Minister’s Message – July/August

Being in the World but Not of It by Rev. Lane Williams

            We truly live in interesting times, which is a curse perhaps, but also can be the opportunity to use our spiritual teachings to bring forth peace in the midst of chaos, harmony in the presence of discord, and love and forgiveness in the midst of war and disaster. In what is now the greatest environmental disaster that the US has experienced, the oil leak in our Gulf Coast, people are angry, sad, and frustrated that no one is DOING anything to get it fixed. I too have searched for what I can do to help out – to serve and contribute and lend a hand in a situation that has even the greatest minds scratching their heads for a solution.

            Since my life is centered on the Sufi ideal of being in the world, but not of it, I want to bring more of my spiritual nature and understanding to bear on these challenges of being a human today. What consciousness can we bring to this dilemma? I know that as we open our minds and trust, the perfect solution will come forth. Focused prayer and intentional thoughts of love, forgiveness and gratitude directed toward the Gulf and all the living beings involved in this crisis, can create the shift in awareness, creating a positive force for good. I affirm that ultimately this disaster will bring blessings to us as a species.  Perhaps this will be the perfect event that will have us change the direction of our lives. We can use this as an opening to look with fresh eyes at what our values are and how to walk gently on our planet.

            There is a Hawaiian therapist, Dr. Len, who healed mentally ill patients through a method called Ho’oponopono. He used only the power of prayer, his deep spiritual consciousness, and although he never even met with or treated them in person, they were healed. He explained that as he reviewed their files, he would work on himself. As he worked on himself, patients began to heal. “I was simply healing the part of me that created them.” As I hear of this process, I can imagine that when he looked at the file of someone who had killed their parent, he looked at that part of himself that had at a time in his life, a time of anger and frustration, had wanted to kill his parent, and maybe even imagined it. He did his personal work in healing himself.

            Dr. Len explained that when you take total responsibility for your life it means that everything in your life – simply because it is in your life – is your responsibility. In a literal sense, the entire world is your creation. If you take complete responsibility for your life, then everything you see, hear, taste, touch, or in any way experience is your responsibility because it is in your life. (Be careful here to know that responsibility is not about blame. Don’t hear it like that…)

            Ho’oponopono means loving yourself. If you want to improve your life, you have to heal your life. If you want to cure anyone or anything, you do it by healing yourself. When Dr. Len was asked what he was doing exactly, when he looked at those patients’ files, he said, “I just kept saying ‘I’m sorry’ ‘Please forgive me’ ‘I love you’ and ‘Thank you’ over and over again.”

            In Romans, Paul writes to his congregations: “And be not conformed to this world: but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” A more modern translation is: Don’t become like the people of this world. Instead, change the way you think. Then you will always be able to determine what God really wants-what is good, pleasing, and perfect.   So that is the opening for us now. Shall we change our thinking, our values and way we live our lives? That is the challenge and the opportunity of these interesting times we live in.

Minister’s Message – May/June

The Nature of Reality by Rev. Lane Williams

            Let us ponder what is real, what is true and what is an illusion. Just for fun, let’s imagine that ego created life as we know it – physical existence, separateness, diversity, senses, emotions, thoughts, and all that we identify ourselves as being, all that we see all around us. In this scenario from Oneness came what we think is REAL, the experience of time and space, of past, present and future. From the allness, from the oneness was created separateness.

            This physical life we live can be imagined as a game where we have each chosen a piece to play the game with. We take on the identity of a victim one time around, and the next time a rescuer; maybe the scholar in one game and in another someone intellectually challenged, perhaps the terrorist in one game and a soldier in another. But whatever part we choose to play, it is only a game and there really are no separate players. There is only One Being, one Mind, and even only one ego. Any perception differently is an illusion. It’s a slight of hand, all done with smoke & mirrors. That is why spiritual teachers are always saying, there is no one out there. That which you see in another is a reflection of who you are.

