This book of inspirational essays stresses the importance of perception when building a belief system. The essays give hints on how to keep our mind and hearts open to the awareness that we are in charge of our thoughts and feelings in the evolution of our spiritual growth. It emphasizes how we are to bring our gifts into our world.
A FLOW CHART OF LIFE
HOW WE CREATE OUR BELIEF SYSTEMSBy Nancy PurcellTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Rev. Nancy Purcell
All right reserved.ISBN: 978-1-4669-6676-5Chapter One
THE QUEST BEGINS
Lately I have been thinking a lot about belief systems and how we come to believe what we believe. I believe we build our belief system from the perceptions of our experiences in life. This includes what we are taught and where we either agree or reject.
The concept of perception has always fascinated me. How and why do we perceive life in so many different ways? Why do we have so many belief systems? Let's look again at the flow chart of life found in the introduction:
Fact>Perception>Belief>Behavior
The fact is that this is a written essay. Each person who reads this essay has a perception of what it means and its importance to the reader. If it agrees with your belief system, you store it in the yes column of your belief system and agree that you now have more proof that your belief system works. If it does not agree with your belief system you may store it in the no column or you may look at it and ponder for a while and look for ways to perhaps find ways to fit it into your belief system. We seldom look at the idea that it may be our perception that creates our response to a situation.
Playing with this concept I began searching for material on perception. The search led me to an author and scholar, Edward DeBono, who wrote a book titled I Am Right Your Are Wrong. In a chapter on Perception, Dr. DeBono writes: "For twenty-four centuries we have put all our intellectual effort into the logic of reason rather than the logic of perception. Yet in the conduct of human affairs perception is far more important."
It is apparent that all our beliefs are based on our perceptions; our religion, politics, family values, businesses, economics, etc. We experience a situation and we perceive it to be a certain way and then we create our lives into a belief system that supports our perception. The problem in human affairs is that then we say: "I am right, you are wrong." This creates arguments, separation, discord, divorce and even war.
My concern with this idea that I am right, you are wrong is that many people claim to be Christian only in relation to their perception. We are selective in the process of following the Jesus Christ teachings. We have never really looked at some of Jesus' precepts, including that found in Matthew 5:43-48, where He tells us very clearly that are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Love is not restricted only to those who agree with us according to Jesus.
I believe that if we begin to realize that everything relates to our perceptions then we can erase our idea of us and them. This is not an easy way of life but it would take us on the road to being successful humans, evolving as spiritual beings. We could stop hoping that the world can be a peaceful place and begin experiencing a life of love, peace and joy.
"A New vision of development is emerging. Development is becoming people-centered process, who ultimate goal must be the improvement of the human condition." Boutros Boutros-Ghali
IT IS WITHIN
I have been pondering on the current atmosphere of the human condition. It seems to me, that humans believe that in order to be right, we must make others wrong. It seems that our present and also our past crisis are spiritual in nature, not physical or material. Perhaps the way out of the crisis lies within each of us.
The scripture that came to me as I was working on this is found in Luke 6:41-42, "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye', when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?"( RSV). Jesus then goes on to tell us that our work is to build a firm foundation in our own house. Building this foundation is necessary as we do our own personal spiritual healing work.
My perception of this scripture is that the way out of our crisis lies within each of us. This means that we are here to weed our own garden. This means that we are not here to set things right but to see things rightly. As we do our inner work we begin to see that there is no right and wrong, life just is. It is the mystery that lies within.
REGARDLESS OF RELIGION
Recently, I have been enjoying a book edited by Marcus Borg called Jesus and Buddha Parallel Sayings. It is clear in this book that all great Master Teachers and Way showers bring a similar message. The Buddha message reads "The faults of others are easier to see than one's own; ..." Udanavarga 27.1. It appears that the message is that spiritual principles are relevant for all human beings regardless of religion. Religion is merely the outer form we have created to help us know God better.
Humans are so inclined to want to be right, that they proclaim that it is only their religion that is right. If we are truly Christian and if we follow our religion then we would find that our way shower, Jesus, was clear in the message that the way to find love, peace and joy is within our own healing, and that our healing will lift the human condition to a higher conscious awareness of oneness. We do not have to fix others or make them wrong because they do not follow our way.
It seems to me, that we are here in the human condition to bring God ideas into expression. These God ideas are love, peace, faith and joy and all the precious gifts of healing our feelings of being separate.
Since my belief system has no duality, I believe that we are all one in God regardless of our religion. Anything less than love, peace, faith and joy are errors in my own
Consciousness and are missing the mark of seeing things rightly. This is the one sin; it is belief in separation in God and in each other.
