I know a guy….

We’ve traveled through one part the Hebrew Bible, The Old Testament, dealing with the Law…how to interact with the God of our understanding and how to get along with others.
The Laws are pretty clear, when taken literally. But as we learned, there is often much more to what was written down. And we like and need that underlying meaning to each Law, it gives it so much more depth and meaning.
So, what do we do now?
If we look at this from a soul point of view, we see how we must learn the basics before we move on the big stuff. The deep stuff.
We learned that Spirit is asking us to be a partner, to remember what is truly important. And part of that is not putting anything before God…..money, people, jobs, things….we are to set these things aside and take time for Sabbath.
Remember that Charles Fillmore quote, the ultimate in Sabbath-keeping is – “within every person there is a church service going on all the time & one needs only to enter in & experience it.”

We were reminded of the power of our words and that everything has a result…so taking the name of God in vain is impossible, therefore, watch your words and your thoughts, be careful what you place next to the words, I AM…
We learned that each one of us in the beloved child, the only begotten; & to let God be God in you. The Truth is that you can do anything, have anything, be anything, for which you have the consciousness, so wanting something that belongs to another will not work.
We are to have reverence for life, honoring all life forms-including plants, trees, and animals – and to remember seven generations out when we consider how we impact them in any way.
And we learned the true sense of adultery.
In the wisdom of Walt Whitman, “the good or bad you say of another, you actually say of yourself.” So, we ask ourselves, ‘Is it true, is it kind, is it needful?’ And remember, if there is no listener there is no gossip.
And finally, we were reminded to Change our desire to have to a desire to be.

 

I found another set of ‘commandments’ that may resonate with you,
1. Be the best version of thyself
2. Discover serenity’
3. Love selfishly
4. Practice positive reciprocity
5. Find perspective
6. Be grateful
7. Cultivate a rational compassion
8. Choose growth
9. Find balance
10. Know it’s always now
Nice.
Of course, there are many more…The Native American ones are very resonating…check them out if you wish.

These are things we learn in the first half of our life…1 Corinthians 13:11 11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
Now, back to our journey, and to the second half of our life..
The purpose of the Hebrew Bible, metaphysically, is to allow us to grow as Jesus did, “He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” Luke 2:52
When we learn to honor our Creator and get along with others; when we learn to keep in alignment with the flow of divine energy and the working out of divine law, we are ready fulfill the law…
Matthew 5:17 17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”
So, Jesus, our Way-Shower, is here to take us through the next step.

Jesuit priest, Karl Rahner said that we are “pressured” from within to evolve.
Spirit is creatively at work, urging us to evolve, to become a new kind of human being such as the world has rarely seen before.
Science today—particularly physics, astrophysics, anthropology, and biology—is confirming many of religion’s deep intuitions. The universe is not inert, not lifeless… but is “inspirited matter.” We might call this driving force instinct, evolution, nuclear fusion, DNA, hardwiring, the motherboard, healing, growth, or springtime.
Whatever.
The point is…
What if God creates things that continue to create themselves?

Nature clearly renews itself from within. God seems to have created things that continue to create and recreate themselves from the inside out.

 

In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) published his findings that revealed the universe was expanding. Many began to imagine that if the biggest frame of reference—the cosmos—was still unfolding, then maybe that is the pattern of everything. The latest evidence shows that this expansion is even happening at an ever-increasing rate! It seems to mirror the increasing rate of change with each new technological and scientific breakthrough.
Isn’t that what happened with Jesus?
He evolved as a human, he discovered his Christ consciousness. And he showed us all how we can do that and more, if we follow the spirit of the Law and discover the Kingdom of Heaven.
The first words recorded in the Bible that were spoken by Jesus, “I must be about my father’s business.” Teaching, healing, perfecting, and loving….becoming his perfect self, was an example for us all to follow. To know we can do that too.
The Apostle Paul writes, ‘the Law served the purpose of guiding us to Christ Consciousness, and kept us under control while we were on the path.’ We know that the journey can tend to have side trips if we are not careful…conscious.
But as long as we stay in Christ Consciousness, we will intuitively choose only the Good.
When we are in complete Christ Consciousness we make choices out of love. We don’t kill, for example, not because the Law tells us not to, but because our innate Christ Nature that sees only love makes the very idea impossible.
Remember what Neal Donald Walsh included in his Commitment…”When you know God…”
When we understand God and consciousness, we will stay true to the spirit of the Law.

Fr. Richard Rohr tells us…Most Christians preconceive Jesus as “the divine Savior of our divine church,” which does not allow for enlightenment; so we to can have the mind of Christ, but instead deadens and numbs our perception. Too often we read the Bible with an eye to prove our understanding of “our” Jesus so that our ideas and our church are right—and others are wrong. We must be honest enough to admit this bias.
Jesus announced, lived, and inaugurated a new social order, an alternative to violence, exclusion, and separation. He went so far as to promise us this alternate reality. It is no fantastical utopia, but a very real and achievable peace. He called it the Reign or Kingdom of God. It is the subject of his inaugural address stating that the scriptures are now fulfilled (Luke 4:14-30) [1], his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and most of his parables.
Indeed, it is the guiding image of Jesus’ entire ministry. Most Christians nonchalantly recite “Thy kingdom come,” but this means almost nothing until and unless they also say, “My kingdom go.”
Surrendering our ego driven ‘plans’ and remembering who and what we are and staying in that consciousness.
Challenging the status quo is unpopular. Jesus was killed for opposing the religious and political powers of his time. “It is better for one man to die for the people” (John 18:14) than to question the bottom line that is holding the whole system together.
I’m not sure things have gotten much better….where’s the ‘for the greater good’? Feeding and clothing the needy; protecting everyone from harm…like ending gun violence? Protecting our environment and all life? Where is that?
Marcus Borg writes, “When Christians accept that Jesus was killed for the same reason that people have been killed in all of human history (rather than because he walked around saying “I am God”), we will have turned an important corner on our quest for the historical Jesus. He was rejected because of his worldview much more than his God-view.”
We are strangers and nomads on this earth (see Hebrews 11:13). Our task is to learn how to live in both worlds until they become one—at least in us.

We are a soul in evolution, not perfected, but perfect in our unfoldment. Just as the rose discloses its perfection at every stage of its development, from seed, to shoot, to stalk, to bud, to flowering blossom, to dormant winter plant—so we are perfect in our every level of expression. We uniquely shine forth the perfection of the whole of us in each step of our souls’ evolution.
Your soul is always in process. This means your soul is not a noun, but a verb. It is, in a sense, the conjugation of the verb “to be”—the process of the unfoldment of your inner being.
When Moses heard the fiery light speaking from within that desert bush, “I AM WHO I AM,” it wasn’t speaking its name as a noun. YHWH, the Hebrew name of God taken from that desert experience, was the Hebrew verb “to be,” or “to come into being.”

Being is always in process, not a final result. “I am the perfect unfoldment of Being” was what it was saying. And, having been made in the image and likeness of God, so are we!

You are evolving, you are growing—you aren’t supposed to have it all together! You must embrace your soul, accepting and loving yourself just as you are and not judging yourself.
It’s not either/or in this second half of your life….it’s both/and.
You no longer think in terms of win/lose, but win/win.
It is a very different mind and strategy for life. In order for this alternative consciousness to become your primary way of thinking, you usually have to experience something that forces either/or thinking to fall apart. Perhaps you hate homosexuality and then you meet a wonderful gay couple. Or you meet a Muslim who is more loving than most of your Christian friends. Or you encounter a young immigrant who doesn’t match your stereotypes at all. Something must break your addiction to yourself and your opinions.

It might be called growing up.

FR. Richard Rohr states, “Many, if not most, people and institutions remain stymied in the preoccupations of the first half of life. Most people’s concerns remain those of establishing their personal identity, creating various boundaries, and seeking security and success. These tasks are good to some degree and even necessary. We are all trying to find what the Greek scientist Archimedes called a “lever and a place to stand” so that we can move the world just a little bit. The world would be much worse off if we did not do the important work of ego-development.”
But the discovery of our soul is crucial and of pressing importance for each of us and for the world.
We do not “make” or “create” our souls; we just “grow” them up; unfold them. Much of our work is learning how to stay out of the way of this rather natural growing and awakening. We need to unlearn a lot.
Whether or not we find our True Self depends in large part on the moments of time we are each allotted and the choices we make at those moments. Those CHOICE moments.
Life is indeed “momentous,” created by accumulated moments in which the deeper “I” is slowly revealed if we are ready to see it. Following our inner blueprint or soul and humbly serving others is indeed of ultimate concern. Each thing and every person must act out its nature fully, at whatever cost. This is our life’s purpose, the deepest meaning of “natural law.” We are here to give back freely what was first given to us! It takes both halves of our life to fulfill this calling.

We must live in a new way—a way that is responsible, caring, and nonviolent.
Ken Butigan writes
[This is] the urgency of the great choice we face as a species: will we choose to continue to affirm a culture of systemic violence—or will we build a culture of active, creative, and liberating nonviolence so that we can not only survive but thrive?

So, after the 10 weeks of learning the 10 ‘words’ we find that the only Law we need is this….

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second, like unto it is this, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.’ There is none other commandment greater than these

The 10th Commandment: “Thou shall not covet your neighbor’s house, nor his wife, nor his man-servant or his maid-servant nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is your neighbors….”

Well, we did it! We’re at the 10th WORD…do you feel as if you have accomplished anything? Have you learned anything?

I have. Researching these Commandments has been very interesting, but then I am very interested in Bible history and metaphysics, so I would be interested.
How about you? I’d love to hear from you…positive as well as, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!!?!?!?!

SO, what does this 10th Commitment, Challenge, Law mean…covet this and covet that…
The commandments, are from a moral standpoint, codes for improving conduct & changing character, but also hidden keys for modifying consciousness.

Covet means to wish for earnestly, to desire (what belongs to another)

Neal Donald Walsh asks, in his Commitment:
Covet your neighbor’s spouse? why would you want your neighbor’s spouse when you know all others are your spouse?
Covet your neighbor’s goods? why would you want your neighbor’s goods when you know that all goods can be yours, and all your goods belong to the world?
What do you think that means?
WE are all One…all together, everything.

And this goes back to “Thou shall not steal” does it not? We must have the consciousness for the things that are to be ours.
To covet means that you are missing the key to life: nothing can ever come to you or be kept from you except in accord with your state of consciousness.
Our Creator has an infinite amount of everything and will shower it upon you as your thoughts, words and actions are in alignment with your best self. In this case it’s simple – Don’t envy others.
Greed and covetousness stem from the mistaken idea that our good is limited.
Jesus told us that we should not be anxious about our daily needs; we should seek first God’s kingdom within us, and then all things would be given us. Our good, whatever it may be – health, harmony, friends, success or prosperity is God-ordained and God-sustained. It is inexhaustible, limitless. No one can take it away. No law, rule, or regulation can interfere with it. And so, we do not resent or interfere with the good that belongs to another.

Covetousness is a moral as well as a spiritual sin. This commandment is disobeyed as often as the first commandment, and as unthinkingly. Wars are fought because one nation covets what another has; families are broken up because someone desires the husband or wife. Greed, envy, jealousy, & selfishness are closely allied to covetousness.
As we grow in spiritual stature, we realize that we never need the good another has. All good is from our Creator, whose presence is constantly with us. Nothing can deprive us of it except our own inability to receive.
That’s an important thing…willingness to receive & do the work to prepare for receiving.

