The Brighter the Light

I. GOD IS, I AM, YOU ARE, WE ARE -- AND THE "ALLNESS" OF THIS AND ALL THAT EXISTS IS GOD, IN WHICH WE LIVE, MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING.

1. Stuff happens! – Stuff happen all around us all the time. This is what we call experience. This stuff happened all last year and the year before that and the year before that! We all know this, AND we forget. AROUND this time of year we all get hopeful that life will be different this year!

2. Our experience is neutral, i.e., it is neither good in the common sense of that word, nor is it bad, it just simply IS. Imagine a life where your experience is your experience and nothing more or less!

a) What we say is useful, self-expressive and life-affirming, and how we know that is that what we say embodies the qualities of God and celebrates Love, Life, Beauty, Intelligence; Harmony, Creative Energy and Gratitude); or

b) What we say is damaging and limiting to our expression of self and closes down the possibilities of self-expression and the embodiment of Divinity.

4. We are in charge of what we say about life and in charge of what result our thinking and speaking creates around us. In fact, what we say is mirrored in our experience. This week in our Practitioner class we have been studying F. L. Rawson, an early English New Thought teacher. He said over 80 years ago, on February 14, 1920, right here in San Francisco as a guest lecturer at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, “We make our own heaven and our own hell by the way we think.” And of course, Ernest Holmes agreed when he said “Heaven or hell are states of consciousness.”

We get so busy with the hell we create for ourselves that to some degree, we close down the possibility of experiencing heaven in the present! Hell is being asleep to the lives we are given! So let this be the year of our waking up, the year in which we turn our awareness toward God in a way that we have only hoped is possible.

5. As an individualized personality we may not know everything we need to know, but as a spiritual being, we are connected to everything we need to know. At any moment we can awaken and change the flow of our self-expression, in other words, we can turn to God rather than away from God and allow the universal flow, rather than our limited personal resources, to supply our needs. This can really be very challenging, but it is the way it works. If we have been in the habit of self-sufficiency, thinking that we have to be in charge of everything, do everything our self, changing this persistent behavior can be uncomfortable.

6. Asking "Why?" can be to discover the answer to why some people who are so enlightened draw so many difficult circumstances: Now picture the answer being given in a THICK Southern accent, as I first heard it said:

I know that saying this may seem a cheap shot. But if we think about how we know anything at all, it is through a series of tests. We look for, and test to discover if our ideas, proposed theses, experiments and experiences or any other manner of thing can be found to be rational, logical, empirically and intuitively true. And when we get through with all of that, we can still have our ideas vetoed emotionally if we simply don’t like them! Given that we live in a world that requires such proof, why would we not be equally tested regarding our models for ultimate reality? And why would not the brightest, most intelligent and diligent spiritual students find themselves sometimes tested sorely?

We can list any number of our spiritual forebears who were tested mightily, beginning with Job. Jesus went out into the desert and was tested. Buddha was for a time a starving mendicant, living in the woods and eating only that which was offered to him. Imagine walking around in the modern world with a beggars bowl and a thin robe! The Prodigal Son went out and wasted his inheritance and was reduced to eating with the pigs that he tended before he could come to realize what goodness he had cast aside. And as soon as he came to recognize what he had cast aside, as soon as he thought of his father, his father was on his way to meet him, to love him, to care for him again.

How else are we to find the truth? I refer you back to the second point I made, simply stated, experience just is. That is God’s gift to us. What we make of it is ours.

There may be easier ways, but this life of experience and tests of our experience and knowledge seems to be one reliable way to discover the depths of ones faith, to discover the Truth of our being, to come to know God as who we truly are. So this takes courage. My teacher, Dr. Bill Little, pointed out to us any number of times that the word courage comes to us from Middle English corage, a word that was assimilated from the Old French word cuer which means heart! Courage is the vigor and the authority of the heart!

In Paris there is an ancient and beautiful cathedral that I visited. It has some of the most beautiful stained glass you will ever see, and it has gold leaf on a vast array of ornate surfaces. When I saw it, it was in need of restoration, but it’s glory was still powerful and present. There is a feeling within that place that is spiritually rich and complex. It is not so large as Notre Dame, and it has a glorious name: Sacré Coeur, which means sacred or holy heart. I can’t think of two more appropriate words to put together at the beginning of the year, at the beginning of the millennium. Sacré comes from the same Latin root as sacra, the last holy bone of your spine. It is as if they were telling us that when you put what is sacred together with the heart you really do get courage! And courage is what we must summon to move forward into our realization of the Divine within ourselves and into a true remembrance of this same divinity within all of life. The sacrum points to the spot where you are to sit and know that you are God.

Given the possibility of a year in which we come to know God, and thereby ourselves, as we never have before, it is in meditation and in prayer that we most constantly create the realization of this deep yearning of our hearts. So let us complete today with a brief meditation and a special ritual. In this way, we will see an end, a true completion of the past and a joyful stepping into the present moment. We claim the creative power of our word.

