Category: ANI-HU

How the the Divine Presence manifests in our Lives

Connection vs Separation

“When I accept my humanity I can claim my divinity.” There is a very popular saying in Unity, “I am a spiritual being having human experiences.” It is the perfect reminder that I am not ‘only human’; I am of Spirit as well. Yet, living in such a fast-paced world, many feel isolated, alone, frightened; …”

Rev Kimerie Mapletoft – Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

As I was reading Rev Kimerie’s thoughts – see above – I felt reminded of the ‘ separation’  we generate by not being aligned with our ‘greater self’, the living-loving spirit with in us, that is of the Divine or God (chose your word of preference).

I started to wonder what it is that I can all do to feel closer to the Divine not only in myself but also in others.

 

Rev Kimerie continues …

Yet the good news is that as we begin to accept our humanity, our foibles, mistakes and errors for what they are, our experience as human beings, learning and growing in a human body, we can move beyond identifying with these errors and claim our divinity. We will be able to say with joy that I am, and you are, a beautiful, creative, inspiring being; a blessing in the world.

The invitation, in all of this, is for every single one of us to accept our differences, our human mistakes and experiences, to help us see through and beyond them to Spirit that shines brightly within, whenever we open the door to this experience. As we accept our humanity, we can claim our divinity.

Rev Kimerie Mapletoft -Director of Silent Unity and Daily Word UK

How true! By honestly looking at my mistakes and flaws, I become aware of them. This awareness helps me embrace and love ALL OF ME: the silly-me, the hurry-scurry part of me, the arrogant-me, the scared-me, the fat-me, … And as I do that they start dissipating, kind of being removed from obscuring my connection with the Divine. As a result, not only do I become aware of the Greater-part of Me, but I am also enabled to see the Divine in others. 

The separation that was created inside of me by looking for our differences and judging them in fear, disappears. I become free and let others to be free in themselves, too. 

Read THOUGHT OF THE WEEK blogpost on UNITY UK website here (CLICK)

Picture sources:

Photo by Josh Marshall on Unsplash

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash

 

Arguing about God

Recently, a dear friend approached me with an incident she had just experienced.  She found herself in an argument about the nature of God. As with most  philosophical or theological arguments, it got heated and both parties left the arena angry and hurt.

Photo by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

In my response to her sharing with me I admitted that: “Honestly, I could get angry at any moment in time because sometimes I see the world – mostly people – ignorant and violent as we try to shovel our own agenda down on each others’ throats.” Then I stepped back and said: “But I know better now. When I start feeling the anger coming up, I start stepping back and start observing what is happening inside of me. Walking the path of the Divine is an inner journey not an outer one.

Most people believe that we need to ‘claim’ the righteousness of our beliefs but really it is about having your own experiences. God is an inner experience, an intimate relationship not a set of rules or a book telling us who or what God is. When I feel that I want to engage in such conversations I just remind myself that some people are looking for an outer experience and as part of that they believe that their job is to convince others about their mental interpretation of a text that may have been written 2-3 thousand years ago.

I remind myself that I am looking for the God/Divine within that cannot be explained or agued about because it is personal. This is usually where all argument fails. No one can argue with your own personal experiences. The Bible is only a source of guidance, not a set of rules though lots of people think otherwise. I do not mind that. I follow my own inner path and connection with God/the Divine.”

As she expressed how hurt she felt because of the other parties unkind comments, I truly felt compassion towards her and said: “I do understand that. At the same time, I notice that there is always a reason. I may not understand why others need to do what they do but I still have compassion for them. I guess that they are in fear of some sort. I appreciate that. Then I move back to what is true for me. And with that I let them be. What we fight, we persists.”

In closing, I must say that defending our beliefs is just part of human nature. Our beliefs are part of who we think we are.  When we start having inner experiences, we stop needing to argue for our beliefs. When we are settled with and embrace our beliefs that stem from our experiences, we simply allow people to have their own.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Gratitude and ART

The idea to run a Gratitude infused Art Class came about during the Lockdown. I felt lost and angry. My entire life suddenly was on hold. Because of the uncertainties, I had to live my residence, move to another country where I was stuck for over two years. At the beginning, all I could do was to complain. Why is it happening to me? Why did I make that decision? I should have done it differently. I hated the place where I was ‘stationed indefinitely’ and I could not see the way out.