It is with this idea that I came to the concept that the way out of crisis is not to make others wrong, but that the way out is found within. May we each find to log in our own eye and do the healing work, so that we may experience the love, peace and joy of God of our faith.
"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, and give thanks in all circumstance." I Thessalonians 5:16
GIVING THANKS
During November we all celebrate a USA holiday "THANKSIGIVING." Many of us gather with friends and family and create a wonderful feast. We prepare food with love and care. We welcomed each other to share our day in an embrace of love and acceptance.
According to the Bible quote this activity of thanksgiving can and should take place in every circumstance of our lives. This is a possibility if we look at life from the perspective of our opportunity to grow and be all that we are meant to be. We can open our mind to a gratitude lifestyle. Being thankful begins the process.
There are many paths to gratitude and the use of our spirit energy, rather than expending our self-centeredness (our need to be right and make others wrong). It is part of a movement to create a complaint-free world and based on a book by Will Bowen called A Complaint Free World.
Creating a complaint free word, we begin with the idea that we all complain a lot more than we think we do. One tool we have used, found in Will's book, is that everyone who wants to take on the challenge, puts on a bracelet, and each time we complain, we switch the bracelet from one wrist to the other. This activity wakes us up to how often we complain. We work to see if we can keep the bracelet on the same wrist for 21 days.
What is a complaint? A complaint is anything you talk about that you want different. This includes family, friends, work and the weather.
We begin to concentrate on mastering our energy. When we stop complaining, criticizing and gossiping we have a great deal more energy. We begin to enjoy silence, and our prayer life increases in quality and quantity. When we stop talking about things that don't concern us and things we cannot change there is a lot of silence.
We don't remind each other that we are complaining because that is complaining. We celebrate each other's successes. Although this is not an easy challenge, it can be great fun. We come to realize that we are responsible only for our own words. This is one process of developing an attitude of gratitude. It appears to be Thanksgiving in action.
"All things have been delivered unto me of my Father." Matthew 11:27
TRANSFIGURATION OF FORM
The Christian tradition celebrates Palm Sunday as the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. This is the week where we traditionally contemplate the life of Jesus as He prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice ... lay down His life....
Every year as I spend time, during Lent, contemplating this activity which we celebrate in so many ways in the name of Christian tradition, I pray for a spiritual understanding of the meaning for my own personal journey toward God realization. I read prepared material. I talk of the significance of the meaning in my Sunday lessons and I open my mind and heart to new awareness. What is the true meaning of the Transfiguration, casting out of the moneychangers, the fig tree experience, the cross, the crucifixion and the resurrection? What is the ontological aspect of this process of soul unfolding?
We have always heard of the theological reasons for this activity in the life of Jesus. We have heard that Jesus was the human sacrifice for our sins. This year I found myself really concentrating of the Transfiguration experience from an ontological view, rather than from a religious or theological perspective. If we are unfolding in our spiritual expression, how does the Transfiguration play a part in our soul unfolding? What does this experience look like in the Twenty-first Century? How does it pertain to universal oneness?
The Transfiguration was not something that happened just to one person 2000 years ago. It is a constant realization of our unity with God. It is our atonement, our at-one-ment. Our day of selfishness is over and our day of selflessness has come. We say with Jesus: "All things have been delivered unto me of my Father" (Matthew 11:27).
We have moved forward from the consciousness that life or God does things to us. We have been through the law consciousness where we believe that life is done by us. With the Transfiguration we moved into the idea that God works through us, and with Jesus as the way shower we allow God to be God as us.
Jesus, on the Mount of Transfiguration, spoke of His death that was to follow. This death was of the material sense, in order to be born of the Spirit. At the transfiguration the disciple must be free from the possibility of being enslaved to material things in the world of form. At this stage we are "stewards" only, never "owners." We may have great wealth; it is no longer ours. We may have mental ability, it is no longer ours. We must use it only for service.
We must never worship effect. Never hate, fear, or love effect. That is where idolatry comes, in the worship of form or personal results. The very moment that a form becomes a necessity in our experience, we are placing our dependence, our happiness on a form instead of on the invisible, which is the cause of the form. We are then caught in attaching ourselves to results.
We say God is everywhere. This is true. However, God is only manifest where God is realized. If we cannot realize and feel, the actual presence of God, then insofar as we're concerned God is not there. God is everywhere in the absolute spiritual sense, but God is not everywhere as far as we are concerned unless we are conscious of the presence of God. If we are conscious of the presence God, of the activity of God, in everything, then it is so to us "Neither shall they say, 'Lo here! Or 'Lo there' for the Kingdom of God is within you." (Luke 17:21).
