As I was receiving a massage today (well done by Diane Heck), several thoughts came to mind. 

For whatever reason, the image of the three monkeys came to mind.  I should probably look back to remember what part of my body Diane was working on at the time!

The three monkeys are associated with the legend ‘see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.  There’s a fourth sometimes included, ‘do no evil,’ depicted with crossed arms. 

In the Western world both the proverb and the image are often used to refer to a lack of moral responsibility on the part of people who refuse to acknowledge impropriety, looking the other way or feigning ignorance.  It may also signify a code of silence in gangs, or organized crime.  Leave it to the West to take something positive and place a negative connotation on it!

In the Buddhist tradition, the tenets of the proverb from which they are taken are about not dwelling on evil thoughts.  And this is where my thoughts travelled, since I am associated with the New Thought ministry, Unity Worldwide Ministries.

In my classes, we have had many discussions about our thoughts and how our thoughts create our world.  There are many ways to look at that, through many writers.  But the bottom line is, what we think, affects us in many way, on many levels.

So what does ‘see no evil,’ ‘hear no evil,’ ‘speak no evil,’ or ‘do no evil,’ have to do with our thoughts?  We are responsible for what we see, hear, say and do.  Personal responsibility is one of the tenets Unity encourages.  Right. 

How can we stop seeing something that is right in front of us?  Sometimes, we probably can’t.  But what we can do is be selective of those things we do see.  For instance, do we have to watch the news all the time?  Do we have to gawk at an auto accident as we pass by?  Do we have to perceive negativity when we see something we don’t understand?

How can we stop hearing evil?  Be aware of what situations we place ourselves in.  We certainly don’t need to listen to ‘talk radio’ or TV shows that promote negative information or misinformation.  We can select not to participate in gossip.  We can be aware of the people we choose to associate with.

‘Speak no evil’ is one of the easiest.  We are in control of what we say.  So, don’t say anything that’s negative.  Too hard?  No, not really.  It takes time to first, be aware of what we see, hear, say.  Then, we need to recognize what it is we are doing.  Are we reacting to something?  Or someone?  These patterns can be eliminated.  Just takes a little work.

Once we have hearing, seeing, saying under our control, what we do is easy.  We control what we do, no one else does.

All this comes down to our thoughts.  It is our thoughts and what we think about what we see, hear, say and eventually do, that shows the world and ourselves who we acknowledge who we truly are.

I have this bumper sticker in my home as a reminder: “Think Good Thoughts:  Words become actions; Actions become habits; Habits become character; Character becomes destiny.”

It all determines what we will see, hear, say, do…THINK.

As a Unitic (Unity inspired person) I believe in the concept that we are all One, God in us and us in God.  God as Substance, there’s all these Ideas out in the ethers for us to draw from.  This is how we increase our abundance.  We take the Divine Ideas and bring them forth through our thoughts and thoughts create. And we always called that co-creating with God. (And here I use the term God but one could use Spirit, Divine Wisdom, Divine Universe, etc.)

So, I was reading the “Fifth Agreement” by Don Jose Ruiz for my Tuesday class.  We are in the midst of the “Four Agreements” by his father Don Miguel Ruiz.  And he presented this idea in a different way.  He looks at the creation process as a re-creation from us. 

We are re-creating what God has already created in Divine Idea.  And this makes sense to me.  God has the idea in substance in the ethers and when we are aware of the idea, when we come forth with the idea, we would then be re-creating what God has already created in the idea.

Some may say, “Yea, but Sandy, the idea has to be brought into form and that is the creating.” And I say, but is that really co-creating?  I guess you could say it is because the Idea comes from God first. 

I wonder what you all think about this.  Let me know.

I’ve been seeing that phrase a lot lately, especially on Facebook. It means different things to different people, I’m sure. Many of us who have been Star Wars fans from the beginning have associated a spiritual connotation to it. The Force is our Christ presence. It is our True Being, our Soul, our Spirit.

And when I think of our True Being, our Power comes to mind. We have been talking about our personal power in my classes. It comes up again and again as we discuss the different things we are doing to become self-aware of exactly who we really are.

Some of us struggle with it all. The thought that we are powerful human beings having this amazing experience is beyond many of our own ability to comprehend. I think sometimes we think too much about it all. If we have moved along on this journey, we have some idea of who we really are, what we really are.

So we take that knowledge and mold your integrity around what it is that we have learned. What is it that we believe is the ‘right’ way to handle certain situations? Do we believe we are all ONE? DO we believe that animals have the ‘right’ to not be mistreated? Do we believe in keeping Mother Earth and Father Sky clean for this and each following generation? Do we believe we all have the ‘right’ to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”?

Once we answer these easy questions we develop our integrity. And they really are easy. Once we have our integrity in place, life is easy. Any ‘opportunity’ to choose between something that places our integrity in question, we easily make our choice because if it’s against that integrity that we have adopted, we easily choose what our response is to be. If we go against that integrity, it hurts. It doesn’t sit well at all in our conscious. So, it’s simple.

And what does that have to do with our personal power, you may ask? That’s simple too. If we know what we stand for within that integrity we have formed, we have power in our belief that what we stand for is ‘right’ for us. That’s power. We KNOW that we believe in certain things, and even though we are open to hear some one’s else’s point of view, if it goes against that ideals we have stood for, we can easily walk away from it.

If, on the other hand, it causes us to think about a belief we have, that’s ok too. Because we have the strength in our formed integrity to question the new thought or idea, weigh it against our current beliefs, and if it fits better, than we make adjustments. We try it on. If it feel ‘right’ for us, we adopt that idea or thought and adjust our integrity.

As I look over what I’ve written, I’m going back over my life so far and looking for the changes in my beliefs and how I have come to my integrity today. Part of it has to do with finding Unity. A big part. But part of it has to do with my life experiences, good and not so good. But that’s the thing. All those experiences are part of what made me who I am and they all helped me to form the integrity I hold myself to today.

And that’s power. Knowing where I have come from, what I believe, who I am and who I am becoming. Yes, the Force is with me. I may not be a Jedi yet, but with the help from all the Yoda’s that I have met along the way, I push on. Thank you Yoda Sharon. Thank you Yoda Erica. Thank you Yoda Toni. Thank you Yoda Unity LUT teachers. Thank you Yoda friends and family. Thank you Yoda Graycie, Tasha, Alix, Kes, April, Shyla. (All my dogs).