Resistance is Futile

 

Our theme for January was "Love It."  February brought us:

• Black History Month and part of the Season of Non-Violence
• Groundhog Day, Tater Tot, and Ukelele Day is also in February
• So is Washington, Lincoln, Bob Marley, and Frederick Douglass' Birthdays
• The Periodic Table has a day in February and so does doggy bones and toothaches
• The Chinese New Year was on the 12th – of the Ox
• The Jewish holiday, Purim was on the 26th, commemorating the victory of Queen Esther of Persia in saving the Jewish people from execution by Haman, the advisor to the king
• And Lent began on the 17th, reminding Christians of Yeshua's 40-day sacrifice in the desert

Lives to remember, foods to enjoy, events to commemorate, rituals in which to partake, ideas to contemplate, and of course, love to celebrate - so much in 28 days. But all of that is man-made. I say so not to lessen its significance, but to show its exquisiteness and uniqueness. A uniqueness only possible through the loving expression of God.

In going within, we do not turn to our own spirituality or our own goodness or our own strength or our own knowledge; but we go within to unleash the Infinite Invisible.  ~Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Meditation 

We are individuations of the One Universal Power & Presence and we each act in this Oneness to unleash that Infinite Invisible from within. We don't have to spend days in the desert or atop a mountain or live in a cave. Each is their own mystics able to live the mystical experience by letting God be God in them and as them.

You are Divine now...it is your birthright. Your uniqueness, talents, and dreams are all waiting for you to WAKE UP and accept your divinity! It is only our resistance to this Truth that gets in our way. When we resist, we strive against or oppose something, the polar opposite of working a resolution. Changing things in our life begins with not wanting to experience this or that anymore; to set up a barrier to reliving that idea. But that is where resistance should quickly end.

One of the most notorious creatures from the Star Trek universe is the Borg. In the 1990 third-season finale of The Next Generation series, the evil Borg sent an audio message to those whom their collective would absorb (imagine ominous robotic voice):  “We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.”

“Wow,” you may think, “Rev. Jay is comparing our Oneness and connection to Spirit to the Borg?” In a way, yes. I don't claim we are all some sort of spiritual cyborgs roaming the earth. But take away your biology and technology and what is left? ...your etiology – your causation and origination ... your most basic self - your Godness!

We are in a collective of sorts, not evil like the Borg, but one that is available through the conscious activity of embodying Spirit; a complete emancipation from discord that no one can truly take away without our permission.

On July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Garrett Epps, Professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, wrote this about the 14th amendment:

Its centerpiece is the idea that citizenship in the United States is universal—that we are one nation, with one class of citizens, and that citizenship extends to everyone born here. Citizens have rights that neither the federal government nor any state can revoke at will; even undocumented immigrants—"persons", in the language of the amendment—have rights to due process and equal protection of the law.

Yet, the road to freedom does not truly lay in amendments to a constitution or any set of man-made laws again, not to lessen the efforts of Federick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thaddeus Stephens, and other abolitionists or 13th/14th amendment proponents. However, freedom must be made first in the minds and hearts of those whose values and beliefs equaled that pronouncement. It may have started as a resistance to hate, inequality, and unjust actions and ideas, but accepting it first -remember this is not about permission- acceptance allows us to transform those ideas from the resistance of the negative into working for something that is positive and a part of Nature's Laws. Before emancipation could be a fact in the United States, the Truth of our equality and Oneness within the creations of the Universe had to be recognized and accepted to set man free. In other words, our minds had to echo through our communion with the eternal Thing Itself.

The sooner we awaken to Truth and live it holistically, and not just in our heads, the sooner we shall become factually free & happy, no matter the conditions we experience or the laws or amendments to any constitution. Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor - founder of logotherapy, a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force - wrote:

The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. ...Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  

Yes, we are obligated to enact laws to codify our understanding of Truth. God does not condone enslaving or mistreating anyone and we cannot be free in our spirit nor free in our mind when we withhold human liberty from another; neither can we be truly free when we kill, maim, cage, strike, spit upon, tear gas or shoot another. We can only be completely free when we respect and honor all of life. Those not participating in the Divine collective of Oneness, peace, and Universal love are bound to suffer the consequences of having a void in their heart filled with more hate, fear, shame helplessness, powerlessness, injustice, and inadequacy....all learned feelings one decides to embrace.

