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

Why I love Science of Mind, by Rev. Karen Linsley

I had the opportunity to spend some time with another minister yesterday and we shared some wonderful conversation. We talked about deep stuff, such as whether or not evil exists, where Centers for Spiritual Living is headed, and what this teaching called Science of Mind means for us.

And this is what I want to speak about today. Why I love Science of Mind.

I was never much of a churchgoer. I never went as a kid, never went as a young adult, and only began going when I joined my local church of Religious Science for the first time around 2000 or so. And my attendance at Sunday church was sporadic because I worked late on Saturday nights, and getting up early to go to church on Sunday was difficult. But I was at every class. Every workshop. Every book study. Now THOSE I loved! Because my reason for going to the church in the first place was transformation. It wasn’t for fellowship, I had that already. It wasn’t because I was seeking. I knew what my God was, and it wasn’t that entity that lives in the sky, it was a force beyond description that existed within me. Such a belief in a predominantly Christian culture meant that I quite frequently felt like a stranger in a strange land, and somehow I knew that at my local church of Religious Science I would find people who felt as I did. Because quite frankly I was tired of having conversations with folks who were forever trying to convince me that I was not worthy and that I had no responsibility nor freedom in my life because the guy in the sky was in charge. I went to my local Science of Mind to confirm that what I believed to be true was, in fact, actually true.

I began attending because I had experienced a devastating loss in my life and knew that the spiritual tools given to me in Science of Mind would help me feel better. And they did.

I went for all of those reasons, and I found peace. I found folks who thought as I did, which meant the fellowship I already had in my life simply got bigger. I went and found my worthiness. I went and found the joy in personal responsibility and was able to let go of my perpetual victimhood. I went and felt a part of life and of Life.

Today, the spiritual practices we teach in Science of Mind are my foundation for living. Specifically, self-awareness, practicing the presence, spiritual mind treatment, and affirmations. I do these daily.

Life for me is one big science of mind party, and my perception of life is colored by my beliefs, which have all been reshaped by Science of Mind. I live breathe and eat Science of Mind.

Today, I enjoy church. But I still love the classes and workshops and retreats more. Science of Mind is about so much more than going to church.

I love Science of Mind because, in a nutshell, it has made my life better. Don’t get me wrong, other than that devastating loss that occurred that threw me for a loop and affected many of my lifelong beliefs, my life was pretty good. Today my life is pretty good. Well, actually, it is awesome. But there is still room for transformation. Still room for growth. Still room for examination of beliefs and thoughts and feelings, still room to change some of those if I decide they are no longer working as well as I would like.

Today the principle of Oneness guides me in all my decisions. It also helps me to remember that in these times of separation and duality and “us and them,” there is underneath it all a common ground. We all come from the same stuff. The “stuff that is” as Ernest Holmes called it. And so when I’m upset about the latest atrocity, the latest mind-blowing and unbelievable opinion voiced by someone at the public level, the latest law enacted or redacted, I must go back to my roots, the stuff that is, and remember that on some level we are all one. This helps me to want to seek out the common ground, which in turn helps me to be able to practice compassion, which in turn helps me to be able to have civil conversations with people. Because honestly, if we can’t have civil conversations with people with whom we disagree, then we are contributing to the demise of this country. I don’t want to be a part of that.

I slip up once in a while and voice some scorn, but mostly, because of Science of Mind, I am able to keep my mouth shut until I calm down enough to have a civil conversation.

This teaching called Science of Mind allows me to ask the tough questions of myself. It allows me to be still and Know. It allows me to show up the way I want to show up in a world that is full of things that dismay and frustrate me on a daily basis.

This teaching also allows me to continuously transform into something greater while simultaneously knowing that there was nothing wrong with the way I was before. And, as a Practitioner friend of mine recently said, “transformation is the way of being.”

On the cover of one of my copies of the Science of Mind textbook, it says “a philosophy, a faith, a way of life.” Yes.

All of that. A lifestyle. A faith. A life rooted in this philosophy. Continuously answering the soul’s call for ever greater evolution and transformation. All of this is why I love the Science of Mind.

