Fearless Reminders For a New Year

I was talking to a friend who, like many people in the world right now, is facing significant financial challenges in his life. Without prompting, he commented on how fascinatingly full his life is in the midst of the challenges. The conversation helped me remember that when my attention is on what is lacking, I can all frequently miss the outrageous supply of amazingness all around me.

Ernest Holmes said that our teaching is not a get rich quick scheme and that it isn't to be thought of as a something-for-nothing practice, but rather everything in life is paid for in spiritual coin. I have usually taken that to mean that when I practice charity, meditation, generosity, awareness of the sacred, appreciation, and so on, I'm paying in the spiritual coin that purchases for me a deeper appreciation of what is already present.  And, yet, I still have to deal with the economy and the group mind fear that is stirred up around it during challenging times.

Several years ago, Alan Cohen sent an email message about how to relate to the economy. The list called me to be aware of my thinking during a time of tremendous fear.

Reminder Number One
The economy is an expression of the consciousness of those who create it ― all of us. We vitalize the economy with expansive thinking and action, and we deaden it with fear and contraction.

I'm remembering what happens when I believe my thinking without checking into the accuracy of my thoughts. When times are tough, that is when I want to watch most closely so that my inner world doesn't get swept up in the group-mind.

It's tempting to stop practicing when times are good. It's easy to take responsibility for the people and events in my life when everything is behaving well. I'm trying to practice consistently during difficult times as well as good times. Many people have been hit genuinely hard with job loss, investment loss, and worry in our world communities. I am humbled by their courage and unwavering willingness to look inward so that they can bring about balance in their lives. Some of the methods they apply include taking time in nature, getting adequate sleep, exercising regularly, and having a daily appointment sitting in silence.

Reminder Number Two
The economy is not a fixed entity but is quite liquid, continually changing according to the thoughts and emotions of those who create it.

In other words, the economy you and I see today results from the actions and attitudes that sourced it in the past. The economy I will experience in the future results from the attitudes and actions in us today. I remember my Grandfather, who would make spaghetti for the family with a can of anchovies and fried garlic. We didn't know it meant that we were poor.  Because of how he prepared and presented both the meal and the event of making it, we thought we were abundant. To this day, the smell of anchovies and garlic makes me happy. He turned this meager meal into something that would affect me for years to come.

I'm grateful for that, and I'm looking at my attitude about areas of my life that I think are impoverished to see if I can mindfully give my attention to what I'm grateful about.

Remind Number Three
You can create a personal economy independent of the one experienced by the masses. A visionary thrives under all conditions.

I am still learning more and more about American history and discovering that it is rich with examples of thriving during bad economic times. The jewels of our two coasts, the Golden Gate Bridge and the Empire State Building, were birthed, as I understand it, in the height of the depression. I'm thinking of ways to apply the idea of creating a personal economy. What comes to mind is the possibility of investing in happiness and love. I'm thinking of spending time with people I appreciate and how beneficial that is. I'm thinking of the power of giving my attention to those who enjoy being in my company, and I'm exploring ways to give that don't cost anything.

Reminder Number Four
Engaging in conversations of lack adds to the pool of thought that creates lack conditions.

I am remembering that I don't have to avoid addressing difficult situations to apply this idea. I can be mindful about crossing the line and saturating myself in one-sided inner conversations where there is no balance. The danger in one-sided, negatively focused inner dialogue is that I start to believe my internal dialogue. In our degree program at the Holmes Institute, we train ministerial students to address difficult current events and prepare news releases representing a metaphysical response to world tragedies and difficulties. I appreciate reading the writings of spiritual, affirmative thinking people, writing about tragedy and suffering and how their insights give me courage and strength to hope.

I also remember that Harrison Ford was told he would never make it in the movie business; 12 publishers and 16 agents rejected John Grisham's first book; The Beatles were turned down by a recording company for being too way out; Charles Darwin was told by his father he would amount to nothing; Beethoven's music teacher said he was hopeless; Walt Disney was fired for lack of imagination and no original ideas; A producer once told Marilyn Monroe she was unattractive; Sidney Poitier was told by the casting director "Why don't you stop wasting people's time and go out and become a dishwasher or something."

Reminder Number Five
You are wealthy by nature, rich in an infinite number of ways that have nothing to do with money. Money is one thin slice of the greater pie of prosperity. Remember how rich you are regardless of money.

I remember how blessed I am even in the midst of challenges. My prescription for practicing this is to make a gratitude list before bedtime. It is one of the most simple exercises I use, and I'm consistently amazed at the power of writing down what I appreciate in my life.

