I love the word soar because it reminds me of one of my favorite passages in Living the Science of Mind by our founder, Dr. Ernest Holmes.
"It
is certain that none of us receive as much benefit
from this teaching as we might."
(Living the Science of Mind, Page
339)
What? Are we not getting everything we could? Why not?
Dr. Holmes
explains it's because we do not let our consciousness range in the field of
greater possibilities. So, if you want
to soar, you must let your consciousness range in the field of greater
possibilities.
I'm a lover of
words for the power they unlock through their meaning. To range means to wander around, to
roam around, as if to explore. I take
Dr. Holmes's words to mean that we do not soar (we do not rise rapidly above
the average – not as much as we could) ….because…we do not allow ourselves to wander
around in the ideas of greater possibilities.
But that's not all. Dr. Holmes also
says that we ought to take a certain time each day to "for the enlargement
of consciousness."
How? By reminding ourselves that we are working in
a limitless field. And that's not all –
Dr. Holmes says, "There should never be any sense of finality in our
self-discovery." In other words, don't ever think that this is the end or
that this is all there is to it. No,
never. Then he says, "No matter how
much good we experience today, we should expect more tomorrow. Expectancy always speeds progress; the anticipation
of better yet to come helps to dissolve the overload of burdens which we now
carry with us." There we have the
recipe for letting our spirit soar above the burdens of the world.
Oh yes, indeed,
today, there seems to be an overload of burdens we carry with us. And it can seem like an ill-advised luxury to
be roaming around the field of greater possibility with a playful spirit when
there are urgent things to attend to.
Yet, these days,
even scientists are turning to the importance of inner spiritual work. Gus Speth, a US advisor on climate
change, said in an interview about the environmental issues we face on this
planet across the globe:
"I used to think that top environmental
problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I
thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was
wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed, and apathy, and
to deal with these, we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we
scientists don't know how to do that."
And yes, it can be
challenging to let our spirits soar when there is a deep malaise in our
society. That's how Thich Nhat Hann describes what is happening in our society:
a deep malaise, an illness that comes from a lack of connection, communion, and
care. A kind of vacuum inside of the earth's
populations that we try to fill from the outside by reading, eating, drinking, purchasing,
binge-watching TV, or overworking. And we
absorb so much violence and tension every day that we are like "time bombs
ready to explode, and we need to find a cure for our illness."
What's the cure
for this malaise?
There are
practical cures and scientific cures. And we at Centers for Spiritual Living specialize
in something more than a cure; it is a return to spiritual wholeness. The Dalai Lama said something similar to what
the scientist I just quote, Gus Speth, said.
The Dalai Lama said that material progress alone is not sufficient.
"No amount
of legislation or coercion can accomplish the well-being of society, for this
depends upon the internal attitude of the people who comprise it."
The internal attitude of the people is the consciousness of humankind, and therein is the solution. That resonates with the point of view of the Centers for Spiritual Living. We promote global transformation through personal transformation. We believe that an effective way to change the world is to inspire individuals to rise to their spiritual magnificence. It is all connected to the idea that the realm of Mind is creative, if not more so than actions. It's not a new idea. The master teacher, Jesus of Nazareth, taught that it is done unto us according to our faith. Don Miguel Ruiz writes about the importance of dreaming a new dream and using our words with integrity because of their power to conjure up new realities. So, when we talk about the power of our thoughts, we're not introducing some new idea that was just thought up yesterday. Everybody already knows about the creative nature of our thoughts.
I have a friend. He is not a member of any Center. He has a different faith tradition. He thinks New Thought metaphysics can be a
bit woo-woo. I was talking to him about a
publishing deadline I have. He says to me,
"You know when I was in school, and I had a homework assignment say for
example due on Monday, I would just say to myself, 'that assignment will be
submitted on Monday on time,' and I would just trust that somehow work out,
and it always did." So, I said to
him, "Really, is that so? How come
that makes sense if you say it, but if I say it, it's woo-woo magical
thinking?" We laughed about it and
agreed that he was saying that if you put your mind to something and sincerely
accept it, it is likely to influence the way things turn out.