As I kept on looking at the glass half empty, I started to get depressed. This was the moment when I thought that it just could not go on like this. I cannot change where I am or what is going on in the world, but I can change how I experience all that. So, I started a ‘daily blessings’ exercise which basically consisted of me sitting in a meditative position and trying hard to find things that I was grateful for on that day.

It was not easy. Because I like drawing, I decided to try to draw my days in a way that the picture would remind me of the fun things that I have in my life. To cut this rather long story short, eventually, I thought that others may benefit from having fun with counting their daily blessings, so I opened my ‘daily blessings’ sessions to the general public. The rest is history! 🙂

GRATFULNES ART JOURNALING CLASSES AT UNITY UK

According to participants, the class supports them to become more mindful and creative. During the class we focus on addressing the shift from left-brain to right-brain activities, balancing the two hemisphere.  Colouring and drawing contributes to generating a state of flow. Participants can also develop their drawing skills. All in a fun and supportive environment.

YOU DONT NEED TO BE AN ARTIST TO BE ABLE TO PARTICIPATE AND ENJOY THIS CLASS!

Each class  addresses a different aspect of Gratitude and supports you to deepen your practice of expressing your Gratitude towards the blessings in your life.

Find out more about the Class here (Click)

No other way

“We should forget the hurts, the wanderings, the fears,
The wastelands of our life and know “
That we could come no other way or grow Into our good without these steps our feet
Found hard to take, our faith found hard to meet. “
Written by Martha Smock, Editor of Daily Word in 20th century for over 30 years
Created by UnityUK and I.Kudlik. Video is by S.JameS

PIC source – Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash 

UnityUK provides teachings, guidance, and tools that generate inner change/development so we can become a transforming presence in the world.

Learn more about events at UNITY IN THE UK HERE (CLICK)

 

Unity’s Five Principles in terms of Meditation and Prayer

In this posts I talk about my personal experiences with the 5 Basic Principles of Unity and Prayer+Meditation.

First of all, some words on Unity. Unity is a spiritual philosophy based on holistic Christian concepts. Unity is based on five principles concerning God, goodness, thoughts, prayer and action. These basic ideas make up the Unity belief system. Unity is not considered a “mainstream” Christian religion. Rather it is classified under the “New Thought” genre.

The Five Principles

1.There is only one Presence and one Power active as the Universe and in my life. God the Good.
2. Our essence is of God; therefore we are inherently good. This God essence was fully expressed in Jesus, the Christ.
3. We are co-creators with God, creating reality through thoughts held in Mind.
4. Through prayer and meditation, we align our heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are tools we use.
5. Through thoughts, words, and actions, we live the Truth we know.

The Unity five principles support the spiritual seeker to understand what it means to live in true oneness, how to tap into and live our own divinity; how to use our thoughts to forge our best reality; how to stay in contact with the Divine within through prayer and meditation and what it means to live the Truth.

The first principle supports us to understand and embrace the idea that God is the source and creator of all. God is present everywhere and that God is all good. This principle also suggests that there is only Spirit. From a prayer and meditation point of view, I think it is essential, to experience the Divine Presence within ourselves for ourselves. Having an intimate knowing of the innate living Loving of God helps us embrace Life – particularly its ups and downs – itself easier. Meditating helps us consciously unfold and become more and more aware of God’s presence in all.

The second principle suggest that we are created in the image of God and the Spirit in God lives withing each of us. As we pray and meditate, we deepen our relationship with God and as a result, we become more aware of who we are in Spirit and as a unique expression of God. Then we start seeing the presence of Spirit within everyone we meet. As we start experiencing the goodness within, we start seeing Good in the world, too. (beyond the layers of drama and confusion)

The third principle teaches us that we are the creators of our own experiences. We are co-creators with God. Probably this is the hardest principle to embrace. We are often so unconscious of our ‘thinking’ that we do not realize how we generate the various experiences we have throughout our lives. Probably the first step is to look at our experiences as a mirror of our thoughts. As we close our eyes and turn within, we also open to see ourselves in our entirety: the Good and the Limitations, too. In our prayer we deny and let go of the limited and as we do that, we start seeing our greatness reflected back at us in our daily lives.

The fourth principle teaches us the importance of prayer and meditation. I wish this principle was the first principle because for me this principle helps unfold all the others. Through prayer and meditation, we align ourselves with God. The tools we use to do that are denials and affirmations. We use affirmative prayer to raise our awareness of God and all the Good that God is. With denials we elevate and free ourselves from our limitations.

