Because awareness leads to impact: GreenFaith's Invitation to Reflect on the Climate Crisis

From our Strategic Partner, greenfaith, an invitation to reflect about the moral and religious dimensions of the climate crisis.

Because awareness leads to impact:

Join us on 28 September for a global, multi-faith forum.

More and more religious people are concerned about climate change and are experiencing its impacts.

Yet our religious communities are not yet publicly addressing climate destruction or restoration with boldness that meets this moment.

Most of us haven’t had the opportunity to reflect about the moral and religious dimensions of the climate crisis or its true causes and solutions. We need to develop relationships and skills that empower us to make an impact.

But we can do that together.

On Sept 28, hosted by the Catholic University of East Africa in collaboration with the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims and Laudato Si’ Movement, GreenFaith invites you to join Faiths for a Just Energy Transition.

RSVP NOW

This will be a 2-hour webinar, with live interpretation in Spanish, French, and Swahili.

Participants will learn the basis for the three commitments that religious groups are calling for around the globe:

• an immediate end to new fossil fuel projects,
• an equitable phase-out of coal, oil and gas,
• and a generous commitment to a just transition for impacted communities and workers.

Speakers from diverse religious and activist communities will share reflections from the heart of their traditions, while experts will describe why the three commitments are so important.

Awareness always precedes action. Let’s learn and take action– together. 

https://actionnetwork.org/events/faiths-for-a-just-energy-transition?source=direct_link&

Sacred Disruption - Reimagine Everything!, by Dr. Petra Weldes

Disruption has become the norm!

The pandemic has certainly disrupted us, for good and for ill. Devices and technology continue to disrupt our homes and the way we do business, for good and for ill. The internet, social media, and AI have disrupted us for good and for ill. The polarization of our politics and the divisiveness in our government have disrupted us. The turmoil over the civil right of African Americans, immigrants, women, and transgender people have disrupted our ignorance, while the spiraling issues of climate change have disrupted our complacency.



Making It Sacred and Worthwhile

How shall we deal with all this disruption – with angst, anger, apathy or with our spiritual principles and human values? What if we decided to engage with these disruptions as something sacred? Even going so far as to invite sacred disruptions to take us on unexpected healing and growing journeys. Making disruptions sacred is realizing that “the way it’s always been” isn’t and can’t continue to be the same as it always has been. So, how do we reimagine our lives, individually and collectively? How do we reimagine life in such a way that challenges the norms while answering the call of our soul for courageous action, and authentic connection?



Step #1 – Embrace Change as a growth opportunity

We begin by allowing, even inviting, disruption to become sacred. This means embracing change and uncertainty with powerful and positive intentions and actions. The first step is to seek the good that has emerged amid any disruption. This does not deny or avoid the pain nor the challenges we or others have faced. But it does focus us on the fact the something greater is always present and there is a way to learn, grow, and move through disruption to a powerful awakening. Deciding to make a particular disruption sacred means that we take it to the altar of our awareness and invite it to reveal something meaningful and profound. Listening rather than analyzing, feeling rather than forcing, and sensing rather than projecting are all sacred skills our souls develop as we engage in this process.



Step #2 – Make Friends with Ambiguity and Uncertainty

The next step is to invite sacred disruption. This means to court the new, make friends with the unknown, and expect change. Ambiguity and uncertainty become our guides as we decide to invite the wildest parts of our soul and our deepest intuition to lead. We deliberately try new ways of being and doing that are more congruent and aligned with our values, spirituality, and ideals (no matter how uncomfortable). This is way beyond improving ourselves; it calls for sacred and profound acts of authenticity and deeply taking responsibility.



Step #3 – Make it a Creative Act

Sacred disruption becomes a creative act when the destruction has made way for something truly new. Newness begins with reimaging life, not from the normal way it’s been, but from a soulful, connected, profoundly directive decision to make a difference. Reimagining everything begins with values that we espouse but aren’t actualizing, and the hopes we are afraid to believe are possible to achieve. What if they are? What if these are the impulses and desires of your truest essence? Reimagine life, is not trying to create a utopia, but rather, it is day-by-day, moment-by-moment mindfully making a life the contributes, restores balance and justice, reveals creativity and connection, and is utterly in alignment with the highest vibrations of your truest self.