But when you fill that void, no matter the size, with Spirit, you gain a foundation to build upon. You step into a world where kinship with all life connects and prospers in you, guides you with spiritual wisdom...a world that will show up without police brutality, white privilege, or any cultural beliefs of superiority and its inherent arrogance and delusions

I am not telling you to bypass what may be lurking inside - confusing you, irritating you. The resolution, however, must begin with who you are. Looking for approval outside of yourself is futile - it will never fill any void. Remember you are worthy NOW and you're pre-approved for your highest good now, as well.

     Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  ~Teilhard de Chardin

Are there areas of joy in your life that could support you in remembering that God is always everywhere equally present?

Find them...Nurture them. 

Incorporate them where the joy isn't as strong

It’s foolish and futile, to dedicate your time and attention to resisting what you don’t want. Reapply your energy toward what you do want and plan a prudent spiritual practice, then a wise practical course of action. When we choose to love the awakening to our highest self, we ease the effects of the negative and ease the inclusion of the positive, and we reveal the wisdom of the ages and disclose the best we have to offer to the world and beyond. Believing and loving who you are is a powerful antidote for lack and limitation, depression and distress, dis-harmony and dis-ease.

Allow the Divine's Love and Wisdom into your life

Resistance is futile!

Affirmative Incantation

Divine Love acts through me and the Law of Love frees me to be my best. Today I offer myself to loving this loved life. 

I am dedicated to being my best today, declaring superlative thoughts, revealing my highest ideas, best practices, the deepest empowering beliefs, and the most succulent experiences.

This day is my day and I express it with joy in my heart, a twinkle in my eye, and a spring in my step.

Watch out world, here I Am!

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UNITY IN ONE

I Realize its all inside of me
I Realize there are no walls
In between you and me and this holy word
no walls between you and me and this holy word   ~Laura Berman

The holy word you'd think we are discussing is love, indeed a holy word. Today, however, it is One.

One mind,One source, One-ness

I realize we are united in the One energy

Ancient Mayans have a greeting:  In Lak’ech Ala K’in. 

It means "I am another yourself" or "I am you and you are me." It is a statement of unity - oneness, like Namaste, Wiracocha (Incan) and Mitakuye Oyasin (Lakota). In an LSD inspired moment of clarity and creativity, John Lennon wrote for I AM THE WALRUS on the Sgt. Pepper soundtrack:  

I am he, as you are he, as you are me, and we are all together.

In these greetings we acknowledge & honor that we are all divine beings. Even the a-holes in the world. Our diversity is wide and all are included and connected to the One Source. "Really, even the buttheads?" Yep....look, the planets don't look the same or have the same air. Many are inhabitable, and you wouldn't want to visit, but they are all part of our Milky Way, our Universe, and created by the One Source, the singular energy.

In a social media post, I asked you all to join me with your waffles on the morning I created this post. That day happened to be International Beer Day. So I invite you to have a beer, too...with your waffles. Huh? Beer is one of the oldest drinks in the world and the third most popular overall, after water and tea. It has been mentioned is such ancient texts as The Code of Hammurabi, which included laws regulating beer and beer joints of the time. In The Hymn to Ninkasi, a prayer to the Mesopotamian goddess of beer, the song was used as a method of remembering the recipe for beer. All of these from one of the earliest know societies in our history. You probably know that beer is brewed from cereal grains and many recipes contain fruit. That is why it is a possible good breakfast item. The main reason I bring this up is, like us all of us, beer comes in many unique tastes, blends, colors, formulas, countries, cultures and styles, but they are all still beer.