Finally, the Fifth principle reminds us that knowing the Truth is not enough, we must live it though our actions. We live the Truth as we know it. Meditation and prayer help us discover the Truth and help the Truth unfold and evolve within.  We can also connect with Wisdom, Understanding and Divine Guidance.

Picture sources TOP pic and Unsplash

Aglow

When I feel at one with God, I am aglow, shining the light of spiritual truth. Like a candle flame, my inner light makes the divinity of all the world’s people visible to me. Beholding the Christ light all around me makes my heart expand, making me ready to share the love I’d previously held inside or reserved for those closest to me.

Today I keep my mind on God and let my divine light shine everywhere. As I remember that God is absolute good, everything else falls away. I am God’s beloved child, and the light within me is pure and strong. I am bright and brilliant, the light of God uniquely expressing as me. With love and in peace, I bless others with my beaming positivity.

Source

Surrender

Surrender

By Evelyn Foreman

Surrendering to Spirit, I experience peace and wholeness.

A Spirit-filled life means fearless living. We bravely surrender our hearts, personalities and human desires to the Spirit of the Christ within. Through faith and courage, we open to the divine guidance and perfect order of God.

In prayer and meditation, our way is made clear. Our communion with God empowers us to release and let go of any personal limitations.

The transcending power of the Christ Spirit within guides us and reveals in perfect time all that is ours to do and all that is ours to know.

As we release outer attachments and trust in divine guidance, we manifest the unfolding pattern of good that is God.

Note – Instead of ‘God’ pls use any word – divine, presence, power, at-one-ment – that you feel comfortable with. Take the messages not the words!

My Lenten revelation

So how is your Lenten season going?

Mine is going pretty well. Rather interesting! Honestly, it is beyond my expectations!

I am once again surprised at what different focus means. Just by setting an intention to ‘release’ any limiting beliefs during this season, suddenly, I am made aware of different patterns that I run within myself that do not serve me.

During my contemplations this Lenten season I became very clear of a pattern that I learnt as a child and also a pattern that I developed as a child in order to protect myself.

When I was a child under the communistic and socialistic ideology of a central European country, we were basically drilled to become soldier like creatures. The first and most important qualities of a human being were to be obedient and disciplined. We had to recognise authority, especially the authority of our superiors and the leaders of the party. We were even discouraged to think for ourselves but blindly follow command.

As a result of that, I became resentful but I still adopted to a great extend to the belief system of my environment. On the other hand, however, I became painfully aware that I was not a good soldier. I simply did not agree with the way we were treated. And so, I became rebellious in an artistic way which meant that I was troublesome and was in constant detention.

As a response to that, in order to protect myself from the constant scolding, I adopted a ‘service like’ attitude towards my main carer or people in a ‘caring’ position, figures of authority, so to feel safe in the world that seemingly detested me for who I was.

As my ‘service’ to those whom I needed to take care of me, I allowed to let their fears, frustrations and other unmanageable feels down on me. I basically became a punchbag.

I suspect that I felt strong enough to take it all on. At the same time, I am sure that I was also afraid of being rejected from society and from the groups of my peers because I wasn’t able to get in line with all the other silent sufferers.

So, the other day, I had this painful experience where I noticed how I actually go about running this pattern. I found myself in a situation where I was in disagreement with a figure of authority whom I felt, I was dependent on for something. I noticed, how I made the conscious choice to allow him to run his fear and disagreement down on me using abusive language. I also realized that I am doing that in order to smooth out the discord between us. I hurt myself so the other person can feel better, hoping that this way he would accept me and support me.

I lived most of my life with this limiting belief and behavioural pattern.

On one hand, my learning is to know and understand that people have the ability to deal with their own issues, problems, fears, and challenges and I don’t have to step in and ‘save the day’. On the other hand, it is time for me to let go of the fear that I can be harmed or I won’t be taken care of, just because I think differently or disagree.

So this is my Lenten season revelation so far. As my release and renewal affirmation, I affirm that

I let go of my need to feel safe by diffusing situations with figures of authority. I let go and release feelings of inadequacy the drives me to take on more than my share in any situation. I embrace myself knowing that I am good in God just as I am. I am lovable, acceptable, and I don’t need to take over any additional burdens in order to be loved.

 

audio version of the above