So, when is enough, enough? All sources agree that our tendency to covet, to want something someone else has, only leads to suffering.
Compare and despair is the inevitable result of breaking this commandment
Sr. Joan calls this the Law of Self-control
She brings up an interesting point…If we can’t see ‘covetousness’, is it wrong?
Just asking that question is the problem it shows how underdeveloped spiritually we are, our lack of moral maturity.
She says it’s not the behavior that results in covetousness, it’s failing to be satisfied…the disease of unbridled desire; the constant satisfaction of the senses, the inability to be at peace with the self, with life, that’s what makes it a sin of the soul.
And its Competition and comparison that are the engines that drive otherwise healthy people to covetousness where restlessness and dissatisfaction dwell.
It’s a contest we cannot win, because, however strong, smart or rich we are, we always lose to those who are stronger, smarter and richer…and that makes everyone a potential enemy rather than ally.
Covetousness is trying to get outside myself what I do not have within – peace, satisfaction, a sense of wholeness.
“We who are little less than gods, little lower than the angels” already have what the rest of the cosmos lacks; the ability to control ourselves.

The great tragedy of humanity is the delusion that life is lived from the outside in. Our whole conditioning from infancy onward is to believe that whatever it is that we may want or need is ‘out there’.
We are deluded thinking out there will bring acceptance, success, etc. but that very act of coveting shuts us off from the inner flow.
This is why Jesus insisted that the rich young man let go of his stuff or at least his willingness to do so for unless he could give them up he was possessed by them
Ask yourself, of your ‘stuff’- do I really have these things or do they have you?

Our culture is against us…telling us what to buy to be successful, to be noticed, to be liked…we don’t need that.
It’s about lust, about the insatiable need to not simply to have more than we need but to have more than is good for us; Failing to be satisfied with anything.
Lust is about power and control, not sex, or desire
John Lahr, American critic, “Society drives people crazy with lust & calls it advertising.”
We live in a culture that cultivates lust, the desire for what we do not own & do not need & cannot contain – & then wonders why so many are unhappy with life.
It isn’t what we have that makes us unhappy; it’s what we want that leaves us dull to the present, unaware of what we have.
Only God is enough. Only when we see beyond all things in which we are immersed, only when we learn to hold them all with a relaxed grasp, can we ever discover the One in whom all of them take their being.
The Hindus say it this way – the seeker who leaves all things to seek God
In Buddhism – the purpose of life is to achieve nirvana, the state of desireless-ness in which all suffering disappears & the seeker flows with the universe without expectation, without demands.
In Islam, the Sufi remind us that there is a life above what we call life where the Creator & created come to one heart, one mind.
The Israelites say – awareness of One God is enough, is all there is, is what life is really about.
In Christianity – if you put down your desires for everything other than God you will find God
And Judaism – we must separate from material world to know spiritual.
Detachment means – movement away from being possessed by particular things in order to make room in ourselves to be possessed by God—it is the emptiness that possesses the Everything there is in life of lasting value.
At that moment of genuine detachment that we come to know the core of spiritual life…we find God in everything and everything in God.
Most of us have everything we need. Greed is the compulsion to get more because we refuse to enjoy what we have.
John D. Rockefeller, “I know of nothing more despicable & pathic than a person who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.” Its not wealth, but why we make it & what we do with it that makes the difference.
“To work hard, to play well, to enjoy life, to give to others, and to be satisfied with what we have may be the only criteria we need to know whether or not we have really succeeded in life.”
Beware of what you value in life… shoes pg 131
What is it in my life that is the equivalent of Imelda Marcos’s shoes?

Butterworth –
You must not look into the world for your good…the flow of good comes from within.
Pg 127 teacher holding student – water
Change our desire to have to a desire to be
Luke 12:32 reminds us: “There is a divine action within that is always working to reveal to us & express through us that which makes for prosperity & fulfillment Jesus “it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Our desire for good is our intuitive feeling that it is already prepared for us if we just “let it”…having the consciousness for prosperity.
But when our mind turns to envy of others & to coveting what they have, the tendency is to frustrate the natural flow within ourselves.
Seek first to know who you are, to dis-identify yourself from beliefs in limitation & inadequacy, to get the realization that you are a child of God, heir to all the fullness of the divine flow.
Appreciate what you have & what you are as the best starting points from which to go forward to express more that is in you.
Plato –“the grateful heart is the great heart that eventually attracts to itself great things”
Count your blessings, have an Attitude of gratitude.
All of our experts agree…this commandment is about Felding – the way to feel good about what you have.
It addresses our desire for what we don’t have & our lack of appreciation for or dissatisfaction with what we do have – Comparing ourselves to others.
This adds to Insecure feelings & self-doubts.
Hebrew translation for this Commandment is – don’t hold as precious or as a treasured possession something that doesn’t belong to you.
‘the purpose of envy, when balanced, is to motivate us to move forward in life, to allow us to see & reach for the many possibilities offered by God’s creation or to celebrate our collective wealth & seek out a deeper relationship with the God of our understanding.
Pg 209 Zusya
There is psychological pain from desiring & comparing…
1. Envy increases your daily stress or anxiety levels ties & in to an underlying feeling of insufficiency or self-criticism. Raised with, “why can’t you be like…”; & then daily trying to still win their acceptance. Our families can have an idealized sense of what they wanted us to be; & we often cause the same distress by comparing ourselves to others.
2. Comparing & desiring leads to mood swings & physical symptoms.
3. Too many comparisons may affect those you love by being judgmental or impatient toward them.

Felding gives us some strategies to go along with those psychological issues….
1. Sometimes you need to take your envious feelings seriously & ask yourself, “Is this a wake-up call?” instead of suppressing the feelings, honor them & turn them into something positive like following through on a worthwhile goal; it might be a spiritual spark of intuition to work toward a dram w new passion purpose & commitment
Something that comes from the heart & is for a good purpose, there’s no harm in wanting it badly & working hard for it.
2. Sometimes you need to let go of the longing for what you don’t have & truly accept what is. Some desires can’t or shouldn’t be followed-unhealthy, self-defeating or unrealistic-we learn to let go of unproductive longings; simply isn’t meant to be yours (remember when w talked about stealing & having the consciousness for the item)
3. Sometimes you need to find a way to be patient & receptive in situations that aren’t clear yet or that simply require more time….how to remain open, receptive, & healthy even when we’re involved in a journey or project that is unclear or takes a long time. 3 good things; prayer changes the way you enter the situation

The way we deal with what we have determines the way we deal with everything else around us. It also measures the quality of our souls.

 

 

Great Morning Beloved!

 

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

 

OK, we ‘ve almost made it through the 10 Commandments, or the 10 words. I’m thinking it hasn’t been as drastic a visit into the Old Testament as many of you may have thought when I first mentioned that we were going to talk about the 10 Commandments…especially when I said we would do it over 10 weeks!

But we are on number 9 already, all about telling lies.

 

Eric Butterworth states the fabric of any society is composed of the interlacing of human relations. This calls for certain self-evident ethical standards…including ‘don’t tell lies, don’t exaggerate.

 

Just think where we would be if the law during Moses’ time, and before actually, when and eye for and eye was the law….in that time the accused was to carry out the punishment, and if they lied and were caught, they would get the punishment that would have gone to the accused. That probably would have settled many disputes long before going to court!

 

To bear false witness…bear means to answer; witness means understanding. Intelligence, wisdom.

So, we are to answer with wisdom, understanding, and intelligence.

Think about that a minute…

 

In her Law of Speech, Sr Joan Chittister states:

“It’s a sad state of affairs when our future leaders, business people, workers in general, feel they need to cheat to get ahead.”

That’s the finding of the Josephenson Institute of Ethics. They have been surveying our youth every year since 1992. Each year the instances of lying, cheating, & stealing has increased. And don’t look to our religious school to be doing a better job of instilling good ethics, surprisingly, those results are usually worse.

 

“If we cannot trust one another to make honest contracts, to provide honest information, to function honestly in interpersonal relations, what can we trust about society as a whole – its professionals, its bankers, its politicians?”

 

Unfortunately, things do not seem any better than when Sr. Joan wrote those words in 2006.

Lying takes from people what they are: their reputation, their understanding, the quality of their lives. And, it takes those things from the one who was lied about too.

When one has things taken from them, they can get another to replace it. With a lie, both the liar and the lied about must content with suspicion, mistrust and dishonor forever.

Joan was reminded by her father when she was young…

“Never lie. It’s not worth what it does to you when you’re found out.”

And I would say even before….

There was a time when “a man’s or woman’s word is his bond’. So where do YOU stand on that? Is your word your truth?

Walt Whitman said, “the good or bad you say of another, you actually say of yourself.”

Interesting thought….

 

It is up to us, each and every one, to do our part to change the state of our ethics. What can we do?  We’ll get there in a minute….

Along the same lines as Walt Whitman, or should I say Walt Whitman was along the same lines as…Jesus, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Mt 7:1,2

Neal Donald Walsh tells us we really cannot bear false witness-what we say or report on expresses where we are & what we are…we reveal an awareness of error, perhaps a preoccupation with error, in our own consciousness.

It even implies – what we say about another person will happen to us…by saying it we indicate that it has already happened in us.

 

“When you know that ‘life is consciousness,’ you know that you have a responsibility for what you see & hear & sense. You always see according to your level of awareness. You are not responsible for what people do or say, but you are responsible for what you do or say or think about them.”

 

You’ve probably have seen or heard this: “Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people.”

 

Did you know, originally, criticism meant ‘to evaluate or establish true worth, I wonder where it went the other direction?

Now, Criticizing is usually evidence of poor self-regard – a subconscious attempt to cut the person down to a size where the critic can feel more comfortable in relating

We need to ask ourselves Is it true, is it kind, is it needful? before saying, or even thinking something about another.

Think about what it is we are going to crititize…is it the idea or the person?

Opposing ideas is ok, when done compassionately, just not the person who espouses them. We are really tested with this concept in today’s political atmosphere…

 

Felding… Challenge: Reducing gossip and hurtful talk in your daily life

 

He asks, “How did gossip make the top 10 list?”

REALLY! That’s amazing when you think about it….

 

This Commandment actually translates as: don’t answer, respond or repeat against your neighbor.

I like that interpretation.

 

We all can relate to being harmed in some way by another’s loose tongue…

Maybe being teased whether as a child or adult…it happens. Maybe feeling uncomfortable when hearing another talk about someone in an uncomplimentary way. Maybe someone said something untrue about you or you were betrayed by another that you trusted…

These are all ways in which the sacredness of our speech is broken.…our speech is godlike because our words are creative.

And often, when unkind or false stories are spread, they can take a long time to be rectified…if ever.

Pg 185-6 feathers story

Anyone on a spiritual path will not indulge in gossip, speaking or listening…if there is no listener there is no gossip

 

Why do people gossip? There are some psychological reasons: if they are insecure, makes them feel more like the other; for revenge; to bond with others who are sharing stories; to sound like an expert on the subject. There are others too, but this gives you an idea why people take that road.