Step #4 – Engage Your Imagination

The creative faculty of imagination is what breaks the bonds of habitual patterns and behaviors. Imagination is the ability to see and sense something in the mind’s eye that is not actually present yet. Every one of us has this ability. Usually it feeds our anxiety, doubt, and fear as we imagine catastrophic outcomes or our inadequacy for creating change. Just remember, our imagination is just as good at imagining outrageously amazing outcomes and our courageous contributions to change. Begin today, imagine a world that works for everyone, even when we have no idea how it will come about. Imagine our planet healthy, people prospering, divides discussed civilly, and an economy in service to humanity and our future. Now all the disruptions have truly been made sacred.

About | Dr. Petra Weldes

For more than 30 years, Dr. Petra Weldes has brought a dynamic, genuine, and engaging style of ministry to congregations around the country. Leading CSLDallas since 1998, she has created a thriving spiritual community, empowering and transforming lives. She serves as Co-Spiritual Director along with her wife, Rev. Karen Fry. A compelling and gifted speaker and teacher, Dr. Petra's purpose is to transform lives and her mission is to grow people, communities, and ideas.

She has served in many capacities at the Centers for Spiritual Living and in local and national interfaith programs and received her honorary Doctor of Divinity from the Holmes Institute in 2004.

​A highly regarded and deeply admired teacher, Dr. Petra engages students with her interactive style. This provides a safe, sacred environment for personal growth and exploration. Her deep wisdom, wealth of knowledge, as well as humility and humor, guide students into journeys of awakening to their unique expression and creative, joyful potential.

An elegant, powerful speaker, her ability to translate seemingly complex and confusing life issues into concise and clear messages invites the audience into deeper levels of understanding of their being and engagement in the world by igniting the change within.

​In the nonprofit, religious, and business communities, Dr. Petra has coached countless leaders to a more conscious, powerful, and courageous presence in their work. She develops potential and connects leaders to ideas that expand consciousness.

Dr. Petra has co-authored three books: Joyous Freedom, Joyous Living, and Joyous Abundance Journals with Rev. Soren Christian, as well as numerous articles and thought papers.

Are You Mindful or Mind-Full, by Rev. Trish Hall

Pathways Theme: "Stay Teachable" August 1, 2022

Do you practice “mindfulness” or have you succumbed to “mind-fullness”?

“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, without being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.” The practice can shift how we are in the world, moving us from reactivity to calm, chosen responsiveness.

Mindfulness has gone mainstream. “Gurus” of every kind have popped up everywhere from spiritual communities and churches to corporate boardrooms. There are myriad benefits of mindfulness even when practiced haphazardly and even greater benefits when practiced consciously and artfully.

There is a vast difference between “mindfulness” a contemplative practice and “mind-fullness” a state of having so much knowledge and/or busyness that there isn’t space for new insights. Innovation and creativity are blocked. Learning is constricted if not actually stopped. Some people are so attached to their own perspective that different perspectives are condemned and rejected before being investigated. Thinking is a good thing, however, thinking to the exclusion of allowing space for original thought, is not productive. Receptivity is essential to possibility thinking – to innovation.

In Zen Buddhism, there is a story about Japanese Master named Nan-in who lived during the Meiji era (1868-1912). During his days as a teacher, he was visited by a university professor curious about Zen.

Being polite, Nan-in served the professor a cup of tea.

As he poured, the professor’s cup became full, but Nan-in kept on pouring. As the professor watched the cup overflow, he could no longer contain himself and said, “It is overfull. No more will go in!”