Reminder Number Six
In the Chinese written language, the symbol for "crisis" is a combination of the characters for "danger" plus "opportunity." What opportunity lies before you as an individual and us as a nation?

I remember a friend who went through a tough break up. I shared with him something a teacher said to me. When you look back at this time in your life, what kind of person do you want to remember being? In other words, looking back at this event in your life, how did you show up for it?

Reminder Number Seven
This is a fertile time to check and reset your priorities. If you end up being truer to values that fulfill you, this "crisis" will have served you well.

I remember my ministerial training when one of my fellow students' house burned down. We were devastated on her behalf, yet she seemed relatively calm when relaying the details. She said something like, "It's all ok; it's better than ok; I discovered how much I really love you." She came to the point of quiet dignity in which she realized that everything could be, and sometimes is, lost and that what always remains is worth cherishing.

I've let loss make me bitter and contracted; I've let my obsession with controlling the future make me careless with people. I've let fear displace my value of kindness, and I remember to be done with that.

Reminder Number Eight
Circulate your wealth. The antidote to financial contraction is to move energy. When you spend money, you become part of the solution. If you don't have money to spend, be generous in other ways. Give of your time, skill, and love. Even giving compliments is a way to stimulate the economy.

I remember that one antidote to stagnation is to introduce movement or flow. Sometimes I get stuck in stagnation, waiting for someone else to introduce the flow. This happens in relationship difficulties, and forgiveness work with the attitude "I'll shift when you do it first." I remember that flow and circulation can start anywhere and that it might as well be me. I'm trying to see how I can apply that to my awareness of wealth, and I'm looking diligently for ways to share what I have.

Reminder Number Nine
Remember that the tide always comes back in—the entire manifest universe functions in cycles. Every wave has a trough and a crest. No wave has ever ended with the trough. There is always the next crest.

I remember a particularly difficult disappointment I had. When I was in the middle of dealing with the situation, it seemed like things would never get better. Looking back now, I am reminded that the terrain eventually flattens out as I move further away from it and new horizons appear, and new mounts have to be climbed. I remember the power of the Solstice and the ceremonial lighting of candles to remind me that the light eventually does return, but never in the same way. Just like no spring is ever the same, and no flower repeats itself.

Reminder Number Ten
Don't wait for the economy to get back on its feet before you can be happy. Find happiness right where you stand, and you will be the wealthiest person in the world.

I am remembering.   Happiness is right where I am.  Peace is right where I am.  Love is right where I am.  The Divine is right where I am.

Happy New Year.

Never Compromise the Principles, by Dr. Kenn Gordon

I am healthy, happy, prosperous, loving, and fulfilled. At least most of the time. After over thirty years in studying the Science of Mind, I have established the steps I need to take to bring wholeness into my life. I have always approached what I will call, Metaphysics from a simple angle. I have found that my awareness leaves clues; if something is bothering me, it inevitably begins with my own emotional body, and the discovery is simple. When I deal with myself, I bring wholeness to my life.

There are so many laws and rules that it seems an individual needs to learn and grasp before they can move forward. This is a misnomer. The simple truth is, there are two or three things that every person can deal with that will begin a healing process that always works. Once one begins working on one thing, and providing, they stay open and aware of the what, how, and where of their feelings, every other thing required will show up. I once heard Marcia Sutton say that “awareness is curative,” and I have found that statement accurate. And that brings me to the foundation of creating a joyful life. 

Never compromise the Principles that this teaching is founded on.

The Law of Cause and Effect. You are the architect and Lord of your own life. All healing is psychosomatic. It is always your responsibility. You may not have the ability to change the outer world, but you always have the ability to change your inner. Let’s take the analogy of the cowboy in the early 1900s who walks into a theatre and sees a film for the first time. Just when the villain is the most villainous, the cowboy draws his six-shooter and starts blasting away at the screen. And while he can put holes in the screen, he can’t stop the film. The Infinite, call it what you like, is the projector light; it shines through the film, our beliefs, feelings, emotions, and projects onto the screen, which is our experiences. The light is constant, and the screen is the effect; the cause is our psyche.

The Law of Circulation. Everything in the Universe flows. Left on its own, it flows perpetually. There is an input and an outlet. Block or crimp the input, and the flow slows or stops, block or crimp the outlet, and the result is the same. You have to both receive and give to be in the flow. You have to be able to receive energy, and you need to share it. If we take the four squares of life, health, wealth, creative expression, and loving relationships and apply this principle, we can see how it works. When the flow stops, stagnation is the experience; stagnation is rot. Try staying still for a couple of years and see what occurs to your body. Give without receiving or receive without giving and see what occurs to your finances. Cut off your creativity, neither receiving nor sharing and see what happens to your fulfillment, refuse to be loved, and refuse to love and see what happens to your love life.

