<![CDATA[Ruth L Miller, PhD

<![CDATA[Ruth L Miller, PhD - Sharings]]>Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:17:41 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Naming Our Good is Naming God]]>Wed, 07 Feb 2024 07:04:28 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/naming-our-good-is-naming-godI recently received an email from a student who was concerned that by listing the ways that good things are present or would be appreciated, we may be "placing other gods before" the One, Infinite, Source of All that Is. Here is my response:
I get the sense that in your thinking, an object is not Source/Spirit, a person or event may or may not be Spirit, a quality may or may not be Spirit - and that is, indeed, what the culture teaches us. But what Emma Hopkins and Emilie Cady understood is that it's ALL ONE SPIRIT/SOURCE/SUBSTANCE. Every thing, person, experience, or quality we perceive is our brain-limited version of Spirit showing up for us. So, they're telling us, when we name anything, any person, any state of being, any feeling as our Good, we are naming Spirit, and by naming Spirit in that form, we are inviting Spirit to take that form in our perceptions.

When Hopkins and Cady encourage us to acknowledge the good and claim it for ourselves they are offering a way of experiencing all that we call good by identifying all that we call good and ourselves as the same thing -- Spirit, the Source, the underlying power and intelligence of all that is. They say that we can have it without feeling required to DO anything to achieve or experience it. We identify with that experience, that physical form, that quality, and because we ARE it already (for we could not wish, desire, or imagine it if we weren't), we then begin to perceive it in our lives. We no longer seek it, because we realize we ARE it, and the form that is here and now is Spirit in expression - so it is Good. The lamp is Good, the food is Good, the body is Good, the person over there is Good, their healed body is Good...I name it Good to get out of the habit of naming things as not okay and reinforce my understanding that all is Spirit/Source/Substance taking whatever form I call good, that all I perceive is what I have thought and felt before now, and is my very loving, cooperative Spirit Self showing up as my world for me.

I find it to be a big step, going from "I work with Spirit to bring it into my experience", to I AM the Spirit choosing and being the experience - the physical, mental, and emotional experience. But that's ultimately what these teachers are calling us to become aware of, to understand fully, to make real in our experience, and ultimately to feel.

... let your inner wisdom tell you whether the form of relationship we call marriage is still your good?

And before that can happen you need to have no conflicting notions about what your fulfillment is. Are you clear about your good? What is and what isn't? Can you envision a heavenly life - hour by hour, day by day, month by month? What do you do in that life? Who are you doing those things with? How is your time structured? What is the environment like?...

And before that can happen you need to have no conflicting notions about what your fulfillment is. Are you clear about your good? What is and what isn't in the direction of your fulfillment? Can you envision a heavenly life - hour by hour, day by day, month by month? What do you do in that life? Who are you doing those things with? doing them for? How is your time structured? What is the environment like? How are you feeling?

Naming your good; Getting clear about it; Getting freed of anger and fear and feeling only love; these are the essential foundation for receiving true wisdom from the universal Source - wisdom that can guide you in your fulfillment, joy, and satisfaction, as you become the embodiment of the One, creating a heavenly world for yourself and those around you.

I do hope this helps. You are not being asked to name things instead of, or to replace, the One, you are being offered the opportunity to experience the One Spirit in every form that feels good for you - and to no longer invite Spirit to take forms that are not good for you. As Cady said, Spirit is "knocking at the door of your heart" offering every good experience you imagine, and even more, as you become more and more fully aware of being that very Spirit, yourself.

]]><![CDATA[Celebrations of Light]]>Mon, 11 Dec 2023 19:32:29 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/celebrations-of-lightIt's that time again, the deep dark days of winter - and dozens of holy days to help us thru...

]]><![CDATA[Getting off Medications While Healing]]>Wed, 22 Nov 2023 00:36:25 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/getting-off-medications-while-healingI received an email this week asking me about whether the body really needs to be weened off of medications "slowly and gently". This was my reply...