Nan-in turned to the professor and said, “Like the cup, you are too full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

Interestingly, this is a human challenge. Within nature, being teachable is a matter of life or death. Learning is essential to the flow of life. There is, an ebbing and flowing, throughout nature: giving and receiving, learning and teaching, loving and being loved, listening and speaking, buying and selling. All aspects of life are cyclical.

When teaching about circulation, I have students close their fists as tightly as they can and then I try to pry the open to give them money. They cannot receive from the flow of abundance when they have closed themselves off. A closed fist cannot receive the generosity of the world. A closed mind cannot receive the wisdom that abounds around us.

This exchange process applies to giving and receiving assistance – assistance that is deeply desired but is pushed away by not being a willing recipient. Whether it’s physical aid or collaboration, when the circulatory system is stifled all parties suffer. This is true physiologically, ecologically and psychologically.

In the Old Testament a cup running over was a symbol of abundance and considered a very good thing. In the Zen Buddhist story, a cup running over is quite the opposite. It is not about the cup nor its contents. It is about how we relate to them.

Ask yourself: Do I accept the blessing of the contents and set it free to bless others? Or am I attached to having been chosen for the blessing of a full cup? And, by chance, am I so full of myself that I am unaware that there is a cup – empty or full? Perhaps I am so full of myself that I am no longer available to learn from new experiences. Where is the void into which new can flow?

The tendrils of the original question “Are you mindful or mind-full?” wander in all directions. Prejudices such as racism are rooted in this same arena. Prejudice is nothing other than prejudgments made based on assumptions drawn from rumors and gossip, then perpetrated on others. When we allow ourselves to be so full of our opinions, we shut down our growth potential and stop evolving. If we shut down before learning, how can we be anything other than stuck, allowing the past to dictate our future?

Practicing mindfulness can be a tremendous aid if we want to remain open to learning and growing. Watching and listening to ourselves– observing our reactions and interactions, we can note our reactivity and investigate what beliefs are lurking inside us that caused certain behaviors. We can look at those behaviors to see if they presently serve us or ever did. How can we grasp how it is to be someone else, if we dishonor their uniqueness by assuming that their life experience is similar to ours? We must first drop our assumptions and change our perceptual filters. This is not easy. We see, hear, and feel through our own filters thus diminishing our ability to perceive the experiences of others. Many assume that this only happens among people of different ethnicities, socio-economic groups, etc., which is just another assumption. People who share many commonalities frequently impose their prejudgments on one another. All our life experiences are different!! Each of us is unique.

Mindfulness is an excellent tool to heighten your awareness of your own other -than-conscious behaviors that result in “mind-fullness” and render us unteachable.

Practicing mindfulness may cause you to awaken from a lifelong slumber – you may discover that you have been sleepwalking through life, allowing your past to direct your thoughts, words, and actions. I invite you to take a two-part challenge - be your own observer:

1. Keep a log of how many actions you take each day that you do, “because that is how you always have.”

2. Keep another log of all your original thoughts, innovations, creativity.

Choose what you will do with what you discover. Will you default to how it has always been, or will you choose to stay awake, stay alive and learn something new every day.

--------------

Rev Trish Hall came home to Science of Mind in the mid-1980’s. She walked in the doors of a Religious
Science Church and instantly remembered the loving embrace of a spiritual community very much like
the one she had attended with one of her best friends as a child. The cross cultural array into which she
was welcomed filled the gaps she had experienced in the interim. She immediately started taking
classes and volunteering. She never questioned – this was the teaching that pulled all of her searching
and studies together into one practical way of life. She was home.

She licensed as a Professional Practitioner in 1991 and graduated from Holmes Institute with a Master of
Divinity in 2001. Rev Trish is a regular contributor to the Science of Mind Magazine. She has served
what is now Centers for Spiritual Living as a Regional Support Coordinator for 10 years, as Chair of the
Lifelong Learning Committee that designs cutting-edge spiritual education through the World Ministry
of Prayer and on the Global Services Committee. Having served in two prior pulpits, she became the
founding minister of Center for Spiritual Living Metro in 2015.