 

There are benefits to cutting back on gossip:

1. Cutting back on gossip is one of the best ways to see whether you intend to live according to the Golden Rule. Gaining control of the urge to gossip becomes an excellent experiment to see how well you intend to live up to the statement “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Requires a deep sense of empathy for another’s discomfort.
2. Guarding your tongue against saying hurtful things is one way of improving the karma or consequences of your actions in this lifetime. From a Buddhist, Hindu or Zen perspective, gossiping affects one type of karma…the type that affects this lifetime. And the Talmud says “Gossip is like a three-pronged tongue which injures the spirit of three people: the person about whom the gossip is said, the person who listens to it, and the person who says it.” Think about it!
3. Questioning and contradicting the gossip or generalizations you hear about groups of people who are different from you is an important act of social responsibility and fairness. The most harmful speech is racism and sexism…complicity or silence is also harmful…questioning the negative things people say about others not only benefits the target of the hateful talk, it also prevents the hurtful remarks from staying in the minds of anyone who hears it. Repeating seemingly positive generalizations are hurtful or can cause tensions…like all lesbians hate men (not! I love you guys!)

By actively questioning stereotypes we accomplish 3 things:

1. We make the person who is telling hurtful things about a group think twice before maligning others
2. We prevent bystanders from accepting slander as truthful
3. We make sure we don’t internalize & later repeat lies or hurtful remarks

Experts know that unconfirmed & unconfronted rumors spread behind peoples backs cause lasting, negative perceptions & harsh judgments. (Obama’s birth status for example)

 

And remember this?    Rev. Martin Niemoller, minister in Germany in the 1930’s, who strongly opposed the Nazi regime said, “First they came for the socialists & I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists & I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews & I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – & there was no one left to speak for me.”

Breathe…

How can we cut back on gossip & hurtful speech?

Felding has some “reflections”

 

Reflection #1 – if you are about to say something personal about someone & it might be hurtful or invasive for that individual, ask yourself, “What is my intention here…to do good or harm?” Slow down and know your intention. Make sure you are not running on lower instincts; in the Hindu, Buddhist & Zen traditions, it’s your inner intention that matters, more so than the external result in determining whether you produce good or bad. Romans 2:14-16 “what the law requires is written on your heart.”

Reflection #2 – Recognize that the issue is not whether the gossip is true or false. Will your words likely produce harm or good? Even truthful statements can be hurtful if taken wrong or spread to the wrong person. Being gay is something that is mine to share…some people are not open to everyone, even in today’s climate.

Reflection #3 – Treat nearly everything said to you as a secret that’s entrusted to you for safekeeping, rather than as a juicy piece of gossip to spread. Assume everything is confidential.

Reflection #4 – Carefully select an honorable person with whom you could share private things, to whom you could ventilate or complain confidentially. Not everyone has earned the right to hear your story.

Reflection #5 – Think seriously about when silence is a mistake. Building a sense of community includes discretion, respect, & mutual caring. Some situations it is appropriate to speak up to the correct persons – abuse, crimes, etc.

Reflection #6 – Be willing to let people know you aren’t available for gossip or bad-mouthing others, even if that makes you temporarily less ‘popular.’

 

Jesus “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” John 18:37

We all can say the same for we are all inheriently the Christ

 

To bear witness to the truth is to know who we are & to express our true selves honestly

 

“What I say defines me as a person as much as it defines what I’m talking about: it names me honest or dishonest, righteous or unrighteous, full of integrity or morally bankrupt of soul.”

To say something false about someone or something violates creation as God has made it by naming it something that it is not.

Think about the court scene in “Miracle on 34th Street” when Kris Kringle’s lawyer suggests that the judge is not anything other than who he claims to be and therefore Santa Clause was who he said he claims to be. Neither could be other than who they were, and if we tried to say otherwise, it was a false statement, a false reality.

Lying obscures the real self…even from the self. The more ones lies, the harder it is to know what truth is, it violates the image of God in us

 

Pg 118 story about mask

 

When we see with the Divinity within, with that knowledge, hear from that knowledge & feel from that knowledge—then we are projecting that divinity in the words we speak, the things we do & the feelings we engender

 

This may be the most important of all the commandments, if properly understood.

 

The real or fundamental meaning is that you always express what you are. You cannot be one thing and express another. You cannot permanently bear false witness. As long as we witness to error, we are bearing false testimony, and our business is to witness to the Truth of Being, the truth about ourselves and each other: we are divine beings, spiritual and perfect, one with God.

 

Remember – Truth is its own reward; it requires no memory, no elaborate explanations, no conspiring confederates, and no fear of exposer.

 

Great Morning Beloved!

 

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

Pic

“nor shall you say a thing that is not true, and thus bear false witness”

OK, we ‘ve almost made it through the 10 Commandments, or the 10 words. I’m thinking it hasn’t been as drastic a visit into the Old Testament as many of you may have thought when I first mentioned that we were going to talk about the 10 Commandments…especially when I said we would do it over 10 weeks!

But we are on number 9 already, all about telling lies.

 

Eric Butterworth states the fabric of any society is composed of the interlacing of human relations. This calls for certain self-evident ethical standards…including ‘don’t tell lies, don’t exaggerate.

 

Just think where we would be if the law during Moses’ time, and before actually, when and eye for and eye was the law….in that time the accused was to carry out the punishment, and if they lied and were caught, they would get the punishment that would have gone to the accused. That probably would have settled many disputes long before going to court!

 

To bear false witness…bear means to answer; witness means understanding. Intelligence, wisdom.

So, we are to answer with wisdom, understanding, and intelligence.

Think about that a minute…

 

In her Law of Speech, Sr Joan Chittister states:

“It’s a sad state of affairs when our future leaders, business people, workers in general, feel they need to cheat to get ahead.”

That’s the finding of the Josephenson Institute of Ethics. They have been surveying our youth every year since 1992. Each year the instances of lying, cheating, & stealing has increased. And don’t look to our religious school to be doing a better job of instilling good ethics, surprisingly, those results are usually worse.

 

“If we cannot trust one another to make honest contracts, to provide honest information, to function honestly in interpersonal relations, what can we trust about society as a whole – its professionals, its bankers, its politicians?”

 

Unfortunately, things do not seem any better than when Sr. Joan wrote those words in 2006.

Lying takes from people what they are: their reputation, their understanding, the quality of their lives. And, it takes those things from the one who was lied about too.

When one has things taken from them, they can get another to replace it. With a lie, both the liar and the lied about must content with suspicion, mistrust and dishonor forever.

Joan was reminded by her father when she was young…

“Never lie. It’s not worth what it does to you when you’re found out.”

And I would say even before….

There was a time when “a man’s or woman’s word is his bond’. So where do YOU stand on that? Is your word your truth?

Walt Whitman said, “the good or bad you say of another, you actually say of yourself.”

Interesting thought….

 

It is up to us, each and every one, to do our part to change the state of our ethics. What can we do?  We’ll get there in a minute….

Along the same lines as Walt Whitman, or should I say Walt Whitman was along the same lines as…Jesus, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” Mt 7:1,2

Neal Donald Walsh tells us we really cannot bear false witness-what we say or report on expresses where we are & what we are…we reveal an awareness of error, perhaps a preoccupation with error, in our own consciousness.

It even implies – what we say about another person will happen to us…by saying it we indicate that it has already happened in us.

 

“When you know that ‘life is consciousness,’ you know that you have a responsibility for what you see & hear & sense. You always see according to your level of awareness. You are not responsible for what people do or say, but you are responsible for what you do or say or think about them.”

 

You’ve probably have seen or heard this: “Great minds talk about ideas, average minds talk about events, and small minds talk about people.”

 

Did you know, originally, criticism meant ‘to evaluate or establish true worth, I wonder where it went the other direction?

Now, Criticizing is usually evidence of poor self-regard – a subconscious attempt to cut the person down to a size where the critic can feel more comfortable in relating

We need to ask ourselves Is it true, is it kind, is it needful? before saying, or even thinking something about another.

Think about what it is we are going to crititize…is it the idea or the person?

Opposing ideas is ok, when done compassionately, just not the person who espouses them. We are really tested with this concept in today’s political atmosphere…

 

Felding… Challenge: Reducing gossip and hurtful talk in your daily life

 

He asks, “How did gossip make the top 10 list?”

REALLY! That’s amazing when you think about it….

 

This Commandment actually translates as: don’t answer, respond or repeat against your neighbor.

I like that interpretation.

 

We all can relate to being harmed in some way by another’s loose tongue…

Maybe being teased whether as a child or adult…it happens. Maybe feeling uncomfortable when hearing another talk about someone in an uncomplimentary way. Maybe someone said something untrue about you or you were betrayed by another that you trusted…

These are all ways in which the sacredness of our speech is broken.…our speech is godlike because our words are creative.

And often, when unkind or false stories are spread, they can take a long time to be rectified…if ever.

Pg 185-6 feathers story

Anyone on a spiritual path will not indulge in gossip, speaking or listening…if there is no listener there is no gossip

 

Why do people gossip? There are some psychological reasons: if they are insecure, makes them feel more like the other; for revenge; to bond with others who are sharing stories; to sound like an expert on the subject. There are others too, but this gives you an idea why people take that road.

 

There are benefits to cutting back on gossip:

1. Cutting back on gossip is one of the best ways to see whether you intend to live according to the Golden Rule. Gaining control of the urge to gossip becomes an excellent experiment to see how well you intend to live up to the statement “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Requires a deep sense of empathy for another’s discomfort.
2. Guarding your tongue against saying hurtful things is one way of improving the karma or consequences of your actions in this lifetime. From a Buddhist, Hindu or Zen perspective, gossiping affects one type of karma…the type that affects this lifetime. And the Talmud says “Gossip is like a three-pronged tongue which injures the spirit of three people: the person about whom the gossip is said, the person who listens to it, and the person who says it.” Think about it!
3. Questioning and contradicting the gossip or generalizations you hear about groups of people who are different from you is an important act of social responsibility and fairness. The most harmful speech is racism and sexism…complicity or silence is also harmful…questioning the negative things people say about others not only benefits the target of the hateful talk, it also prevents the hurtful remarks from staying in the minds of anyone who hears it. Repeating seemingly positive generalizations are hurtful or can cause tensions…like all lesbians hate men (not! I love you guys!)

By actively questioning stereotypes we accomplish 3 things:

1. We make the person who is telling hurtful things about a group think twice before maligning others
2. We prevent bystanders from accepting slander as truthful
3. We make sure we don’t internalize & later repeat lies or hurtful remarks

Experts know that unconfirmed & unconfronted rumors spread behind peoples backs cause lasting, negative perceptions & harsh judgments. (Obama’s birth status for example)

 

And remember this?    Rev. Martin Niemoller, minister in Germany in the 1930’s, who strongly opposed the Nazi regime said, “First they came for the socialists & I did not speak out – because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists & I did not speak out – because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews & I did not speak out – because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me – & there was no one left to speak for me.”

Breathe…

How can we cut back on gossip & hurtful speech?

Felding has some “reflections”

 

Reflection #1 – if you are about to say something personal about someone & it might be hurtful or invasive for that individual, ask yourself, “What is my intention here…to do good or harm?” Slow down and know your intention. Make sure you are not running on lower instincts; in the Hindu, Buddhist & Zen traditions, it’s your inner intention that matters, more so than the external result in determining whether you produce good or bad. Romans 2:14-16 “what the law requires is written on your heart.”

Reflection #2 – Recognize that the issue is not whether the gossip is true or false. Will your words likely produce harm or good? Even truthful statements can be hurtful if taken wrong or spread to the wrong person. Being gay is something that is mine to share…some people are not open to everyone, even in today’s climate.

Reflection #3 – Treat nearly everything said to you as a secret that’s entrusted to you for safekeeping, rather than as a juicy piece of gossip to spread. Assume everything is confidential.