Yes, in Truth, no medication is ever needed and there is no need to be limited by anything material. However, the way I think of it,

the body is what the brain tells it to be;
the brain has been programmed by our childhood and adult experiences and decisions;
that programming has trained the brain to block input from the mind;
as we learn to let the mind have more and more access to the brain, the brain gives the body new messages;
the mind, our spirit, soul-Self, is infinite and unbounded;
so the new messages move the body toward unlimited health, unbounded strength, and immunity to whatever is happening in the material world

For someone with training and experience in the medical world, stopping a medication will usually include "a need to wind down safely and slowly". For another (say, a guru in India) that's not an issue; nothing physical can have a deleterious effect on the body.

Now, as you're doing the clearing work, however, as you release and replace more and more of the brain’s programming, you will find that fewer and fewer of those old programs apply and more and more of your spirit-Self is your experience.

So, as you go along, if you're paying attention to what you're thinking, and that thinking is focused on the spiritual reality of you, rather than the past experiences of the physical-emotional body, AND you can trust yourself to deal with any issues that may come up, you can feel free to do whatever feels right in the moment.

Be aware, though, that the brain's programming runs deep, so you may find there are ups and downs along the way, as you make the shift from one state of being/consciousness to another.

]]><![CDATA[Unexpected Journey]]>Tue, 26 Sep 2023 18:34:54 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/unexpected-journeyI got to go to New Zealand! It was an unexpected, but totally amazing experience: 2+ weeks in New Zealand in August! Click on the links below to see my travel journal...

ARRIVING: PART ONE
PART TWO: NORTH ISLAND (including glow-worm cave and Hobbiton!)
PART THREE: SOUTH ISLAND (including Mt. Cook / Aoraki)

It was an amazing, totally unexpected experience, and I so appreciate all the folks who made it possible!

]]><![CDATA[New Language for Explaining Brain, Mind, & Spirit]]>Mon, 03 Jul 2023 19:05:21 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/new-language-for-explaining-brain-mind-spiritFor decades I've been teaching ways to align our thinking, our perceiving, and our deeper knowing of universal processes.

Initially, using the terms I was handed, I talked about the ego as the perceiver and doer/maker, and Spirit as the knower and creator. Over time I referred to the "ego" as the "small" or "child" self and the Spirit within as the "higher" or "greater" Self.

Continuing the work, it became clear that the underlying intelligence of the universe didn't have to be talked about in spiritual or religious terms any more, but that the word Mind applies. Both theory and experiment are making clear the fact that the source, or quantum field out of which all matter and energy arise, is the Akashic field, is the one Mind, underlying and manifesting all that is--all that we generally call reality. And more, that field, that Mind, is present in and through all aspects of reality, including ourselves.

Understanding that, it became clear that each of us--all our cells and all the energy fields around those cells--is part of that Mind, along with everything else that exists. So we can tap into that Mind, that underlying source of all that is. It must be the same thing as the "unconscious" mind that early researchers defined.

For most of my work in this field, I've used Jung's and Freud's framework of 3 aspects of mind: one in which we are aware, one of which we aren't usually aware that governs our body activities and reactions, and one of which we aren't usually aware that accesses the ideals and archetypal images of our culture, of humanity (and possibly even more).

Within that framework, the subconscious mind keeps the body working, the superconscious mind accesses ideals and potentials in the larger mind, and our personal awareness, ego, or conscious mind, is the realm of perceptions, thoughts that link those perceptions, and emotions arising from those perceptions.

So the separation between self and Spirt is dissolved. God, Spirit, is Mind--constantly creating all that is and everywhere present throughout all that is. That means there is one mind and my mind must be part of the whole Mind that is constantly creating all that is. (The "son of God" therefore is all aspects of reality emanating from and sustained by that Mind--which includes all beings, everywhere.)

