Real
Freedom
07-01-01
Readings:
"Real
freedom means that we are created in the image of perfection and let alone and
allowed to make the discovery for ourselves. The understanding of Truth -
Infinite Principle - is the emancipator. As we realize our Oneness with
Creative Mind, we are released from the bondage of false thinking."
"When
we use our creative imagination in strong faith it will create for us,
whatever we have formed in thought."
Ernest
Holmes
“The
greatest homage we can pay to truth is to use it.”
Nature,
Ralph
Waldo Emerson
“No
man is free who is not a master of himself.”
Epictecus
“Freedom
is the last, best hope of earth.”
Abraham Lincoln
Real Freedom
Good
Morning! It’s that time of year
when a certain kind of email is sent around, this time between graduation and
4th of July is a hot opportunity for forwarding emails. I have been receiving a repeat performance of a commencement
address that is attributed to writer-journalist Anna Quindlen, I haven’t
gotten the “Wear Sunscreen” Hoax this year though it was hot the prior
three, I suppose it has worn out its cache, and it wasn’t really written by
Kurt Vonnegut either. This week I was sent the following email:
“They
walked in tandem, each of the ninety-three students filing into the already
crowded auditorium. With rich maroon gowns flowing and the traditional caps,
they looked almost as grown up as they felt. Dads swallowed hard behind broad
smiles, and moms freely brushed away tears. This class would not pray during
the commencements--not by choice but because of a recent court ruling
prohibiting it. The principal and several students were careful to stay within
the guidelines allowed by the ruling.
They
gave inspirational and challenging speeches, but no one mentioned divine
guidance and no one asked for blessings on the graduates or their families.
The speeches were nice, but they were routine until the final speech received
a standing ovation.
It
was then that a solitary student walked proudly to the microphone. He stood
still and silent for just a moment, and then he delivered his speech---a
resounding sneeze. The rest of the students rose immediately to their feet,
and in unison they said, "God bless you."
The
audience exploded into applause. The graduating class found a unique way to
invoke God's blessing on their future---with or without the court's approval.
I
was not pleased to receive this email. I
was not pleased when I had to open two forwarded attachments to read its
highly prejudicial message. I
was, once again, standing at that crossroads where I faced that decision once
again, can I place one person on my automatic delete function so as to avoid
this kind of experience in the future, without
committing the same irritating mindlessness in reverse that I was
responding to emotionally now? I
can’t do it and be true to myself. The
delete key seems pretty convenient. All
of us know people who send the same petitions for Afganistani women, even
after you stop and take the time to send them the Hoaxbusters page and
referrals to sources that actually do something about this inhumane and
horrifying mistreatment of women and girls.
We
are free to do whatever we choose with our lives, even if it does mean that we
are mindless by choice. What we
do with our freedom really is up to us. I still have much to learn--and I have learned to
tolerate just about anything that is done in good conscience. I am certain
that those who think that they must impose their brand of spiritual expression
on all of the rest of our country, and the world, will one day realize exactly
what Law it is that they have been using fearfully.
I
hope you will take this in the way that I intend it.
This email you sent, that was meant to be funny, was kind of the
"last straw" and I hope you will be able to read my "rant"
here for the exploration of what gets forgotten when we impose prayer publicly
upon people of different faiths. You know that I am all for affirmative
prayer, I teach from the Bible as much as from any other religious text.
But, do you really think that we need to have legally mandated prayer
in schools? Do you think New
Thought would have arisen if we didn't have the blessing and protection of the
legal separation of church and state?
Do
you really want to find out who would be in charge of choosing what kind of
prayer is acceptable in a country that throws out the Bill of Rights and the
Constitution in favor of narrow ideas of what is appropriate?
When Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman were doing their writing and Dr.
Maurice Bucke was studying medicine, long prior to writing Cosmic
Consciousness, Bronson Alcott, another of the Transcendentalists and a
friend of Emerson, admitted a black girl to his school.
He ended up broke when the fashionable and wealthy parents of his
student--demonstrating how open minded and committed they really
were--withdrew their children from his school.
He
was suddenly out of business for this noble act of faith that said that all
children deserve a good education. If
the law didn't protect him otherwise, he would have been jailed for his boldly
expressed beliefs, as would have been most of his rowdy open-at-the-top,
transcendentalist friends! The Constitution protects us, and our freedom, from
those who would mindlessly impose their particular narrow prejudices, beliefs,
and ideas upon us.
I
wondered, did the sender of the school prayer email really mean to imply, by
forwarding this thing to me, that she is aligned with the reactionary right
wing Bible literalists who fight to impose their idea of what Christian
spiritual expression should be on the rest of us?
They don't think its all God, they think there is one way to do it, and
that way is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
I don't believe in such a God. A
God who would cruelly kill one of us is a God who couldn't come up with a
better plan for awakening us to our magnificence. How could I dedicate my life
to such a jerk?