I realize we are United in the One energy

Inclusion and Diversity is what God is about in its unconditional love. Though people can be pretty ugly in their individualized expressions of It, there's a beauty, even in that. And some go about it in strange and sometimes dangerous ways, but again we don't have to like all the likenesses of Spirit, just love the infinite possibilities of them.

I realize we are United in the One energy

This idea of the Oneness of God is not a philosophy of absorption … we do not become absorbed in the universal Self to the loss of individuality. Quite the opposite. We find ourselves …. immersed in a universality, each one being a unique, individual and different manifestation of that which itself is one, undivided, indivisible and whole. We cannot think of the Spirit as static, but as forever unfolding Its divine nature. … Unity does not mean uniformity.    ~Ernest Holmes 

Oneness does not equal sameness. We are uniquely the same as we are similarly different. We are all vibrant beings living in a vibrant Universe, able to vibrate at the speed of the divine. The Mayans call it huinik’lil ... vibrant beings. It is vibrant beings like like John Lewis who are wayshowers, reminding us of focusing on love, not hate.

All humans are descended from Adam and Eve. There is no superiority of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a non-Arab over an Arab, and no superiority of a white person over a black person or of a black person over a white person, except on the basis of personal piety and righteousness. ~Prophet Muhammad, last speech at Mecca

Character makes the person and it is man, not mankind, that has lowered their character to cast others as less than. Those folks can be loved out of our lives and voted out of our lives.

This month we are concentrating on consecrating ... declaring and making our lives sacred. That doesn't we leave out the fun, the succulent, the sexy or the relaxed in our experiences. Having grace in life includes health, wealth, love and creativity. Consecration is about living in Truth and seeing that Truth in every individualized expression of the One Mind, even the a-holes. We must begin to realize that we must be inclusive in our diversity. Even as we may bless them to their best (the a-holes), we can bless them to their farthest – out of our lives.

Last month, I shared my New Thought Declaration of Independence (click on the picture for the text). 

August 2nd is the anniversary of the completion of the signing of the Jefferson document in 1776. Benjamin Rush, a signer, wrote about the mood in the room that day being far from celebratory, “It was awful and silent as each member was called up, one after another, to the table of the President of Congress, where they signed what was believed ... at that time to be our own death warrants."  Everyone was aware of what they were undertaking - an act of high treason against the British Crown that could cost each man his life. John Hancock supposedly said that Congress, having signed the Declaration, must now "all hang together", and Benjamin Franklin replied: "Yes, we must indeed all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

They were a great example of Unity in One. The one mind of the colonists to declare independence from the crown. And for us, declaring our independence from hate, even of the a-holes. We are all united in the One Mind, the Big Bang, the Universal Presence, the Elohim, the Christ Consciousness, the Divine Intelligence ….God

I realize we are united in the one energy 

Conclusion and Call to Action

• Set our intention to be inclusive, no matter the idiot we are faced with
• Focus on loving even when not liking
• Remember that whoever is speaking is a Divine expression speaking – loving and wise or dumb and dangerous as it may be
• Listen actively and consciously communicate
• Be comfortable with the uncomfortable to speak up, protest, vote
• Know that what each of us resonates, reveals itself back to us – individually and as a culture
• Choose not to hate the haters hating
• Be guided by that loving intelligence to imagine the peace and the calm, so you and us all can live it

The forces of nature are at our grasp in

the power in the in lak'ech al k'in. Here

is a poem by Luis Valdez, a writer, director,

and the father of Chicano theater, called:

IN LAK’ECH 

Tú eres mi otro yo.

     You are my other me.

Si te hago daño a ti,

     If I do harm to you,

Me hago daño a mi mismo.

     I do harm to myself.

Si te amo y respeto,

     If I love and respect you,

Me amo y respeto yo.

     I love and respect myself.

Whether with the greeting Namaste, Wiracocha, In Lak’ech Ala K’in, Aloha (Divine Presence), Shalom, Tashi Delay (Tibetan-I honor the greatness in you) ... you are actively acknowledging the Divine in all of us. Let us not hate the haters … let us love them, and if we must. love them far, far away.