Now I don't know
why he thinks this kind of intentionality works. I know what I think. I think it is because of what we are made from, because
of what lives in us, because of our kinship with the spiritual universe, because
we are made in the image and likeness of that which creates, and because imagination
is a beautiful thing that allows us to think up things that have never been
thought before. Like Albert Einstein apparently said, imagination is more
important than knowledge because knowledge is limited, and imagination
encircles the world. And Carl Sagan is attributed with saying that imagination
will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it, we go nowhere."
Back to the
thought from Living the Science of Mind:
We must let ourselves play in the field of imagination. We must allow ourselves to imagine a more
lavish yet-to-be. We must let ourselves practice
accepting ideas about our lives that are greater than what we thought yesterday. We must let our consciousness loose to roam
about and dream. How? By taking time daily for the enlargement of consciousness.
What does that mean? How can a person enlarge their consciousness? And what IS consciousness?
Let's look it up in the Glossary of Terms in The Science of Mind by Dr. Holmes where consciousness is defined as mental awareness with two parts: surface mind and deeper mind. The surface mind is where you have awareness, will, decision, choice, imagination. Deeper mind is creative, unconditional, and it accepts whatever you place into it with your surface mind. So, the instruction to enlarge our consciousness looks like this to me: we being with our surface mind, perhaps by asking the question, what am I feeding it? What are the things we think about all day – is it the same old same old? What is the stuff we get hooked on – and is it too narrow? We begin there because that's where there is room to grow. Get bigger there, and use your imagination to roam in an infinite field of possibility, keeping in mind that your deeper mind will follow along with you. So take more risks in there and dare to imagine a life
- in which different political parties talk to each other with respect,
- in which homelessness in the world is resolved with kindness,
- in which the wasted excess of food of developed nations is given to the hungry with love,
- in which relationships are formed and ended with mutual respect and love,
- in which gender, race, age, and everything else is honored with joy,
- in which -- well it's your imagination, let it roam about and imagine.
Here is some
advice we can take from Alice, who said, "But I nearly forgot you must
close your eyes; otherwise…you won't see anything." That is wise advice
and makes me think of Krishna's guidance in the Bhagavad Gita to Prince Arjuna,
that one cannot see the glory of the Divine with ordinary eyes, and the
Christian Bible's guidance is to be mindful not to judge by appearances.
I need to note
that growing your consciousness through imagination does not replace action in
the world. No, All the teachers I have
quoted were movers and shakers, and influencers. Each understood the importance of using their
imagination while doing their duty in the world. In other words, please don't mistake this
message to be "Sit down, ignore the world, and think pretty thoughts."
Without understanding unity, oneness, and kinship with all, there is no
foundation. Without sincerely exploring what Divine is to you and without understanding the difference between statements
of spiritual truth and wishful thinking, one might become superstitious,
or one might want to get something out of this Universe without doing the necessary expansion
in mind to call it forth.
It's very tempting
to think that spirituality is simply positive thinking. In fact, positive
thinking without a foundation in love--without understanding my motives, without letting
go of manipulation--become troublesome from the mischief it creates. I understand now how important it is to
have a sound spiritual foundation when discussing wealth, prosperity, abundance,
social justice, equity, race relations, gender bias, religious intolerance,
and the burdens that we carry collectively.
Dr. Holmes tells us that we are to increase our receptivity by saying in our Spiritual Mind Treatment something like this:
Good and more Good is mine.
An ever-increasing
Good is mine.
There is no limit
to the Good which is mine.
Everywhere I go, I
see this Good, I feel It, I experience It.
It crowds itself
against me, flows through me, expresses Itself in me, and multiplies Itself
around me.
Around me, the keywords for me in this meditation, because they remind me to imagine a good of all and the harm of none.
My blessings to you
Edward Viljoen, Spiritual Leader
Centers for Spiritual Living
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