Reflection #4 – Carefully select an honorable person with whom you could share private things, to whom you could ventilate or complain confidentially. Not everyone has earned the right to hear your story.

Reflection #5 – Think seriously about when silence is a mistake. Building a sense of community includes discretion, respect, & mutual caring. Some situations it is appropriate to speak up to the correct persons – abuse, crimes, etc.

Reflection #6 – Be willing to let people know you aren’t available for gossip or bad-mouthing others, even if that makes you temporarily less ‘popular.’

 

Jesus “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth.” John 18:37

We all can say the same for we are all inheriently the Christ

 

To bear witness to the truth is to know who we are & to express our true selves honestly

 

“What I say defines me as a person as much as it defines what I’m talking about: it names me honest or dishonest, righteous or unrighteous, full of integrity or morally bankrupt of soul.”

To say something false about someone or something violates creation as God has made it by naming it something that it is not.

Think about the court scene in “Miracle on 34th Street” when Kris Kringle’s lawyer suggests that the judge is not anything other than who he claims to be and therefore Santa Clause was who he said he claims to be. Neither could be other than who they were, and if we tried to say otherwise, it was a false statement, a false reality.

Lying obscures the real self…even from the self. The more ones lies, the harder it is to know what truth is, it violates the image of God in us

 

Pg 118 story about mask

 

When we see with the Divinity within, with that knowledge, hear from that knowledge & feel from that knowledge—then we are projecting that divinity in the words we speak, the things we do & the feelings we engender

 

This may be the most important of all the commandments, if properly understood.

 

The real or fundamental meaning is that you always express what you are. You cannot be one thing and express another. You cannot permanently bear false witness. As long as we witness to error, we are bearing false testimony, and our business is to witness to the Truth of Being, the truth about ourselves and each other: we are divine beings, spiritual and perfect, one with God.

 

Remember – Truth is its own reward; it requires no memory, no elaborate explanations, no conspiring confederates, and no fear of exposer.

 

Thou shalt not commit adultery

 

Things have changed, haven’t they. When we consider how the ideas around sex and marriage have evolved, if you may, from the time of the 10 words, to today…it’s mind boggling.
During the time of Moses, women had lost almost all of their authority. What was once a maternalistic society, based on agriculture and community had become, through force and attrition, very paternalistic, and through that change, women were put in their place, so to speak. In many cases, they lost much if not all authority and power that they once held.
And, as we see today, many women are still working their way out of that label, of being property, with no voice. What was meant for a specific time and people, has been carried through to all time and all peoples.

And the moralistic and the prudery of the Puritans & the Victorian age didn’t help. Adultery wasn’t discussed, but in whispers; and sex, at that time, was a naughty word.
Not so today…but some wonder if this is due to an increase in immorality or a decrease in hypocrisy.
Have we failed miserably in keeping this commandment?

The word Adultery comes from adulterate – meaning to pollute or to add to.

From its Hebrew root, it is ‘a total or complete abandoning of one’s principles.’
Adulterate, then, means to add something that cheapens the quality or upsets the completeness.

And is it a judgment that we place on any situation, based on moral codes & values that change with ages & cultures.
Purity is a matter of consciousness & Prudery is simply a moralistic hang-up.
Sex is not a thing – it’s a way in which a person may express.
If we look at it as a thing we reduce ourselves to the level of animals.

Let’s start with Sr. Joan Chittister. She calls this the Law of Commitment
When this was written, men were permitted multiple wives, women were property of the husband. Having several wives was a sign of wealth, a means to further the family name, to continue that wealth and name into the future.
The law was really meant to prohibit Hebrew men from being with another man’s wife. And a wife from being with any other man but her husband…a bit of a sexist thing there.
So, adultery was really about property and inheritance. No love involved…but responsibility for one another and for the family.

The word implied here is commitment, a notion of permanence, family, the spiritual meaning of the constancy of relationships.

Sr. Joan says marriage today is about finding what’s missing in ourselves & providing what’s missing in another until both can become who we are really meant to be. It’s about growing together and forward.
Two equals are meant to become more together than they ever could be alone. I like that.

We are reminded that none of us is self-sufficient. We all need others for many reasons and growing is one of those reasons.
What can all this mean for us today? A new Harris Poll found that 23 percent of men thought it was sometimes or always acceptable for an employer to expect sex from an employee.
Today, 40-50% of marriages end in divorce, tho the rate is slowing.
Not surprising, one of the major causes of divorce is surrounded around the misunderstandings about sex.
In fact, Adultery is often what signals that the relationship has already deteriorated
It is a disregard for the relationship, exploitation of the partnership, narcissistic victimization of another-sexually, emotionally, psychologically, for the sake of ones self.

The capacity to form & maintain relationships is one of the signs of mental health, of psychological maturity, of the ability to respond appropriately.
Love that lasts, that invites itself in the welfare of another, is the only human proof we have of the nature of God who is with us always.
We must truly care about the people we love, not just for our own satisfaction. Not exploit them, not ignore them, not patronize them, not manipulate them.

This is not about physical misbehavior – it’s about the integrity of the heart, about loving people more spiritually than physically; it’s about loving them rightly …with the soul as well as the body.

Simone Signoret says, “Chains do not hold a marriage together, it is threads, hundreds of tiny threads, which sew people together through the years.” It’s the weaving of those threads that counts.”
Imagine that…..

Commitment is the byproduct of communication. When the sharing stops the relationship is in danger. I can personally vouch for that.
There is a Chinese proverb: “Married couples who love each other tell each other a thousand things without talking.” If you know what your partner is thinking, respond to it. If you don’t, ask yourself why you are not communicating.

Sometimes the ‘other person’ is a job, an obsession, a hobby…it’s not always about sex.
Joe Murray said, “marriage should be a duet – when one sings, the other claps.” If the feelings are beginning to unravel, ask who isn’t clapping.
Neal Donald Walsh tells us his Commitment: You will not defile the purity of love with dishonesty or deceit, for this is adulterous. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not commit adultery

If we think about it, adultery symbolizes idolatry. The fundamental idea behind the commandment is to have one God, to recognize only one Power. To us, idolatry means giving power to a false god, to outside things.
And adultery involved the violation of a sacred agreement; it was not necessarily concerned with the sex act per se.

This commandment has to do with moral, clean living; no one should entertain the hope of complete spiritual expression who has not learned to comply with the highest code, both in his personal life and in his dealings with others. Spiritually, to ‘commit adultery’ is to adulterate or weaken the higher consciousness by injection of carnal thoughts and emotions.
Leonard Felding seems to agree.
He gives us his Challenge: How to Elevate your sexuality to greater sacredness & fulfillment
This Challenge unites spirituality & sexuality by suggesting that “a profound erotic intimacy can be attained only by having a spiritual connection & long-term commitment to another human being.”
The Biblical term for sexual intimacy means “to know” – to know a person as a full human being, as a complex & wonderful soul mate.
Sex was meant to be more than physical contact & release-it involves knowing each other, respecting & caring for each other in both physical & spiritual dimensions.
Felding believes getting to know your partner fully is crucial to finding sexual fulfillment.
Clifford & Joyce Penner found, “Sex is not something we ‘do’ to someone, neither is it something we do ‘for’ someone…sex is a ‘with’ experience.”

The New Interpreter’s Bible’s take of this Commandment it thus: “…it points to the recognition that sexuality is enormously wondrous & enormously dangerous. The wonder of sexuality is available only if it is practiced respectfully & under discipline. The danger of sexuality is that it is capable of evoking desires that are destructive of a person & of communal relations. In its fullest interpretation, the command against adultery envisions covenantal relations of mutuality that are genuinely life-giving, nurturing, enhancing, & respectful. Such a notion of long-term trust is treated as almost passe` in a narcissistic society preoccupied with individual freedom & satisfaction.”

Sounds like our society, does it not? Especially with the ‘me too’ and ‘times up’ movements currently finding roots & growing.
Being dishonest or manipulative is disrespectful of one’s partner, whoever that partner is.

Mt. 5:27, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
Many of you may remember the uproar caused by then president Jimmy Carter who stated in an interview in Playboy magazine, “ We are taught not to judge other people. I wouldn’t condemn someone who looks on a woman with lust…I’ve looked on a lot of women with lust. I’ve committed adultery in my heart many times.”

The point being, Physical adultery is a great transgression because it breaks the covenant of marriage. Mental adultery destroys the soul just the same.
We are not saying that we cannot admire a good-looking man or woman. I love looking at the handiwork of our Creator as much as the next person. AS the song goes, I’m a girl watcher…and it doesn’t matter, male or female…I like to watch people.
But watch is different than lust….we are to appreciate the God-given beauty of the individual, as well as the other fine examples of beauty found in the world.

Eric Butterworth reminds us that with adultery we lose our sense of integrity.
It’s not just about the sex act. It’s about prostituting ourselves, adulterating our true worth, selling ourselves short of the real meaning of life that can only be found in the total communion of inner-centered love.

The emphasis has always been placed on the ‘sin’ or the physical acts & personal relationships. The sin is not in the act, but in the thought that leads to the act.
This can be a wake-up call of an in-balance in your life, and in your relationship.
Journalist, George Leonard tells us, “extramarital affairs or the pursuit of recreational sex are far more likely to be associated with the avoidance of change.”
After the novelty of the affair has faded, the stories told, & the ego has been temporarily satisfied, the real transformation can take place. But this is where we often fear that deeper connection and turn to yet another bed. Anything rather than see ourselves clearly & start to do something about it.
And that goes into a different topic for discussion at another time…change.

The whole reason for change is whenever we see less than the Christ in another or in ourselves. We are committing adultery…because we fail to see the divine depth in all people, all the time.

This Commandment could read…You shall not adulterate reality by judging by appearances & thus by adding on something other than Truth
Pg 90
When we say something about ourself or another that is less than true morally or spiritually. This is adultery; this is selling yourself short with feelings of inferiority.
Anything less than the Truth of our oneness in the One is adultery
Remember: we always have a choice
Pg 94

Pic

 

 

Thou shall not kill or is it thou shall not murder?

Here we are again…another seemingly simple Commandment Moses presented to the exiles from Egypt. Remember, metaphysically, Egypt signifies the darkness of ignorance, of sense or material consciousness. So, we are leaving our lack of understanding of the material world and going into a journey of our soul, looking for our Truth.
And as we are on this journey, we have been tasked with learning how to honor our Creator, (the first four Commandments) and are now learning how to get along with each other.
This Commandment, thou shall not kill, was actually misinterpreted originally.
We now know that it should have been interpreted as murder. You ask, what is the difference? Just think about it.

Are there not times when killing has been acceptable in most cultures? Self defense….unfortunately, wars….in some societies, euthanasia. And for those of us who enjoy a good steak, animals who help to sustain us.
So, the difference between killing and murder is intent.
There’s that consciousness thing again!

Simply stated, no one has the right to deprive anyone of life. The shedding of innocent blood is viewed as a direct offense against God.
So, let’s look at what our experts say about this Commandment.
Commitment:
Neal Donald Walsh starts out reminding us that you know you have found God when you observe that you will not murder (that is, willfully kill, without cause). For while you will understand that you cannot end another’s life in any event (all life is eternal), you will not choose to terminate any particular incarnation, nor change any life energy from one form to another, without the most sacred justification. Your new reverence for life will cause you to honor all life forms-including plants, trees, and animals – and to impact them only when it is for the highest good.
Many insights here… Highest good means good for everyone concerned. That is one way to discern if something is “God’s will”.
I love how he says, “you will know you have found God”…have you noticed that? He says it in every Commitment.
In other words, when we have finally realized the connection we have with the God of our understanding; with our Higher Self…when we finally connect with that sacred place within, we will have to commit to these laws set forth so many years ago.
We’ll have to.
Breathe that in.
This is Principle #3 God is present in all people as our divine essence, our Christ nature.