And that means I'm simply shifting the scope of my personal awareness as I enter different states of consciousness. As I access other aspects of my mind I can access the universal Mind.

Our normal range of personal awareness is delineated by our perceptions: what is entering our sensory system, what our brain has been trained to pay attention to, and what connections our brain has made through repetitions of sensory input. Our emotions are a function of those connections: neurons send impulses to glands that release "molecules of emotion" to cells in the body and we feel happy, mad, sad, glad, hungry, or tired in response to what our brain has said is going on around and within our bodies.

Because our Western Materialist culture teaches us to focus on external sensory inputs and analyse them with the left frontal cortex, we identify with bodies and material objects--we don't know about anything else! In other cultures, children are encouraged to develop their right brain abilities, as well. They learn to sense what is happening in their bodies, and to be aware of their dreams and deeper "feeling" states, which have been called our "inner senses". Their personal awareness, therefore, includes more of the subconscious and superconscious aspects of mind than folks in our culture usually experience.

Still, many individuals in our culture have, over the centuries, been able to demonstrate the power and effectiveness of using "inner awareness" disciplines and practices.

That means that each of us can extend our personal awareness into the subconscious mind and observe and modify the body's processes, including fear responses, heart rate, temperature, and more. It means we can extend our personal awareness into the superconscious mind to observe the nonsensory aspects of our experience, as well. We can remember and interpret dreams, see the relationship between our sensory experiences and our thoughts and feelings, and we can appreciate the non-material aspects of the world around us.

In short, what used to be called "spiritual disciplines" no longer have to be limited to religious practice. They are life practices that make it possible for us to access information and make more useful choices about our whole selves--not just what our physical senses have told us and our previous experiences have led the brain to react to. And what have been called "supernatural experiences" or even miracles, are available to anyone who shifts their personal awareness into the subconscious or superconscious aspects of their own mind and acts accordingly.

So my language about all this has changed. It is no longer the "ego" or "small self" that must be brought into alignment with "Spirit." Instead, we need to retrain, even "rewire" our brains so that we can choose which "programs" it uses in response to sensory input and so we can use the right hemisphere more fully to access the nonmaterial aspects of all-that-is, both within the body and around it. (This is the primary work of Joe Dispenza.)

As we do so we realize we are no longer subject to, or victims of, the world around us. We discover we can relate to the input of our senses in different ways, which then lead to different body conditions and more comfortable relationships. These then lead to new sensory inputs, so we are no longer constantly looking for, or defending ourselves against, issues in the world around us.

In the process, new connections are being made in the brain, and we begin to become aware of what have been subconscious processes in the brain and body. If we focus on those, we can begin to change them. Awareness of the body's processes and the connections between our perceptions and emotions allow us to choose experiences of greater health and wellbeing without having to take material action.

As we train the brain along these lines, we begin to shift from a primarily left-front upper cortex activity of analyzing external input, to the broader, more generalized awareness of the right-rear cortex. We begin to be aware of, to "feel" the presence and activity of (and even communication with) other beings around us. Activating our awareness of activity in the right brain, our "inner senses" wake up, and we begin to "see" and "feel" images and potentials that were limited to our dream state in the past.

The result is that we begin to understand the connections between our external experience and our internal state--and to grasp the potential for fulfillment that is always being offered us, through the continuing presence of the constantly creating Mind of all that is.

And we don't have to give up beloved religious and spiritual icons to do this! In fact, the right brain thrives on imagery and symbol, so if calling on Jesus or Mary or Krishna or Fatima, or an angel or spirit guide or totem, to help one experience a situation differently is meaningful and makes a difference, then it makes perfectly good sense to continue to do so.

As Jung discovered, these archetypes are fundamental to human experience, and often are the means to opening our awareness of the superconscious activity of the right hemisphere of the brain--and hence to an expanded experience of our potential and fulfillment. So, if you have a feeling of connection with an individual or set of such beings, consider yourself encouraged to work with it--just be aware that as you grow and change, as you become more powerfully aligned with the one Mind creating and sustaining all that is, they may also shift and change.