I am so grateful for this teaching that took me on a journey that continues to this day. It’s a wonderful journey.

Sending you Love, Light, and Laughter!

Karen Linsley, M.A.

A Different Way to Pray by Rev. Karen Linsley

Today I am contemplating different ways to pray. One understanding of prayer is that it is beseeching to an outside entity. This idea of prayer is so ingrained in our culture that even people who claim not to be Christian, who replace the word God with the word Universe, still beseech an outside entity. They say things like, “I’ve asked the Universe to help me with this.”

I use this type of prayer--only rarely--when none of the others ways I know to pray work. Sometimes I get desperate. Either that or I must change the thing for which I am praying. Because ultimately, I’ve learned that is really what prayer is all about for me. Ernest Holmes said that “prayer changes the mind of the one doing the praying.” That is what prayer is about for me, more than asking for something to be done for me.

And I’ve sometimes felt a bit “victimy” praying to an external entity, and, most of the time, there was something missing with those prayers. The reality is that prayer goes much deeper than simply asking a God separate from us to do something for us. The reality of prayer is that it has the power to change us from the inside out, and when we change, our world changes.

If I approach prayer as something that changes my mind, I am asking for a change in my consciousness. For example, a shift from lack and limitation to abundance and prosperity. This forces me to look at the habitual ways I think, my habits and patterns of thinking, and change them if they do not serve me. And here is a caveat I always issue when speaking about changing the way we think. It does not mean that the ways we used to think are wrong. Nor does it mean that the ways we used to show up in the world are wrong or that anything else about us has ever been wrong. It simply means we have grown, and now it is time to think differently and show up in the world differently. Those old ways of being and thinking and showing up in the world served us well until they didn’t anymore. When they stop serving us, it is time to pray to change our minds. When how we think and behave gets us into trouble, it is time to do something different.

Viewed this way, prayer is really, in part, a spiritual practice called self-awareness.

And the Bible calls us to “pray without ceasing.”

How is one to pray without ceasing? And what is the real power behind prayer? I believe that prayer is a guiding light, not something to be used when we are in need. Prayer is a way of being, not words. The traditional way of praying is a very good start. Now let’s take it a bit further.

If we are called to pray without ceasing, it means we are called to BE prayerful, 24/7. In a deeper sense than the beseeching sense, prayer means communion and connection. I’m sure you have had times in your life when you felt disconnected. Alone. Lonely. Loneliness is not about a lack of people in our lives. It is about being and feeling disconnected from that beautiful power in this world, that power that is everywhere present. The reality is that we can not be disconnected from It because it is everywhere present. We’ve just shut ourselves off from It.

We shut ourselves off from It by judging others. We shut ourselves off from It by hatred. We shut ourselves off from It by putting up walls of defense. We shut ourselves off from It by acting in ways that run counter to our deepest beliefs and values. And when we shut ourselves off from It, It never goes away. It affirms our way of being because that, in essence, is what we have been praying for. It always says yes. So we judge and hate, build walls, and separate ourselves further from It by separating ourselves from our fellow humans. We live in terms of them and us. And we get lonelier and sicker, and more hateful and judgmental, and we wonder how God could be doing the things he is doing? And then we shut ourselves off from God even more because now we are mad at Him.

I am finding it necessary to take a deep breath now. Breathe. Breathe out that pain and misery born of ignorance, and breathe in relief, truth, and the love of God.

Because, in reality, that is really what God is. It is love, and that’s all. But that is quite a bit, and it covers everything. In some circles, there are seven qualities, or attributes, of Spirit that are mentioned. Those attributes are love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty.

I’m going to make an assumption here and assume that you believe that God is indeed everywhere present. Another way of putting it is that there is no place where God is not. No place, and you are here. And if there is no place where God is not, then God is in you.

I’m going to make another assumption and assume that you believe that the qualities of God are indeed love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty.

If you believe that there is no place where God is not, and if you believe that the qualities of God are love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty, then you must also believe that YOU are made of love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty. And if you believe in what the Bible says, then you believe that the way to pray is 24/7, without ceasing.