Have you noticed, too, the changes in yourself as you’ve journeyed along this soul path? As you’ve come to realize this Principle as well as the others? Wonderous changes, aren’t they?
That leads us to Leonard Felding’s Challenge – he says this Commandment means what you can do to prevent the crushing of a person’s spirit.
He reminds us that a person’s life is one’s most precious earthly possession and one’s right to enjoy life must be protected from idle irresponsibility which would deprive a person of it.
This challenge points to Principle #5: Knowledge of these spiritual principles is not enough. We must live them.

Put feet to our knowledge, our new understanding, our prayers.
And not do it irresponsibility.
Biblical scholars have stated that even when someone claims there is an overriding religious, political, or psychological reason to murder someone, the 10 commandments point out that the person is wrong.
What someone CLAIMS as their right isn’t necessarily so…

We are Divine, made in the image & likeness….we are not to destroy the Divine Spirit that is a part of every human being. That includes murder as well as suicide.

But this is also interpreted to mean don’t break, bruise, or crush, which can mean to not break the will of someone or crush his/her spirit. Do not assault someone physically or verbally and to not humiliate someone.
The Talmud warns about humiliating or using sneering words, which is equal to murder. That’s killing someone’s spirit.
The core issue is how to make sure we don’t shatter the Divine essence that is within each human being, including ourselves.
We need to live together as one family & we need to watch out for each other
Felding gives us 3 ways to help us reduce the likelihood of harming or cruelty to someone
1 find a way to resolve & heal the painful hurts you might be carrying inside from your past that can have lingering side effects. Could be mistreatment received as a child; witnessing one’s parents physical or emotional abuse of each other, cruel teasing from classmates or peers, a physically violent lover or spouse, painful verbal abuse from parents, siblings, lovers or bosses, as well as traumas like sexual violence, muggings & other violent crimes.

Many of us carry these wounds deep inside…trauma not processed can lead to: addictions to food, drugs or alcohol; a sense of holding back or being unable to relax in certain situations; a deadening of your spirit so that you can’t feel joy, experience intimacy, or cry appropriate tears; skin problems, stomach irritations, stress related symptoms; tendency to want to punish or put up a wall toward your family or co-workers.
Quite a list!
2 Look carefully to see if there is someone in your personal life right now whose spirit sometimes gets crushed inadvertently by something that you do or say. “The Ten Challenges”, Pg. 135

3 The most common mistake that can inadvertently injure or frustrate is not truly listening…interrupting to give advice when what they want is support and for us to listen can leave them feeling interrupted, patronized and not fully understood.

4 Think of small & large things you can do in your own way to protect others….for example – volunteering with domestic violence or child abuse prevention programs, donate time, talent and/or treasure to the programs that resonate with you; in your daily life, treat people in ways that strengthen their spirit & yours.

 

For once the Challenge and Sr. Joan are in close proximity to each other in their thoughts.
Joan Chittister – calls this The Law of Life

She is definitely against war…Surprisingly, 60% of war deaths happened in the 20th century…not in ancient civilizations by, supposedly uncivilized peoples.
What use to be a personal thing has become global – power now has the capacity to move political, military, economic & social systems.
We are experiencing this today, are we not?
She calls us to choose carefully the kinds of power we opt to exercise.
Consider your personal power, whatever it is. What are you doing with it?
The Talmud teaches “To save one life is to save the world.” Those who value life in small ways, the teaching implies, create a culture of life around them that calls the rest of us to examine our attitudes about life.
She tells us:

“If life is to be affirmed, protected, honored, & sustained, as the Parliament of the World Religions states, then failing to support families & children with health care, housing, food, education, day care, and just wages is as least as much a sin against life as war…”
This commandment warns us against our willingness to bring things down in the name of righteousness.
We, as a society nationally and internationally, make up reasons all the time to kill – to enforce authority, for political reasons, to satisfy other segments of society by stripping lands, raping forests, soiling the air.
Unfortunately;
We are not actively working to sustain all life, anywhere, we are actually undermining life everywhere.

So, we see, this Commandment is really challenging us: how we are going to interpret it. Shall it be simple, thou shall not kill or murder?

What it may really means depends on what we really think Jesus was about. Recall, Matthew 5:17-20 17″Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
Jesus helped us to see that it is not behavior alone but consciousness that is at issue with the commandments. He was and is all about peace and love. And if that is our guidance from our way-shower, then killing for any reason may not be the “Christian” thing to do.
Again, we all will have to look at our personal power and discern how we wish to use it.

Humans mostly look at outward appearance, but God looks at the heart! One person has hatred in their heart, but due to social pressures and self-control does not give it outward expression. Another person has the same hatred in their heart but lacks the restraints of the first person. That inner hatred breaks out in murder. To us there is an enormous difference. To God, who looks on the heart, they are the same. Both people need that total inward change of heart that can only come through a change in thought and in their heart; what some would call repentance.
You shall not kill should become you shall enable life. From God’s perspective, Spiritual life is more important than natural life.

 

GREAT MORNING BELOVED!

Thou shalt not steal

SO, you’re looking at these 4 words and thinking, Sandy, this is an easy one…. simple – don’t steal. Well, that would be nice if people would pay attention to it.

But they don’t as we well know, and it’s not as simple as it sounds.

There is so much more to this Commandment… Spiritually…. as we shall see as we look at the Commitment, Challenge and the Law of Sharing.

But, let’s think for a minute…how could we look at this deeper? That’s what metaphysics asks of us, to look beyond the obvious.
I presented this question to my Tuesday class and we had a very interesting discussion.

Any thoughts?

SO, let’s start with Neal Donald Walsh’s take, his Commitment: You will not take a thing that is not your own, nor cheat, nor connive, nor harm another to have anything, for this would be to steal. I promise you, when you have found God, you shall not steal.

Stealing is trying to get something for which we do not have the consciousness and are therefore not spiritually entitled to. You cannot keep anything for which you do not have the consciousness.

The key is changing ‘shall not’ to ‘cannot’ and adding ‘consciousness’ to it.

Emmitt Fox – reminds us that the intent of the commandments is not to impose rules from above, but to keep us in alignment with the flow of divine energy and the working out of divine law.

When the Commandments were given, we were at a fairly early stage on our spiritual journey, we weren’t yet ready to understand the underlying spiritual truth; it is enough that we obey the commandments out of fear of negative consequences.

 

 

 

 

As we move toward spiritual maturity, we learn to replace the fear with love. We obey the same commandments, but we do so out of an energy of love for God, for ourselves and for our neighbors. This, of course, is the very heart of the message of Jesus, the Christ. He made it clear that his teaching was not intended to replace the law, but rather to shift our understanding from fearfully obeying arbitrary rules to joyful cooperation with God as loving and creative Law.

Jesus helped us to see that it is not behavior alone but consciousness that is at issue
We ‘cannot’ by right of consciousness. The Truth is that you can do anything, have anything, be anything, for which you have the consciousness – but not otherwise.

To be Healthy – you must have health consciousness
To be prosperous – you must have prosperity consciousness
To be Successful – you must have success consciousness

You must have the consciousness that corresponds with what you wish to have, be, do, etc.

In the same sense, we cannot keep anything for which we do not have the consciousness to correspond to it.

Think about what we are saying here…it’s a consciousness thing….

It’s the Law of Being – that sums up all the laws in life – whatever comes to you, whatever happens to you, whatever surrounds you, will be in accordance with your consciousness & nothing else, & whatever is in your consciousness must happen.
Stealing is trying to get something for which we do not have the consciousness & are therefore not spiritually entitled to.

You cannot do anything that is not in accordance with your consciousness at the moment, but you can change your consciousness – prayer, reading spiritual texts, music, poems, affirmations – affirm the Presence of God within and all around you.

Eric Butterworth looks at this Commandment as respect for property, right of ownership, and says it refers to all kinds of stealing – of course shoplifting, employee theft, armed robbery etc. = >30 billion in losses!

And that does not include the cost of insurance and security measures.
But there are other types of stealing besides the obvious.

Some of these may sound familiar to you…for whatever reason: stretching breaks & lunch hours; falsified sick days, padded expense accounts, even reduced effort or productivity – we use to call it RIP – retired in place, when someone was just counting their days till retirement, even if it was months or even years away & doing as little as possible to get there!

Felding defines his Challenge as – accomplish your goals without mistreating other people
SO those examples of stealing just mentioned are mistreating your employer.

How about Stealing one’s freedom – kidnapping & slavery, of course, but it’s also – a supervisor who breathes down your neck, is controlling or treats you like a servant; a possessive lover who is demanding & dictatorial; a parent, lover or friend who won’t let you have time alone, an overbearing parent refusing to let an adult child make choices for themselves, forcing sexual favors for the right to work?
Or…

Felding says it’s also a warning against deception & manipulation’
2nd century Rabbi Ishmael said, “the worst kind of thief is someone who uses deception to steal the good opinion of people”

He also said, “to win someone’s gratitude or regard through deceit is a form of thievery.”
A Politician who lies to steal your vote, a salesperson or advertiser who misrepresents a product’s attributes to win a sale, or a friend or co-worker who pretends to be on your side while secretly working against you are all examples of stealing…stealing a person’s self-esteem.

Dr. Lewis Smedes suggests, “The commandment confronts a modern culture which accepts greed as a style of self-affirmation. Recognizing the difference between stealing & dealing is a lost art. We still know that when a thug snatches a purse, he is stealing; we are not sure whether or not a creative ad writer who woos money from people by seductive lies is stealing. We know that a burglar who takes a family’s TV is stealing; we are not sure whether a company is stealing when it exploits a poor nation’s resources.”
From a spiritual point of view – Being rude, treating any human being in a demeaning way, even failing to respond to a greeting is a theft of self-respect;
Think about all that!

Here’s more…

Stealing someone’s self-worth when you interrupt while they are talking, when we fail to acknowledge co-authors, researchers, sources of information, when we mistreat people who work for us…. all examples of taking away from their self-worth.
There’s a line between cleverness, ambition, or assertiveness & unfairly hurting someone.

DO we recognize that line?

Joan Chittister – refers to this as the Law of Sharing

She looks at how things were in Israel at the time of the ‘10 words’. The law was to protect the common property of the clan, their well, the sheep, the land from being used for individual profit. Property was common owned…welfare of the community was held over the individual.
The Israelis believed God owned the land, and the people were the caretakers, the stewards.
Further, these Laws were written to protect the poor from being exploited by the rich. Scripture is filled with warnings against using false weights in the marketplace, charging interest on a debt, or holding the cloak of a debtor as collateral.
Laws of charity are clear in Judaism. 1/10th minimum belongs to God & to be used to take care of God’s people.
DO you know what Gleaning is? -the right of the poor to the un-gathered part of the harvest, the obligation of the farmer to leave part of the season’s yield behind for the poor
There are some places where gleaning is permitted in PA, but I am not aware of any in Delaware.

