Positive Spiritual Thinking

I gave this talk five days after my sister passed unexpectedly. I inadvertently never posted it after delivering it July 7, 2013:

          This is a picture of my sister Diane. She died unexpectedly on Tuesday morning.

There is an old story about a king. He had a beautiful ring and he had three sons. Each son wanted the ring. When the king died, he left three rings for his sons with a note. The note said, "My dear sons, one of these rings is real and two are fake. The way you will know who has the real ring is that the son with the real ring will always be kind and generous to all people." Each of the three spent the rest of their lives proving they had the real ring.

My sister Diane must have had one of those rings because she was kind and generous.

Diane was not religious. She didn’t go to church.  She didn’t engage in conversations about spirit.  In fact, I’m not sure I ever heard her utter the word, God, yet she lived a life of kindness, acceptance, and generosity.  People were attracted to Diane because of the way she lived.

It is the same with religion. We can go throughout the community and talk a good game about Unity, but that doesn't change anyone… and talking a good game certainly doesn't change us. What changes us is when we live it-- when we become our spiritual path.  Then others – kids, grandkids… anyone else - look at us and they see there is something in us they would like to have.

Living an attractive life begins with a positive lifestyle, with a

positive mind, with positive thoughts. There is not one person here this morning who would not say they are a positive thinker. Every person here believes they are positive. But are you positive all the time? Are you filled with a faith, zeal, and an experience of God which gives you the extra power to know God is with you every second of every day?

          I’m not saying that we never have negative feelings or as I am having the week, feelings of sadness and loss.  At the same time I’m having those feelings I am aware of the indelible Presence of God. In my sadness there is a positivity that is staunchly present.

          There is a humorous story told about being positive. It involves two men named Sam and Jed.

          Sam and Jed determined they could become wealthy by hunting wolves.

          So, they started out, because in their part of the country a live wolf was worth a $5,000 bounty. They went out and searched for wolves day and night. After a few weeks they still hadn’t seen one wolf.

          Then one night they fell asleep and when Sam woke up he noticed they were surrounded by about 50 snarling wolves with flaming eyes and bared teeth.

          Sam gently nudged his friend and excitedly says, "Jed, wake up! We're rich!"

          That is a funny story, but it is the type of positive attitude I want us to have even when things don't look good to every one of your five senses; to know that, with God, somehow, someway, that everything is alright, or that this (whatever it is) is going to turn out to be a positive. I would like you to have such faith in God that you know; that you know; that you know with God this situation is going to turn around for your betterment.  That you are going to use every situation in your life, the good times, and the bad, to be grateful to God. You are going to have an awareness that God is with you so much that only good can come out of this situation even if it appears in the beginning that only bad can come out of it.

          For instance, there is a story of Ole Evinrude. Evinrude wanted to take ice cream to his girl friend to propose to her. So in a very romantic way, he got some ice cream and he asked her to join him on the shore and they got into his rowboat with the gallon of ice cream. They were going to row over to an island in Oconomowoc Lake, a small lake outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he would serve her ice cream, maybe sing a little bit and then propose. By the time he got to the island the ice cream was all melted. The problem was that it was all melted over the bottom of the boat and all over the girl.

          It is hard to be romantic when you have sticky, homemade ice cream melted all over you. Needless to say, it did not go well; in fact, he never married the girl. But what he did do that day was vowed that he would spend however long it took to make things better.  Ole Evinrude invented the outboard motor so that sometime later on someone could make it to the island with frozen ice cream.

          When your ice cream is melted and when you feel sticky, how is God going to turn it around? You have to take it into prayer and you have to ask and wait to be Divinely inspired. You may have to have courage to act on things that other human beings haven't acted upon before, or the courage to act in a way that those around you aren’t.

When you do, everything is going to turn out alright, or maybe even better than alright; your whole life could change as it did for Ole Evinrude.

          On display at the French Academy of Sciences is a shoemaker's awl. It looks like an ordinary shoemaker's awl, but behind the little awl are both tragedy and victory. It fell one day (early 1800’s) from the shoemaker's table and it put out one eye and damaged the other eye of the shoemaker’s nine year old son; a tragedy. Within weeks the child was blind in both eyes and had to attend a special school for the sightless. At that time, the blind read by using large carved wooden blocks which were clumsy and awkward to handle.  When the shoemaker's son grew up, he devised a new reading system with punched dots on paper. To do this he used the same shoemaker's awl that had blinded him. The man's name was Louis Braille. He used the tragedy with God's help to flip it around into victory. That is the power of God. That is the power we each have.