If you believe all that, then the way to pray is to embody those qualities of love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty. All-day. Every day. As best as you can. This is the mystical and very deep power of prayer. When we strive to pray like this, prayer does indeed change the mind of the one doing the praying.

In Sanskrit, prayer means seeing oneself as wonderfully made. How much more wonderful can you get than to think of yourself as the essence of love, light, peace, power, joy and beauty?

I am reminded of the prayer of St. Francis of Assisi. You may know it as the 11th step prayer if you are a 12 stepper. This prayer goes like this:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love.
Where there is offense, let me bring pardon.
Where there is discord, let me bring union.
Where there is error, let me bring truth.
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith.
Where there is despair, let me bring hope.
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light.
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy.
O Master, let me not seek as much
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love,
for it is in giving that one receives,
it is in self-forgetting that one finds,
it is in pardoning that one is pardoned,
it is in dying that one is raised to eternal life.


The prayer begins with a beseeching to an outside entity, but then it moves deeper. It asks for us to become at peace. It asks for us to become love instead of hatred. It asks for us to forgive instead of perpetuating the offense. It asks for us to bring harmony to discord. It asks for us to speak the truth. What truth? OUR truth! This calls for an extraordinary level of self-awareness, which calls for a regular practice of introspection, which is another form of prayer, and the topic for another blog post. Back to the prayer. This prayer calls us to replace our doubts with faith, our despair with hope. It calls for us to be the light, shining on the darkness of hatred, judgment, bigotry, and shame. It calls for us to be joyful. It calls for us to turn away from such self-centered and selfish motives as wanting consolation, understanding, and love and to turn towards consoling others, loving others, and understanding others. And it tells us that when we do this, we find ourselves, our true selves. Thus that old self, that lonely, miserable old self, dies, and we reawaken to an eternal life filled with so much love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty that we sometimes wonder about it. How can I, a lowly human, be filled with so much love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty?

And here’s the kicker to this prayer: it is in giving that one receives. In Science of Mind, we call this the Law of Attraction. This law says that what we offer, we receive. I find it somewhat ironic that we are back to where we began, beseeching an outside entity; only now we have accepted what we have asked for because we have become what we have asked for.

So go out into the world. BE love, light, peace, power, joy, and beauty. Every time you find yourself judging, remember. Every time you see yourself separating yourself from the sunlight of the Spirit by building walls of them and us, tear down those walls. Whenever you find yourself hating something or someone, replace that hatred with love. Every time you discover an example of sadness, bring some joy to it. Every time you want to participate in feeding disharmony by choosing a side, instead seek to understand. BE the voice and the example of Spirit in your every action and thought. Allow to die a natural death of pessimism and negativity and replace that with optimism and positive thinking.

And watch what you have prayed for manifest.

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Rev. Karen became a Practitioner in 2008 and a minister in 2014. Her mission is to teach the practical application of Science of Mind principles to provide a strong and unshakeable inner foundation that facilitates long term successful living. To do this she has a Focus Ministry called Fearlessly Feral CSL, through which she produces a podcast of the same name. She teaches online classes and workshops and also does retreats. She is the author of two books. In addition, she also serves as Interim Minister for Centers for Spiritual Living and is currently serving at Rio Grande CSL in Albuquerque. She lives in Northern Nevada amongst the sagebrush with two horses, two dogs, and two cats.

Spiritual Communion and Loneliness, By Rev. Karen Linsley

Lately, I’ve been having some conversations with folks about connectedness and the lack of it, which results in things like loneliness and feelings of isolation.  I’ve long known that loneliness is not about being around people but instead is about a lack of connection.  Have you ever been in a crowded room and still felt lonely?  Connectedness isn’t about physical proximity to people.  And in this time when technology has allowed us to connect in different ways, just not physically, some folks are saying they do not feel connected, even with technology.  They want to return to the way it was.  I do not believe that is possible.  We’ve been called to do things differently, and we’ve been called to embrace technology.  

