A World Transformed

The past couple of weeks have been filled with activity, angst and apprehension for many of us. I can personally attest to that. It seems as though I have been forced out of my comfort zone into a whole new world. My prayer partner today said, “I don’t even have a comfort zone anymore.” I’m sure that most, if not all of us, can relate.

I have been running around, both literally and mentally, trying to learn how to do ministry in this new world. I am learning things about technology that I never knew I wanted to know. While I have done my best to remain peaceful and centered, I must admit that I have allowed myself to feel overwhelmed by it all at times.

In our commitment to continue to provide connection and spiritual support, we at Unity Spiritual Center Denver, along with most other ministries, have turned to the internet for our Sunday services, classes, and book studies, all of our regularly scheduled activities that can be online now are.

As I continue to learn how little I know about these things, I am eternally grateful for those who do, and I appreciate their willingness to offer support. I learn something new about livestreaming every day.

In addition, when I watch, read or listen to the news, I feel the tension take hold of my body and fearful thoughts arise in my mind. I am doing my best to heed the advice of the medical experts and am making the best choices possible to help protect myself and those around me. I know that we are all in the same boat.

Even though I am, at times, uncomfortable in this new world, I trust the I am, as I believe we all are being called to a greater expression of our true natures and to come together in unity.

While our experiences are unique, I suspect that in our shared humanity, most of us have similar feelings and thoughts. We are all wondering how to best respond to this new reality we are living. We may be questioning how to best support our families emotionally, spiritually and financially. We may be wondering where to go, what to do, and how to adjust to whatever is happening in our own lives. I know that it can be an unsettling time.

There is a part of me that would love nothing more than to “fix” it for you, to take away your stress, to relieve you of your angst, and to have us all awaken from this nightmare and go back to life as usual.

The deeper part of me knows that I can’t fix it. I don’t have all the answers. I can’t relieve you of your experience. In all honesty, I wouldn’t even if I could. It is not a time to go back to life as usual. This is a precious time in the evolution of human consciousness, and we all get to have our part in it and experience all of it together.

I am choosing to hold the vision that this is a time of transformation. Humanity has the opportunity now to allow the former things to pass away and to give birth to a new earth (Rev. 21). We can give birth to a new reality, one that reflects the unity we long for. 

This process is illustrated beautifully in nature as the caterpillar becomes a butterfly. The caterpillar spins a chrysalis in which it literally dissolves. I have heard this substance described as “goo.” The caterpillar is no longer recognizable; it dies to its former self. Then, the “imaginal cells” that will eventually coalesce and form the butterfly take over and begin their work. Through a process of metamorphosis, that which was once a furry worm crawling on the earth is transformed into a glorious butterfly flying above the Earth. “The old has gone, the new is here! (2 Corinthians 5:17)

The caterpillar experiences the relinquishment of its former self inside the chrysalis, and once the transformation is complete, the butterfly emerges and shares its glorious beauty with the world.

It seems that we, individually and collectively, are currently in the stage of the chrysalis in which we are being encouraged to go within and experience the discomfort of the “goo” as we allow all that has kept us bound to the baser aspects of our nature to dissolve and be transformed. Take heart, I have also heard it said and fully trust that God is in the “goo.”

Amid it all, we can choose to remember who we truly are – God expressing as conscious human beings who have dominion over our thoughts, feelings, words and actions. You and I are the “imaginal cells” of the new Earth. We have the opportunity now to remain focused on the potential and possibility of a shared vision of “A spiritually awakened world living Oneness,” our Unity Spiritual Center Denver vision statement.

We can, together, envision a world where we share the world’s resources, rather than compete for them. A world in which the basic needs of all people are satisfied. Wars cease. All people are loved, honored and respected without regard to any label we may assign them.

This is our opportunity to co-create a world that works for everyone. Now is the time. We are the ones.

As we navigate these changes, we may experience angst, pain, anger and apprehension. That is expected. I encourage us to give ourselves permission to feel it all. Yet, through it all, I encourage us to hold to a vision of what is possible. Together, with FAITH – Focus, Attention, Intention, Trust and Hope – we WILL make it our new reality.

