Unity of Vermont

“The Gift of the Gita” by Rev. Lane Williams

The Bhagavad Gita, nicknamed the Gita, is a sacred scripture of Hinduism and a concise, practical, self-contained guide to life. The law of karma, central to the Hindu tradition, is the tool that supports us, teaches us to move forward in our spiritual evolution. Karma is not punitive, rather it is an effective way of having us turn to the light and away from practices that don’t help us move forward. It is there to support us in making wise choices, by pushing and prodding. The problems, challenges and difficult situations are there to give us the choice to react with love. Free from our ego, with purity of heart, we can be surrounded by violence in thought, word and deed and yet remain calmly non-violent.

Hindus observe that people move though four stages in their spiritual evolution. The first stage is the goal of pleasure – satisfing the senses; the second is the goal of attaining power, status and prestige, the third is to selflessly serve mankind, and the fourth and final goal is Liberation. Liberation from everything that distances us from infinite being, infinite awareness, and infinite bliss.

Karma exposes the often painful awareness that the decisions we make in the first two stages do not bring us lasting satisfaction. We discover the consequences of our actions as we seek pleasure for ourselves at the expense of another. We discover the havok our quest for power has on the environment, on our brothers and sisters as we climb the ladder of success.

The Gita uses an image that helps us understand karma. When we do something unkind it is like giving birth to a little calf of karma that immediately sets off to find its mother. It wanders about through the thousands of cows until it recognizes the one that gave him birth. Even though many lifetimes may have passed, suddenly an unexpected mishap befalls you and you wonder, “Why did this happen to me? Life is so unfair!” The calf of past karma has found its mother. When we act from love, with kindness, self-lessly we become a new person and the calf of karma will no longer recognize this new you. You are no longer the mother of the calf of karma and it will pass you by. You are not its mother.

We can look at karma as a system of assets and liabilities, a bank account of sorts. Unkind, selfish, cruel, mean-spirited actions build up and accumulate in our “account”. And every self-less, kind, generous action creates balance there. Eventually through these loving acts, we can erase the negativity. We can cleanse and purify ourselves.

As we more and more act from love and compassion with non-violence in our speech and behavior, we quiet the negativity in our internal conversation, the fear-based activity is forgone, and our sense of separation from one another and from Spirit disappears. We express more of our naturally loving nature and it is no longer even possible to consciously do anything that would harm another.

There is a simple formula to going beyond karma: Be kind, be kind, be kind. It is that simple. Choose the loving thing. Speak, act, think and do the kind thing. Put others around you first, even the difficult ones. Doing this will erase backlogs of negative karma and build great reserves of positive assets. The good news is that we don’t have to stuff goodwill into our nature, we have just to remove the dust, grime and darkness that covers it – our innate loving nature. For evil is not real. It is a kind of shadow, a smog of sorts that covers our light. When we cleanse ourselves the light of who we truly are shines ever so brightly.

“Our Spiritual Tool Belt” by Rev. Lane Williams

             In Unity, March is the month we metaphysically focus on the power of strength. Charles Fillmore, the co-founder of Unity outlined the twelve faculties or powers we can call upon to develop as we evolve spiritually. These spiritual gifts are hardwired, so to speak, in each and every one of us and it is our job to activate them. I see them as a spiritual tool belt; one that we have with us always and from which we can turn within to extract the right and perfect tool during times of need. Fillmore was well aware of the body-mind-spirit connection and instructed us in ways we can develop these latent gifts. He identified the power of strength as located in the small of the back, a place many of us feel the strain of efforting and struggle. Charles said, “The back grows weak under the burden of material thought.” But we can strengthen our minds and therefore our bodies through affirmative prayer, through the speaking words of truth into difficult situations. Fillmore said that “All strength originates in Spirit; and the thought and the word spiritually expressed bring the manifestation.” We are to “be steadfast, strong, and steady in thought, and we will establish strength in mind and body.”

            Today we have many opportunities to develop this faculty of strength, to be strong and steadfast in our thoughts. We have many chances each day to lift up our thoughts to the truth of God’s abundant universe and turn away from thoughts of lack, doubt, fear and anxiety. As we do this, we raise our vibrations to a place from which we can see the perfect solution to what is before us.

            We know that everything in the universe, all of it, is energy vibrating at various frequencies. Mass, the stuff we can see around us, is vibrating at a slower or lower frequency than that which we cannot see – thoughts, feelings, light, sound. What we call Spirit is vibrating at the highest/ fastest frequencies. When higher frequencies are brought into arenas of slower vibrations, they raise the vibratory level. This is how problems can be solved – through the dissipation and the uplifting of the slower frequencies, by altering and uplifting our thoughts.

            We, each and every one of us, have this spiritual tool belt that includes love, wisdom, strength, imagination, and faith. We use these invisible strengths to raise our consciousness, and thus our vibratory levels. When we do this we can raise our perception to the level where we can solve the problem creatively, from a higher perspective. We suddenly have insight and tap into our imagination. When we can come from a space of love, kindness, compassion, trust and appreciation rather than fear and suspicion, resentment and anger, we fill ourselves with peace and this higher vibration not only changes how we are at a cellular level but it has a profound effect on everyone we encounter.

            In truth those things we call problems are part of the illusion that we operate in – thinking we are separate and apart from God, the life force, Spirit. When we operate from the understanding that we are one with the one, then the distinction “problem” dissolves. We see events as being, just being, without negative evaluations attached. We see them as opportunities to move in new and unexplored areas of being, rather than obstacles to what we want.

            Metaphysically the story of David and Goliath demonstrates the power of strength over fear or as Charles Fillmore says,

             The battle of David and Goliath “illustrates the mastery of the spiritual over the material…David, spiritual strength, had no armor or material protection. David’s        power was gained by trust in divine intelligence, through which he saw the weak           place in Goliath’s armor…  He transmuted the lower qualities of man to a mighty soul strength. David, the Lord’s beloved, represents your righteous        privileges as the child of God that you are, that we all are.  “You are not a slave        to anything or to anybody in the universe.  The threat of this Goliath … holds no        terrors for you in this consciousness…The Lord has been with you in the slaying    of fear then …  and he will be with you in the slaying the fear now…

 So what are the practical steps we can take to build up the spiritual power of strength within us? First of all we can Stop Giving Energy to What We Don’t Want. We can avoid sending energy to what we don’t want. For we know that that which we focus on, we give energy to, and make more real, and make it manifest in our experience. We can give up talking about, whining, complaining, and making excuses for our situation. We can let go of hating what is. Instead we can say what we do want. We can ask for what we want.  We can state our intention to have it with no doubt in our mind. We can know we are aligned with Spirit. We can strap on our spiritual tool belt and bring out the spiritual tool of love, hope, faith, and peace of mind. For we remember that problems are illusions of the material world and solutions flow from the world of Spirit. As we confront the problems in our lives we understand that we created them from the human mind and they will be solved through calling forth the Mind of Spirit. This is our greatest tool, so we choose now to use it! And so it is. And so it is. Amen.