"Through Divine Intelligence, I become an outstanding individual. The fullness of experience is mine. I have no fear of taking the initiative. I do not limit the possibility of my future to anything that has happened to me in the past. I realize that I exist at the standpoint of limitless opportunity for self-expression.
I am a centre of consciousness in life. I am myself, an individual, a person, a reality. I am one with life, one with people, and one with events. I have no fear of expressing myself. I do not seek to imitate others or live from the resources of anything other than my own nature, because all wisdom, guidance and power is mine now.
I welcome the opportunity to live fully, freely, and joyfully. I accept the fullness of life in this moment. I believe in myself. Within me is the source of knowledge, of inspiration and of guidance. I put myself and any cares I may have in the hands of Divine Intelligence. I release all sense of worry or anxiety ...
Thanks Ernie!!
You see this is the kinda stuff, I/we need to be tryin', thinkin' believing'. Then start expecting extraordinary results in our lives that look like ... I don't know ... whatever you're looking for. Ernie was the master of "I tried that once and ..."
He basically challenged the adherents to his "new thought", his students to try it, prove it! If it works use it. If it doesn't scrap it.
No new thought student I know who really practiced affirmative prayer and the shift in consciousness that it produces in the person praying has ever told me. "Oh yeah, I tried that once. It didn't work."
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
responding ...
I've been asked to let community members in on the process of preparing my "Lesson" for Sundays. I often tell people I begin working on it on Monday morning right after Sunday. This is true. I've been doing this consistently over the last 12 years. The process has changed a bit.
I used to put the title of the next lesson on a worksheet and leave it on my desk, letting its presence there direct my attention and awareness. Throughout the week I would jot down notes to myself, add articles and scraps of information that presented themselves. I notice now that the entire process happen internally.
This Sunday's title, "ISRAEL: I'm Not Comfortable with God" came to me as I thought about how often people tell me that they don't like the word God because of all of the associations with violence, oppression, religious wars etc. that come to mind, the ongoing Israeli Palestinian Conflict being a good example. It's an old argument we have to get over. It's as simple as getting a bigger idea of God. The Declaration of Principles of the Science of Mind inspires me to get a bigger idea.
We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause.
I remember sharing this, the first element of the declaration with my mother in the early 90's while I was a ministerial student. I and it were summarily dismissed by my Roman Catholic mother with "far too many words." Of all the things I learned in Ministerial School, this rebuff was one of the most valuable. I learned how important it would be to make this idea of God easily accessible. It's our idea of God that is the problem. Thomas Merton once said that the single largest cause of atheism was "silly" theism. All of problems are not with God but with people's ideas about God, including our own.
If the conflicting ideas of God/Allah are not at the root of the conflict in the Middle East then the rhetoric and posturing around those differences are great fuel for a territorial and economic standoff that has been going on since the Hebrews returned from Egypt circa 2500BCE. That a Supreme Being cares where people live serves to make God too small to solve any real problems I may have and will render me powerless to deal with anything more significant than going to the store for a litre of milk without first consulting my "Sacred Writings of choice."
I used to put the title of the next lesson on a worksheet and leave it on my desk, letting its presence there direct my attention and awareness. Throughout the week I would jot down notes to myself, add articles and scraps of information that presented themselves. I notice now that the entire process happen internally.
This Sunday's title, "ISRAEL: I'm Not Comfortable with God" came to me as I thought about how often people tell me that they don't like the word God because of all of the associations with violence, oppression, religious wars etc. that come to mind, the ongoing Israeli Palestinian Conflict being a good example. It's an old argument we have to get over. It's as simple as getting a bigger idea of God. The Declaration of Principles of the Science of Mind inspires me to get a bigger idea.
We believe in God, the Living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause.
I remember sharing this, the first element of the declaration with my mother in the early 90's while I was a ministerial student. I and it were summarily dismissed by my Roman Catholic mother with "far too many words." Of all the things I learned in Ministerial School, this rebuff was one of the most valuable. I learned how important it would be to make this idea of God easily accessible. It's our idea of God that is the problem. Thomas Merton once said that the single largest cause of atheism was "silly" theism. All of problems are not with God but with people's ideas about God, including our own.
If the conflicting ideas of God/Allah are not at the root of the conflict in the Middle East then the rhetoric and posturing around those differences are great fuel for a territorial and economic standoff that has been going on since the Hebrews returned from Egypt circa 2500BCE. That a Supreme Being cares where people live serves to make God too small to solve any real problems I may have and will render me powerless to deal with anything more significant than going to the store for a litre of milk without first consulting my "Sacred Writings of choice."
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
A New Series
I was thinking about the new "Sunday Lesson" series for Sept. You know the kids go back to school moment; the let's start all over again; the how can I teach the same old material and make it new dilemma. Plus people have been asking me. "How do you come up with these talks week after week?"
Well, like anything, I think it generally boils down to finding something I care about and writing or talking about that. I guess what I care about right now is the direction of New Thought as a teaching and its role in a world that is evolving faster than any of us can actually get a grasp on. I think we used to be able to feel confident in predicting at least 6 months into the future. It may have been a fantasy but it was a fantasy we were comfortable with. I don't think anyone has even the remotest sense that our predictions about 2010 are based in anything solid.
The Provincial Government in British Columbia just presented its budget for the next year (a 2.6 billion dollar deficit) and then projected 1.8 billion for 2010 and less for 2011 and so on into 2013. Really Mr. Hansen? Without getting in any way political here, I have absolutely NO confidence in these figures. Not because I don't trust Liberals, or Colin Hansen or politicians but because I don't trust predictions in an economy and a world that it re-creating itself while im sitting here by the river writing this blog.
So back to the role that New Thought, Centres for Spiritual Living, our Community and my "lessons" have to play in this massive shift in perception, evolution of consciousness and general "sea change" in life on this planet ...
I'm thinking about a declaration of Principles that is a foundation for where I, we, society might go from here. I'm thinking about not so much predicting a future but fashioning one out of what is available. What's available ...? ALL possibility, the only thing that has ever been available. That's it. That's all I've got for today.
Well, like anything, I think it generally boils down to finding something I care about and writing or talking about that. I guess what I care about right now is the direction of New Thought as a teaching and its role in a world that is evolving faster than any of us can actually get a grasp on. I think we used to be able to feel confident in predicting at least 6 months into the future. It may have been a fantasy but it was a fantasy we were comfortable with. I don't think anyone has even the remotest sense that our predictions about 2010 are based in anything solid.
The Provincial Government in British Columbia just presented its budget for the next year (a 2.6 billion dollar deficit) and then projected 1.8 billion for 2010 and less for 2011 and so on into 2013. Really Mr. Hansen? Without getting in any way political here, I have absolutely NO confidence in these figures. Not because I don't trust Liberals, or Colin Hansen or politicians but because I don't trust predictions in an economy and a world that it re-creating itself while im sitting here by the river writing this blog.
So back to the role that New Thought, Centres for Spiritual Living, our Community and my "lessons" have to play in this massive shift in perception, evolution of consciousness and general "sea change" in life on this planet ...
I'm thinking about a declaration of Principles that is a foundation for where I, we, society might go from here. I'm thinking about not so much predicting a future but fashioning one out of what is available. What's available ...? ALL possibility, the only thing that has ever been available. That's it. That's all I've got for today.
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