Activate Your Within

If you watch network television, you know that there are many advertisements for pharmaceuticals. It seems that at least every other commercial proclaims the benefits of some drug and encourages us to ask our doctors about how we might benefit from them. As if it weren’t enough that they attempt to convince us that we need the medication, they then frighten us with the list of potential side effects. While I do have my opinions about the gross profiteering of the pharmaceutical industry, I fully respect medical science. I know that many lives are enhanced and saved with medications. This post is not about that. It is about an inspiration I received from one such commercial a while back.

Although it has since changed, a medication which stimulates the body’s natural ability to produce insulin for the treatment of diabetes at one time used the slogan, “Activate Your Within.” Every time I saw that commercial, I smiled. I thought it was the perfect prescription, not only for this disease, but for all that ails us.

At this time, as we are all called to respond to the reality that is COVID-19, I encourage us to use “Activate Your Within” as the prescription that will, more than anything else, help us to navigate these uncertain times.

We are being asked to adjust our daily living. In some cases, we are being required to make changes. Most in-person meetings are no longer happening. Travel is being restricted. Restaurants and other places where people gather are closing. Some cities have instituted curfews, and some are requiring people to stay inside except for absolute necessities. It is an unprecedented time in our country, indeed in the world.

Rather than getting caught up in fear or in resistance, our best course of action is to “Active Our Within.” We can take advantage of this time of social distancing to go within to connect with the Life Energy that is moving in, through and as us. As Paul said, it is the Life in which we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). It is the Life that lives and moves and has its being as each of us.

We can view this time as a global call to remove our focus from the things of the world and focus our minds and hearts within. We have been storing up “treasures on the earth” for far too long. It is now time for us to remember the teaching of our way shower, Jesus, and “store up our treasures in heaven,” and begin to fill our hearts with the things that are eternal, such as love, compassion, and empathy. ¹

I encourage us to, rather than thinking of ourselves as isolated, consider social distancing as being cloistered. We can make this a sacred time of connecting with the God of our understanding and with our higher selves. We can make this a time to “Activate Our Within.”

Cloistering ourselves from the clamoring of the world around us and “activating our within” strengthens us in body, mind and spirit. It reduces the body’s stress response which weakens the immune system. It can help to restore the body to its natural state of homeostasis. It can support us in clearing our minds of the negative chatter that we are bombarded with from the media on an hourly basis. As we “Activate Our Within,” we restore our minds and open to divine inspiration. As Unity minister, author and teacher, Eric Butterworth, says in this book, The Universe is Calling,

“The key is to know your oneness, and ideas will come rushing, streaming, and pouring into you from all sides, while you sit quiet.”

We also fortify ourselves in spirit as we remember our Truth as expression of the One Life of God in human form. When we know our Truth, we are set free from the fears of the world. We recognize, claim and realize the eternality of our ‘I AM’ as we “Activate Our Within.” As Scripture tells us, “Greater is [that] which is in you than [that] which is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

We don’t require medication to “Activate Our Within.” We do that through prayer, meditation, and contemplation.

• Start by turning off the television or radio.
• Take a deep breath.
• Allow the flow of breath to remind you that you are always in the flow of Divine Life.
• Release attachment to the outer and bring all of your attention into the moment.
• Center your awareness in the heart.
• Feel your heart beat.
• Imagine the Life that is beating your heart.
• Consciously connect with that Life.
• It is that impulse of Life that lives as all creation.
• You are enfolded in It.
• It is in you. It is you.
• You have now “Activate Your Within.”
• It has always been active: It is now active as your consciousness.
• Focus on that which is within you, as you.
• Invite divine ideas to fill your mind.
• Open your heart to new inspiration.
• This is the key to spiritual healing.
• Take the inspired action.
• Trust that you are guided by a Higher Mind.

“Activate Your Within” and know that this is the One Source of all that you need in every moment.

¹ Matthew 6:19-21

Untamed Spirit

Earlier this week, I began reading author Glennon Doyle’s latest release, Untamed. In the prologue, she shares a story of taking her young children to the zoo where they, along with other zoo-goers, witnessed a demonstration involving a cheetah born into captivity. With the intention to tame her, the cheetah was raised alongside a Labrador retriever and learned to mimic the dog’s behaviors.