Then we need to integrate these two forms of awareness so that we are fully using our abilities as part of the one Mind that is the underlying intelligence across space, time, and beyond. This is the essence of what is being called "5th dimensional" living. Operating in a reality that transcends space and time by relying primarily on our "inner senses," and allowing our bodies to be free of the limits placed on them by our previous cultural training. In short: living a "supernormal" life in "supremely natural" ways.

So the language evolves, but the principle remains: as we bring our thoughts and feelings into alignment with the ongoing processes of the source and sustainer of all that is, our lives become healthier and happier, and we begin to join, intentionally and joyfully, in the creative process that is this unfolding universe, transcending the limitations of our cultural indoctrination and experiencing our fulfillment as individual expressions of the one Mind.

]]><![CDATA[Transforming Organizations - a New Book!]]>Thu, 01 Jun 2023 17:16:09 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/transforming-organizations-a-new-bookOn May 5, the day I left home for the journey described in my last post, I received notice that my latest book had been published.
This one is co-authored with Kaz Gozdz, a remarkable being who discovered, by working as a midlevel manager, that developing people is essential to developing profits, so went off to study with such luminaries as community-development leader Scott Peck, Stanford Business professor Michael Ray, Systems and Learning Organization leader Peter Senge, and more, to learn how to do so. In the process he picked up a doctorate in Transpersonal Psychology and began to define a new metaphysics.
So the ideas this book is based on are dear to my heart, and what Kaz has achieved is wonderful to behold.
The book is written for academics and is entitled Developing Third-Generation Learning Organizations, a Heuristic Discovery Process. But, even though there are hundreds of footnotes, I think we managed to make it readable. In it, we not only outline Kaz' process (and mine) for transforming leadership processes in organizations, but we also lay out some of the fundamentals of systems thinking, culture dynamics, and the role metaphysics plays in our experience.
Here's a snippet:

"Humans construct their metaphysics, worldview, and mental models based on their own developmental level, which then becomes the basis for their culture and experience.
"Whatever culture we grow up in, there’s both tacit and explicit assumptions about who people are and how the world works. Parents, peers, teachers, and the media all provide very definite, if not always consistent, messages about who and what we should understand ourselves to be, acceptable norms of behavior, and expectations for who and what we can become. We are enculturated to the society’s worldview. Yet, as our section on systems thinking documents, the reductionistic, mechanistic, western orthodox science, Industrial-Age view of people and the world, while it has accomplished great things for all humanity, has demonstrated itself to be limiting for individuals and destructive of the planetary environment.
"At some point, some people, Kaz being an example, break away from that worldview and begin to explore other options. While traditionally the liberal arts curriculum and college environment was designed to expand and clarify a person’s worldview, a college education no longer serves this function. New kinds of experiences are needed if individuals are to be able to develop in that way."

That's from the conclusions... and in some ways it's just the beginning! :)

]]><![CDATA[Journeys Around the British Isles, May 2023]]>Fri, 26 May 2023 22:13:48 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/journeys-around-the-british-isles-may-2023Over a 2-week period a couple students and I had the good fortune to be able to visit a number of cities and rural areas around the United Kingdom. The links below lead to the different chapters in my journey...

If you'd like to be on list to receive things like this in your emails, CLICK HERE and let me know. Thanks!

