Friday, April 25, 2008
Looking for May's Prosperity Thoughts
Jan. 2008 Prosperity Thoughts
This time of year, between the hustle and commotion of the holidays and the resumption of our week to week routine tend for me to be a time of reflection. I tend to look at my life and determine what I want to manifest this next year. In some ways this is the same as "New Year's Resolutions" and in other ways it seems different to me. The difference might be that my resolve to change and grow comes from a loving place of positive manifestation rather than a critical place that demands I be different. In order to manifest my good, I need personal leadership, and so I thought I would write about this for our prosperity newsletter this month.
1) In order for us to unlock our potential good we first need to believe in ourself. Knowing that we are precious Children of the Divine, believing that we are one with the creative intelligence of the Universe, sensing and feeling the presence of a loving higher power in our lives that is supporting us to thrive are a few of the ways that help us believe in ourselves. For some of us, it is hard to convince our mind that we deserve good. One remedy is to find other like minded people that can see the good in us, a prayer partner, minister, support circle are all tried and true techniques that Unity offers.
2) We cannot unlock our potential good unless we expect to succeeded. As offspring of the most high, we are meant to thrive. That means we know we will meet some bumps along the way and in the end it will be good and so we tap into the knowledge that we will succeeded to help move us past the rough times. The thing about New Year's resolutions is that most of us have make them before and failed and so there is often this underlying belief that we are a failure. In our Honey in the Heart class, we establish a pattern of success, which tends to build more success as we come to really understand that we can succeed. Thriving means working through difficult times not quiting. I am looking just now at the apple trees in our yard- they are thriving right now. They have no leaves at all, but they are doing what they need to do in winter, and so they are thriving. In a few months they will look like they are thriving when the blossoms come out or when the leaves fill in, but right now, in the dead of winter, they are thriving too.
3) Visualize yourself as a success. If we have only a vague idea of what our good looks like, then we often fail to notice it. If we adopt someone else's idea of success then we typically are discontented even as outward success arises since it is not our heart's desire. Visualize your needs being met, see yourself as having all the help and support you need, know you will have creative ideas and inspirations to help you along your way and do not get hung up too much on how the end result is supposed to look... focus then on the needs being met and not your personal strategy of how these needs get met and affirm that you are successful each day.
4) Passionately pursue goals that are in alignment with your good. I once had a teacher suggest that if I wanted self esteem, I just needed to do esteeming things. The idea here is that if you have goals that are not in alignment with your good, you get distracted by other items and end up overwhelmed. Focus on those opportunities that further your deepest sense of self. If you have passion for each goal then you are unlikely to get burned out or bored along the way and your joy will attract more support for you when things are bumpy. Trust the process here, do that which you love doing and not what you think you should do. It works best for me to always point positive, so I do not encourage negative goals like loosing weight or stopping smoking. Find a positive way to define the same goal, for example, a desire to walk 5 miles or hike to a scenic viewpoint, which incidentally less weight or less smoking will help.
5) Be continuously grateful at each step along the way. Gratitude creates a flow of good unlike almost anything else. Be grateful for the so called set backs, they are showing you what you need to learn and helping you stay humble.
Looking forward to a great 2008!
John
Feb 2008 Prosperity Thoughts
February, with the celebration of Valentine's Day, has at least one day expressly dedicated to expressing our love, passion and joy, so I thought we would use that as our theme for this month's prosperity thoughts.
This Sunday, Matt Boggs and his best friend, Jason Miller (boyhood friends since third grade), will be presenting a talk on their passion: Project Everlasting Love. What on one level seems so incongruous, (two bumbling bachelors in their mid 20's on a quest to find the secrets to a life-long love from couples married 40 years or more), is also a perfect reminder of some key prosperity principles.
First and foremost: When we have "suffered" some deep pain, there is always an opportunity to transmute this suffering into a blessing that serves Life. In this case, Matt's mom and dad divorced when he was a young teenager and it impacted him traumatically and deeply. Their divorce shook up his whole world view and at the same time, ripened him for the Divine Idea that was just around the corner- to
co-create Project Everlasting Love.