During the daily exhibition at the zoo, hosted by a zoo employee, the Labrador, within view of the cheetah, chased a stuffed rabbit which was tied to a Jeep bumper. At the end of the chase, the dog was rewarded with a treat. Having observed the dog, the cheetah was released from her pen and chased the same stuffed rabbit to the end of the track. She was then rewarded with a large raw steak which she hungrily devoured.

During a Q&A following this display, one of the children asked if the cheetah is sad not being in the wild. The zookeeper responded that having been born in captivity, the cheetah has a good life in the zoo where she is safe and cared for. She assured the child that the cheetah, having never known the wild, is much better off in the zoo.

Continuing to observe the cheetah who had been returned to her fenced area, Doyle and her daughter sensed that, even though she was born in captivity, the cheetah still possessed a wild spirit and would break free from her captives if given the opportunity.

The author goes on to share her own stories of being “tamed” by society and doing her best to fit in, to belong, and to be accepted. The book is an autobiographical account of her struggles to break free and be Untamed.

As I read her words, I was reminded of the universality of Doyle’s experience. Most, if not all of us, can relate to this in some way. I know I can. We are conditioned by the culture in which we live to conform to its accepted standards. This applies to our ways of self-expression, including creativity, gender roles, sexual orientation, social status based on skin color, ethnicity, education, and finances, as well as body shape and appearance.

Much like the wild cheetah, born into captivity and taught to conform to the behaviors of a domesticated animal, we are conditioned to look, think and act in ways that conform to the expectations of the people around us and to deny our untamed spirits.

As Henry David Thoreau once said,

“The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.”

We all have within us an untamed spirit longing to be released and run free. For many of us, that wild spirit is hidden beneath the veil of years of conditioning by and conforming to the world. There is an aspect of us, our essential selves, just waiting for us to claim it and live it.

In Unity, we believe and teach that our way shower, Jesus, experienced the same sorts of conditioning that we do. He was a Jew living in Roman occupied Israel. He was conditioned by his religion, ethnicity, nationality and heritage. He learned to do what was necessary to belong and be safe in his surroundings. Since we do not have much information in our Christian Scriptures about his early life, we can only surmise, based on historical data, what his life was like. What we do know from our Scriptures is that his baptism was a turning point in his life, and one that we can allow to be a guide for us.

Jesus’s baptism symbolizes his willingness and readiness to release the conditioning of his past, accept his divine nature and be reborn into a new way of being in the world centered in his untamed spirit.

After his baptism, he dares to come face-to-face with his conditioned self, as represented by his 40 days and nights in the wilderness facing Satan’s temptations. Through all of that, he breaks free from the cage of his limited idea of himself and emerges ready to live his highest mission. He moves beyond the veil of conditioning and into the freedom of Spirit.

We, too, can free ourselves from the conditioning of the world by following Jesus’s example, not literally, but metaphorically. Every moment is an opportunity to release ourselves from the past and be reborn in the spirit. We can choose moment-by-moment to accept and realize our divine nature. We can hear the voice of Spirit saying to us, “This is my child in whom I am well pleased.” We can embrace our courage and faith and meet our conditioned minds head on. We can make a choice today to serve our true selves – the Christ within. We can move forward day after day making the conscious decisions to be true to our highest calling.

We, too, can reclaim our untamed spirit and answer the call of the wild within us. I encourage us to go within, remember who we truly are, and set a clear intention to live it.

Waking Up With Jesus

In my post last week, I shared about an experience I recently had that inspired me to use this Lenten season to explore the idea of Jesus as our way shower. This past Tuesday, I began facilitating a six-week online group who have chosen to join me on this journey. You are welcome to join, as well. Please email me at David@UnityDenver.org for information.

As I began this exploration, I was reminded of a series of lessons I presented during Lent in 2015, as well as a series of related blog posts. What follows is an edited version of one of those posts. It captures much of what I have come to understand about Jesus and forms the framework for our Tuesday evening exploration.

In the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, Charles Fillmore, the cofounder of Unity, said,

“Jesus Christ was the [prototype] man, which includes all the mental phases through which man passes in demonstrating life's problems. So we find Jesus Christ passing through all the trials, temptations, and mental variations of each of us…The experiences of each individual are in miniature the experiences of all.