I
believe that there is a mean spin on this school prayer stuff.
It lies in the unsaid and makes wrong those of us who truly appreciate
the freedom we are given, who know that we are created out of stuff sturdy
enough for responsible self-directed spiritual expression, without
interference from others; who appreciate the laws that protect sacred forms of
self-expression. This kind of
communication about school prayer has everything to do with dictating the
self-expression and rights of others, it is really about fear and control.
I
consider what I say out loud, in prayer, in writing, and in my everyday
thinking. This is sacred spiritual practice to me.
Perhaps the email was innocently written and the writer thought it was
funny. Still, it doesn't take
into account how someone else might feel standing there believing differently.
It doesn't take into account those who feel that their relationship
with, and any communications between them and their idea of ultimately
reality, requires privacy.
We
are a faith that relies upon consciousness.
On the surface it looks like the email I received, and many others I
have gotten since I hooked up to the internet, is about God. What I read
implied, between the lines, is all about Christian control and resentment of
the freedom that our Constitution gives us to find our own way spiritually
without fear. It is about not
wanting the responsibility of recognizing and respecting the religious faith
and practices of other folks. It
is about not having to be conscious and responsible for how ones life turns
out through the adaptation to and acceptance of fear.
Ultimate reality does not require fear.
I
don't notice any mention of Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist or any of the other
traditions names for ultimate reality, such as Vishnu, Wakan Tanka, Ram,
Krishna, Lakshmi, The Tao, One, I AM, the ineffable, YHVH and hundreds of
others. For these writers, there is only One God and it is not the one so many
of us are honoring today.
I
didn't spend 4 years in law school studying the law to allow things to be said
that don't appreciate the true intent of the laws of our country.
The law protecting our spiritual freedom comes from a place of deep
love and appreciation for the sanctity of our personal and private
relationship with the Divine. The
writers of the Constitution were deeply spiritual men.
The people who have served to interpret the Constitution in our Federal
court system are also great men and women who deeply regard the great
responsibility that they carry. Certainly
mistakes have been made, but the broad character and integrity of our
democracy rests on the shoulders of the judiciary.
To malign them simply because one has a particular religious agenda is
irresponsible.
Only
the fearful or thoughtless could so dishonor and misinterpret the courts by
saying that protecting the freedom of expression is a suppression of the
perceived right to proselytizing by Christians.
Proselytizing by Christians, an act that can be quite respectful, is
often an act that is made without regard or respect for the religious
traditions which many misguided Christians wish to goad and convince others to
abandon. Nowhere in our
Constitution does it say that there is a right to enforce one religion’s
beliefs to the exclusion of an individual’s right to express and choose or
reject spiritual expression.
I
still remember people of other faiths being called “Godless Heathens” in
church when I was growing up. If
not agreeing with publicly sanctioned school prayer makes me a Godless
Heathen, then sign me up! I know
that my concept of God would never require that another agree with my
spiritual ideas so that I could feel secure in my faith.
As Ernest Holmes said, it is in the demonstration that the proof of our
faith is found. I don't require
the word "God" to know that my faith is demonstrated. I require that
my life demonstrate the principles that I have been fortunate enough to learn
from such teachers as Dr. Bill Little, Dr. Angelo Pizelo, Dr. Domenic
Polifrone, Dr. Marilyn Hall, Rev. Mary Morrissey, Dr. Tom Sannar, Ram Das,
even Werner Erhard and Associates, and a vast number of authors and speakers
from my studies of nearly 30 years.
According
to my friend, Dr. Tom Sannar, “The secret of a fulfilled and free life is
simple. All that is necessary is to follow the voice of your soul, and this
voice is proclaiming, "return to your source." Go to the secret
place of the most high where every returning soul has the privilege to enter.
Seek no other source; follow no other path. Here you will find rest and
contentment. Here you will find freedom.”
When
we are in the midst of our meditation, prayer, and spiritual studies, this is
quite obvious. On the other hand,
in our everyday lives, when people get behind their keyboards, are they
bringing the voice of their soul along with them?
I often wonder. One time
when I was really stuck about something, I talked to Dr. Tom about it, and he
reminded me of something that we all forget when we allow irritation and upset
to creep in and begin taking residence within us.
He said” “They are
doing the best that they can.” Yikes!
That was like an arrow shot straight through my heart.
Sometimes it is easier to think that
they are jerks than to recognize the forward motion of life’s good.
As
Americans we have a particular “take” on what freedom means.
We pride ourselves on the fact of our freedom, and we don’t think
about it all that much for most of the year.
Unless a spy plane is captured, or an embassy is bombed, we live
complacent lives and think little about the meaning of freedom.
Much is said, much is written about freedom and we feel, whether
rightly or not, that we Americans are the defenders of freedom.
