Unity of Vermont

What Do You See? How Far Can You See? By Rev. Lane Williams

Prayer is not so much what you ask for, as how you prepare for its reception… The only condition required is that you believe that your prayers are already realized. - Neville

                        One of my favorite Old Testament stories is of Abraham, considered the Patriarch of three major faiths – Judaism, Islam and Christianity, making a covenant with God and for this being granted the land, all that he could see, for all his descendants. (Thus now it’s called the Promised Land). Metaphysically I interpret this to mean that God gives to us, when we follow the Law, all that we can see. If we can see it, imagine it, envision it – it is ours. Charles Fillmore wrote, “Only when man becomes conscious of who and what he is can he exercise his God-given dominion and bring his life into line with the principle of divine order, which is mind, idea, and manifestation.” From the Mind of the All That Is, God, Divine Spirit come forth ideas that when we act upon them manifest into the physical realm. That is the Law.

            Physicists agree. They point out that we live in a participatory universe. We are part of a universe that is a work in progress. We are tiny patches of the universe looking at itself and building itself. It is though our consciousness that we create our lives. The very act of looking puts something there for us to see. The anticipation of consciousness, expecting to see something and feeling that something is there to see, is the act that creates!

            Quantum physicists say there is a field of energy, a matrix of all matter. It acts as a great magnet constantly pulling us toward one another and connecting us to another and to all of life. It is sometimes described as a tightly woven web that makes up the underlying fabric of creation. Charles Fillmore referred to this as the substance underlying all that is manifest in life. It is from this substance that we bring forth that which we focus upon. When we look at the seeming space between one thing and another, thinking it is empty, the Field is there. What happens in one part of the world impacts all parts, for there is this web connecting all life.

            Prayer is a powerful creative force and there is actually a technology for having it work effectively. When we pray asking for something it appears we lack, praying for something to happen, we are giving power to what we don’t have. Prayers for healing empower the sickness. Prayers for prosperity empower the poverty. Prayers for rain empower the drought. Continuing to ask for these things only gives more power to the things that we would like to change. If we pray for something to happen, while feeling it’s missing or lacking, or that it’s unlikely or impossible to happen, we may actually be denying ourselves the very blessings we hoped to create. We are the poverty of our lives. When we come from lack; we have lack; it is all we see. Life is a mirror of what we’ve become within. So effective prayer is not about pleading for God’s favor; it is about claiming your good. God cannot lift you out of the gutter. Your in-the-gutter consciousness is your self definition. The opportunity is to redefine yourself as a powerful co-creator instead of a victim of circumstances beyond your control.

            In 1854, Chief Seattle warned of how the destruction of our wilderness had implications that would reach far beyond the current time and threaten the survival of future generations. With a profound wisdom he said, “Man did not weave the web of life – he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

            We live in interesting times. Much of what we have relied on socially, politically, economically, and spiritually is breaking down. In these times we need the capacity to access the fullness of our spiritual resources and that is what our Unity of Vermont spiritual community offers. We are about supporting each other in co-creating transformation in ourselves and in the world. And so it is and so it is.

Walking the Razor’s Edge, A Prosperity Lesson

          One of my favorite movies is the “Razor’s Edge” based on the Somerset Maugham book of the same name. The title is taken from a verse in the Katha-Upanishad, “Rise, awaken, seek the wise and realize. The path is difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor …” I interpret this verse to mean that the awakened life is one of paradox, to be in the world simultaneously human and spiritual, and it’s a tricky one, often difficult and messy.

            In the movie our hero focuses on finding the meaning of life and his purpose. Sound familiar? Isn’t that what so many of us are doing? The young man studies many sacred texts and even goes to India and spends time in a monastery high in the Himalayas. The high point of the movie for me is when he goes on a vision quest alone to a remote cabin at the top of a peak. He has the Sherpas carry provisions up there for him including lots and lots of books. (He is really serious about attaining enlightenment!)  Of course winter sets in, there’s a blizzard and he’s trapped up there, unable to go back down the mountain. He burns all the wood stored there, then breaks up the furniture and burns it to stay warm and finally starts tearing up his treasured books and burning them. In the midst of this experience, he gets it! His enlightenment comes in a roar of laughter and joy – oh the irony of life!

            Being powerful, creative spiritual beings requires us to balance both the spiritual and the physical realms, to walk this razor’s edge of being in the physical world of needs and all the challenges that come from them, with the greater awareness of our unlimited spiritual nature. In the world of everyday – ness there are limits, there are facts with studies that prove them infallible. In the formless realm – the Allness, the universal field of all possibility there are no limits to what we can create. In fact our only limits are what we cannot imagine.

            No where but in area of our prosperity does this paradox of being both spiritual and human surface and allow us to walk that razor’s edge. From our human perspective it appears that there is a finite amount of money and if some of us have it, others will suffer from the lack of it. It looks like there is only so much to go around. And yet if we can just for a moment look at what has been created recently that has yielded millionaires, (setting aside your opinions of right and wrong) social networks like Facebook and financial derivatives are two examples of some things of value created out of thin air, out of someone’s imagination. These are examples of the divine principle of prosperity. We manifest in the physical world from the underlying infinite supply of substance in the spiritual realm. We know there is no shortage or limit to the creative flow of prosperous solutions to what is before us. When we use it, we all will be the richer for it.

            Charles Fillmore, Unity’s co-founder, said in his book, Prosperity, “The more conscious you become of the presence of the living substance, the more of it will manifest itself for you and the richer will be the common good of all… It is purely spiritual and can be apprehended only by the mind. It is never visible to the eye, nor can it be sensed by man…God does not give us material things but Mind substance – not money, but ideas. Ideas set spiritual forces in motion so that things can come to us by the application of the law.”

            Substance, this underlying stuff from which all that is manifest is created, is another aspect of God or Spirit, much like Love or Wisdom, or Divine Intelligence are. Concerning love and wisdom and intelligence we have no doubt that there is no limit to how much of them there is. There is an infinite supply. I can love, love, love and it will not take away from the amount of love for others to give and receive. The same with wisdom and intelligence and health: there is an infinite supply of all this. Plenty to give and plenty to receive.  We can even go around lavishly spreading it wherever we go. We can waste it in wild abandon! BUT when it comes to prosperity it’s another story. Silly us! Truly dear ones, there is no limit to what God will provide. We are the only ones who limit our good by our limiting beliefs in what is possible, what we deserve and how the world is. We can open our eyes to the bounty all around us and say, Thank you. I accept!