May Travels 1 - Arriving in Portland Oregon & On to London

May Travels 2 - Essential London & the British Museum

May Travels 3 -Oxford & Brighton

May Travels 4 - Great & Small in Scotland

May Travels 5 - Following the Saints in Ireland]]><![CDATA[Awakening to Spring - and dealing with diagnoses]]>Wed, 12 Apr 2023 01:42:33 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/awakening-to-spring-and-dealing-with-diagnosesThe second weekend of April this year was amazing!
The full moon April 6 had all kinds of astrological and Wiccan overtones regarding the end of darkness and the emergence of new light, and was also the marker for the Jewish holy days of Passover (Pesach), honoring their deliverance out of bondage in Egypt, and the holiest of Christian days called Easter, honoring the resurrection of Christ out of the darkness of death. On Saturday Buddhists honored Wesak, the awakening of Prince Gautama into the Buddha, as he succeeded in overcoming the darkness of all his demons and so was free and able to share his experience with others. And all of that is happening in the middle of the Muslim month of fasting called Ramadan, by which Arab nations have, for millennia, left behind old ways and entered into a new life, and during which the blessed prophet Mohammed experienced the revelations that became the Q'uran.

Whew! Billions and billions of people, all over the world, honoring the process of coming out of darkness into the Light! That's got to be making a difference in the collective consciousness of humanity!

Before this weekend happened, though, several people shared with me that they or their loved ones have been diagnosed with a mental condition that has become known as Alzheimer's disease. Talk about darkness!
I thought I'd share with you all what I've shared with them...

First, such diagnoses are always so hard... sympathizing and sad you're having to deal with that! Having said that, though, there are several levels to approach the situation.
At the level of matter and the body:

all diagnoses are someone's perception of material and behavioral indicators, based on their training and the current cultural norms;
the presence of certain measures are high correlations, but not necessarily causative;
the name alzheimer's has become a cultural blanket covering all kinds of ways that people have retreated from their current world - as is autism.

At the level of the mind:

our individual mind is part of the infinite mind; there's no way that any of us can truly be cut off from the immediate and real full wisdom and understanding that is the divine, infinite mind;
any experience to the contrary of that Truth is the result of past programming and current misunderstanding, based on current cultural norms;
we can change old programming by focusing on images and feelings of Love and Well-being, and dissolving the thoughts that seem contradictory.

At the level of the metaphysical:

the appearance of any dis-order is just that, an appearance that has emerged from a belief and the emotional baggage associated with that belief;
Louise Hay says that the root of Alzheimer's is "refusal to deal with the world as it is; hopelessness; helplessness; anger;" and her response is "there is always a new way for me to experience life; I release and forgive the past and I move into joy."
the Truth is that we all are experiencing the life that we have chosen by what we've been focusing on - which has usually been our fears - and that can change the instant we replace those fears with the intensely felt realization of Love's constant unfolding presence;
as any one of us feels the Reality of Truth, those around us who are resonating with us may know that same Reality.

So, this is what I know.
In the One Mind, the Unity of all Life, all Wisdom, all Joy, all Truth, only well-being is possible. All else is a dream or nightmare and we can awaken from that nightmare by turning our attention, again and again, to the divine Light that surrounds and enfolds us now, feeling it at work in our lives. And, as we do so, the people around us begin to experience that Light, that Love, that Wisdom, and are freed from any nightmares of hopelessness, helplessness, regret, or guilt. And as we FEEL the Presence in our mind and body, they begin to feel it working within them to undo any past ideas or thought forms that were shaping their experience. As we accept the Power working in, through, and as us, we are no longer deceived by the media or the people who believe in the discord and disease of the nightmare, but are freed to experience more Light, more Love, more Well-being in our own lives. As our True Self becomes the focus and guide for our mind and body, moment-by-moment, our experience becomes more and more heavenly, and we are surrounded by people, places, and things that reflect the divinity that we truly Are.
So, in this time and place, with this diagnosis, I refuse to be caught up in the nightmare of the cultural norm, and I claim and accept the Truth, that all mind is one beautifully wise, knowing and remembering mind, that all being is well-being, and that the people I know and love are well and whole and on the path of their fulfillment. For so it is, and so I say Ah-men.

