Great Morning Beloved!!

Spiritual Economics A grateful heart & Work & the Success Syndrome

SO, what did you think of Andrea’s Lesson on the Spirituality of Curiosity? Did you let yourself become more curious? I hope so, that was the whole point.

And I appreciate Andrea stepping up so I could have time to recover some from surgery. And for all your prayers and help. Thank you.

We are back again for some Spiritual Economics. We’ve learned many important ideas that are valuable for our spiritual prosperity. One of the most important is that ‘substance’ is beneath everything. That’s God substance. And that is what we create with.

We were reminded of what role our perception plays in how we see things and that ties into our Consciousness.
Let’s continue with this week’s topics, A grateful heart & Work & the Success Syndrome.

Butterworth tells us, “Your most important asset is the conscious control of your own life.”

Yet we allow events, people, things, and economic conditions to take control of us… why do we allow that?

Here’s an example of control…. Pg. 86
Perhaps this is an example of the healing influence of a controlled life sustained by an attitude of gratitude. And it is proving that thanksgiving is not just a reactionary emotion; it is a causative energy.

But is gratitude necessary? We usually consider gratitude and thanksgiving obligatory. Someone does something for us and we feel the need to show some kind of appreciation.

Traditionalists would say we owe God thanks for our blessings. And we should be grateful as an important social grace. But God does not require us to be grateful, it doesn’t make any difference to Divine Spirit.

The difference is to us. Giving thanks is an important state of our consciousness that keeps us in an awareness of oneness with divine flow. A grateful heart does not need something to be grateful for; it simply flows from within and becomes a causative energy. Think on that a bit…..

A grateful heart helps to keep us centered in the ever-presence of substance. And that is the key to personal prosperity.

Having a grateful heart starts with getting the view of any conflict, any appearance of lack or limitation, from the top. Before you react in negativity, take a moment to lift your eyes; contemplate all the changing, challenging experiences from the highest point of view. See all things from the awareness of the allness of life and ever-present substance.

This view gives us an opportunity to see things creatively, from an attitude that is constructive and optimistic. Not one that is from a sense of inadequacy and insufficiency. To count your blessings from a limitation consciousness effectively compounds the problem.

Theodore Roosevelt used to say; “Do what you can with what you have right where you are.” Give thanks from that view, for there is abundance everywhere.

Jesus always looked up, giving thanks from the view at the top, from that elevated consciousness. And in that blessing, he conferred prosperity upon whatever thing he was blessing.

We can do it too. When we bless our Love offering, from what consciousness are you blessing? Are you truly saying it with Love, from that grateful heart? Or are you saying the blessing from rote, just a habitual thing? Or even from a state of limitation?

The same goes for any instance where you are blessing – your food, your home or family, other people….from what perspective are you blessing?

Some would question that they have nothing to be grateful for…in those cases, we need to stir up the gift of gratitude. We only need the desire to feel grateful.

Plato’s law: “When you feel grateful, you become great, and eventually attract great things”

Part of our issue with abundance is our attitude toward our work. Greek philosopher, Zeno says, “The most important part of learning is to unlearn our errors.”

And one of those erroneous beliefs are those surrounding our work.

Why do you work?
If your only response was to make a living, you may be frustrating your creative flow. How, you may ask?
It’s about the attitude you have toward your work.
Remember, your prosperity will always be a reflection of your consciousness, the degree to which your thoughts are centered in the divine flow. So, unless we unlearn our error thoughts regarding our work, we will be out of sync with the creative flow of the universe.
And what needs to be changed? This – work is a giving process. It is the means by which we build a consciousness of giving, which in turn gives rise to a receiving flow.

If the left hand, receiving your pay, knows what the right hand does for your job, then there is no real giving, only bartering.

For example: a distinguished Harvard professor said, “The University pays me for doing what I would gladly do for nothing, if I could afford it.” He is saying that his work is not just a place to tediously make a living but an opportunity to joyously live his making…the privilege to grow as a person. Growth is what life is all about.
Unfortunately, many of us are creating hidden frustrations with our work ethics…trying to do as little as possible for that paycheck.