Shifting tides cross the pond - a world that works for everyone, by Laura Topper

I have often contemplated deeply how a spiritual community can align and thrive as a global entity in 2022. Viewing the teachings and this blessed spiritual community through the sociocultural lens of being across the pond. Living in the UK, my birth land offers me an outlook that differs from those in the founding homeland of New Thought. I am no different in truth and nature from any other, I do, however, have one certain thing in common with a few other Science of Mind spiritual warriors based around the world, and that is a resourcefulness that pushes and pulls me to seek to show up and express in uniquely creative ways, that are not based in Spiritual Centre community life. You may call it outreach, focus practitionering, I see it as being an ambassador for the weird and wonderful diverse expression of me as this teaching, open at the top and over the pond, doing me and bringing the principles to those that are willing to receive them, in my way.

With the collective shifting in consciousness of what it means to ‘be spiritual’, vast populations of individuals globally are currently taking conscious action to choose their own way to express religious and spiritual ideas and concepts. I am not surprised at all to discover that the tendency to ‘change religions’ is on the rise. With ‘Islam growing faster than any other major religion and If current trends continue, by 2050,  the number of Muslims will nearly equal the number of Christians around the world.’ [wicki] whilst in the UK ‘over half (55%) of Britons say they do not belong to any particular religion.’ [https://yougov.co.uk/], additionally in the United States, approximately 10% of Americans identify as atheists, compared with China - 91% and the United Kingdom - 73%.

I am not driven by statistics, and yet I like what I am learning here, and I embrace this movement, as this speaks to me of a Divine discontent, a shifting tide, and an out-picturing of the collective coming into a new idea/ concept of autonomy around personal and collective, spiritual and religions choice. Yes, there is a new emerging paradigm exposing itself as an awakened opportunity for knowing Oneness. This may at times feel like separation, and yet as a Religious Science forever student, I know that this is too is the One expressing humanity's desire to express a deeper awareness of freedom. The greater question in my heart is, what will it really take for this teaching, Science of Mind and Spirit, to leap from beyond the statistic of being the ‘10% other religion’ category to becoming humanities choice for spiritual understanding and embodiment?

As a practitioner and soon-to-be minister, I know that I am not here to change anything or anyone’s point of view. This teaching shows us how to think and not what to think, and it is our personal choice to take action to living a love-centered and peace-infused life. I also know that being the example, is required for transformation and transition into a new world that works for everyone. This world that works for everyone, a part of our Global Vision, has often bugged me as it often feels like a spiritual bypass, Disney slogan! I realise that as the Divine perfection, wholeness, and completeness, this world is working for everyone right now … the point is that we don't all always realise this, hence the messiness that out pictures and saddens our collective heart. I am invited to firstly be this vision, to be the change I want to see in the world. So how do I harmonise this within me?

As we collectively continue to decipher the political, social, religious, and medical policy and decision-making fiesta that seemingly has its intention set in confusing the masses, I can only root and ground myself in the knowing of one thing, that this too is God expressing, and that I too am the living Divine expression of God and that I have a choice in each and every moment and that my choice affects everything. When I read that my sisters in the US are being biologically controlled by governmental policymaking, my womb churns. When I hear of another race gun crime anywhere on our planet, I feel wounded within, and when I see victims of circumstance caught in the crossfire of waging war, I feel the terror of my Jewish family ancestors as they fled from Russia and Poland at the turn of the 19th Century and entered into the UK as immigrants.

Dr. Ernest Holmes states that he would rather know of one person profoundly practising and demonstrating the principles of Science of Mind than to have a thousand Practitioners uncertain of these teachings. As a ‘global’ community, beyond USA, Canada, and even Spanish-speaking countries, we are being called to more profoundly step into the vision of oneness and relinquish the need to hold onto the shore of Americanisms, and more fully embrace our sisters, brothers and others globally. Our greatest strength is the willingness to listen and our urge to transform.