The Bible forbids waste – nothing that is of use to anyone is ever to be destroyed, must be put to use for those who need it – waste is stealing from those who have need
Having more than we need & giving nothing to those who have nothing is another form of stealing. By consuming, controlling, hoarding all the goods of earth for oneself…this is spiritual gluttony

Stealing in a biblical sense is not so much a private or personal sin, but a social sin – we have missed the mark. To take what we don’t need, to destroy what is useful to another, to deprive those in the community of their basic needs is stealing
Sharing is a human imperative because we all depend on someone else somehow to provide what we each need. None of us is entirely self-sufficient.

I repeat; None of us is entirely self-sufficient. No where near it!

Stealing is as much about method as it is about money. (credit cards, scams, inflated prices, inflating the size of a box but not the contents but charging more-in other words, charging what we are willing to pay), stealing elections…sound familiar?
Stealing has become a way of life in a world bulging with wealth & teeming with poor
Think about this…. How honest we are about little things determines how straight we will be about the big things.
We might think those examples of stealing are insignificant, but they add up, they make their mark on our integrity, on our soul.

In addition, A person that refrains from stealing only because of fear has a limitation consciousness. He who robs another robs himself first by breaking his own integrity or wholeness. It breaks one’s soul.

I realize integrity & high values are not easy to maintain. Integrity means to be whole or complete.
Living with greater integrity & wholeness is a goal that many people feel is out of reach or no longer relevant but finding a way to be moral & compassionate will awaken the sparks of light within your soul & you will feel a greater sense of spiritual richness.
And life is easier…really!

This Law of Sharing challenges us daily to choose whether we wish to seek a life of integrity & wholeness – we must make our choices consciously.

Here are 4 principles to live with greater wholeness & integrity
1. Take time to make conscious choices. Think fully through your choices, just like our Native Americans – look ahead to 7 generations. There are often more than 2 options if we think through the situation.
2. Confront your own habits of being sneaky, deceptive or insensitive. Think about your behavior: BE HONEST! – do you get impatient & interrupt? Do you cut corners, are you rude or cold to people? Do you find yourself doing something unkind, immoral, illegal in business or relationships? Do you ever feel as if you are faking it or doing whatever will get people to like you? Are you sometimes controlling of someone? Do you sometimes take advantage of people’s innocence, niceness, trust? All good questions we can ask ourselves, if we are brave…
3. Anticipate when doing the right thing will be unpopular. Principled action sometimes causes people to turn against you. Be prepared to be strong and stand for your integrity.
4. Share a portion of what you have with people who have less. We shouldn’t steal, but we also should make sure that others don’t need to steal in order to feed & clothe their families. We have a duty to make it easy & non-shameful for a poor or hungry person to enjoy a portion of whatever we create.

Jesus. “Give and it will be given to you” Luke 6:38

The purpose of giving is not to receive but to give.

We must unlearn the concept of “get” “get” “get” and become enthusiastic about the ideal of “give” “give” “give.”

When one really understands the spiritual law of ‘you shall not steal’ she becomes meticulously careful not to take or accept anything that is not rightfully hers…or fail to fulfill an obligation that is her responsibility.

One can never get something for nothing…period. Eventually, we pay.
Sr. Joan is a warrior when it comes to standing for the rights of the poor…”We cannot claim that we are not a nation of thieves until we insist on a society where no one has to steal to live.”
WOW!
We claim to be a “Christian” nation…but I have to wonder what that definition is.

Get yourself into the flow of the divine creative process & create the conditions within your own mind that will make the outward manifestation inevitable. Turn from the goals of getting and having to the ideal of giving and being.
Every person is constantly & abundantly supported by an all providing universe
Believe that.
True wealth is the magnetic flow of Spirit within us that draws the things we desire to us. There is a great sense of fulfillment in life that comes from just being in the flow.
And to be in the flow, we must come to realize that One’s property & creative gifts are not one’s own, only trusted to you from Spirit. Whatever we have we hold only in stewardship, in trust from the Divine Universe.
We damage our soul when we hold back from sharing our gifts. We’ve talked about the importance of sharing the gifts you have received.
The Native Americans teach sharing wisdom & gifts is a natural duty, it benefits your soul…we are to “keep emptying ourselves to receive more.” That’s nice.
Proverbs 11:24-25 tells us “One person gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”

And Matthew 6:1-4 reminds us: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

 

Take those thoughts into the Silence…

Namaste

Honor thy father and thy mother

Well, we’re half way through this series on the Ten Commandments. What have you learned so far?
Did you notice that the first 4 had to do with loving the God of your understanding? First, recognizing that there is only One God and then that we should honor that God and not carelessly use the name we’ve given to that God to attempt to strengthen our vow for earthly things. We were reminded to watch what we say when using our I AM.
And last week we were given reminders of what the Sabbath REALLY means and how we can honor it.
How did you do with that? Take any naps?

 

Now we will begin looking at how to get along with each other. Seems as if THIS is something we can’t seem to get right!
Lets all commit to doing our part to promote peace and love in our world, wherever that is and however that looks.
And that is my political statement for the day. Your responsibility is to do what is yours to do.
So, back to walking for 40 years through the desert, we would have to quickly learn how to get along with the other people in this group of thousands, would we not? Try to imagine that for a moment…..these people were not just Jewish, there were Gentiles included too…any slave was set free from many countries, anyone who wished could travel with the group. And all their animals and many pieces of household goods packed in all sorts of animals and carts and wagons.

Now, how would you handle getting along with all that?…….
Right, A bit difficult.

Today we take a look at “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

This is the only one of the “10 words” that includes a condition…’so that you may live long in the land your Lord is giving you.’

What do you think that is about?

We’ll see….

Eric Butterworth reminds us, “we are spiritual beings, so God is our true father, and the divine tie always transcends blood tie.”

He also states, “we will never be able to fit into any human relationship until you can see yourself as a child of God.”

This statement falls into what Neal Donald Walsh states in his Commitment: “You shall honor your mother and father-and you will know you are the Son of God when you honor your Father/Mother God in all that you say or do or think. And even as you so honor the Mother/Father God, and your father and mother on Earth, (for they have given you life), so, too, will you honor everyone.”

John 3:16 reminds us – “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
We are the “the only begotten Son”, each one of us.

The spiritual fulfillment of this commandment lies in our reverence for our Creator in whom the father quality of wisdom is joined with the mother quality of love. The masculine & feminine attributes are likewise present in each of us, the image and likeness of God.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:27

Emmitt Fox says we must recognize God as the only Cause, the only Power – & that is where we receive days that are long with no troubles or difficulties.

Where our part in ‘cause’ comes in is in our thoughts.

The word ‘Man” means a thinker, your acts happen through your thoughts.
But thought has no power unless it is accompanied by feeling – male & female. Balance!

 

Our Challenge, then according to Leonard Felding, is – How do you honor a parent when there’s tension between you?

The Parent-child relationship one of the most complex for humanity. But we can find honor for our parents by understanding what honor means.

The word for honor actually is 2 sided – heaviness, weightiness, difficulty, burden or honor, give importance or weight to someone, sooooo, this could mean honoring your parents is a heavy burden or it can be an opportunity to give weight or importance to bring honor & dignity to 2 people who need your support.
Whether we honor them as an irritating burden or a heartfelt opportunity, depends on:
1. Deciding whether or not to forgive. We often have unresolved resentments, we can choose to forgive to allow for the possibility of better relations. Edwin H. Chapin, “Never does the human soul appear so strong & noble as when it forgoes revenge & dares to forgive an injury.”

Incorrect to assume forgiveness means we have to forget, whitewash or minimize the things that happen…”forgiveness presupposes remembering” Paul Tillich

Forgiveness is an action of the heart, defined as – pardon or release from punishment; to give up anger, resentment, or the need for revenge; to show mercy or compassion. Each definition – They acknowledge an offender & an offense, but also allow you to turn your heart toward healing & release. Forgiveness allows you to build a positive while making sure to not repeat what happened.

2. Learning to create healthy & respectful limits

WE need to set healthy Boundaries & respectful limits – and that means how you chose to let people get to you emotionally & how well you protect yourself when someone is too close.

3. Uncovering the best ways to help your parents as they grow older or decline in health.
How do we help our parents as they become ill, when they feel isolated, and they become increasingly dependent on us for financial, emotional, & caregiving support.

Ask for help as you need it;
View yourself as a caregiving manager instead of a victim,
Stay healthy yourself

This is a chance to feel close to your parents…both your earthly parents & your Spiritual parent.

Our Sr. Joan calls this – The Law of Caring
And I can see why….

Chittister tells us this Commandment asks us to look at how we care for those who have gone before us, have shown us the way…and to consider our debt to the generations to come.

It is what we learn from those before us that enable us to go forward fearlessly

While pursuing my license from Unity, I was required to attend a weekend retreat at the Village. I chose one for Gay & Lesbians. It was a wonderful experience filled with music and discussion, meeting others. That’s where I first met Kathleen.

One part, the Saturday evening before we would finish on Sunday, the leaders asks all the participant to move to different sides of the room, based upon our age. Those on one side, over 50 and the other under 50.

Then he explained that the ‘younger’ side could thank the ‘older’ side because they set the tone, they led the way to change, to go from harasment and sometimes physical abuse, or more, to tolerance and finally acceptance. (Still working on that one)

It was a very moving experience, to be acknowledged for the path that you helped to forge so that others could find freedom and acceptance.

I believe THIS is what Sr. Joan is talking about.

The people who go before us, bringing the energy of the Universe higher and higher. They deserve our special care, reverence & acknowledgment.

We are seeing this happen in our society recently with the Woman’s Movement revival and the Me too and Times Up movements.

We too often disregard yesterday’s knowledge as obsolete. “When the Sage dies, the whole world morns.” The Talmud.

It was a sad time when I came to understand that the younger women in the US had no idea about what the people from before 2000 did for Women’s Rights. And how frightening it seemed to us as the legislatures in States and the Federal Government were chipping away at those rights. The Circle has come around again.

This commandment demands respect for the past & keeps us in touch with our roots. It questions what it means to be a family. I can attest that my idea of family goes way beyond my blood line.

The Native Americans teach: no decision should be made without considering its effect up to the 7th generation

If only our leaders around the world would remember this.

We must learn to consider the past seriously & the future thoughtfully. We do not wish for history to repeat itself with dire results.

This Law of the Heart asks that we honor whatever it is, whoever it is whose place in our life has been a place of honor, the ones who brought us to growth, to a wholeness of life, whose ways have given direction to our own path.

Confucius: “Without feelings of respect, what is there to distinguish men & women from beasts?

Eric Butterworth – adds that this Commandment could ask us to accept the burden of your female and male sides. And the burden that you are heavy with the Christ of your being, the whole creature that you are created ultimately to become; your unborn possibility of limitless experience; …….it tells us to respect ourselves.

He believes putting too much emphasis on the role of our parents makes graven images of them – too often stifling of individuality and personal development.

Then we let guilt color our thinking, believing personal unfoldment has no place.
But as we honor our father & mother & all family relationships, we free each person to their own experience, and accept that freedom for ourselves. We shall respect the individuality, honoring all privacy, encourage everyone’s intellectual & spiritual growth.

Meister Eckhart “No matter what the relationship, your first loyalty must be to the divine flow…and to let God be God in you.”

Think about this – if we put family, country—anything!—ahead of our commitment to expressing as the Christ, as God expressing as us, we will not be able to fully express that Christ energy. We need to be in the flow of love constantly – Jesus taught –“love your enemies” to refuse to honor parents who seem to have been less-than-stellar examples of good parenting, we are placing OUR OWN conditions on God’s commandment!