While working for the PA State Education Department, one of the comments too often about people, especially as they got closer to retirement, would be RIP – retired in place. They were doing as little as possible to put in the time until they were at retirement age.
Pg. 106
They may get away with it; but they can never get away from it.
What do you think that means? (Think about consciousness)

It means, if Life is a growth process and we grow through giving, how are they growing? Are they giving and if so, with what mindset?

This is spiritual law, if you are not growing doing your work, then something must be wrong. Kahlil Gibran tells us: “If you cannot work with love but only with distaste, then you should quit your job and go sit at the Temple and beg alms from those who work with joy.”

Every day we must work to earn the level of consciousness by which we are sustained and prospered. What we do affects our focus on consciousness that regulates the flow of affluence into our lives. Make a commitment to work for your spiritual well-being.

This is true for businesses and corporations too; the collective consciousness of the workers determines the spiritual consciousness of that business or corporation.

So, if you are lacking in the ‘alive, alert, awake, joyous and enthusiastic consciousness, you are frustrating yourself and not growing as a person, but you also are not adding to the growth of the company.

How does that apply to us here at Unity? What is your commitment to Unity? Are you a body in a chair, coming occasionally? Are you involved in classes and activities?

Do you volunteer your time and talents?

Have you taken ownership of Unity of Rehoboth Beach?

When you discipline yourself, your consciousness will bring about a change in the job, making it right for you and the company; or another job will open benefiting everyone.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “No matter what your work, let it be your own. No matter what your occupation, let what you are doing be organic. Let it be in your bones. In this way you will open the door by which the affluence of heaven and earth shall stream into you.”

When you work in the right consciousness, when your work becomes organically a part of your whole self, and when you do your work out of that commitment, no matter what other people do, no matter what the compensation may be, doing it for the health of your own soul, then you open the door by which the Universe flows into your life.
WE must do the work. “God can do no more for you than God can do through you.”

We must begin to do what we do in the awareness that we are working with God for the releasing of our inner splendor, our connection to the affluence of heaven on earth.

We all have Divine gifts, patterns that when you realize them, you really know you are giving of yourself. If you work is not satisfying, if we are closed off from this pattern, we get frustrated, and this frustration can lead to addiction issues.

We often see this, where a person starts out doing one thing and changes course to a completely different direction. I’m reminded of singer Neil Diamond who was supposed to be a doctor, but his music just couldn’t leave him be. He gave up one for the other and was much happier.

Begin to think of your work as a vocation, a calling. The creative process is calling you and so your work becomes easy and fulfilling.

The only one who can keep you from success is you by blocking your own creative flow. Your desire to get ahead, your urge to succeed, is your intuitive awareness of something within you that wants to succeed through you.
But don’t get the ‘Success Syndrome.’ It is at once the key to success and the reason for much failure. The urge for success is basic to the American dream. But the term success is defined differently by most. Don’t feel guilty if you do not desire to be at the top of the heap in your work. Many are just as happy right where they are.
Progression is not measured alone by the title on the office door.

The drive to succeed is basic to human beings, but instead of seeing it as a cosmic urge to be more, it is usually interpreted as the desire to have more.

Unfortunately, this pressure to succeed starts early, children are more concerned with grades than actual learning. And we have seen the extent some parents are willing to go with the recent arrests of parents for cheating on college entrance test scores.

That ‘whatever it takes’ mentality has permeated all walks of our society. What is ours to do? We do our part, whatever that is.

Saying Yes to the universe opens the gate to receiving what your soul really wants.
Do you know what that is?

Think about all this as we go to meditation…

“Learning is by nature, curiosity” – according to Ancient Greek philosopher, PLATO

Contemporary human potential thought leader & author, Bryant McGill says “Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.”

Albert Eistein – The important thing is never stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.

Good morning Unity children of God. Thank you for being here. I am honored. Again, my name is Andrea Evans and I’ve been fortunate to live and learn as a Unity practitioner for some 30 years now. I’m grateful that it was curiosity that brought me to Unity.