It astounds me that Science of Mind and Spirit, this powerful, dynamic teaching of Truth, is not in every book store globally, on everyone’s lips, and in everyone's heart. I am amazed at how this teaching isn’t currently taught in all schools, in medical schools, universities, prisons, and hospitals around the globe. I am also quite amazed that these transformational mystical and metaphysical teachings have actually journeyed thus far outside of the USA, Canada, and Spanish-speaking communities! The paradox here for me is that as necessary as Science of Mind and Spirit is right now, the idea of this beloved collective Spiritual community intentionally prioritising and pollinating global awareness has only just begun to raise eyebrows. And so we are being called as a community to go much deeper, to truly know what global connection means, to practice deep outrageous listening, to live from childlike wonder, to speak authentic truthing, to pick up the phone and reach out and share, to be of service in action and a to have a profound willingness to see no pond.

In God, all things are possible, and I know that as I continue to transform my world within and expand my mental equivalent, that there has to be an uplifted outer demonstration of love, peace, joy, justice, abundance, beauty, and vitality for all. There is a calling on our hearts now to emerge from me to we, and we are being deeply moved and supported to each be the example of Oneness in action, treating and moving hands, heart, and feet. We are being not so gently reminded to ramp up the idea of service and truly live into the knowing of Oneness in action, no walls, distance, or ponds; now is the time for authentic connection and true understanding to be more than the vision, and to walk the talk of a world that works for everyone, everywhere.



And so it is

Laura Topper UK

lauratopper13@gmail.com

www.lauratopper.com

The Intelligent Use of Creative Intelligence, by Rev. Dr. Maxine Kaye

The invisible things of God are manifested through the visible, and unless the invisible thought and desire of man is in line with Truth, his acts will fall into error.

Ernest Holmes, Science of Mind, p. 436

In scripture, we are advised to, “Choose you this day whom you will serve,” an important reminder that we are always at choice with regard to how we direct the Intelligent Creative Law of Mind. We have learned that everything is created twice: once on the invisible level of Mind, and then as a visible, external manifestation of that idea, whether constructive or questionable.

In his book, “The Power of Decision,” Raymond Charles Barker points out that, “The individual’s ability to act unintelligently in a universe of Intelligence is amazing.” We live in the Presence of Divine Mind and set into motion the creative action of Divine Law. As we students of the Science of Mind deepen our understanding of this Presence and Power, we begin thinking, feeling, and acting more intelligently.

Since, “All’s Love and All’s Law,” as Robert Browning posed, we do well to follow Ernest Holmes’ recommendation that we, “Court the Presence, and Direct the Law.” It is in deepening our conscious connection with Spirit that the Wisdom of the Heart is able to guide us to compassionate, intelligent choices. It is in trusting the Immutable Law to bring about what we pray about that we become effective instruments for the Loving Presence to be more perfectly revealed in our lives and in the world.

Although we must be aware of the conditions that the misuse of Divine Intelligence has brought about, it is essential that we maintain our focus on that which is life-affirming and not become adversely influenced by these temporary circumstances. Each such event actually is, “a call to prayer.” Rather than slipping into others’ negative thinking, we truly are able to lift the consciousness around us by adhering to Truth and being determined to manifest a healthier environment and a wiser, more caring world.

As we are all being called to clearer thinking and more loving choices, we rely on Infinite Wisdom to guide and empower us in making truly intelligent and compassionate decisions. Let’s celebrate the Universal Creative Intelligence that we are guided to use, and let’s use It intelligently!

Rev. Dr. Maxine Kaye
Greater Philadelphia Center for Spiritual Living
Paoli, Pennsylvania

Raised in Religious Science and having been active nearly 46 years as Minister with the Centers for Spiritual Living, the Reverend Dr. Maxine Kaye served Centers in California before being called to the Greater Philadelphia Center for Spiritual Living in Paoli, PA. 

Devoted to this teaching, Dr. Kaye has served on the Religious Science International Board of Education (primarily as Practitioner Chair, Chaplain Minister Sponsor and Curriculum Writer), on the RSI Board of Directors as First Vice President, chairing the Ethics Committee, Co-Creation Committee, and Ministers Regional Meetings Committee. 

