; let the earth and sea and air be still and heaven itself, and then think of Spirit as streaming, pouring, rushing and shining into you, through you, and out from you in all directions while you sit quiet."
~ Eric Butterworth, In the Flow of Life

What could be simpler? Nothing you have to do or say. Just be still. Let it go. Let Spirit Flow. The only thing stopping us is the habit of stewing and fixing. Just be still.

Pollyanna Was Right!

"Oh, yes, the game was to just find something about everything to be glad about -- not matter what twas," rejoined Pollyanna earnestly. "And we began right then -- on the crutches."
Pollyanna, Chapter 5

You often hear someone refer to someone else being a "Pollyanna" - and it usually means they are either in denial about the seriousness of the current situation, or that they are making light of it. But I'm here to say, Pollyanna was right!!! She didn't deny anything - she simply played what she called the Glad Game - and the purpose of the game was to discover, something, anything, to be glad about in a given situation.

A Course in Miracles says "All things are lessons God would have me learn."

So... the good things are blessings and bring peace. The bad things set up a longing within us that guides us toward the good things. Hence, it's all good. And.... Pollyanna was right!

Peace Be With You

Reflections

"We meet ourselves time and time again in a thousand disguises on the path of life."
~ Carl Jung

This is a fun and sparkling realization when we encounter lovely, wise people in our daily lives. To think "I am One with this beautiful person!" generates a peaceful sense of satisfaction. It can be more challenging when the person in front of us is exhibiting some less attractive traits, especially when they are the very qualities we would prefer to avoid. Even at those times, though, and perhaps especially at those times, a reflection is being offered, and an opportunity to learn is being provided. If I can see the person in front of me as myself, maybe Spirit can awaken within my heart a sense of compassion for both of us.

Peace be with you.

Oneness

“As we see our Oneness with God, we heal the world."
"If we have always been One with God, why must we see this fact anew, now? Our Oneness is as elusive as this world is illusory. Let’s continue to practice attentiveness anyway. Each time we catch a glimpse of our real connection to each other and God, we feel safe, at peace, and complete. This feeling, when expressed to others, fosters peace in them as well. The world is healed by the acknowledgment that we are One."
~ Karen Casey, Meditations for Practicing the Course

In our busy lives, glimpsing Oneness - with God, with everyone around us, often seems unlikely, perhaps impossible. We get so caught up in the plot, in the stories we create to defend ourselves. No wonder that most of us live in a chaotic mish-mash of thoughts. I love Karen's reminder that working to become more and more aware of Oneness is how we help to heal. A Course in Miracles teaches us that the way to know we are on the right track is the feeling of peace, and to inspire that same sense of peace in others is definitely a verification of the path - a signpost, with bright lights, and large print.

Peace be with you.