Our spiritual commitment must be absolute if we are to manifest our Christ nature in our human experience.

It must be more important to us than even our closest human relationships, more important than the personal challenge and discomfort that will inevitably express as we allow the Christ energy to guide us through life.

It’s not that we must sever the bonds of family that are so important, but that we must always put our commitment to Spirit first.

It’s a lot like the First Commandment. The Lord of our Being must be our highest and only priority. If we create “false gods” by making other things or people more important than God in our lives, we will not be able to follow Jesus and express our Christ nature.
SO it comes down to this …..What is mine to do? What is my purpose and how do I make my way keeping with Spirit in ALL things…expressing God as me in all ways.

Let’s begin our meditation with this affirmation:
I AM an expression of the Divine, created in the image and likeness of God. The same Christ Spirit that was in Jesus is in me.

 

NAMESTE

Great Morning Beloved!
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

Here we are, at Commandment #4.
Seems simple, doesn’t it? Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.

It appears we are to establish a special time for religious study and worship
But it did other things too.
What is the Sabbath day?
How do we keep it holy?
Sabbath means a period of rest. And as we look at the Creation story literally, after all the work to create the earth and all that lies within, I would need a day of rest too!
The Jewish people held to the law strictly in the beginning. NOTHING was to be done on the Sabbath, at the penalty of stoning to death.
We aren’t that harsh today…thankfully for us or there would be many stonings!

Society grew away from the death penalty for missing church, but the Puritan influence strongly suggested that it was a sin to miss church service.
Any of you remember the Blue laws? Stores, resturants, gas stations were closed on Sundays, we all had to plan ahead for food and gas. One area Drug Store was deemed essential to be open for emergencies in my younger days. Of course, Pennsylvania was a bit slow in dropping those laws.

Eventually it became more a fear of not going to Service, because our religious domestication instilled the fear of God into us.
As society became more and more secular, it was important to be seen going to church, but not necessarily following through on the preaching through the week,

But we at Unity do not look at the Bible literally. And there is more to this than the command to go to church.

Let’s look at what our scholars have to say…I’m pretty sure something will interest you.

Neal Donald Walsh looks at this 4th Commandment as a commitment:
Commitment: You shall remember to keep a day for Me, and you shall call it holy. This, so that you do not long stay in your illusion but cause yourself to remember who and what you are. And then shall you soon call every day the Sabbath. And every moment holy.

The sabbath laws were not created by God, but by humans. They were created specifically to help us stay connected to our divine Source. We are not here in this human experience simply to obey spiritual laws in hopes of a reward in heaven. We are here to express more of the power of God—to create the kingdom of heaven here and now.
The laws are intended to help us remember and retain our spiritual purpose. But each of us is fully and uniquely connected to God as Source, and that connection, and the guidance it offers us, is more reliable than any pre-existing laws.

WE truly should not need a law to tell us to love God, to honor that Source of all that is visible and invisible.

The full version of this Commandment is:
“Exodus 20:8-11 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The Jewish concept of Sabbath was unique, it’s a philosophy of life, a teaching, a guide to the good life…a reminder to us that we are all “made in the image of God,” human beings, equals…actually it could be said, the forefront to our Constitution.
This commandment emphasizes the sacredness of the individual; it applies to everyone: family, slaves, foreign residents, even to animals!
The seven days of creation are the time that it takes to create a new condition in your life. In any kind of work that you do, you must have a Sabbath. The creation story does not deal with time but with stages of unfoldment.
The mystical meaning of 7 is personal perfection. And ‘holy’ in this reference, means ‘set apart’. The 7th day should be set apart for personal perfection. Metaphysically, 7 is completion…that would be completing the creation cycle.

Each of us is to set time aside for the God of our understanding, for us to take time to work on who we wish to be.

Sabbaths are much more difficult in contemporary America. In fact, in a society that values busyness and productivity, observing the Sabbath is downright counter cultural, unfortunately.
Edythe Draper, Christian writer, “In my grandparents’ day it was called the Holy Sabbath, in my Parents’ Day the Sabbath, and today we just call it the weekend.” Catching up on work, errands, watching sports, playing golf.
Unfortunately.

The key to the Sabbath isn’t merely rest. Rather, it’s that in our rest we turn our attention to God. The Sabbath is an inner as well as an outer thing

Felding calls the Commandments a CHALLENGE – the struggle to unhook from your everyday pressures and connect with something profoundly joyful.
That sounds appropriate for todays society.

Wayne Muller from “Sabbath”:
“In the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest. We have lost this essential rhythm… Our culture invariably supposes that action and accomplishment are better than rest, that doing something – anything – is better than doing nothing. Because of our desire to succeed, to meet these ever growing expectations, we do not rest. Because we do not rest, we lose our way… We miss the joy and love born of effortless delight. Poisoned by this hypnotic belief that good things come only through unceasing determination and tireless effort, we can never truly rest. And for want of rest, our lives are in danger.”
This Challenge will ask you to reexamine what Sabbath really means and how to make it a healthy and positive part of your life
Felding sees the Sabbath meaning resting, to cease from activity in progress, to put everything in its proper place which can only be done by taking a step back and looking at your life from a different perspective
It’s an opportunity to break free of the unfulfilling directions we get pulled into during the week and turn toward a more spiritual way of life. And we all get pulled into these directions…it’s how we respond to them that makes Sabbath important.

Ask yourself…What would deepen your sense of freedom each week?
Here are some ways to make the Sabbath richer
1. Choose what you need to stop doing each Sabbath to have a day of freedom from the strivings of the material world. I wonder how many of us could give up TV, or phones or computer…for a day…even half a day (and the part that you are awake!)
2. Select a few favorite activities that will reawaken your sense of Sabbath joy each week-
a. Lighting candles-the light of the candles symbolizes and reawakens the divine inner light we carry inside our hearts,
b. Napping – traditional for healing benefits and to connect with the dreams of our souls
c. Making love-making sexuality into a sacred moment of connection with the Divine Oneness is found in many spiritual traditions. Lovemaking that is relaxed, unrushed, and devoted to a higher purpose can be the most cherished spiritual moment for busy couples
d. Walking-calmly & slowly..walking meditation, help find a quiet center inside
e. Special meal – relaxed, entire family sits down together
f. Singing-good voice or not, the joy of singing with family & friends gives a sense of warmth & closeness
g. Dancing-fun, no matter what type of dancing folk helps us to remember our roots
h. Blessings for family members-prayers of encouragement & encouragement
i. Spiritual study – going a little deeper each week
j. Giving to charity-giving money, helping where needed, visiting elderly, gives a sense of sharing, reminds us to be grateful for what we have, however much it is
k. Special conversations-focus on the blessings and personal growth achieved through the weeks
l. See how much of the Sabbath feeling you can take with you into the week.
Alice Walker, “Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.”

Sr. Joan Chittister – calls this The law of remembrance
She says Life is about listening to the music of the soul.
She reminds us that work is important but it’s a distraction from meaning. Reflection is of the essence of being human.
What do you think of this statement —
Sabbath is about time & who gets it & how they get to use it.
She sounds a little feisty.
She says Sabbath is a day of rest because people are human & ought not be driven to death—every living thing needs time to renew itself.
To her, It was a protest against slavery, this Law made equals of us all because it required rest for all.

Unfortunately, we have enslaved ourselves as well as failed to notice the new kinds of slavery that are being created around us. Reexamine your life…where are you a slave?
I’ve mentioned several times, one of the things that draws me to Unity Principles is that we must be responsible for ourselves. We are accountable for the way we live our lives, the way we do or do not develop our humanity, the way we allow the abuse of others.
We are made for reflection & unless we do it, unless we reflect on what we are doing as humans to other humans, to the earth, to the cosmos, we become nothing but cogs in the enslaving system.

We must take the time to remember that we came from God and to determine what we are doing in process of returning there.
Take time to let Spirit breathe life into your whole being, to pause and become centered in the divine flow of life, love, and substance. On level of consciousness as well as time.

So, simply said, Sabbath is anytime you remember the allness of God present where you are. God is always there, everywhere, we forget that…

As we pray and gather with like minded folks, we will come to realize that God is working in you and in all your affairs. There will be a sense in which every day will be a Sabbath, because for you every day will be a holy day. — there will be no distinction between the secular and the sacred.

THAT is what we all are working for. Then EVERYTHING, EVERY DAY will be Holy.
Charles Fillmore said the ultimate in Sabbath-keeping is – “within every person there is a church service going on all the time & one needs only to enter in & experience it.”

 

Namaste.

Great Morning Beloved!!

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

Welcome back to our look at the 10 Commandments from several different views. Recall that we stated the 10 Commandments are really interpreted as the 10 ‘words’ or ‘phrases’.
And the purpose of these 10 ‘words’ is to help keep us in alignment with the flow of Divine energy. If we look at our soul’s journey using the Bible as allegory, the laws were set to help us learn what we needed to do to get along in society and, in doing so, we learn to work out of Divine Law.
That is our purpose.
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.

People usually interpret this as meaning that we should never use God’s name in an irreverent manner. Of course, this is true but taking God’s name in vain goes much deeper.
When we were kids, we probably thought this or maybe even said it when being teased by others… “Stick and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me”
But word can hurt us -what we call a thing has serious implications
Linguist S Potter states, “A primitive man felt that the relationship between name and thing. was close and intimate. The frivolous or malicious handling of a name in speech might imply insult or injury to the person bearing that name. The very name was hallowed.”

In ancient cultures, naming – knowing the essence of the thing—was part of a person’s identity. A signal of their place in life, their purpose, their role in the community, their power.
It was to endow them with the characteristics of the name itself
In Greek – Sandy – Defender of men; protector of mankind.
Maybe you would want to look up what your name means…just for fun. In the meantime, I will continue to defend humankind!

 

Looking at this 3rd Commandment with new eyes, we see the name of God really is our conviction concerning God.

Emmet Fox asks: “What do you think God is like? What is your REAL belief about God?”
These are questions we really need to ask ourselves.
Fox says ‘your idea of God will determine your whole life…health, appearance, home, business, friends, enemies.’
No matter what you call God the real name for God is your idea of God
The question “Do you believe in God?” cannot be answered until you say what kind of God you believe in…. that gives it meaning.
Think on that for a minute….
Do you believe in a God from the Old Testament – one that gets angry and tends to be fickle?
Or do you believe in the “ABBA” or Father from the New Testament, a loving God who calls you a Child of God?
These are important questions for us all to find the answers within.

 

Neal Donald Walsh’s take on these Commandment is a Commitment.

Commitment; You shall not use the name of God in vain. Nor will you call upon Me for frivolous things. You will understand the power of words, and thoughts, and you would not think of invoking the name of God in an ungodly manner. You shall not use My name in vain because you cannot. For my name-the Great “I AM”-is never used in vain (that is, without result), nor can it ever be. And when you have found God, you shall know this.

You cannot take the name of God [your conviction concerning God] in vain. Whatever your idea of God is, whatever idea you really believe in, that is what will be expressed in your life.
And when you have found God, you shall know this.
I think that statement is important too.
So, what do you think of all that!?! DO you get it? We can’t take in vain because there is always a result.

The important point Walsh is making here, I think, is the energy of our words and thoughts. There is always a result of what we think and say.
Remember – cause & effect?

SO, again, watch your words. Watch your thoughts.