Her book, Alive and Ageless, embodies her philosophy of authentic youthfulness and enthusiasm at any age and she enjoys presenting lively workshops on the book. 

Agreeing with Dr. Ernest Holmes that we should take what we are doing seriously but not take ourselves too seriously while we are doing it, she believes also that, Everything is sacred, and nothing is serious. Contact: Rev. Dr. Maxine Kaye 1710 E. Lancaster Ave. #111 Paoli, PA 19301 dr.maxinekaye@gmail.com

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples August 9, 2022

 

August is the month in which UNESCO has established International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. In our review, CSL’s Spiritually Motivated Social Engagement (SMSE) Committee found UNESCO's website to be rich with resources, calls to action and inspiration for the annual celebration on August 9. In this statement, we have provided convenient links for you and your community to access UNESCO’s materials and other helpful resources.   CSL's Global Vision calls us to envision a world in which we live and grow as One Global Family that respects and honors the interconnectedness of all life; a world where this kinship with all life prospers and connects through the guidance of spiritual wisdom and experience[1]. Many Indigenous people do not experience the world this way, and UNESCO “seeks to support them in addressing the multiple challenges they face, while acknowledging their significant role in sustaining the diversity of the world’s cultural and biological landscape."[2]   We invite you to consider the importance of researching the area where you live and your own personal heritage to learn more about what it means to be Indigenous and why it is important to recognize Native, First, Original people; their origin stories; the conditions they live under today; and — perhaps most importantly — the contributions they have and continue to make to our global family of beings. It is significant that among leaders in conservation and other efforts to reduce global warming, the extinction of life-supporting species and reducing pollution of vital resources such as water, we often find Indigenous people at the forefront[3].   Throughout Africa, South America, Asia and the United States, borders were created and land appropriated by colonialism, cutting through tribal territories and interrupting cultural, social and economic communities and their welfare[4].  Today, there are individuals and organizations that recognize and seek to recover, celebrate and incorporate the values and ingenuity of Indigenous people in our collective efforts to restore healthy communities where they have been decimated and to provide reparations for past injustices[5].    CSL's SMSE Committee recognizes the spiritual importance of examining cause and effect on a global level, and how we, in our CSL communities, have the opportunity through self- and community education to put new causes in motion locally for global impact. Through our spiritual practices and the resulting actions we take from a consciousness of love and respect, we can create a new story to be told in the future: a story of cooperation, celebration and inclusion of the wisdom of all the people on the planet.   UNESCO has designated 2022 "The Decade of Indigenous People," a decade of opportunity to repatriate land or provide equivalent remuneration, to ensure equitable education, health and economic opportunities. Let us as CSL join in a consciousness of healing, respecting and honoring Indigenous people and their unique and much-needed contributions to making a world that works for all. We encourage you to share the UNESCO website links in this statement with your friends, family and community, and to initiate conversations about Indigenous people in your area. Explore the Indigenous Land Digital Map to learn more about the Indigenous people in your area (see link below) and to explore ways for the whole family to celebrate the event: Indigenous Peoples' Day Celebration Ideas for the Entire Family (VeryWellFamily.com).   [1] Learn About Our Global Vision - Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL.org) [2] International Day of the World's Indigenous People | UNESCO [3] Indigenous People and Nature: A Tradition of Conservation (unep.org) [4] The World: A Century Later, Letting Africans Draw Their Own Map - The New York Times (NYTimes.com) [5] 15 Indigenous Human Rights Organizations to Follow | Human Rights Careers   For more information about the 2022 Virtual Commemoration and the Role of Indigenous Women in the Preservation and Transmission of Traditional Knowledge, visit the UN’s page here: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples 2022 | United Nations For Indigenous Peoples   For a map to help identify Indigenous people in the area you currently live, visit: Native-Land.ca | Our Home on Native Land     Spiritually Motivated Social Engagement Committee     Rev. Edward Viljoen, D.D., Spiritual Leader, Centers for Spiritual Living Rev. Raymont Anderson, Ph.D., D.D., Chair Rev. Andrea Nelson Asebedo, D.D., Co-Chair, Ethics and Professionalism Rev. Sunshine Michelle Coleman, Ph.D. Rev. D. Jacquelyn Edwards, MPA, MCS Rev. Cindy Grimes Ayo McClennan, RScP, Liaison to the Leadership Council Rev. Mike McMorrow, D.D. Rev. Martha Quintana, Director, CSL Global Services   The Spiritually Motivated Social Engagement (SMSE) Committee strives to look beyond personal opinion and instead to the broader context that represents important global issues while avoiding spiritual bypass, exclusion and blame. We understand that our response may not capture all views, and we appreciate people who share dissenting points of views with us. There are many ways to view current affairs and topics of social significance in a spiritual context. We try to carefully research and look at as many angles and perspectives as possible given the global reach of our organization and the potential impacts on so many people, seeking always to link our statements to core Science of Mind teachings, our organization’s shared values and Global Vision. We trust that our readers understand how seriously we take our responses to these world issues.     Centers for Spiritual Living  573 Park Point Drive   |  Golden, Colorado, 80401 Phone: 720-496-1370  |  Fax: 303-526-0913 © 2013 Centers for Spiritual Living Privacy Policy