That is one of many reasons, I believe the world and all its human inhabitants could use now – is additional curiosity about ideas and folks who seem odd /different than us. Instead of closing them out, what if we welcomed them in? Asking questions, genuinely desiring to know more about their ideas & origins? It’s difficult to dislike someone who shows a true interest in us.

I’m going to begin with reasons curiosity fascinates me, share ideas from spiritual way showers on the topic, offer two life examples then bring it on home.

I didn’t grow up with my parents. I was raised by grandparents and various aunts and uncles. I hated being away from my Mom. When we did get together, she was playful, fun, young and more liberal than my guardian aunts, uncles and grandparents.

I was 7 when I realized the rules, expectations and lifestyles in each household of my guardians were quite different one from other. Yet, they were ALL my family! I puzzled over that for a while then just accepted it. Different was “normal family” for me. Consequently, I expected everybody was a bit unusual. That variety was okay or average.

Looking back in retrospect, what I thought was worse about my childhood – not being with my Mom, I now see for its gifts – It turns out the feeling that caused me sadness as a child has given my life a zest that I’m glad I got –I treasure my sense of curiosity today. What’s more — I see it as the best example of God’s plan being SO much better than mine from the outset.

It reminds me of this Caroline Myss statement: “Just let go. Let go of how you think your life should be and embrace the life that is trying to work its way into your consciousness.”

In the quest for truth, curiosity is a valuable trait according to spiritual life mentor – Greg Richardson of Strategic Monk. Com. Richardson defines curiosity as “an innate, willing desire to know and understand more fully.” Curiosity is an innate enthusiasm for discovery and learning.

In children we call it “wonder – their power to explore and trust the unfamiliar to learn how to interact with the yet to be known. It is in that child wonder – their open hearts make the exploration joyful.”

This reminds me – Matthew 19-14 – Jesus said, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.”

We are ALL children of God regardless of our years on this Earth. Yet for some, as we age we can get set in our ideas, ways, and expectations and totally convince ourselves we know the outcome of life events yet to unfold. That tendency can stop us in our tracks and limit possibilities.

Okay, let me walk that back a bit. It isn’t always age that entrenches us in our opinions and expectations. That all-knowing attitude can appear at any age or stage in life.

For instance, as a teenager and in my 20s, I was a “too cool to fool” – a proud card carrying pessimist. Had the world and my role all figured out. So it is NOT chronological aging but our individual perceptions that allow or limit our exploration of life and attain insight.

There are many ways to gain spiritual insight. The Strategic Monk, Richardson explains, some people accept the spiritual teaching learned as children and remain there for life.

Some analyze as much information as they can and take a rational approach.

Others want more of an emotional experience rather than analytical. They believe spiritual life is to comfort and help us and others feel better. I’m well suited to the spiritual curiosity mode of gaining spiritual insight.

Best-selling author on energy, healing and spirituality, Carolyn Myss, states, “Judgment is what disconnects us from our intuition (inner feelings) The mind cannot get us to the world of heaven. The mind cannot get us to the new era of understanding the nature of the Divine.”

Here is where curiosity can be KEY to unlock “boxed” thinking. Curiosity can challenge our habitual ways of thought in non-threatening – unassuming manner. It can begin with, “I wonder” “what if this or that?” Curiosity encourages us to let go of certainty and absolutes and be willing and open to new options and opportunities.

Now let me mention this caveat: Curiosity can be misused and become temptation or distraction. It is possible to be intensely curious about something you (instinctively sense) is wrong.

My advice use curiosity for your spirit’s advancement, for soul and/or self-knowledge. It’s easy to be curious about aspects of life that inspire, or bring joy. It is also possible to be curious about what causes us pain, discomfort and apparent suffering. I promise that practicing spiritual curiosity can and will provide surprises we’d rather not recognize or accept such as attributes we label (challenges, weakness or ego). They are all part of growing spiritually.