Resentment Blocks Prosperity

I also heard a phrase many years ago that resonated deeply with me, which is probably the foundation of my life. It also came from Dr. Marcia Sutton, “resentment blocks prosperity, money follows love.” Now I have restructured that to fit all of my needs. Resentment blocks energy, energy follows love. In each of the above four quadrants of life, it works. If there’s one thing that I am always working on to abolish from my life, it is resentment. The dictionary defines resentment as “bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly.” It also is said that resentment is the opposite of gratitude. My wife reminds me constantly that “the fair is in Pomona.” So when I am ill or tired and concentrating on how bad I feel, I try and remember that it is a flow problem and I get moving. When I feel tight and scrimped financially, I become receptive and generous to re-prime the financial pump. When I am filled with ennui, depression, or boredom, I write or paint or throw myself into some creative expression. When I’m feeling unloved, I make an active choice to embrace love everywhere possible, and I become more loving. In other words, I begin the flow, no matter what, by changing the film.

Try it!

Blessings.

Dr. Kenn Gordon


Dr. Kenn Gordon is the co-founder of the Kelowna, British Columbia Centre for Spiritual Living, with his wife Dr. Deborah Gordon.  He is a happy, content, and retired minister who was instrumental in the development of Science of Mind over the past thirty years.   Dr. Kenn Gordon served as the Spiritual Leader for Centers for Spiritual Living for eight years prior to his retirement in 2020.

What Is Truth, by Dr. David Ault

I question my self-subscribed theology often. I feel that's healthy. I continue to take into account the evolution of consciousness through us as a species and see how language, nuance, bias, and my leanings towards Process Theology still have incalculable layers. I will never comprehend all wisdom lessons in a one-dimensional body. I want to be forever teachable, and the best I can do is surrender my being, my ego to something I equate as Divine energy. I have experienced a trance state of bliss through the teachings of Hinduism, had my worldview altered through Shamanism and built a career on the study of Rosicrucian/New Thought principles. And with all the above, I still remain loyal to a power-filled Truth (I'll call it that) that once remembered and practiced, course corrects me from fear and anxiety to deep-rooted exhales of assurance. 

Treasured Pockets of Quiet

All of us are continuously called to remember this Truth through intuition, through clarity found in treasured pockets of quiet. Its potency is unaffected by levels of human chaos or visceral inhumanity towards one another. And, it is not at the mercy of any (dis)ease, multi-generational oppression, genetic abnormality, famine, or global catastrophe. This Truth with a capital T is boundless. It is ageless, birthless, deathless, limitless in scope. It is not small t truths masquerading as facts - the human-invented one-dimensional variety that changes with the tide of fickle trends or the kind whose validity rests on the whim of condition and limited perception. You know those 'truths,' right? They've already caused you worry and stress and somehow taunt you with admonishments to manage the unmanageable. "If you can't get it together, then you are a miserable failure." It's human ideation, devolving us with labels of 'us and them' - separatism fostering scarcity and greed.

Capital T Truth is stated this way by spiritual writer and teacher Neville Goddard, "The world of creation is finished and its original is within us. We saw it before we set forth, and have since been trying to remember it and to activate sections of it. There are infinite views of it. Our task is to get the right view and by determined direction of our attention make it pass in procession before the inner eye. If we assemble the right sequence and experience it in imagination until it has the tone of reality, then we consciously create circumstances."

Everything has already been created in the macrocosm

Over years of contemplation and attempted practice of this (T)ruth, I've experienced rejuvenation when remembering that I create nothing but a tangible representation of an already existing intangible substance of potential. Everything has already been created in the macrocosm. What we long and pray for, even seek, already exists in the intangible. Countless mystics taught that our soul's assignment is not fearfully 'grabbing to get' (with all thy getting, get understanding) but removing the barriers of collected resistance and personalized self-loathing. This Maya, as the Hindu's describe, is illusion veiling our true essence and smothering our worthiness. Maya influences decisions that block our welcoming the intangible from becoming tangible through us. (This ain't word salad if you read it slowly.)

And still, I forget.

And with my forgetfulness comes the familiar pain of hopelessness and fearful reactive hustling.

And then I will remember.

And with each reawakening - with each reminder how all of humanity is God/Infinite Intelligence made visible for the purpose of displaying Its Intelligence through us, I relax. And relaxing allows my trust muscles to open and receive what I need exactly as I need it.

I remember I am already equipped with the answer. I am already a vehicle for Creation to have Its brilliant way through me. Since (T)ruth is boundless, then my expressions of It parallel my belief in myself. Am I a qualified representative of worth and value? The degree I unshakably know I am is the depth and breadth that worth and value reveal itself.