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Meanwhile, by Rev. Staci Hylton

The inspiration for my writing came from Stephen Colbert this past week. The more chaos, unrest, and disturbing the world seems to be currently experiencing, the more spiritual truth needs to be remembered. My job is to commit to seeing that which is happening so that my unique and individualized version of love can realize what is needed to help lift and shift the world to a new place. 

Honestly, there are days that my focus and energy seem to be stalled, and I gravitate toward that which infuriates and disappoints me about humanity; therefore, I must give double attention to my spiritual practices. As my focus shifts to being “in the world and not “of the world,” that which is mine to do comes through. The blessing that comes from the chaos and seeming darkness that is happening all around us is that truth is being revealed, and if enough of us can find the strength and courage to wrestle with the uncomfortable and the unrest, we truly have the opportunity to create exactly that which we want which will serve humanity at a higher level. I am willing to look into the dark corners and crevices of my own mind and that which is out in the world, however, am unwilling to vibrate from a place of doubt, fear, and worry. My light must shine as brightly as it can from within. What brings me back to shine is the remembering the “meanwhile.” 

I am so grateful for the Principles of Science of Mind, which allow me to live in the meanwhile. Here is a reminder of the Principles which come from CSL.org. They are framed on the wall at LVCSL as a reminder, and they make up the “Meanwhile” that I choose to focus my energy upon.

Current conditions that weigh on my human mind and heart: Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, Classism, Ageism, Ableism, Anti-Semitism, Anti-Any religion that isn’t traditional Christianity (ism), fear of one another, fear of loss of power, lack of resources, inequality, not-enoughness, unworthiness, change, lack of recognition and respect of the value in all beings and the planet.

Meanwhile, there is Oneness, Love, and Creation

“One infinite Reality, We call it many names, including but not limited to God, Life Universal Spirit, Infinite Intelligence. First Cause, or the Thing Itself. The One Infinite Reality is undivided, complete, and whole within Itself. This Oneness creates everything out of itself and therefore includes both the absolute and the relative, tangible and intangible, physical and metaphysical aspects of reality.

“Love is the self-givingness of Universal Spirit through its desire to express itself in terms of creation. Love is the impulse, and Law is the way of creation.” We each are divine and a unique expression of the One Love, and when we create from that place and space of love, we manifest more and more love.”

Meanwhile, there is The Creative Process and The Spirit Threefold Nature

The One Infinite Reality expresses in three aspects, Spirit, Soul, and Body, and we are made in that One Reality’s image and likeness therefore, we create from that.