I think this life example demonstrates the surprise I didn’t want to see or believe within me;
Now remember the total pessimist I mentioned earlier? Well that was me my first semester at the University of DE – Intro to Political Science in this large lecture hall this dark skinned girl sat in front row alone. She laughed and chatted with the professor from the first day on. She had a winning smile, odd gestures and expressions. I couldn’t identify her accent. She wore other worldly colorful clothes and headdresses to class all the time. While most of us were in jeans and t-shirts.

Second third week of class the professor posted weekly test scores on his office door. I saw her there with great big smile. I asked why she smiled so much. She said she enjoyed life and she got a 98 on the test. I checked my grade – 84. I wasn’t smiling. That was the second test she’d gotten an A and I was low B.

We went our separate ways. Walking across campus, I realized I was racist -–like my grandfather. I had to admit I was jealous –confused- I was white and she black and she consistently got better grades than me in Poli Sci and that was my favorite class. I had African American friends -classmates since 5th grade. We got along fine. I never knew if they got better grades than me then. I never occurred to me.

She was so cheery and I didn’t want to be racist. That combination made me want to know more about who she was. I started sitting in the second row behind her in lectures. I asked questions and she started asking me questions! I learned about her life in Jamaica, college happiness even though she missed her family terribly. That was foreign to me too. I was glad to be away from family.

I do not recall her name now but she was the first college contemporary to show me there was plenty to be happy about in our college life days. She taught me to study for college classes. Sometimes during study break, she’d read a letter from home out loud –laugh, cry, sigh, stomp or stare beyond me or through me – and somehow along the way I realized, the value of family.

It was thanks to curiosity and our asking questions, that my joyous Jamaican friend demonstrated that the life in college and the promise beyond would and could be positive fun. Thanks to her there was a crack in my pessimistic attitude armor. My racism dwindled. My grin quotient and GPA climbed. My narrow minded world view expanded.
The next life lesson was fueled by curiosity and a romance gone wrong.

Two years out of college, I finished a summer job with an outdoor drama in St Augustine, FL. I wanted to stay but only found a part-time job as a reporter for small local newspaper. I had seen this bald, flamboyant woman late 30’s maybe 40 flitting about town. She was loud, friendly an open-book who wore dramatic flowing outfits, and period costumes even to downtown bars and diners. A real character – curiosity got me for sure

Sue Buie was a clothing designer, fabric artist recently divorced and commissioned to make historical clothes for re-enactors in St Augustine. Yes, she was an unabashed breathing billboard and if you asked about the outfit, you were in for a 5 -10-minute history lesson. Sue was interviewing for roommates to share five-bedroom Spanish manor two blocks from the newspaper building. Within a month I was there and we were looking for another roommate.

Life was good; well except I was crazy about this red-haired impressionist painter who worked downtown, only problem his feelings weren’t reciprocal. I pretended not to care, got moody and morose. Sue was happy go lucky as usual and her love life was absent, too. I noticed she was gone Sunday mornings when I get up. When she got home she was cheerful, confident maybe calmer/quieter than before. Something was up. I had to know.

Asking, I learned she was driving north to Jacksonville Unity Church. She said, her life was good and getting better every minute. I didn’t feel that way but I had to admit, she probably did. After weeks of me moping and probably drinking too much, she asked me to go to the Unity Church. I told her, I didn’t believe in a church “God.” Even hearing the word “God” made me mad. I told her God and I were on the outs. I’d stay out.

Sue asked what I thought God was? I said, God was supposed to be love. I hadn’t had that experience. The church God I knew was mean and angry and hadn’t shown much care for me or those I loved.

Sue said The Jacksonville Unity church was a different church– they didn’t yell and beat folks with the Bible. They didn’t believe people were sinners. They did believe prayer changes lives.

I asked how? Sue said come with her some Sunday. She suggested if the minister says the word “God” maybe I could substitute the word” love.” I groused around for a few more weeks. My Renoir didn’t show up with a portrait of me or profess his undying love. I was already mad. Why not go to Jacksonville Unity? I could try Sue’s suggestion.
Walking up to that Unity, it looked different than any Episcopal, Baptist, Methodist or Presbyterian church I’d ever seen. I opened the door and the people were warm, friendly, and interesting. There was no yelling, pounding the pulpit or altar call for sinners to be saved. The minister said the word “God” six or seven times and Sue’s suggestion worked! I didn’t get angry. I cried on and off. Those sad happy tears needed to come out. The songs had rhythm, melody and meaning easy to understanding. I felt God’s love and gentle power. My heart was melting. This was the beginning of finding the love I really missed.