The Transfiguration is possible for everyone. We are here and now divine in origin. The Spirit in us is part of the Divine Omnipresent Spirit. Our work is to let it show forth in every act, thought and word. We need only to lift our thoughts and behold the Spiritual Reality of all form.
"Without discipline, there's no life at all." Katharine Hepburn
DISCOVERING MEANING IN LENT
In my early years, Lent always seemed a rather ridiculous, hypocritical time. Forty days not counting Sundays, made important by some Sixth Century Pope, Gregory the great, where we fast from something, anything. Then on the day after Easter we return to being and doing exactly the same as before. I asked why? What is the purpose? I have always loved to live the questions of life. I was never certain that there were any answers. Also, I was not into suffering for myself or anyone else.
Then, about 25 years ago, I came upon an old word with a new meaning, "discipline." That word had always brought up shivers in my soul. It meant that I either had to do something someone told me, or that I had to believe something someone said. Both of these meanings were suffering for me. My first encounter with this word as a spiritual principle came when I read The Road Less Traveled by Scott Peck. When I picked up the book, I skipped the part about DISCIPLINE and went straight to the second part about LOVE. Suddenly, as I was reading, I realized that it takes great discipline and commitment to be love in action. I then went back and started the book from the beginning.
It was that year that Lent took on a new meaning for me. I realized, I can make a commitment to refuse to settle for less than my highest self through disciplining my thoughts. I began to see the importance of commitment and discipline as part of my spiritual journey. My Lenten readings of Unity material, The Daily Word and the Gospel of John took on new meaning. I made sure there was time each day to pray and reflect on the words and to discipline my spiritual strength in my ability to stand firm in my faith, regardless of appearances. If my desire was to be love in action, I had to be committed and disciplined in that love. I learned that although physical strength is action, spiritual strength is stillness. I disciplined some stillness time into my day.
Discipline and commitment as spiritual strength replaced my old thoughts about Lent and created a wonderful time to balance my thinking and feeling nature. I began to experience a sense of oneness and well-being that brought with it confidence, tolerance, patience and balance. I began to heal the restlessness and become more and more of my highest self.
Lent is now my favorite time of the year. Ever since I began to use Lent as a time to discipline myself, I have increased my awareness of God's presence and power in my life as love and joy. My fasting is of a spiritual nature. I fast from negative, judgmental thinking. I fast from self-righteousness. I continue to live my questions, because, for me, the answers are just made up in our minds. The questions are much more exciting and interesting for my spiritual growth.
Today, for me, it doesn't matter who started Lent, why or where. I just set aside the time to discipline and commit to my spiritual purpose of life, increasing the expression of my highest self as love and joy in all my affairs.
"I want to grow. I want to be better. You grow. We all grow. We're made to grow. You either evolve or you disappear."
MOVING TOWARD EASTER
This essay was written on the 28th day of Lent. Tomorrow is Passion Sunday. What does this mean to us, as we move forward on our path toward expressing the life and love of God in our everyday lives? How do we unfold our spiritual awareness into expression and manifestation?
I was thinking and praying about these questions when I encountered some articles in my folder marked "Lent and Easter," about the history of Lent and the meaning of the season. I would like to share some of this with you in hopes that it might shed some light on your path as you move forward in your spiritual growth and toward your Easter resurrection experience. One of the articles states that Lent is a church institution, embodying an exalted idea, the idea of cleansing and disciplining both mind and body toward the end of making them more receptive to the Christ ideas. This gives personal purpose to a human event in time. Another article tells how Lent did not start as forty days, but that forty days is about 1/10th of our calendar year, so it is appropriate that we tithe our time in this way of prayer and fasting.
One of the most valuable ways of observing the Lenten season is to fast from the belief that anyone or anything can stand in the way of God's good for all of humankind. This is the season to see that the fields are already ripe for harvest (John 4:35). It is our perceptions and fault-finding; our need to be right and make others wrong that stops the power of God's good from expressing in the world. Lent is a time for healing these perceptions and affirming the power of Christ Spirit indwelling everyone, everywhere and influencing their thoughts words and actions to work for the good of the whole world. It is the idea of "seeing" it rightly instead of "setting" it right.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from A FLOW CHART OF LIFEby Nancy Purcell Copyright © 2012 by Rev. Nancy Purcell. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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