I continually revisit this (T)ruth. I ask myself, is this some sort of framework of privilege? Are these the testaments of old white men of the early 20th century, shenanigans of a prosperity gospel, the manipulative peddling of hope to the vulnerable? Or, is it a Universal Law that is no respecter of person?

Here's what I ultimately offer, "I don't know." But I can offer a lifetime of experience and application that shouts its merit.

Give Your Advocacy Roots

I guess that's why I'm writing this. When I remember and apply this, I feel better. Life becomes less burdensome. My soul feels rejuvenated.

I want that for you. I want that for all of us. This human dance is hard. Pain and suffering feel impenetrable at times, but we need not give up, and we need not shy away from devoting ourselves to advocacy. Just give your advocacy roots. Give it deep roots of knowing that the moral arc of the Universe does bend, lean, and ultimately touch all who need it. Then let us all go march and serve from this foundation.

The only way to do this without surrendering to hopelessness is surrendering to a greater reality than what we see with our human eyes. Then, daily work with life through assuming the position of one who is resilient and loving.

 

Dr. David Ault
http://davidault.com/


For over 30 years David Ault has been a prophetic voice in the human potential movement as an unwavering crusader for mindfulness, global literacy and social justice. Whether through teaching, evolutionary coaching and keynote presentations, David’s singular intention has always been in bridging our collective forgetfulness into our great collective reawakening. As an award winning author, leadership coach, and global education advocate, he loves leading through example and abides by the motto that people would rather ‘see a lesson than hear one’.

 

What is Wealth?

We live in a world where systemic oppression and the wealth inequality gap are growing blocks to living the American dream for people from socially disadvantaged demographics. The idea that anyone can pull themselves up by their bootstraps, or that you can become anything you want, falls flat on the ears of people who must work twice as hard as others because of their skin color, gender, or other identities. The internet has brought us into the lives of our fellow citizens in a personal way exposing the enormous efforts required to pay off student loans, buy a house, or gather the kind of wealth that our predecessors were able to accumulate. 

A Different Kind of Wealth

Today the word rich conjures up an image of ten percent of a population enjoying the majority of the resources and riches of a nation. Rich isn't a kind word anymore. It doesn't refer to shared access to abundance. Abundance relates to something more profound and more spiritual than hoarding wealth by a few to the detriment of the many. We mean a different kind of wealth; the wealth that is born in a mind that knows that the Divine is the only source, that knows giving is the mirror image of receiving, that knows generosity is essential to economic prosperity for all, that knows gratitude is the secret to unlocking the riches of life, and that knows that what we dwell upon grows.

We cannot avoid the importance of learning about the role consciousness may play in shifting trends for an individual or a nation. The message of the Science of Mind teaching is that growing your awareness of your spiritual heritage remains a viable option for everyone no matter what their status in life; that progress is possible; that we are not destined to stay where we are; that oppression is not a divine idea but a desperate plan in a mind that believes prosperity can come only at the expense of another.  The message of this teaching is also that freedom is the natural spiritual state of our being.

The Necessity of Inner Work

The stress of dealing with day-to-day survival—affording food and shelter—can displace doing inner work, which may seem like a luxury reserved for the few who can afford to sit serenely and contemplate peace and abundance. But working in consciousness is more than that; it is a necessity for anyone who wants to move from wherever they are toward a greater yet to be for their lives. Working in consciousness does not replace social justice; it augments it. Nor does it deny the very real inequities of society. It remains crucial in this age, as it was in every age, to be reminded to not let anyone tell us that there is an idea or a power that is greater than God’s truth about our lives. No matter your heritage, background, or education, you can start wherever you are to imagine a better future. You can—and perhaps must—expect the spiritual power of this creation to flow through your beautiful imagination to unleash an abundance of generosity, kindness, and wellbeing for all, if you are to make a meaningful difference to life on this planet and help yourself and others.

It may not be easy to rise above strong ideas in the group mind, but it is possible. And, should we not depend on each other to do so and prove the authority of love over hate?

For the Sake of Doing Good

Lastly, I take to heart the advice in 1 Timothy 6:17 to “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” To focus on wealth for the sake of wealth is an unsatisfying use of the power that has been entrusted to us. To base our happiness solely on having more money is a risky gamble, because wealth is as changeable as the weather. Wealth for the sake of doing good, fulfilling dreams, and helping this world work a little better for everyone is one of the desired outcomes of spiritual study.  

Wealth, in the end, is not about possessions, but about love, connection, and meaning.

Photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash