Unity Church of Castro Valley
Sunday Message for January 29, 2012
Being & Becoming - The Way of Cosmic Conscience
2012 is definitely nipping at our heels, and I know that some people are "freaking out" over the thought that the Mayan calendar is purported to end on December 21, 2012, which signifies the end of our days.
I learned a very interesting tidbit about that date, which I shared on one of the Sundays this month. Who didn't hear it? Wow.
OK, I'll share the tidbit again. According to Carl Johan Calleman, who is a scientifically recognized Mayan calendar expert, the Mayan calendar doesn't end on our December 21. He believes the Mayan calendar end date has already happened - it WAS October 28, 2011.a
Wasn't the second coming of Christ, which was originally predicted last spring, recalculated to happen mid-October 2011? But it didn't happen either, did it?
So, while I don't believe an end of times crisis will befall us 2012 either, it is a time of great change; it a time we have been preparing for. We have been preparing to do things in new ways. Why do you think so many systems and structures have fallen and are falling apart? They have to fall apart so they can be put back together from a new consciousness.
We know that Einstein was a mathematical genius, but he was also just plain brilliant (despite the fact that he couldn't tie his own shoelaces - is that true?). He said these most profound words:
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking that created them."
Humankind is in the midst of an evolutionary shift up. Things are breaking down so they can be rebuilt from a new place of thinking, a new place in consciousness! And we are the people to bring that new level of consciousness to the table! Breakdown before breakthrough!
TENET FIVE
We have spent the last few weeks looking at four of the five tenets of Enlightened Evolution according to Andrew Cohen in his book "Evolutionary Enlightenment."b Who can give me all four?
1. Clarity of Intention to Evolve
2. The Power of Volition/Taking 100% Responsibility for your experiences,
3. Look at Everything and Avoid Nothing
4. The Process Perspective
We have one final tenet, which according to Cohen, is not a stand-alone tenet. In fact, it is more a result of the previous four being embodied and lived.
He suggests that . . .
. . . if you wholeheartedly pursue your own Clarity of Intention to evolve; and
. . . if you take unconditional responsibility for your Power of Volition/Choice; and
. . . if you fearlessly Face Everything and Avoid Nothing; and
. . . if you cultivate a Process Perception in earnest, . . .
. . . then you will become aware of an arising sense of Cosmic Conscience, which Cohen describes as a care and concern for the vast evolutionary process of all humankind.
Cohen writes, p. 159:
"You will recognize [that] your own spiritual development, your liberation from ego, is absolutely essential for the evolution of humanity. This is why your motive becomes: I want to be free not only for my own sake, but for the sake of the whole. That is the awakening of Cosmic Conscience."
While I love these words of Cohen's, and I think they are accurate and profound and beautiful, I don't think they are complete. I don't think they go far enough. I believe they are missing something absolutely critical.
When we awaken to Cosmic Conscience (and we have another term for it in Unity, which we will use in a moment, but to use Cohen's words for right now) . . . When we awaken to Cosmic Conscience, not only do we awaken to the idea that we play a significant role in the whole of humanity, but we awaken to the idea that we are part of the Whole of Creation.
There's a spiritual dimension to this wholeness that cannot be left out if we are truly going to evolve!
What is the other term we have in Unity for this idea? We call it Christ Consciousness.
It is a deep and abiding awareness of our connection to the Whole, to the One - not just to the whole of humanity!
Yes, we are connected to humanity, and we are connected to something much, much, much bigger!
Ernest Holmes writes, (slightly modified to make it personal):
"There is a place in our mentality - in the heights of our greatest realizations - where we throw ourselves with complete abandonment into the very center of the Universe. There is a point in the supreme moment of realization where we merge with the Universe, but not to the loss of our individuality; where a sense of Oneness of all Life so enters our being that there is no sense of otherness. We can do this only by dwelling and meditating upon the immensity of Life and the fact that, as vast, as immense, as limitless as It is, the whole of It is brought to the point of our own consciousness."c
The Way of Cosmic Conscience or Christ Consciousness is the way in which we realize our true and profound relationship to the Universal Whole - to God! It is not only the way in which we realize the role that we play in the whole, but the complete realization that we are one with the Whole.
And that is where the rubber meets the road for so many of us. We think everyone else is one with the Whole, but not us. We think everyone else walks around feeling good about themselves and who they are, but we don't. This is a pervasive and potentially deadly way of being and thinking.
I say deadly, because I believe it is going to take our understanding who and whose we are in order for the new consciousness to emerge. And if the new consciousness does not emerge, then humanity as we know it may really be in trouble!
A Truth student, who is extremely shy and reserved in class, sent an email to the practitioner class assistants and the minister of her church. It was so profoundly touching and beautiful, that the minister asked her to share it with the class and she did.
And, it's so fun to watch how God works in our lives. The minister was thinking about wanting to share what she wrote as part of her Sunday message, but, of course, would not share it without her permission. So on Friday as the minister was thinking about it, she thought to herself, after the pet blessing on Saturday, I will call her and ask.
And don't you know, at the pet blessing she was the second or third person to cue up in the line to have her precious dogs blessed. The minister had the chance to ask her right then and there. And, as you can probably guess, she gave her permission.
In the event my story leading up to this sharing was so long that you forgot the purpose - it is this. We tend to think that everyone, but us, is part of the Whole. Here's what the Truth student wrote about that:
"I laid down to sleep, my eyes covered with cucumbers. Not in case I woke up hungry but because when I cry my eyes become tiny, swollen slits. The trick is to carry Kleenex and tell people it's allergy season, again.
As I drifted off, I saw a Spirit approaching, she said, "Come, take my hand I have some things to show you." "This is like the movie Scrooge," I said. "But," I asked, "we don't have to see the ghost of Christmas Future do we? No offense, but that guy kind of creeps me out." She started laughing and replied, "Trust the process."
I found myself in a room surrounded by a panoramic movie screen with current happenings projected all around me. It was like a giant spy cam.
She said, "I know you often believe there is the Universal All Inclusive God and then below that . . . is you. Which is kind of funny when you think about it, as if God said 'I'll be damned (God can say that word), a piece of creation broke off.'" She made a circular motion with her arm and said "And then God said, 'well everything is God except for that one Truth Student, bummer for her.'
In this movie house, not only could I see people and what was happening in their lives but I could feel it too. In fact, I suggested she get a patent for it. I saw people in jails, churches, schools, homes, parks, all imaginable situations. I felt fear, sadness, shame. But I also felt joy, contentment and love. The Spirit said "Every one of these people has felt unworthy, alone, a burden - whether now or in the past. Give thanks for these feelings for out of them can come great compassion. But holding on to them does not serve you, and your great challenge is to let them go. There is one God, one Love, one Spirit and all Life belongs to this Truth regardless of any illusion of separateness." I could feel the tears starting again and I knew I'd need more cucumbers.
Isn't that profoundly beautiful? Does it strike a chord with you? Are you one this morning who simply refuses to believe who you really are? Are you one who argues for your separateness, your limitations?
I love the line in Illusions by Richard Bach. I think about it often:
"Argue for your limitations and they are yours."d
They are not yours in Truth, but they become yours in your experience.
So, I've said before that now is the time and we are the people to bring forth the evolution. We can only be the people if we put on the cloak of Christ Consciousness.
There's a story of a seeker who heard there was a council of evolved masters high atop a mountain in a far away land. He so desired to learn at the feet of these evolved beings that he sold everything he owned and headed out on a long journey to reach them.
It was a journey filled with hardships, losses, and pain. It took years and years to get there. As the years pass, he accumulated a small band of other seekers, so they traveled together.
Finally, they reached the precipice; finally they reached the location of these esteemed, evolved masters. So they walked in and saw the robed and hooded masters all sitting around a table. Their hearts leapt for joy.
Finally, after an arduous journey, they had finally arrived. So they rushed to the table only to find the robes empty. They were shocked, they were dismayed, and they were disheartened. But then they came to a realization. They were to put on the robes because they were the masters they had been looking for.