Meditation

So, while it is a leap of imagination to connect all these things together, in our hearts and in what we give meaning to, we can connect what we experience in any way that serves us. Today we will take these ideas into meditation and use them as a way to complete each and every idea we hold about the past year, to release the binding influence that the year 2000 may have in our consciousness, to forgive ourselves and all others for any negative feelings so that we may release those ideas and feelings, and then we shall each wash our hands of the past and open ourselves to this New Year in which it is possible to move forward cleanly, purely, intentionally, committedly and in the Spirit of Love.

So if you will, close your eyes and slip into your favorite meditation posture. Notice your breathing. Focus on the in breath, and then on the out breath. If your mind wanders, just return your attention to your breathing. If it helps, count one on the in breath and one on the out breath, two on the in breath and two on the out breath. Continuing until you reach ten.

Now release your counting and simply focus on the breath, first on the in breath and then on the out breath. If your mind wanders, just return your attention to your breathing. (2 minutes)

Picture yourself entering Sacré Coeur, mounting the stairs, approaching an arched doorway, you are passing through the door, now turn to close the door for some time alone with yourself. This being your Sacré Coeur, your own magnificent personal cathedral of the heart. Picture this place within the inside of your own heart, imagine yourself decorating it perfectly as if by magic, each thought being instantly accomplished, easily and effortlessly creating it as a place where you can go at any time at all. Each detail contributes to the feeling that this is your perfect place for meditation and prayer, for quiet contemplation and the exercise of your creative power for living. Take a few moments to complete the creation of your perfect meditation place. Visualize whatever you would like to be there. See the candles if you wish for them to be there, go about placing whatever sacred objects you wish to anchor this place of communion with Spirit. Place the cushions or a chair exactly where you wish them to be in the midst of your meditation. Now take a moment to complete your preparations of this place. It is time now to enjoy the advantage of having such a unique and private place to commune with God.

We now turn our attention to the events of the year 2000. Remember that you are in a place of complete safety and support. You are within the confines of your own sacred heart where only you may gain admittance.

What events which were painful to us are we willing to allow ourselves to complete at this time? Remember that you are wrapped in the arms of Love, sitting in your own unique and private sacred heart. Here you can say anything at all. Here you can release any and all burdens. Here all is forgiven the instant you are willing to release any hard feelings toward yourself or toward another who you may have perceived as acting against you.

Remember it is OK to grieve for what did not happen, it is OK to grieve for the goals not met. There is still hunger, oppression, difficulty, challenges, poverty. We are not done with our work yet. Our efforts did not comfort all of the suffering, some still suffered. A gentle compassion for these failures is appropriate at this time. Compassion for yourself, and for all who cared about the spiritual and physical well-being of anyone at all is appropriate at this time. Compassion for the falling short of ones goals is appropriate at this time. Gently extend Love to yourself, some small but satisfying compassion for the ways in which you might have fallen short in accomplishing what you set out to do in the year 2000, or anytime at all for that matter. If you feel a little stuck, release any cynicism that may have crept into consciousness. Picture yourself lighting this cynicism on fire, like single sheets of paper that catch fire and then gently are carried away like flakes of ash upon the wind. Forgive this cynicism, forgive yourself for the personal suffering that this attitude reflects. It can be very difficult to experience the failure of meeting all the cries for help. Hold yourself in the arms of love and give yourself comfort for being able to do only what you have done.

Silently affirm with me now, each and every effort to relieve the suffering of another mattered and lifted the consciousness of healing in the world. Any contrary appearance was based in fear and we release this fear right here and right now, returning to the experience of Love, which is our birthright and the essential energy of our being. We know that our efforts laid a foundation for the healing work we do this year. We begin today by healing ourselves, returning ourselves to the simple Joy of being.

We are reminded to forgive once again our trespassers, and we realize that no one can truly trespass against us, and so we forgive ourselves now for thinking that anyone at all could have done anything against us. There is only God. There is only Love.

Now take a moment to look around you within the sacred heart of compassion that you have created within yourself today. Is there anything at all that you need to focus compassion or forgiveness upon? Do it now. Leave nothing untouched, and unwashed by this sacred experience. When you are complete with forgiving and extending compassion to yourself and your world, please gently open your eyes.

As a way of symbolizing the sometimes messy work of completion and the vast space we have opened up to the creation of a deeper experience of the mystical bond of the divine within us, we will now one by one wash our hands in a bowl of rose water, which is in the back of the room encircled in candlelight, signifying the light of this new spiritual possibility we have created for stepping freshly into our lives this year. Please join me silently, and as you wash your hands, complete the release of the past, letting it wash away symbolically as you wash your hands. Then return to your seat.

[i] THE SCIENCE OF MIND

A Complete Course of Lessons in

the Science of Mind and Spirit

By ERNEST SHURTLEFF HOLMES

[ii] Ibid.

Dr. Susanne Freeborn, Senior Minister

Rev. Linda S. Siddall, Assistant Minister

01-07-01

Meditation

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Copyright © 2000-2002 Emerson Center for Spiritual Awakening
Last modified: August 23, 2002

Dr. Susanne Freeborn, Senior Minister

Rev. Linda S. Siddall, Assistant Minister

01-07-01