 

Buddhism, Hinduism and others speak of ‘monkey mind’ which interrupts our connection to God & our true purpose. But monkey mind holds power only to the extent that we believe it is the normal flow of our life process. By naming it that, we have given monkey mind power.
Where do we give our power away?

 

It’s time to break free- Find a way to confront what’s been distracting you or holding you back…. bare your soul to the God of your understanding, to God’s compassion.
The Jewish word for compassion also can mean ‘womb’, ‘womblike’-you bare your soul surrounded by warmth & caring
When we are going thru hard time is precisely the time when we need to open up & let a higher sense of guidance & support in to give added strength & clarity.

 

Our next scholar, Joan Chittister, calls the 2nd Commandment the Law of Respect.
She suggests that when we swear to anything, we not only dishonor God but we take into question our own integrity…swearing will not make a truth any truer and will actually make an untruth worse.

 

The greater corruption in the name of Spirit, if there is a ‘greater,’ is trying to ‘play’ God with God’s name…assuming we know the mind of God and judging the world by that standard, our standard.
“God will get you for that”
“God doesn’t like little girls who do that”
“God punishes little boys who do that”
We use the name given to God to prove our piety, to manipulate others…the gay and lesbian population has been the brunt of this for decades! To believe those who vilify our community, we have caused hurricanes and fires and tsunamis all because we are cursed by God.
Any who invoke God to justify prejudice, to explain oppression, to enthrone absolutism, to enshrine authoritarianism, speak of God in vain.

God makes us all and loves us all. God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good.

The Sufi tell a story of the teacher who sent his disciples to have a new shirt made for the upcoming feast day.
“This is a very busy time and so the shirt is still in process. But come back in a week,” said the tailor, “And God willing, your shirt will be ready.”
But it was not
“Come back next week, “said the tailor the second time, “and if God shines on us, your new shirt will be finished.”
But it was not.
“Come back tomorrow.” The tailor said, “and if God blesses us, your new shirt will be waiting for you.”
When the disciples explained to their master the tale of the unfinished shirt, the master said, “Go back to the tailor and ask him how long it will take to finish the shirt if he leaves God out of it?”

This commandment warns us against bringing God to bear witness to what should need no witness at all; Why swear to anything…if we are telling the truth, it’s not necessary; it brings our own integrity into question

 

Leonard Felder looks at these Commandments as Challenges. He sees them as different interpretations as ways to get along with others.
“If you want to find out how well you are living up to your spiritual values and higher principles, pay close attention to how you behave in the middle of an argument or a tense moment involving someone you live with, work with, or are in love with.”
So Felding says this set of ‘words’ could be:
#1 A helpful reminder not to make promises you won’t be able to keep esp. when you ‘swear to God’ you will.
Sound familiar to anyone?

#2 It could be a reminder not to become rigid or self-righteous when you disagree with someone. We must Learn to control anger, insecurity, and self-righteousness.

#3 It’s also a warning against using hurtful words, against the common human tendency to use God’s name as a weapon to get back at someone, esp. loved ones when you are upset or angry

#4 And it reminds us not to take others for granted.

Did anyone feel a pull on their heart when these were read? If so, that is where some work maybe could be done.

Your I AM is your identity. In fact, it is your only identity. Only you can say the words I am. Only you can direct the energy of these words to a universe waiting to do your bidding.

Years ago a television commercial for a stock brokerage company featured a crowded room filled with noisy people. The camera focused on two of the people who were speaking privately. One said to the other, “My broker is so-and-so, and they say … ” Suddenly the room became quiet as everyone turned to listen intently to what so-and-so thought about the stock market.
In a similar way, all the creative energies of the universe stop and listen when we say, “I am … ” since it is their function to bring us whatever it is that we’re claiming for ourselves. They are always ready to spring into action whenever a claim is entered.
We are co-creators of our world with God, our use of our I AM is the dynamic shaper of our world. It is the presence of God being you. Our I AM is an ongoing creative energy, always bringing into our world exactly what we ourselves identify with. It is using our I AM that we form and shape the circumstances and events of life.

Your real I AM cannot be angry. Your true I AM cannot be afraid. Your authentic I AM cannot be sick because I AM is the name of the God nature in you. I AM is the essence of the God potential which expresses as you. Therefore, I AM is all-peace, all-power, all-wholeness.
So, whenever you attach a negative or untruth to your I AM, it is then that you are taking God’s name in vain.

We have a choice in what we say & a responsibility to say it in ways that are positive
” Let something good be said” –sounds like ‘if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything. But that goes for THOUGHTS, too.
Be reminded – The darkness is only dealt with positively if we bring a light.
There is a story told of the Buddha when one day, he was addressing his followers and a man approached him and proceeded to unleash a stream of obscenities at him. The Buddha remained silent, softly smiling at the man – which caused the verbal abuse to become even more vicious. Finally, the attacker stopped and asked the Buddha why he was unmoved by what was being said to him.

The Buddha replied with a question “If you are offered a gift and refuse to accept it – to whom does the gift belong?” “I suppose, it still belongs to the giver,” the man replied.

“Well” responded the Buddha “I have declined your gift.”

I leave you with this thought:
Almost every major act of destruction in history has been while calling on the name of God for its legitimation: the Crusades, the witch burnings, apartheid. And no one said a word about sinning against the commandment. Which only proves how easy it is to become your own god.

 

Lenten Series The 10 Commitments: #2 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.

Welcome back to our Series on the 10 ‘words’ or phrases…better know as the 10 Commandments. I hope you are contemplating some of the ideas being presented.

When we choose to look at the Bible as a metaphor as we wander through life, we can then take another look at the 10 Commandments from a variety of viewpoints. This is a great way to remind ourselves that they are a wonderful way to aid our souls journey.
Why look at them now, at this point in our lives? Because we are maturing on a soul level…just as the child Jesus; “The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him” (Luke 2:40)
Metaphysically, we have left Egypt, or ‘sense consciousness’ to wake up from our limiting thoughts.
We started last week with “I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other Gods before me.” I asked you to think about that…have you placed the God of your understanding, first in your life?

 

This week, we look at #2: Exodus 20: 4-6
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

“Graven” means carved. But we are not just referring to carved images here, as you will hear.
Do you think of yourself as an idolator?

We humans have a tendency, at least sometime in our lives, to place “graven images” first. Can you think of any in your own life? Making money, our jobs, maybe a person; thinking they are the source of our happiness?
Emmet Fox suggests that if we each look into our hearts we would see that there are/were many idols that we did bow down to.
Eric Butterworth states in “MetaMorality”: “Every kind of sin committed by man boils down to a kind of idolatry…putting something before God.”
Whenever we give power to anything but Spirit, we are making that ‘thing’ a graven image.
Now think, there is a difference between admiring something, liking something, and the joy and happiness expressed is an expression of Spirit.
“It is the beauty and life and joy of God shining through it. We are not giving it power.”
I am very happy that the Philadelphia Eagles are in the Super Bowl, but I do not worship the team or give it any power over me.
And I love whoppie pies from the PA Bakery but am not devastated that I forgot the ones I bought on Wednesday and left them at Barbara’s. Now she gets to enjoy them while I had the pleasure of enjoying her special cookie that I always buy for her when I go to PA Bakery.
Do we think it’s the end of the world? No. Just another excuse to go home again soon!
Emmet Fox reminds us of giving power to what ails us…notice, I do not say ‘my accident’ or my back pain. This body has pain. There was an accident in 2014. Try hard to not own the events in your life…respond to them.
Watch your words. Watch your thoughts.

 

Leonard Felder’s Challenge in his book, “The 10 Challenges..” looks at this 2nd ‘words’ as “breaking free of unfulfilling paths and habits.”

We forget we are-capable of having a direct & personal relationship with the Divine deep inside our consciousness. We have no need for idols, external imitation.
“We get sidetracked, give up our power, modern-day addictions & pressures that cause us to forget that our purpose here is to be a vehicle for Divine energies.”—Ted Falcon, rabbi
There is a common human tendency to get distracted, we take detours, we try to escape—esp. when we are anxious, impatient.

Matthew 6:24 reminds us “No one can serve two masters….”
“What we acknowledge to be our master, to that we are a servant.”
Too often we look for Immediate gratification.
And then, the thing we’ve grabbed on to in place of Spirit turns out to be an illusion and we need to slow down again to find our way back.
Think about the Golden calf story as if you were there – Moses is up on the mountain, there’s some weird smoke and fire going on, he’s gone for weeks. Thousands of you have been wandering the desert for months…
Would you have become impatient, started doubting, looked for immediate gratification? Be honest….
Today, are you able to say no to impulsive detours when times are tough?
The daily ups & downs of wrestling with our doubts & breaking free of seductive idols & distractions requires perseverance & resilience.
And strength to walk away from the ice cream!
This 2nd Commandment…is a compassionate, useful warning that says as you seek to deepen your spirituality, you will have plenty of chances to give up, get distracted, or feel drawn to illusions & paths that leave you feeling empty.
It’s about waking up your soul each day to connect to true spiritual essence.
When we are impatient, we are susceptible to idols.
We must find a way to quiet our anxious mind and to live life fully awaken, alive, in touch, not distracted, numbed out or spiritually asleep.

Matt. 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it. Beware of false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.…”
What does that passage say to you? Have you noticed that the ‘way’ has become narrow and the masses have taken the wider, easier path?

 

G I Gurdjieff – “Moments of consciousness are very short & are separated by long intervals of completely unconscious, mechanical living…you can think, feel, act, speak and work without being conscious.”

SO how can we be more conscious? Well, by doing our self-work. By attending classes and Lessons and by prayer and meditation and contemplation.
That’s why we are here, this morning…because we have heard the yearning of our Soul and are finally listening.

Now, let’s see what Neal Donald Walsh has to say about what he calls a Commitment…
“No longer will you worship human love, or success, money, or power, nor any symbol thereof. You will set aside these things as a child sets aside toys. Not because they are unworthy, but because you have outgrown them.”
What do you think of that!?!

Is there a time in our lives when we out grow the need to place power in other than the God of our understanding? Isn’t that what brings us to places like Unity?

Buddhism, Hinduism and others speak of ‘monkey mind’ which interrupts our connection to God & our true purpose. But monkey mind holds power only to the extent that we believe it is the normal flow of our life process. By naming it that, we have given monkey mind our power.
We need to break free- Find a way to confront what’s been distracting you or holding you back….bare your soul to the God of your understanding, to God’s compassion The Jewish word for compassion also can mean ‘womb’, ‘womblike’-you bare your soul surrounded by warmth& caring
Bear Heart, a Native American writer. “If we really want to know ourselves, at some point we’re going to have to surrender to a Higher Wisdom who knows all about us-our weaknesses, our mistakes, and our potentials. Many NA tribes do that through our meditation known as the ‘Vision Quest’- the setting aside of time & place, alone out in nature, to communicate with a Higher Being and explore that which is within.”

When we are going thru hard times is precisely the time when we need to open up & let a higher sense of guidance & support in to give added strength & clarity.
Our 3rd scholar, Joan Chittister, a Benedictine Nun, calls this Commandment the Law of Reflection
Our God is not of human making, not of this world, not to be reduced to anything material.
This Law of the Heart prods us to examine again and again what it is that we have placed before God…what we have made our god instead.

This may be the easiest Commandment to break for us, but now that we are made aware, now that we can search our heart and remove those Golden Calves.
The One God, the One Spirit, the One Divine Presence is within, waiting for us. It is the shortest distance from our head to our heart, but the journey can be long. God awaits there for us.