And that is where the story ends, but I think there should be more to it! I think the seeker and his friends, who are now the evolved masters should now get up from their table, walk out of their monastery, come down the mountain, and walk in the world. The story does not end with them staying holed up alone; the story ends when they come into the world and share their enlightenment!
You today, right now, in this room, are the evolved master - the only difference between our seekers and some of us is that they came to the realization and we haven't.
Ernest Holmes writes:
"As the human gives way to the Divine, in all people [he doesn't say SOME people, but ALL people], they become the Christ."e
OR
Charles Fillmore writes:
"The gospel of Jesus Christ is that all men [he doesn't say SOME men, but ALL men] shall become God incarnate. It is not alone a gospel of right living; it shows the way into dominion and power equal to, aye, surpassing that of Jesus of Nazareth."f
Enlightened evolution - putting on the cloak of Christ Consciousness -- is about realizing who we are, it is about deepening into our BEING and it is about evolving into our BECOMING as we show up in the world and relate to ourselves and others!
I love how Cohen describes it:
"In traditional enlightenment, which is about awakening to timelessness, formless Being, there is no such thing as relatedness, because there is only One. But in Evolutionary Enlightenment, when the emphasis shifts from Being to Becoming, one wholeheartedly enters the world of time, form and relatedness. In fact, one discovers that relatedness is the whole point of the manifest world. The universe was created so that relationship could occur. Why else would God have ever left the timeless singularity of the ground of Being? Before the Big Bang, in that empty ground, there was only unbroken Oneness. But that One chose to become the many, and in the birth of the many, relatedness became the very fabric of emerging."
At the place of "being," there is a stillness, peace, quiet, a soft sense of Oneness. The experience of egoless unity or oneness has always been the highest spiritual idea. The problem with this is that we can usually only attain that in the quiet of meditation.
And then we step out of this beautiful state of Oneness into this world of multiplicity, of conflict, of chaos, of differences and we become . . . well, let's just say, not very Christlike!
But think what our world will be like if many individuals were able to remain conscious of that absolute Unity while creatively engaging in the world of multiplicity. Imagine if you could have that same experience of Oneness with your eyes wide open - not immersed in stillness, withdrawn from the world, but passionately engaged with other people and with the life-process. This would be an evolved world, now wouldn't it?
CONCLUSION
So my friends, there is a lot at stake here. It is time for us to deepen into our Being and evolve into our Becoming. The time is right and the situation is ripe for it. And this is no longer just for ourselves, this is far more than a personal matter. Our ability or inability to evolve has a universal consequence.
I want to remind you one more time as you contemplate these tenets, as you think about them, as you begin to put them into play in your lives, . . .
what happens?
What comes up for you?
How does your life shift?
What questions bubble up?
But for now, let us take another journey in consciousness. This is a journey of "being" and "becoming." Put yourself in the role of the seeker in the story I shared earlier and you have just reached the top of the mountain, you have walked into the room of the enlighten masters and have found the robes to be empty. You stand there for a moment perplexed, upset even at the arduous journey you have taken for nothing—so it seems. And then you realize that the journey has in fact honed you and given you the insights and ability to put on the robe yourself. So, in your mind's eye now, put it on. And in this robe, become aware of what you are aware of about your true nature.
Remember Holmes words:
"There is a point in the supreme moment of realization where we merge with the Universe, but not to the loss of our individuality; where a sense of Oneness of all Life so enters our being that there is no sense of otherness."
This is a moment of supreme realization....And with this realization you rise from the table, leave the peace and quiet of this sacred place and come out into the world. See your world with fresh eyes today. See everyone from the deepest "I Am" space within you. See the Divine in you greeting and meeting the Divine in others. Realize, that in fact, the "I Am" Presence walks as you and walks around you.
Let it be your way...
aNov. 2011, Science of Mind magazine
bTalk based on the book: Evolutionary Enlightenment Andrew Cohen
cScience of Mind text Ernest Holmes
dIllusions Richard Bach
eScience of Mind text Ernest Holmes
fTalks on Truth Charles Fillmore
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