As I sit in prayer this morning, I continue to hold our Beloved Community in the Love and Light of Spirit, knowing a Higher Vision for each of our lives and for our Community as a Whole… trusting that each of us is consciously placing our faith in God, in Love, in Truth, and in Light, as we move into another beautiful July day.
As you know, I have been contemplating the idea of Spiritual Awakening and Liberation, and opening to the possibility of Enlightenment, both personally and collectively. And what I have come to realize is that we can only create a new paradigm, one based in Infinite Intelligence as the ground of our being for ourselves and humanity, when we hold a higher Vision. But (and here is where we get stuck) the paradigm we are living in and from has a strong impact on our Vision. How can it not? It is the atmosphere we were born into, it is the world view that permeates our experience. And it keeps us limited in what we can see as possible… unless and until we use our power of conscious choice to redirect our Vision and expand our Awareness.
Yesterday I spoke of the things-in-space/thinking-things paradigm that we are currently living in. I talked about the prior world view, which existed before the Middle Ages, and presented a God-centered universe in which the earth was flat and surrounded by a heavenly sphere. While this sounds ridiculous to us now, it was known as Absolute Truth in its time. And I offered the possibility that world events today are the effects of another Paradigm shift trying to happen, the conditions arising as we are called to our next stage of human evolution. I don’t think this idea is beyond the reach of anyone reading this message. So…
Today, in honor of this year of great change, 2020, I would like to do a Vision check; not a physical vision check, but a Spiritual Vision check, to offer an opportunity for each of us to look at our Sight, not in the sense of seeing with the eyes, but the understanding of the heart. I ask myself, “Rather than looking at what my senses are telling me about what is real, what does my Wisdom and deeper Knowing have to say about what is True?” Today’s message is asking each of us to look at whether we have a positive or a negative view of what is happening in the world, so that we might navigate these changes with more Grace and Ease.
I begin by asking myself, “Is my current personal Vision for the future leaning toward a Utopian or a Dystopian view, one that is holding to a Vision of the earth living according to God’s Highest Ideals (Love, Peace, Compassion, Cooperation, Generosity, Joy, Beauty, Freedom), or one in which fear, suffering, violence, pain and injustice prevails?” Am I holding a sense of Spiritual Optimism, or not? The seeds of change are being planted; a paradigm shift is occurring. This much is certain, whether we know it or not… whether we like it or not. The question is, am I contributing to the kind of future I wish to experience?
In both New Thought teaching and in Ancient Wisdom traditions of both East and West, we have been told that we create by our thinking, by what we believe; that what we place our faith in is what we will experience. And what is faith? It is belief that we choose and come to know by its works… in other words, as we experience it in our lives. We have begun this year with a lot of uncertainty, a lot of confusion, as though the ground has been pulled out from underneath us. Everything has changed, all at once, and we don’t know what the future will look like. Not only that, but we are bombarded by media, by people giving us their theories of what is happening and why it is happening. And the vast majority of these theories are unsubstantiated… they are simply people’s ideas or opinions and are causing even more confusion. We simply don’t know what is real and what is not.
How do we go about deciding what to believe? It is, after all, about deciding… choosing. This is both the great gift, and the great challenge, of being human. We are self-reflective beings that choose our way, either consciously or unconsciously, through our lives. So, just as I am doing in my own life, I invite you to take a look within, knowing that Spiritual Principle is at work always. As I move through the day, interacting with other people, the media, and the world, am I choosing a positive belief or a negative belief? If I am caught up in the negative theories and opinions of the world, I will feel confusion, my energy will feel drained, my heart will be troubled and devoid of hope. Something that robs us of our hope is dystopian and will always take us to fear, confusion, and suspicion. On the other hand, if I am feeling peaceful, if there is a sense of expansiveness, hope, Light, and Love, I can trust that Truth is present.
It is so important to choose carefully which Vision I am going to hold because I will give my mind power and my emotional power to one or the other. And as a self-aware human being, I am responsible, accountable (along with the rest of humanity), for whatever is out there in the collective consciousness. I believe that as a human family, as a global community, we are clearly in the midst of a paradigm shift. It has not yet been decided which way our world will turn. We have the power to direct our own lives in a positive direction, and in doing so, we join in the collective shift to a more Life-affirming way of life on earth. But it is going to take as many of us as possible to create the tipping point we are seeking.
It seems like such a huge undertaking. How can each of us make a difference? Well, it seems to me that everybody has had some experience of Love, whether from a family member, a partner, friend or neighbor, or a pet. So, I begin there. Whatever I feel and know about my experience of Love is my deepest, most authentic Truth. So, I can measure the authenticity of what I am hearing and seeing by how much Love is present. I can use the presence of Love to as a measuring instrument.
French idealist philosopher, Jesuit Catholic priest, and scientist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, offers this insight: “Love energy helps us to open our eyes and see things more clearly and positively. View this energy of Love and of Life from a new perspective, that God is Love and that we are made for Love. Love is what moves us and changes our world for the better. Although the essential quality of Love energy may be invisible and formless, we can easily apprehend it in the force it exerts in and around us, physically, emotionally, cognitively, and personally.”
We know what Love is by what it looks like, how it shows up… as kindness, gentleness, tolerance, understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. We recognize Love by its presence. So, when we become confused by what is True and what is not, we can measure what we are hearing by the amount of Love that is in it. Rather than becoming convinced by a rational argument, I consider whether or not it feels like Love. Does accepting this version of Truth bring me Peace? Love is the measure of our authenticity. If I want to know whether or not I can trust someone, I look at how much Love is evidenced in their life. Are they agents of Light? Are their lives showing the fruits of Love? This will lead me to the Truth every time.
As we move through this compelling time, we must keep our Vision on things above, not to the left or to the right. I am reminded here of the metaphysical interpretation of the cross… the vertical line standing for the Spiritual realm and the horizontal line representing the material realm. If we are seeing only the left-right perspectives, our movement is limited. We find ourselves caught up in effects and it keeps us distracted from the root causes that lie below the surface; and it especially keeps us from considering perspectives that might lead to Truth, and to solutions.
I am being called to serving as a channel of Peace, of Truth, and of Love; and so, I’m only looking up, not to the left or the right. I cannot do otherwise. And this does not always make my life easy, it does not always make me or my decisions popular. It is a razor-sharp and challenging path, and is sometimes misunderstood. But it is my True Path, and the world needs those of us who have found our True Path to stand in it and live from it.
If you are one such person, I invite you to join the transformation of consciousness. Become an active part, through your thoughts, words, prayers, and actions, of this paradigm shift. Mahatma Gandhi, in 1913, said, “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him.” This is the quote that has morphed over time into be the change you wish to see in the world. I invite you to choose a vertical perspective. From this higher place, things look different.
Closing with the wisdom of Teilhard de Chardin, “Helping humans move toward the next step of human evolution in Love is the most urgent and challenging task of contemporary spirituality.” We are being called to take up that challenge: to co-create a future that is seeded in Light and in Love… to choose the Higher Vision.
May we all choose to be Awake to the Infinite Possibility, available here and now…
May we be well…stay in touch…know our unity…and thrive!
And may we know the Absolute Beauty and Wonder of this Grace-filled, once-in-a lifetime day…