Affirmative Incantation

I am one with Divine Intelligence: empowered by It, loved as It, enlightened through It, experiencing life for It and sitting in joy with It.

I claim harmony, acceptance, and compassion through the Divine diversity in all forms of Its image and likeness. Every male, female, non-binary, mineral, animal, plant and organism represents a life lived as Spirit. This inclusivity is a sacred oath throughout this Universe that all are created equal in the One Mind.   

I am equally able to cross any bridge, bringing me to a higher level of fulfillment. I am equally powerful to manifest my best life. I am equally consecrated to heal any and all that requires freshness and renewal. I am equally fit to love and forgive, freeing my life from hate and fear. I am equally empowered to bring abundance, creativity, kindness and respect around me.

Inclusive, diverse, powerful and successful am I; now and forevermore!

TRULY INDEPEPENDENT

In 1963, at the March on Washington, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ended his speech saying:

When we allow freedom to ring - when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God a-mighty, "We are free at last."

He was stating a powerful call to action to the people of the U.S. and much of the world about equality and justice for the African American. Not to diminish that call to action, it is required per the situation at hand for minorities of all types in this nation and the world. However, none of us can be truly free until we claim our freedom for ourselves. Be you black, white, Christian, Jew, yellow, brown, any gender or who you love. Laws can be legislated, reparations paid, equality and justice completed, but only when we claim our freedom in our own minds, will we ever completely enjoy that freedom.

No matter your color, creed, gender, sexual orientation, religion or nationality, we must already have the impetus for freedom to ring from within first. Inviting it with legislation and education is not enough. Freedom for all must ring true in our own hearts and we must get clear on what that ring of freedom means to us personally.

So I ask you:
                       
What does it mean to know the Truth? to live this teaching as definitive, yet expansive?

That's Freedom!

What does it mean to know and reveal the Divine power within; an invisible presence and force as prevalent as gravity?

That's Freedom!

What does it mean to be free in your life? what does it feel like, look like, taste like being free?

What is living like knowing God is not simply “in" you, but experiences life as you, with you, for you, through you....is You?

That's Freedom!

The rest, as they say, again, not to diminish what needs to be accomplished in our society, but the rest is commentary. Freedom must be spoken about and acted upon, because though it is inherent, spiritually, it remains inactive unless fully accepted and declared by each and every one of else internally, in our hearts, minds and guts.

The essence of this teaching, New Thought and ancient wisdom (at least when read as intended) is love, responsibility and action; using our ability to respond, in mind with love, and in body with action to any and all situations and conditions with the Divine Truth at the forefront of our response.

We are all one, all part of the same God-stuff. Anyone not remembering that, doesn't know the Truth or maybe, “can't handle the Truth.” There is no them in us. We are all expressions of the same Power, the same creative energy.

In our three billion letters of individual DNA code and in our 20,000 genes, each of us are 99.9% the same as any other person on the planet. A mere 3 million letters are different...out of 20 billion. And 98.5% of our DNA are the same as chimpanzees and bonono's (another of the monkey-kind). And to those who get cocky about their humanity versus other life forms, know that 50% of our DNA is the same as a banana.

99.9% percent the same. Yet not all are free. Too much of that because of socio-politico-religio b.s. and much too much because not all of us have claimed that freedom for ourselves, in our hearts and minds and guts.

• Freedom is our birthright, yes, yet there must be a call to action internally for it to ring. 
• Freedom implies action and freedom requires action, whether to obtain it in legalities or to retain it socially.
• Freedom is not static, it has movement, responsibility, and belief attached to it. 
• Freedom cannot be legally and ethically bestowed by government or education alone; it must be achieved and declared and shared from within by all of us individually.

We’re all connected. Yet as the nation and the global community catches up with laws, education and ethics of justice, we must take the freedom journey in our own consciousness first. We must accept the freedom in our unique personal spiritual experience first. We must liberate ourselves with personal responsibility and action, without assigning blame and with the understanding that our divinity gives us the ability to know and live our highest good while recognizing the Namaste in all. Those who honor and recognize this freedom is for all are a force for good in the world.