There are more times that curiosity got the better of me and showed ME a BETTER ME!

So I trust you can see why I believe what the world needs now is more curiosity.

We can practice spiritual curiosity by NOT allowing obstacles to stop us. Curiosity encourages creativity. Richardson, the Strategic Monk says practicing spiritual curiosity is more about asking questions than finding solutions. Asking questions draws us off the standard path and helps us see in new ways. Curiosity draws us to the next step away from what we expected.

I ask each of us to consider some area of life where you could be less serious and more curious.
Gary Simmons, recently retired senior minister of Unity Portland, Oregon relates: It is not your figuring it out that will usher you into the Kingdom of heaven. You have to trust the Spirit of the Living God that is revealing itself through you.

This – Unity – Children of God – returns us to Jesus saying, “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them for to such belongs the Kingdom of God.”

I wonder…. how is the Spirit of the Living God calling to reveal through you?

May each of us allow curiosity to naturally teach and grow us spiritually. It can and will return us to our original human species’ innocence.

We are well on our way. Stay curious in the UP, the down and the plateaus of life. Ask “I wonder” questions. Lean forward in curiosity and welcome the wonder.

MEDITATION Let’s take this into meditation:

Settle into your chair. Feet resting comfortably on the floor, arms and shoulders at ease.
Breath naturally. Sink deeper into that rhythm with in your body. Relax, breathe and feel the aliveness circulating within you.

Settle into the soft music and allow the curiosity of your spirit to gently surface.
Be still – listening waiting, welcoming the calling of spiritual curiosity. Is there an element of life you could look at with curiosity? Relax. Breathe. Divine Spirit, loving creator is with you- in you. As we enter the sacred silence.
2- 3 mins

RETURN: Become aware of your breathing once again. Give thanks to your sweet spirit for message, image or sign whatever sacred gift you received.

Feel the chair supporting you, allow your head to lean to one side and circle around chin to chest, to the side and back – other side. One more head circle.

When you are ready open your eyes and welcome back to this time and space.
Lean in with curious.

GREAT Morning Beloved!

Spiritual Economics – The Principles and Process of True Prosperity by Rev. Eric Butterworth -The Law of Visualization & If you can Believe It You Can See It

Welcome back to Spiritual Economic, one of the many books written by Rev. Eric Butterworth that is a classic for Unity and New Thought. I hope you can hang with me as we move through this book because it is filled with wonderful information that can help us on our Journey.

SO, we had breaks in our journeys’ flow unfortunately, but since it’s such wonderful and often thought-provoking information, maybe the breaks will allow for better understanding of each Lesson.

So, last week we looked at the first 2 chapters of Spiritual Economics. In those chapters, we learned a some important things … let’s look at a few:

Charles Fillmore believes we are ‘frustrating our potential’ -why? What are we missing?

Are we placing “The Kingdom” first in our lives? Have you asked yourself those questions?

Then, Butterworth reminded us, “It is consciousness that sets all the limits of life.”
And so, our question here was, ‘where is my consciousness?’

And some of the limits we have placed upon our lives are because we have lost the true meaning of life and the words that we use to label it.

Remember Butterworth reminding us of the true meaning of “Affluence’ means ‘an abundant flow’, not ‘stuff’, ‘things’. And ‘wealth’ originally meant ‘’well-being’. ‘Prosperity’ originally meant ‘according to hope’ or ‘to go forward. The term ‘substance’ comes from Latin which means ‘stand under’. There is a substance standing under everything.

How does that change how feel about those terms? Do we understand them in the context of our spirituality better?

Now let’s look at another aspect of our Truth study – training the eyes to see properly.

We THINK we are seeing what is before us, but in reality, what we look at before us is registered on the light sensitive nerve endings of the retina, but upside down on recording points: they are all transformed into one solid picture communicated to the brain.

