The Gold Road

Everything you see around you came forth from a creative process: the clothes you are wearing, the home you live in, the chair you are sitting in, the television program you watch. The ability to create what you want in life isn't a mystery nor is it a special talent reserved for a select few. Your creativity comes from following the "creative process" which leads from the invisible realm of inspired thought to the manifestation of actual experience.

Over the next eight weeks, you will be learning the spiritual art of creating what you want in your life based on unwavering Universal Principles. Please know that you will succeed in this process for everything is within your potential to understand. You are going to learn how to utilize the incredible spiritual power within you to create.

There are seven steps to the creative process, and over the next seven weeks you are going to become thoroughly familier with each step. This will allow you to become the architect of your destination and create the life you desire.

To find out more about the seven steps, click here for a free download.

“What do you consider a meaningful life?”

As the minister at Unity Temple on the Plaza, I have on several occasions sat at the bedside of a person who is very close to dying.  The most difficult transitions are when the dying person is looking back on his/her life in a regretful way.  They regret things they did; they regret things they didn’t do;  and they  regret not fully living their lives to their hearts desire. Each of us has the freedom to live our lives the way we choose as  long as we don’t violate the God-given rights of another person to do the same.  The first point of a meaningful life is to reach the end without regrets. 

The second point of a meaningful life is to live in a way in which your presence is beneficial to the earth and its inhabitants.  It is a very comforting thought to know that somehow, someway you make a positive difference. Your life counts for something good. You matter.

The third point of a meaningful life is to continually grow in knowledge, wisdom and conscious awareness.  Each of us has a vast, unlimited mental, emotional and spiritual potential and nothing can bring the satisfaction, meaning and fulfillment that comes from the self becoming more than it has ever been before.

“Learn as if you will live forever; live as if you’ll die tomorrow!”

IS IT IMPORTANT TO BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE OF HEAVEN?

We can perceive “Heaven” in two ways. As a destination of peace, harmony and love available to us when we leave this earthly plane.  We can also perceive heaven as a state of existence on this earthly plane that is characterized as one of peace harmony and love. Heaven is a state of mind, whether on earth or in the hereafter that comes about as a result of our thoughts.  When we align our thoughts with the thinking of the great spiritual masters we automatically receive the benefits of a heavenly state. 

The universal principle of cause and effect states the nature of any cause is found in its effect.  If love is the cause of your thoughts, words and actions, love is going to be the effect.  The same holds true for hate, resentment and conflict, which create an uncomfortable condition in our lives  often referred to as hell.  Each of us individually creates the emotional state of our existence.

We have the free-will to chose the thoughts, words and actions we express.  By choosing to express peace, harmony and love we create situations in our lives that are of “heaven”.   You are responsible for the conditions of your life.  So, the next time you are feeling greatly disturbed, hateful, in conflict or out of harmony ask yourself,  “What IN hell am I doing.”       

HOW CAN PEOPLE READING THE SAME BIBLE COME UP WITH SUCH WIDELY DIFFERENT VIEWS?

When we are born, our minds are very much like a new computer that has never been programmed. In the first six or seven years of life we inherit a belief system. Our families, social environment and religious culture impresses upon us the notions they embrace in regards to God, life and other people, etc. There is not a group of people or any main religion that resides in the absolute truth therefore there are many different perceptions about the “meaning” of things, some of which are in great contrast with others. So it is with the Bible. Two people from widely different backgrounds can read the same verse from the Bible and have two completely different interpretations. I believe we are students of life, not graduates of life. We don’t know what life is ALL about but rather in the process of learning all about life. We should always be open to a higher truth and divine insight.

Three Simple Steps

There are three simple steps each of us can take when interpreting the Bible. Whatever interpretation you hold ask yourself, does this viewpoint move me closer to God; does it move me closer to accepting and honoring the great diversity of humankind; and does it guide me to being a beneficial presence to this wonderful world of ours. No matter what belief system you choose, if these three questions can be answered with a yes. .you are on the right path, heading in the right direction towards the right destination.

"If God Is Love"

From A Poetic Search for God Within by Warren Molten 

Marcene Borthwick passed along this beautiful poem:

 

If God is love,

there is no place where love it not;

and although this seems like a double negative, 

sounds like a plot, a Gordian knot;

  and easier said than believed,

  it rings true, feels good, 

even theological as in "word of God" --

  all of that, and that's a lot.

Still, there is no place where love is not.

Yet, we live like fish

swimming about in search of water,

or a blind mole pressing on to find soil,

or the olive its oil--absurd, like a bird

flying around without a care, looking for air.

No, Love is everywhere. Yet, such a paradox!

For still, we must look for love: around the bend,

over the rainbow, across this room or that street,

on the other side of an argument.

Near or far, we must search for love,

knowing that it is hard to find,

but hardest of all when love is finally found.

For then we must cherish is,

we must nurture it and help it grow,

then let it go.

So, if we are born, bathed and buried

in love, you and I have no excuse

not to be God's lovers in the world,

all of us all of the time, starting here and now

by loving ourselves,

and taking loving steps towards others,

and holy others, and on to every living creature,

all the way to God.

For it is with the eye of love

that we find God,

and the eye of love that God finds us.

What a lovely way to live,

and of course, the only way to die.

We have a choice

During the upcoming holidays, we can choose how to experience each moment, regardless of what is happening within or around us.  Here are some affirmations to remind and encourage us to choose the Good.

• I am one with God; therefore I am at peace right now.
• My thoughts create my life, so I choose to think thoughts that will bring forth the life that I want.
• At ease with conditions that life presents to me, I move forward to my higher good.
• I am the director, the one who decides the thoughts that I will think on this day.
• I meet every person as if they were myself and treat them with kindness and love.
• I awake this morning with a peacful heart and a peaceful mind, excited to find the Good in all things and all people.

With each affirmation, we not only bless ourselves, we also bless each person in our lives, and we change the world for the better.  You can make a difference.

ONE PRESENCE AND ONE POWER

Looking out to the far reaches of the sky, we see a space so vast that it is incomprehensible. Using the latest technological advancements, we can observe the inner depths of our physical presence.

Beyond the physical there is a common energy, a spirit, that is the very essence of life. We call this spirit God, and it permeates everything in the universe around us as well as every cell in our bodies.

Yet one of the greatest misperceptions that plagues us at times is that God is separate from us. Having a sense of separation from God can leave us feeling helpless, hopeless, and fearful in regard to the more difficult situations we face in life. In addition—living in this illusion of separation from God—we often turn to the world around us in search of something to sustain us, to give us courage, or to depend on for strength, only to be let down in the long run.

There are two basic ways that we can strengthen our relationship with God. The first is to have an understanding of God that moves beyond myth to an awareness of the God Presence within us as love given unconditionally and continually. The spirit of God within never leaves us, never withholds from us that which we need, and never condemns us as unworthy. To truly know our oneness with God is to move from our mind to our heart, because it is from the consciousness of love that we resonate with the presence of God within.

The second way to strengthen our relationship with God is to have absolute trust in God. When problems appear to abound and challenges seem to overwhelm us, we remain confident and secure. During the most difficult of times, we will have faith, hope, love, strength, and peace of mind as we turn to God, affirming God’s presence and supply. That which we need will be provided.

There is one Presence and Power in the universe and in our lives. As we believe in God and trust in God, our cup shall truly overflow.