We act as if we are the experts on the subject.
But what gave us our expertise did not arise out of freedom, but out of
courage in the face of tyranny, and this is generally the case for the
establishment of any free nation. Here
is what Franklin Delano Roosevelt had to say on one occasion about the
subject:
“We
look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first
is freedom of speech and expression. The second is freedom of every person to
worship God in his own way. The third is freedom from want…. The fourth is
freedom from fear.”
It
is within this atmosphere that the uniquely American New Thought movement
arose. Its denominations include
Unity, Religious Science or Science of Mind and scores of independent
churches.
Liberation
means unlimited freedom to fully express yourself as a spiritual being. The
time has come for us to apply this teaching in our lives on a daily basis. The
time has come to devote our energy and effort so that within ourselves
information may become knowledge, that knowledge may become understanding,
that understanding may become belief and that belief may become an active
faith. Whether this process occurs is totally up to us as individuals.
It
is common knowledge, and a teaching that is often repeated by New Thought’s
teachers, that we have start within ourselves, that true revolution is an
inside job. And yet, we live in a
world peopled by 6 billion living human beings.
We express what is going on within us in our relationships with these
other beings and how we value and express our freedom is most truly portrayed
in these relationships. I believe
that the more dedicated one is in ones relationship with the Divine, the more
one will grant others their own freedom, and give as little interference to
another's state of consciousness as possible.
What
we know about freedom is paradoxical just as the maxim I just stated is
paradoxical. We cannot help but
have some affect on the consciousness of others.
I could not be a minister without interfering in some way in the
consciousness of others. However,
given permission, what I have to say is not an interference, but a teaching.
I know that we wish to live meaningful lives, and we wish to live our
lives as freely as we can. We do
have to ask ourselves about how highly we value our freedom.
Viktor E. Frankl, in Man's
Search For Meaning said:
“If
I say a man is pulled by values, what is implicitly referred to is the fact
that there is always freedom involved: the freedom of man to make his choice
between accepting or rejecting an offer, i.e., to fulfill a meaningful
potentiality or else to forfeit it.”
The
value for freedom is truly paradoxical, the state of “freedom” itself is
required for the realization of the state that the idea of freedom
exemplifies. Shunryu Suzuki-Roshi, author of Zen
Mind, Beginner's Mind and a major contributor
to the modern practice of Zen in the United States said it this way:
"If you seek for freedom, you cannot find it.
Absolute freedom itself is necessary before you can acquire absolute freedom.
That is our practice." This
is a piece of work. It is
challenging and rewarding. It can
be frustrating, and our American forefathers had some clue about this, such as
this by Thomas Paine:
“Those
who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the
fatigue of supporting it.”
There
really isn’t a free ride to freedom.
"I
say to you, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of
the moment, I still have a dream. It's
a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day, this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal.”
Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
And
I remind you of this, “There is no knowledge that is not power” according
to Ralph Waldo Emerson. Go to
First Cause and create your reality there. Strive to see God in Everyone.
Remember that cute and often repeated aphorism:
“There is not a spot where God is not.” Where the universal meets
the individual God is there. God is in you and you are in God.
Meet your God in everyone you see and commune with your God in the silence of
your own soul. There you will find God and there you will find all the power
in the universe.
The
secret of a fulfilled and free life is simple. All that is necessary is to
follow the voice of your soul, and this voice is proclaiming, "return to
your source." Go to the secret place of the most high where every
returning soul has the privilege to enter. Seek no other source; follow no
other path. Here you will find rest and contentment. Here you will find
freedom.
Affirmations:
I
find freedom where the universal God meets my individualized soul. I stand for
this possibility in each and every being.
FREEDOM
Yes,
I know that the Truth has freed me from the bonds of fear.
I
am not afraid. I adore thee, Most High within me; I trust in Thee and abide in
that hope that knows no fear; I am Free Spirit and cannot be bound.
The
One Life flowing through me is Perfect and Complete. I am not apart from It. I
am One with It in Marvelous Unity and Freedom; One with the Complete Whole. I
was born free and must always remain free. The realization of freedom
permeates my whole being and sinks into the innermost parts of me. I love it,
adore it, I accept it. I
am free.
O MAN, SPEAK FORTH THY WORD
O man,
speak forth thy word and be not afraid. Did you not know; have you not heard?
God’s Divinity is planted within thee, and thy word is one with all power.
The Spirit of the Most High is thy Spirit, and the word of God is thy word.
Thy freedom is hid within thee, and thy inner light shall illumine they way.
Speak now, and be free! Announce and proclaim thy works!
Let thy
word go forth with power, and thy Spirit shall conquer all.
Spirit
within me, speak.
Ernest Holmes, The
Science of Mind
Thank you
for being here today!
Emerson
Center for