We may "put on the new man," that is, bring forth Jesus Christ in ourselves. First we must put away the "old man" of error and limitation through denial of his reality. The second step is to accept the truth of our being, in faith; then through understanding to begin diligently to live Truth in thought, word, and deed. The Christ is the man that God created, the perfect-idea man, and is the real self of all men; Jesus Christ is this Christ-self brought forth into perfect expression and manifestation.

Jesus, the man of Nazareth, demonstrated that this attainment is possible to man... We are exhorted to "have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus," which implies that all may demonstrate as He did…”

Jesus of the Gospels is a metaphor for each of us. His journey to awakening and his teaching provide us with a road-map, a model for what is possible for each of us. When I speak of “awakening” I am referring to moving beyond our habitual state of consciousness, which is most often identification with the body or life situations, and embracing and living from a higher level of conscious connection with the transcendent nature of being, which in Unity we call ‘Christ.’

It is my intention to be clear that awakening is our path to freedom from the limited concept of self that we have imposed on ourselves or taken on from our families, peers, schools, and yes, our religion. We are taught from birth to believe things about ourselves that are not in alignment with our true nature. We are conditioned by the world around us, and we primarily live our lives from this conditioned state of consciousness. This is the “old man” that Mr. Fillmore referred to in the above quote.

Living from identification with the conditioned mind colors our experience of ourselves, others and, most importantly the God of our understanding. This identification keeps us asleep and in bondage to its limitations. As we awaken to the Christ of our being, or as Mr. Fillmore said, “put on the new man,” we free ourselves to live empowered and fulfilling lives. The master teacher Jesus taught, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). I emphasize that he said we must know the Truth in order to be free. To know the Truth is to awaken to it.

While I unequivocally believe that it is possible for each of us to attain the level of awakening and embodiment that Jesus did, it is vitally important to me, as we move through this series, that we do not get lost in the weeds of self-judgment, comparing ourselves to the ideal that we believe Jesus exampled.

Yes, it is essential for us to hold the vision of our potential to know ourselves as the expression of Christ in the world and to free ourselves from identification with the conditioned mind. And, it is also crucial that we accept and love ourselves right where we are on the path so that we do not impede our progress. It is important for us not to have unrealistic expectations of ourselves. It is equally important for us not to denigrate ourselves when we find that we fall short of living our highest intention to embody and live from Christ consciousness. It is a journey of self-mastery that Jesus exampled for us. I offer the following as encouragement along the way.

For most of us, awakening from the conditioned mind is not a one-time experience that happens suddenly and is permanent. It is usually a process that happens in phases. Although there are some who have reportedly experienced instantaneous awakening and who appear to have been able to maintain it for extended periods of time, it is not the norm. Whether it is not the norm because collective consciousness maintains the belief that it has to be a process, I cannot emphatically state; however, the evidence is that, for most people, it progresses over time. The same is true for Jesus. As Mr. Fillmore stated, he passed through all the stages while on his earthly journey that we do on our respective paths.

Further, because it is tempting for us to fall into the trap of assessing where we are and thinking that we should be at a particular stage in our process at any given time, it is important to know that we are not engaged in a linear process. Instead, it is often a circuitous spiraling path.

When we are intentionally engaged in our journey, we are continually spiraling toward realization of our Christ nature, even though at times it may not seem so. It is vital to acknowledge and honor that for ourselves. It is essential that we give ourselves permission to be exactly where we are and give ourselves compassion for what we are experiencing in the moment.

Finally, it is not a process of abdication, but integration. We are not called to renounce our humanity or to abandon our lives, but to integrate our new-found awareness of Truth and live it. It is not about leaving the world behind, but about shining the light of Truth on our conditioned mind, realizing that we cannot be defined by our past conditioning, and choosing to bring that consciousness to bear in our daily lives. We are here to bring the Kingdom of Heaven into conscious manifestation. We do that by fully engaging in our humanity while knowing that our True Nature transcends time and space. We are to be fully in the world, while maintaining consciousness awareness that we are not of the world.

I invite you to join me on this journey of exploration. Join us on Tuesday evenings for sharing, guided meditation and other experiences that I hope will help us to more fully allow Jesus to be our way shower on this path to awakening.