Copying these lines a few times, saying them aloud, and repeating the treatments in Emma Hopkins' Lessons 7 and 8 until you feel their power working through you would be very helpful right now. And this is not something that you do once. You do it until you KNOW it is handled and complete - which may take several hours, or even overnight (but you won't be drained by the process, as you'll be energized by divine Power!). And, if the symptoms remain or show up again, you do it again.

Charles Fillmore used to say "Pray first, and if that doesn't take care of it, call the doctor." So, if you and your beloved are convinced that the only real way to address the symptoms is with medication, which usually is evident by not seeing a cessation of symptoms after wholeheartedly doing this work, then by all means, use the meds and whatever else feels like it can help.

And keep doing the treatment, getting to the place where you KNOW without a doubt that you and your beloved are whole and well and living a full, wonderful life NOW.

I trust that those who have a need will find these words and use them...

]]><![CDATA[Early Winter Travels, with Much Gratitude]]>Mon, 12 Dec 2022 23:39:18 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/early-winter-travels-with-much-gratitudeIt was an amazing 3+ weeks - traveling, connecting, enjoying, some teaching and discovering... and today I am in the mobile home in Waldport that is my current "home base"... resting a bit and catching up...

Fort Worth Botanical Gardens Light Show: Japanese Garden

Flying over Mt. Jefferson, Oregon

December dawn in Dufur, Oregon, from the Balch Hotel

Sunday Service at Florence Unitarian Universalist Fellowship - celebrating Chalica

Sunset at Sea Lions Cave

Three weeks, 4000ish miles, all kinds of beauty and good times with loving and beloved family and friends - and a little teaching, speaking, coaching, and wandering around the edges.

Got home last night and delighted to spend the day on my own couch, catching the sunshine as it fills the room between rain showers, watching the light shift on the hills... All is, truly, well!

May these weeks of holy days be filled with love and beauty for all!

]]><![CDATA[Blessing All the Beings in this Web of Life]]>Sun, 16 Oct 2022 10:24:28 GMThttp://ruthlmillerphd.com/sharings/blessing-all-the-beings-in-this-web-of-life About 25 years ago, the man who wrote the Tao of Physics wrote an amazingly different book, called The Web of Life. He’s a physics professor at Berkeley, named Fritjof Capra. He had also written a book called The Turning Point, on where we were in history, which I had found as interesting as his physics book. About that time I was working with a woman on a systems text who had worked with him. I was asked to coordinate a conference of systems people in 1990 that was focused on the future, so I took the chance to reach out to professor Capra through her and ask him to be the keynote speaker at this conference. When he heard it was a gathering of systems people he said he didn’t think he’d fit. I said not to worry, his Turning Point and his integration of eastern and western philosophy in The Tao of Physics was perfectly in alignment with our conference theme and he’d be just fine. He finally agreed, came, did his talk, and was very well received. Of course, he received a copy of our program and our proceedings as part of our thank you. I left my career as a systems scientist for the ministry a few years later and never heard from him again.
A few years later, when The Web of Life came out I was blown away. The man had paid attention! He had integrated what we were talking about at that conference with his own understanding of how the universe works and said it in a way that any intelligent reader could make sense of! Wonderful!
A few years later, I was asked to tea with one of my more “mature” former students – a retired engineer from IBM – and he said “I was participating in a class in Berkeley and one of our instructors was Fritjof Capra. When I asked him how he had come to do all this work in systems, he said “This woman in Portland called me and asked me to speak at a conference…” Needless to say I was delighted – and, once more, blown away.
Capra has since come out with a number of systems-thinking books, including A Systems View of Life, for which I am truly grateful… we need as many systems thinkers in the world as possible.
Now, why am I telling you this story today?
Because you who believe that there is One Power, One Presence, accept that we are all part of the Web of Life.
Whew! There is only One. That One is Good. Here is only One, Good. Everywhere is only One. Everything, everywhere is the One that we call God, the Good, omnipotent.
So that means all beings are Good. They can’t not be! We might misunderstand them. They might be being Good in places we’d rather they were not, or ways we can’t see as Good right at the moment, but they MUST BE GOOD.