And yet folks are still feeling disconnected, isolated, and lonely. I believe that is because we are fighting this new way of showing up in the world.  And because we are not embracing the new.  We want the old because it is our comfort zone, even if the old is no longer possible.  People who work in domestic violence see this all the time.  The abused refuses to leave the abuser because the unknown is more frightening than the known, even if the known is unpleasant at best and life-threatening at worst.  We have to be willing to step into the unknown to grow in our lives.  Connectedness helps with this also. 

I’ve always said that loneliness is a spiritual lack, not physical, as is an unwillingness to step into the unknown because of fear.  Connectedness is the panacea for loneliness, isolation, and fear of the unknown.  When we feel connected, loneliness goes away, we feel a part of it, and we can step into unknown ways of being with confidence, enthusiasm, and excitement.  So how does one feel connected, and what on earth are we connecting to?

There is a book that I return to over and over again, it is by Ernest Holmes, and it is called The Art of Life.  In this book, he says this: “Our loneliness, our sense of isolation, our poverty, doubt, and sickness, are results of being disconnected from the fullness of this Divine Self.”  He explains that feeling connected is more about feeling whole, not separate.  Whole within ourselves, not compartmentalized into little sections.  Whole and complete. And we can feel whole and complete when we know that God, or Spirit, is an indwelling part of us, not something separate from us.  Holmes tells us that we all need to take time for inner spiritual communion to feel this wholeness because when we feel whole, we feel connected, and when we feel connected, loneliness disappears.  

And when we feel connected, fear is eliminated from our consciousness, and we live love-based lives rather than fear-based ones. This enables us to embrace the new.  Inner spiritual communion is accomplished in many different ways.  Meditation is one way.  My favorite ways are spiritual study and contemplative meditation. There are many more ways.  The point is to make time each day for inner spiritual communion.  Every day.  Consistently and persistently.  

And so I affirm: Today, I make the time for inner spiritual communion and emerge from the process feeling whole and complete.

 

Rev. Karen became a Practitioner in 2008 and a minister in 2014. Her mission is to teach the practical application of Science of Mind principles to provide a strong and unshakeable inner foundation that facilitates long term successful living. To do this she has a Focus Ministry called Fearlessly Feral CSL, through which she produces a podcast of the same name. She teaches online classes and workshops and also does retreats. She is the author of two books. In addition, she also serves as Interim Minister for Centers for Spiritual Living and is currently serving at Rio Grande CSL in Albuquerque. She lives in Northern Nevada amongst the sagebrush with two horses, two dogs, and two cats.

 

Be the change by Rev. Karen Linsley

“We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” 

 Mahatma Gandi 

When I think about being the change, my mind automatically goes to this quote. And as much as I love the quote, I also want to be in integrity with it, and tell you that there is some evidence that he did not really say that, it’s a misquote. It is still a great quote, but he didn’t say it. What he did say was this: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a [person] changes [their] own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards [them]…We need not wait to see what others do.”

Does it really matter whether or not he said it? I think it does. Integrity is one of our shared values in Centers for Spiritual Living, and if I wish to be the change I wish to see in the world, I must properly attribute the correct quote. Imagine how much trouble could be avoided if we fact-checked what we say and what we post on social media BEFORE we posted it! Integrity is one of those values that hits us on both personal and global levels.

If we are out of integrity on a personal level, it means that our walk isn’t matching our talk. Why is this important? Simply put, if we are out of integrity life isn’t fun. We destroy trust in ourselves if we are out of integrity. And if we can’t trust ourselves to do the right thing, we certainly won’t be able to trust others.

And if we are out of integrity on a personal level, chances are we are also out of integrity on a global level. Because how we do one thing is how we do everything. And we are all connected.

So the question becomes: how do I get, and stay, in integrity with myself and others? Turns out the spiritual practice of personal self-awareness comes in handy. I have a couple of key questions I ask myself: Am I doing anything that I would not want anyone else to know about? Am I afraid to share my actions with another person?

Integrity is a key spiritual value, and being honest with ourselves and others is one way to achieve it.