Each individual is made in the image and likeness of the One Infinite Reality therefore, once each realizes and acts from its birthright of Love, we can and will ultimately choose to manifest the attributes of love, peace, power, joy, and harmony and realize our beauty, and abundance and so much more.

Meanwhile, the Truth is that Freedom, Heaven is a state of consciousness, and we are all living an Eternal Life Now

Freedom is the birthright of every living soul, and as we realize that heaven is our true nature and allow ourselves to live from that awareness, we create more of that state of consciousness within each of us. We also allow for others to create their own version of their highest and best lives, knowing that as each opens up to their own unique magnificent selves, each creates a world that works for each one. We are immortal and eternal spiritual beings, here at this time on purpose to walk each other Home.

Rev. Staci Hylton

Find me one person who is for something and against nothing, by Rev. Karen Linsley

On this 4th of July, I do not feel in a celebratory mood. In fact, I feel the opposite. I feel sad, I am worried. I feel the pain of my fellow humans who are of a different color than me, who still, even after this country was founded on all men being created equally, are not equal. They still suffer under shackles of red lining, efforts to prevent them from voting, racial profiling, and other efforts to intimidate them. I feel the pain of being a woman and feeling as if I am, simply because of my gender, relegated to second-class citizenship having to fight for the right to make my own decisions about my health care. I feel the pain of not even being able to own a credit card in my name in my lifetime, simply because of my gender. I feel the pain of folks who have different belief systems than much of America and yet are not given the same recognition as those who claim the mantle of Christianity. I have felt the scorn coming from a Catholic priest who simply refused to acknowledge that there was any other way to believe than his own way. I have felt the scorn of the evangelical who believes that women should not be ministers. I feel the pain of folks who dare to be different in the pursuit of their own happiness, which is supposedly guaranteed in our Constitution, and yet they are ridiculed and harmed.

I feel all this pain, and it is all so unnecessary. And I strive to live in spiritual principles. I strive to live from a place of being for something and against nothing. It is admittedly very difficult to do these days, yet I still strive. I adopted this spiritual principle after hearing about it for the first time in a talk originally given by Ernest Holmes in 1959. I first heard this talk sometime around the early 2000s, and my entire world was rocked. The entire talk is incredible but this one sentence gets me every time:

“Find me one person who is for something and against nothing, who is redeemed enough not to condemn others out of the burden of his soul and I will find another savior, another Jesus, and an exalted human being.” From that moment onward I began to explore how to remove the burdens from my soul so that I could be for something and against nothing.

“Redeemed enough not to condemn others out of the burden of his soul…” 

And then I remember that even Jesus told us that we could do all the things he did, and so much more and greater.

So why are we not doing that? Are we not redeemed enough to not condemn others out of the burdens of our own souls?

I spend much of my time answering these questions and attempting to find solutions to the problems we face, as a nation.  The separation cannot continue, because it really is true that united we stand and divided we fall.  And so my work continues, as does the work of many others who also feel the pain. And in my search to be for something and against nothing, on this July 4th holiday, here is what I am for:

I am for a way of life that embodies what Gary Zukav, in his book The Seat of the Soul, calls authentic power. This kind of power means that we have no burden on our souls, so we are against nothing. This kind of power shows up in full love of life, in all its forms. This kind of power shows up in loving everything and everyone. Loving all. No matter the color of their skin. No matter what religion they practice. No matter what their gender is. No matter what their sexual preference is. Because when we stand in this kind of power, we are at peace, confident in our own place in the world, and thus have no need to displace anyone else.

I am for true equality for all. I am for compassionate and honest communication to resolve our differences. I am for each and every human being to be free of the burdens that would cause them to lash out in fear and attempt to destroy anything that isn’t in their zone of approval. 

So on this 4th of July, I am for peace most of all. I call on each of us to look each person we encounter in the eye and think peace. That we greet each person we encounter with an expression of joy and acceptance. 

Let us begin there. 

Then let’s see what happens.

Rev. Karen Linsley