          And I have faith that each of Diane’s kids and grandkids (and our sisters, Judy and Nancy) will be able to flip the loss and pain they feel into a “victory;” that the darkness the feel becomes a bright light for them because they let themselves grieve instead of stuffing their feelings; because they take a positive memory-path and that they come to remember a life well lived by their mother, grandmother, sister.

          Positive thinking is more than just blind faith. The power of positive thinking is awesome.  When you make your human mind available for the positive God thought, you are less susceptible to depression, depression that sometimes robs the human being of power. You are less susceptible to physical ills. You have a proven power that you can achieve more in your life. You will have greater social success. Optimism is a habit.

I heard that one of Diane’s grandkids stated he was her favorite.  Another objected, saying that she was her favorite.  A few more joined in saying that they thought grandma liked them best. My sister Diane was always loving, present, and optimistic with her grandkids and I believe that’s why each of them though they were her favorite.

I’d like to conclude by reading a story that came to my email inbox just yesterday:

“I had a very special teacher in high school many years ago whose husband died suddenly of a heart attack. About a week after his death, she shared some of her insight with a classroom of students.

As the late afternoon sunlight came streaming in through the classroom windows and the class was nearly over, she moved a few things aside on the edge of her desk and sat down there. With a gentle look of reflection on her face, she paused and said, "Before class is over, I would like to share with all of you a thought that is unrelated to class, but which I feel is very important."

Each of us is put here on earth to learn, share, love, appreciate and give of ourselves. None of us knows when this fantastic experience will end. It can end at any moment. Perhaps knowing this is God's way of telling us that we must make the most out of every single day."

Her eyes beginning to water, but she went on, "So I would like you all to make me a promise. From now on, on your way to school, or on your way home, find something beautiful to notice. It doesn't have to be something you see… it could be a scent-perhaps of freshly baked bread wafting out of someone's house, the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, or the way the morning light catches one autumn leaf as it falls gently to the ground.

Please look for these things, and cherish them. For, although it may sound trite to some, these things are "the stuff" of life. The little things we are put here on earth to enjoy. The things we often take for granted. We must make it important to notice them, for at any time..."

The class was completely quiet. We all picked up our books and filed out of the room silently. That afternoon, I noticed more things on my way home from school than I had that whole semester. Every once in a while, I think of that teacher and remember what an impression she made on all of us, and I try to appreciate all of those things that sometimes we all overlook.

          Take notice of something special you see on your lunch hour today. Go barefoot. Or walk on the beach at sunset. Stop off on the way home tonight to get a double-dip ice cream cone. For as we get older, it is not the things we did that we often regret, but the things we didn't do.”

          This is how I will remember my sister Diane. She was kind. She was generous. She took the time to be present and positive with every little thing with her grandchildren… and she was always willing to stop for ice cream, to laugh, or to look at a butterfly.

          She always loved me and for that I am grateful. 

After all, I was her favorite. :o)

Responsibility

This is the text of my talk delivered Sunday, November 17, 2013

Last weekend I was at a workshop at the Unity Church in Hammond. During a break I walked by some people in conversation and I head this one sentence, “Well, it’s not my responsibility.” I heard that in a way that I thought they were saying, “I’m not supposed to do that, someone else is.”

So let me ask you, “What is your primary responsibility in life?” Is it protecting your kids from harm, or perhaps educating them to be good citizens, or maybe it’s making enough money to provide not only food, clothing, and shelter, but a cell phone and cable TV.

But then, what if you don’t have kids; is your primary responsibility for the well-being and happiness of your spouse/ partner/ significant other, etc.? And if you’re not in a relationship, what then?

Is your primary responsibility the planet; or maybe it is humanity and social justice?

Our loved ones and our planet and the rights of oppressed people can be big emotional issues for us, and they are important. So, as the saying goes, “What is yours to do?”

I am pretty confident in giving you two answers. One is: I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what is yours to do in the world.