To have freedom in our world prosper in all of life, we must have the mental equivalent of that prosperity in Mind. We can only attract what we mentally become and know to be like the photograph which can only show what the film was exposed to.

The road to freedom lies not through mysteries or occult performances, but through the intelligent use of natural forces and laws. ~Ernest Holmes "Living Without Fear"

Therefore, to let “freedom ring” in our lives, we must understand that our divinity and connection to God is shared by everyone in the world. Freedom, success and prosperity are spiritual attributes that belong to all peoples. So what are we to do?

Thurgood Marshall's speech from almost thirty years ago continues to resonate, when he says:

Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work.

As Americans and citizens of the world, we must get to work from without and within. As John F. Kennedy reminds us:

The great revolution in the history of man, past, present and future, is the revolution of those determined to be free.

Let us start a revolution in Mind, declaring our freedom in Mind first. As stated by Athenian historian and general (400 BC) Thucydides:

The secret to happiness is freedom… And the secret to freedom is courage.

So let us be courageous and proclaim to the Universe our...

Declaration of Independence:

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one person to dissolve the bands and bonds of struggle, strife, lack, and faithlessness, which has connected them with a life that does not serve their greatest good, and to assume among the Power of the Universe, the station of Prosperity to which the Laws of Nature entitle them, a decent respect to the opinion of one who speaks in Truth requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

I hold this Truth to be self-evident, that I am created equal, that I am endowed by my Creator, that which is within me, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and Happiness. That to secure these rights in my life, beliefs are instituted by me, deriving their just powers from Divine consent of my Mind and the Law of Cause and Effect. That whenever any Form of My Beliefs become destructive of these ends, it is the Right of Me to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new thoughts, new feelings, new perspectives, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing Its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect my Safety, Prosperity, Health and Happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Beliefs, long established, should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience has shown, that many times I am more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right myself by abolishing the beliefs to which I am accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce Me under absolute or partial lack, it is my right, it is my duty, to throw off such Beliefs, and to provide new thoughts and feelings, new perspectives and beliefs, for my future security, prosperity, health and happiness.

Such has been my patient sufferance; and such is now the necessity which constrains me to alter my thinking and my Beliefs.

Part of the history of my present beliefs is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over my happiness.

And so I now declare, with full knowledge and embodying of the One Power within, that One indestructible, absolute and self-existent Cause. With that Spirit expressing through me, which is the Unity of all life, I claim and swear to use my creative thoughts to think from that eternal goodness, that eternal loving kindness, and that eternal givingness of Divine Intelligence. To act, be, and surround myself with love, abundance, vitality and vibrancy. To think, reason, and live without the bondage of any negativity from my past, without the consciousness of “no” or the shoulda/woulda/coulda of “not yet;” without fear of a future I will create, and without any water cooler gossip or the news and opinions of CNN, MSNBC, FOX NEWS, NPR or any government or religion that may be running around in my mind like a rat in a cage, like squirrels in a whirling dervish, like chattering monkeys – invading my consciousness.

I, therefore, do, in the Name, and by Authority of my birthright as an individualization of the Source and Substance of All, solemnly publish and declare, that I Am that I AM, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent of destructive thoughts and beliefs; and that I Am that I AM, is absolved from all allegiance to negativity, and that all connection between me and the State of Lack and Limitation, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent personalization of God, I engage my full Power to levy Peace, Prosperity, and Love in my life from this day, forward. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection and Power of the Divine Intelligence within, I pledge to my Life and sacred Honor.

Please sign your name in the air, declaring your independence and committing your freedom to be the greatest You that ever was....and, so too, for all!





Affirmation
I Am free to see my peace. I Am free to see my abundance.
I Am free to see the miracle that is Me, with a body that is energized and ready to rock.
I Am free to see life go my way - the way of love, Light, wisdom, beauty and grace.
I declare my freedom to Be the greatest I can be.