            The object of the game from the ego’s perspective is to win, to overcome all those who it perceives are keeping your good from you, to be right at all costs. The opportunity from our spiritual perspective is return HOME – to forgive and experience oneness, to experience the bliss of perfect love, unending peace and your own divinity.

            Jesus said in the Gospel of Thomas, “I am the light that shines over all things. I am everywhere. From me all came forth, and to me all return…Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift a stone, and you will find me there…” Remember in interpreting this scripture that I Am is the name of that point of God in each of us as was told Moses at the Burning Bush. The I Am is in each and every one of us.

            Jesus says this, “…the Kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty, and it is you who are that poverty.” In the Allness underlying all physical-ness, there is just Being-ness, total and absolute no-thing, Just Being without beginning and without end. When we don’t know this we live in lack and limitation, impoverished by our ignorance. This experience was created and we think it is real. But as the true powerful Beings we are, we can awaken to this illusion and live from the Truth of our Oneness.

            We are magnificent and powerful Gods and Goddesses moving as if in a dream, thinking we are victims and paupers tossed about by events and circumstances we have no control over, and at the effect of a cruel and unfriendly universe. But Dear Ones, this is but a dream. The opportunity at any moment is to awaken from it and see the Truth of Who and What we are.

            Remember the movie, The Wizard of Oz? In it Dorothy is hit on the head by her bedroom window as a tornado hits her house and she falls on her bed unconscious – the whole Technicolor part of the movie is the dream she dreamed while the storm raged around her. Remember how she finds friends in the scarecrow, tin man & lion and battles her enemies – the bad witch and the winged monkeys – and the whole time is trying to go home?

            That is like our lives too, isn’t it? We are all trying to get HOME to that place of peace, where all is well, where we are loved, accepted and blessed. But friends HOME is here at hand – we don’t even need to click the heels of our ruby slippers to return to it. We can awaken to the dream we think is real and see that it is a dream. Isn’t that the best?

Yes, it is and thank you, God!

Minister’s Message, March/April

The Law of Attraction by Rev. Lane Williams

Recently Rev. Giita and I were asked how the Law of Attraction works – what is the science behind it? So following are pieces from each of us addressing this question.

First of all I want to state that for something to exist, to be true and real, does not mean there is necessarily any proof, let alone any scientific proof, that it exists. Science is a relatively new phenomena having arisen on the scene only within the last 200 or so years. There is no scientific proof of love or God and yet these do exist for many of us. Carl Jung when asked if he believed in God, said, “No. I do not believe, I know.”  Obviously even though Carl Jung was a brilliant psychiatrist, he did not rely on scientific data to determine his own ultimate reality. We read everyday of some new scientific advance that now proves what has been true all along. (One example I’m thinking of is the recent ability to test the DNA from old crime scene evidence that proves that a person serving time in prison for the crime is innocent. He was always innocent but there was no proof of it.) But given that caveat let’s now examine what proof there may be for the existence of the Law of Attraction.

We, who have a layperson’s understanding of quantum mechanics, know that all of life is energy. From high school physics we know that all of matter is mostly space. The particles within the atoms that make up what we see in physical form are vibrating within lots of emptiness. And the atoms of one thing are intermingled with the atoms of another thing. The “truth” of separateness is an illusion that our mind has constructed, filling in the space and having it appear solid. That which we see manifest in the physical is energy vibrating at a slower frequency than ideas, thoughts, emotions – the unseen. Furthermore even though we can’t see these non-physical things, they do exist and now can even be measured as scientists have developed methods of looking at the energy impulses in the brain associated with feelings, thoughts, and ideas. We understand that there is a universal field of this energy underlying all that is seen and unseen. It is from this field of all possibilities that things come forth. How do they come forth? Have you ever fixated on a problem, researched, talked about, theorized, tested, etc. looking for the solution? Suddenly in a flash of insight the answer comes. Where does it come from?