And not only are they Good in the most general, global sense, they must be my Good – the best possible thing that could be happening to me, in my current consciousness, in this time and place. Wowee!
You mean the ants in my kitchen are my good? Well, yes. They help me keep the kitchen clean – partly by reminding me to do so and partly by finding the crumbs I miss.
You mean the spider in the closet or the scorpion in the desert cabin is good? Well, yes. They remind me to be mindful of where I put things and to check my shoes before I put them on. They also eliminate other insects that I’d rather not have to deal with.
You mean the lions and tigers and mountain lions and wolves that eat other animals are good? Well, yes. It turns out that when they are not present, the herds that they have been removing the weakest members of get too numerous and overgraze the grasslands and start to have to eat tree=leaves and cause all kinds of plants to die, so the water that those plants’ roots have been holding in the ground, and the moisture that their leaves have been producing in the air are no longer present and what was beautiful rangeland and forest becomes a desert. It’s a pattern that has been documented all too many times in the past 100 years – and is now being reversed in some places, like the Yellowstone valley.
So yes, even all those animals that we’ve been told are not okay are, in fact, good. They contribute to a healthy world for all of us.
And, in spite of what we’ve been told, they are not out to get us! Only when their habitat and food supply have been destroyed do they see humans as potential food. Otherwise, they see us as potential friends. Really! A favorite story a friend of one of my students tells is when he was hiking in the Sierras, alone, and came around the corner on a trail – to be face to face with a mountain lion. He stopped. He knew he couldn’t run, climb, or otherwise escape this magnificent being. He stood there, his heart pounding, and forced himself to remain calm. He spoke to it, in a low, calm voice, telling it that he meant no harm and that he appreciated how beautiful it was and hoped it would be well and happy. The lion looked at him a bit, then turned and went off down the hill into the trees. He waited a bit while his heart settled down again and then, somewhat more slowly, proceeded on his way up the mountain. Not long after, he came to a large flat rock and stopped for a rest – he’d calmed down but that had been a draining experience! He spread out, relaxed, and dozed off in the warm sunshine. After a bit, he woke up, realizing that a warm furry presence was rubbing itself on his outstretched hand – the mountain lion had lain down next to him and wanted to have its neck skritched! The afternoon wore on, the sun no longer warmed the rock, the mountain lion, content, got up and went away – and the man returned to his car safely. Everything – even what we have feared – is good.
You know the indigenous peoples of the world tend to refer to other beings as “all my relations”. They understand that the One Presence, the Great Spirit, is in everything, and that all other life forms are different offspring, or expressions of that Spirit. When they see a rabbit, or a hawk, or a coyote, they know that’s not just any old critter. They know that the presence of all these beings is telling them about themselves and about the world around them. They know that great Spirit has taken on different forms to tell us different things, and that seeing a coyote means that the archetype Coyote has a message for the person seeing.
A woman from the Dineh people, who we call Navajo, did a Ted Talk recently, in which she shared the things she’s learned while working on her Ph.D. Some of those things are the facts that her ancestors had carefully maintained the prairies for the buffalo, feeding the small fish so that the larger fish and other species might thrive, and carefully created gardens against the mesas by managing waterflows, and lived comfortably for thousands of years – millions of people – here on North America, before the Europeans came. She was proud, and angry. And still she was offering this knowledge as a gift, an opportunity for us, the European immigrants who have destroyed her ancestral paradise, to do something different – to return to the ancient ways and once more preserve the beauty and balance of this land, and help our children, and children’s children to live comfortable, healthy lives in the process.
There was a time when all humanity lived that way, nurturing the land, creating habitat for other beings to thrive and provide food sources, and creating beauty in their homes and social gatherings. Millions of us, all over the world. Thriving because we helped one another thrive. Yes, before the empire-builders came along, 6000 years ago, we all lived that way. And, in some remote parts of the world people still do.