I do, however, have a clearer idea of what is yours to do in life: “Know thyself.”

This is the self we see when, as Jim Tallman talked about last week, we take off our “Clark Kent” disguise to reveal our true identity, Superman/Superwoman; in other words, to reveal ourselves as a powerful being.

We will come to know ourselves by taking responsibility for our state of consciousness. Your state of consciousness determines which kind of world you create.

This is our primary responsibility. Not to the exclusion of others, but always ahead of any other.  Everything you make yourself responsible for, in the world, is greatly enhanced by knowing yourself.

(Tolle) “If you see a diseased or dysfunctional world out there it’s because a diseased or dysfunctional consciousness creates a diseased or dysfunctional world “out there.” The world I’m speaking of is the human made world.  Your state of consciousness determines what kind of world you create, what kind of actions you take, and what consequences your actions have.”

 If you look at history it’s pretty evident that there has been a deep-seated dysfunction in the consciousness of humans. Have you ever seen an animal that’s chained up constantly? It walks the same path over and over again. The human race has lived from the beginning of time like a chained animal constantly walking the same path over and over again: On a global scale I’d describe it this way, “I’m in conflict. How do I resolve this? War.” On a personal scale I would describe it this way, “I’m in conflict. How do I solve this? Fight back.

I recently heard a talk show host say – and by the way this is a talk show host who seems to have a kinship with the Jesus of the Bible – I heard him say, “When someone attacks me I don’t turn the other cheek. I fight back and I fight back until I crush them.”

          So this talk show host has a propensity to fight back when he feels he’s been wronged. What about you? What do you do when you feel you have been wronged whether it is on a grand scale or a small scale? As you contemplate your answer remember every time you feel anything other than peace you are in some way, shape or form fighting back. Remember, too, that you have the choice to continue or to stop.

If there is no shift in our propensity to fight back, whether it’s fighting back on a global scale or its unleashing anger within, the dysfunction stays alive and we inflict suffering upon ourselves. Case in point: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAqBitV574c

          In that film clip Jim Carrey’s character is trying how to get out of something rather than take responsibility.

This is your primary responsibility: take ownership for your state of consciousness now.

(Tolle) “Am I generating disturbance, am I generating negativity, am I generating suffering and conflict for myself and toward others? Am I generating inner pollution with continuous absurd thought producing negative emotions…?

          For there to be a personal awakening you say, “OK, I will take responsibility now.” Some people don’t even know there is the possibility of taking responsibility, this is why you are so important. You are the beginning of the transformed world. And it’s not primarily about what you do, there is something more primary than about what you do and that’s how and what you express through your state of consciousness. What you do flows through your consciousness.”

          Transformed consciousness is your primary responsibility. If you were unaware of that before, now you know it.

          (Tolle) “Even though there are others who remain unconscious, that’s ok. It’s enough for you to transform your own consciousness…” In case you’re thinking you can’t I will help you by letting you know unequivocally that you are up to it – otherwise you wouldn’t be here today, you wouldn’t be attracted to the transformational message of Unity.

          Sometimes we get upset about what we perceive other people do not know, but should. Jesus reminds us to “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) When other people are bound by unconscious streams of thought… forgive them, for they know not what they do.  It’s not like they get off scott-free for being unconscious. They will reap the consequences of their unconscious sowing. We think they are happy idiots, but cause and effect are never separated. Unconscious thinking begets suffering. We have a choice: to suffer and take the long road home or to work to awaken our awareness to not just the Presence of God but to that power within us.

I will close with some words written by Sandra Bilotto. She write these words knowing the experience of taking responsibility (or, ownership) for her consciousness, “I came to experience that I am an eternal being who is profoundly loved and has always been connected to God.

As I have allowed this connection to be a part of my everyday life, the more elegant, serene, and simple it has become… Sure, all the stuff of life goes on – flat tires, sick parents, mortgage payments, broken cell phones – [but I know] even in the midst of intensity, I am able to be still, quiet, and connected…

I was gradually liberated from the chains of a confusing existence into a beautiful world that I know see all around me, and I know that I am held in great loving arms forever.”

As we awaken humanity awakens and we are responsible for nothing less than awakening humanity.

We do it by awakening our own minds.

What could be simpler?