We of a spiritual bent have noticed that when we focus our attention, focus our thoughts, feelings, and desires upon a particular outcome for an extended period of time, that which we imagine comes forth. Abraham-Hicks would say that when we lift our vibrations to the level of that desired feeling, the feeling we’ll have when we get what we want, then it will be manifest. So we are focusing not so much on the object itself but on what will be our altered state of consciousness – joy, satisfaction, peace of mind, love – when it arrives.

Successful manifesters have discovered that if there are any conflicting or doubting beliefs, any ideas that it isn’t possible or right or that you are not worthy to receive that which you desire, then manifestation does not occur. The process seems to work really well at opening up parking spaces, probably because there seems to be no conflicted ideas about one’s worthiness to receive a parking spot, while finding the perfect mate or job or income comes with a whole set of beliefs that can act as obstacles to receiving the desired good. The successful practitioners know that it is so important to be in the Silence listening for any nay-saying block to receiving, then when any obstacle is discovered, denying its power to keep the desired outcome from you, speaking affirmations, speaking the truth of its possibility now present, taking in the feeling of it now present, manifest and active in your life and finally giving thanks for receiving it. We give thanks in advance for having received it. This process will bring it forth – that or something better.

Prayer practitioners and spiritual healers have noticed that imagining, knowing, sensing, affirming the perfect outcome works and yet I know of no scientific proof that it does. However I’ve read that scientists have noticed that the mere observations, the theories, feelings, and the intent of an “outsider” – the researcher – can influence the results of that which is being observed. Could this be thought of as scientific proof of the Law of Attraction? Perhaps, but whether there is proof of its existence or not, I go back to my beginning thesis – scientific proof is not a necessary prerequisite for the truth of its validity. The Law of Attraction is a reality in my life. I know it, use it, and so it IS.

The Law of Attraction by Rev. Giita Clark

The ancient principle of like attracts like is a statement of the beautiful symmetry and order that exists everywhere in nature. Just as we know that a peach pit will grow a peach tree, and a dog will give birth to a dog, we can also see that the type of thought, attitude or action that we offer will produce the same quality (or vibration) of result. An immature understanding of the Universal principles results in our thinking that the Universe is based on a punishment/reward system.  However we rarely speak about a hot stove punishing us when we accidentally touch it, or an air conditioner rewarding us with cool air when we turn it on.  It is simply the predictable outcome of following an understanding of the order of things.

This is why Jesus focused on the thoughts people ideated.  In his day there was more focus on following the rules and in having correct behavior.  Jesus took it a step further and suggested that the type of things you thought about created results even if you “just thought it in your mind”.   In Unity we like to say “Life is Consciousness”.  Only when we reach a certain level of understanding, do we realize that we have a choice in what we think about, and what feelings or attitudes we focus on or pay attention to.

Unity has a different name for the Law of Attraction.  Unity’s name for
this same Universal law is “The Law of Mind Action”.  This law basically states that whatever you think about persistently (more than just a fleeting thought) manifests.  Unfortunately many of us are not truly aware of what we are thinking about.  We only notice what we think we are thinking about. When we worry or get upset, we emanate a certain emotional energy. The quality of this vibration will effect how other people and events respond to us. How we see or think about those results will produce more results…sort of like in a chain reaction.

In an attempt to simplify this universal principle, it often comes across in a woo-woo or magical kind of claim. In reality the process of becoming aware of one’s thoughts, feelings and attitudes is a significant undertaking – a lot like gardening.  There is much more to gardening than just planting seeds. You must prepare the soil and understand the conditions that the seed and growing plant needs along the way.