However, our brain sees what our awareness has conditioned us to see, not necessarily what is truly there.

So, seeing is not believing, as we have heard often said, but believing is seeing.
We see things, not as they are, but as we are.

We must train our eyes to see properly. When we ‘see,’ we react to it with attitudes and feelings.

Your perception is shaped according to your previous experiences, according to your faith, according to where you are in consciousness. Right seeing is one of the most important keys to effective demonstration of Truth.
Right seeing is one of the most important keys to effective demonstration of the Truth. More important than changing things ‘out there’ is changing the way you see them.

This is the Law of Visualization. Having conceived and deeply felt some thing or experience, we have created the condition in mind that makes a particular result inevitable.

Right judgment is believing life is lived from within-out, from oneness with Divine Substance, from a stance of optimism.

This is why Jesus said, “Do not judge by appearance, but judge by right judgment.” Pic

Someone who worries is a perfect example of this law. Worry is based on the belief that some undesirable condition already exists. Worriers vividly picture in mind the undesirable condition they are worrying about, thus allowing the means to which the worry becomes a very possible reality.

So right judgment, seeing from within, visualizing things as they can be. We are not talking about seeing cars, jobs, etc., but seeing from a consciousness of ever-present Substance. You see abundance everywhere.
Look around…. see abundance. Bless it. (take some time, our space, people, the CHANGE jar, ….)

True seeing is a flow of consciousness. Where you are in consciousness has everything to do with what you are see in experience.

Our most prominent window in our house of consciousness is…. CAN YOU GUESS??? the TV. Keep in mind what we are seeing is the appearance of things. Are you ‘buying in to’ what is being presented on the TV?

We have the responsibility to put our own stamp of ‘God-consciousness’ on what you see and hear. If we are manipulated by the ‘news’, we become part of the world’s problems; if we look though the window of Truth and project love and light, we become part of the solution. Be a peacemaker.

By looking out the proper window one can achieve prosperity, it’s having a ‘prosperity consciousness.’
Did you know, our human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an ‘actual’ experience and the experience imagined in detail.

This is why athletes use visualization as part of their training. They visualize what they wish their bodies to do as they attempt their physical feat.

And, please know, everything will not be alright until we achieve a consciousness of all-rightness.
Pg 62-3 Here’s an example

But…a 3-letter word to self-limitation
The law is this, we can have all we can expect and accept

And all this is pointing to FAITH. “Faith is a fundamental mind power that is basic to the realization of prosperity.”

And that leads us to God, Spirit, Goddess, Universe, Energy…and all the other names we have given to this Presence that lives, and moves and has being in and through us

Have you left the God of your tradition, and moved from your intellectual understanding so you can feel the Presence? It is there that we can understand ‘spiritual economics.

The Universe of innate substance is in everyone; nothing we can do will add or subtract from it. Jesus had it and so do we. He was centered in the creative flow and did ‘miracles’ and so can we with faith, that consciousness centered in the universal Source. Faith tunes in and turns on the Divine flow that is always present.

Faith doesn’t really change things; it changes the way we relate to them. There is always an all-sufficiency even within the insufficiency. Our faith can relate it to us as the whole or the partial-it will be as we believe.
The power is already within us. And here is a difference between Unity and Traditional Christianity –
We are believing from, not believing in.

Abundance is an ever-present reality. Our reality is based on our consciousness, so there is abundance right where we are.

This means we must know, really know that we are “a spiritual being, living in a limitless spiritual Universe, endowed with the whole potential energy flow of the Universe.”

All things are possible to God and to you in God-consciousness.”

That’s a great affirmation!

Remember, we can have all we can expect and accept.

So, we need to Practice the presence of God. When we have a balanced consciousness centered in the ever-present substance of God, things will come easily as they are needed. It is a matter of priorities: “Seek first the Kingdom of God.’

When we believe we can do it, the how-to-do-it develops. Ours is the what, the Universe provides the How.

God is present at every point in space at the same time. “There is no spot where God is not.”