I believe our drive to care for animals as pets is a small reminder of that time when we cared for all beings, everywhere. I believe that we can, once more, live lives of comfort and ease in harmony with, and blessing, all the beings of this beautiful planet, our nurturer and supplier, our grandmother Earth.
Why do I believe all that? Because I know who we are.
We are a Unity. We know that we are part of the One Presence, Good. As are all beings everywhere. Can we learn to live that way?
Can we bless all the beings we hear about and read about, regardless of what we’ve been told about them? Can we honor that Spirit that is in all of us? Recognize that everyone is Good, is seeking their Good, is offering their Good, in the best way they know how, right now?
Because that is, after all, what we’re called to do.
If there is only one Presence that is Good, and only one Power that is Good, then there can be no other Presence, no other Power. Even the micro-organisms that we’ve been taught to be afraid of are good – our bodies host over 40,000 different ones all the time – and we couldn’t live without most of them. Even this virus, this SARS CoVid is good: it woke millions of people up out of their wage-earning-keeping- up-with-the-Joneses trance into the possibility of a new way of living, in which a relationship with people, not dollars, is most important.
Everything we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell must be Good – regardless of what we’ve been taught, otherwise. The lonely men who act out of their fear and pain, causing others to feel the same fear and pain are saying “Wake UP!” “Help me!” “We need to be doing something different for all of us!” The power-hungry men who impose their will on those around them, who use weapons or laws or simply the authority of their personality or uniform or badge to make others do things they don’t want to do are saying “Wake UP!” “Help all of us be better human beings!” in the only way they know how. The manipulative people, using and abusing the system and the people around them to get as much as they can, are saying “Wake UP!” “Our system is destroying lives!”
And we need them to do those things. Not because it feels good for us, but because we need and want to Wake Up. We need and want to live our lives in a different way – a way that is good for everyone, everywhere. We need and want to be a blessing for all beings, everywhere. It’s our nature to do so. It’s our heart’s desire.
And, as Unitics, as people of Unity, there’s another thing that we know: because the One Presence is Good, the one Power grants our heart’s desires. All of them. It must, It can’t not: “It’s God’s good pleasure to grant the desires of your heart.” The Power and Presence that we call God is giving us all the experiences our hearts seek. If we don’t enjoy them, we may not be seeing them for what they are – or our hearts are confused and asking for things that we don’t really want, simply because that’s what we’ve been taught.
And we’ve been taught some weird things. As children of the European immigrants who came to this paradise and destroyed it because it didn’t look like cities and farms, we have been taught to want things that are not necessarily what’s best for us. As children of Empire builders who thought the only way to be happy was to take as much as possible, we have been taught to want things that are not necessarily truly what we need or even enjoy. As children of the Industrial age, we have been taught that using machines is more effective and more desirable than working with our hands. And, as children of fearful cityfolk, we’ve been taught to be afraid of the natural world “out there.”
So our hearts have been mixed up. Our nature is to love and bless and receive joyfully and share, and to trust this world into which we’ve been born. Our training is to take and hold on to and build walls to protect ourselves from the world “out there.” So the One Presence, so generous, gives us some of both. And then we’re more confused.
But we, people of Unity, don’t have to be confused. We can relax in Truth. We know that what we’ve been taught isn’t Real. We know that everything in the Universe is Good, so we don’t have to be afraid of anything or anyone. We know that the loving Presence and Power always provides, so we don’t have to take, and grasp, and hold on to things in case of some fearful future. We know that as we give so we receive, because that’s how the One Presence Is and the One Power works in this Universe, so we bless all those we meet, knowing we receive blessing in return. We share whatever we receive, knowing we receive more in return, we hold in our hearts an image of a life of comfort for all, of thriving for all beings, in beauty and harmony, in this beautiful Web of Life that is the One Presence supporting us all.

For So it Truly Is… Amen.

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