If as a gardener you say, “If you want pumpkins, plant pumpkin seeds” this
is true. This is a statement of the Law of Attraction or the Law of Mind action.  But to say, “All you have to do is plant pumpkin seeds” is a little simplistic and does not even mention the rest of the work needed in the gardening process.  It is true in once sense, but not all there is to it. This is why a person can get inspired or uplifted for an hour or several days but then not notice a significant change in their lives.  It is the persistent development of awareness and practice that produces life changing results.  It is actually a good thing that our thoughts do not instantly manifest.  This gives us the opportunity to grow in awareness, discrimination and dedication. This is exactly why Gandhi said that we must become the change we want to see happen in the world. At first we may feel rewarded or punished by the Universe, but as we grow in understanding and experience (wisdom), we realize that this Universal order responds to the skillful employment of anyone who would choose to learn and cooperate with it.

One of the reasons the Secret is still a secret even after the principles have been shouted from the roof tops and shown on a movie screen across the world is that most people still do not truly understand it. Until each person takes this truth deeply into her soul and nurtures it and makes it her own, it will still remain a lofty claim.  Just because someone understands that gardening is work, it does not mean that they are good gardeners. Building a spiritual consciousness is a day to day practice, like any skill or talent. I find it rewarding along the way as well as “the pearl of great price” in the long run. 

 Spiritual Preparation for Easter

The word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon lencten, which means lengthen, as in the lengthening days of spring. In Christianity it originally was 40 hours of fasting and meditation honoring the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. In 325 AD the Nicean Council changed it to 40 days. (It actually is 46 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter, but the six Sundays of Lent were not counted as part of the 40 days.)

The Lenten season offers the opportunity to set aside time for self-analysis and spiritual renewal. As we struggle with unresolved tensions with the difficult people in our lives and circumstances that appear too scary and unpredictable for us to get through, we can take this opportunity to bless everything, including the difficult events, challenging people, and every anxious thought and feeling that passes through our awareness. For as Truth students we know that nothing in the outer world has the power of itself to hurt us. Only our own perception, attitude, and beliefs can determine whether an event is beneficial or disastrous.

Lowell Fillmore writes, “The power of blessing is a mystery. We do not know how it works, but we know that it does work. A wholehearted blessing not only helps our affairs but it fills us with an inner light that seems to satisfy our soul and make us happy. In blessing we are blessed… Bless the good and it will increase. Bless what seems to be evil and something good will come out of it to justify your blessing.” So we choose to find the gift in life’s events and bless them all.

 There is No Evil by Catherine Ponder

If you will stop nourishing the thought of evil in your life, it will starve for lack of attention and fade away. To every suggestion of evil, boldly assert: “There is no evil.” To all talk of evil about you – scandals, description of disease, accounts of death and disasters, dangers, financial and family problems – say: “This is not true, there is no evil, only good shall come from this.” Many problems have been healed by that thought alone.

Since good is omnipresent, it is even in the midst of evil appearances. Nothing is evil that brings forth good, and something good can come from every experience, if only one person will have the courage to dare to look for that good. Realizing this, Emerson wrote: “Every evil to which we do not succumb is a benefactor.”

Do not feel obliged to join in conversations that dwell upon the dark side of life. Silence is better than assent to evil appearances. Silence is not only a virtue but one of the greatest denials of all.

One of the finest ways you can invoke the power of denial is in just keeping quiet about your problems. Stop feeding them the substance of your thoughts, words, and emotions. Also, watch that you do not criticize in secret; that you cease from even silently finding fault with another. Put away sarcasm from your speech. Stop complaining.

Do not prophesy evil for yourself or another. The ancient Greeks avoided a grumbler or one who foretold misfortune, believing he brought them bad luck. Refrain from accusing others of evil in any form.

Cease from petty statements about yourself or others. For instance, do not call your children “bad”. Stop referring to the faults of your family, business associates, neighbors, friends. Have a good word for yourself and others, or keep quiet. Silence is your denial of apparent evil.

There is no healing power available to anyone who describes hurts and pains. There is no healing power found in describing evil. Evil can exist only so long as you give it your consent. Only man’s belief in evil makes him subject to it.