Second: Repeated failure in an area in which we have deep passion and interest is merely seasoning for our eventual success. Matt, as he will tell you on Sunday, had a profound desire for a perfect relationship and never gave up, even though his dating and searching for a life mate has left him heartbroken time and time again. Since,
as we teach, "it is all good", if it is not seeming to be good, it is not done yet...and so, following this teaching, Matt has not given up on his dream of a perfect mate. Instead he has embraced it even more fully. In that process, he learned a few things about realistic expectations and unrealistic expectations and, hence, matured into
someone who is ripe for eventual success in relationship.
Third: When we are invited into a Divine Idea, we say "Yes!"-- even when we do not know how to take the next step forward. The "Oh-no!-How-can-I-possibly-do
offhand comments that lead us to the next step, and the next step after that. We will never ever run out of ideas so long as we have passion and joy around our life. Passion and joy attract energy like a magnet and energize people to support us with suggestions and help from every imaginable source. Matt did not know how to write a book or make a movie-- he just had the idea to call his best friend, Jason, and pitch this zany, crazy, off-the-wall adventure to him. Jason, who had never even thought of this kind of project a moment before, found himself saying "Yes!"-- and off they were to their next step of stringing together idea after idea in pursuit of manifesting
their Divine Idea.
Fourth: When we are in the Divine Flow, we can let go of results, knowing that Divine Order is bringing out all the love and passion and joy each step along the way. Since we do not really know how to implement this Divine Idea called life, we can just let go and allow Spirit to respond to us with an ever-more-abundant flow of joy,
passion and love. We can let go of our old ideas of how it should look, and enjoy the ride... knowing that our good is with us each step of the way.
Finally, we must, if we are going to live a life of joy, passion and love, say "yes" to that which we love and enjoy, and which expresses our passion. Matt and Jason were faced with hundreds of small decisions in their journey to bring Project Everlasting to fruition. They had lots of small time rejections or apparent detours and yet still said "yes" over and over again to the Divine Idea. This made the project more of an adventure and less of a trek, and the result was that there were many synchronistic events that enriched their lives and inspired their creative juices.
If you want a richly rewarding life, then start by saying "yes" to Divine Ideas, and continue to say "yes" to Divine Ideas, and never stop saying "yes" to Divine Ideas because You are a Divine Idea perfectly expressing your love passion and joy.
March 2008 Prosperity Thoughts
Affirmation: I thrive in a multidimensional Universe because I apply Spiritual Law to transcend ordinary thinking and common results.
Today I am wondering about the idea that our future actions help create our present as it unfolds. As a mystic and a believer in metaphysics, I find this concept intriguing.
Here is how it might work: I set an intention to create something in my life and thus, in the present, make a choice to receive it when it arrives into my present awareness. Moreover, I also make a commitment, in the present, to foster its arrival each step along the way.
In doing this, I move my desire into the field of all possibilities and, at the same time, become open to these possibilities manifesting one day at a time in my current life. I am open to ideas and coaching that I would not be open to had I not set the intention.
Here is an example from my own journey:
Many years ago, I had an intention to lose weight in a healthy way. I had some judgments about "diets" and calorie-counting plans. I saw them as constrictive and prone to failure because of the scarcity paradigm they created, so I wanted to have the goal of weight loss without a diet-type program. I had no idea at the time how this goal would manifest for me. I had failed over and over to lose weight or maintain a healthy eating program. (At the time, I was a vegetarian and had been so for many years and was still over my ideal body weight.) I set the intention for a future eating, exercise and weight paradigm that would support my overall wellbeing.
A few weeks later a casual friend invited me to an $80.00 half-day seminar in San Francisco (which was about an hour-and-a-half drive each way). I would have had no interest in this seminar, except that, since its focus was on healthy lifestyles, it seemed vaguely related to the future goal I has set for myself. I committed to go, in spite of the cost and long drive. Thus, my then-current behavior was impacted by a future goal that I had already set. Can you see the power of this? If you can, then you can guarantee the success of all your coaches and manifest amazing good in your life by setting an intention to be the person you have always wanted to be and then saying “yes” each step along the way.
In this case, it turned out that, after I decided to attend the workshop, my friend had a free ticket. This is an example of our current Universe shifting in support of our letting our future being impact our current choices. , The upshot is that I attended a workshop that I had never heard about, and I think I never would have heard about, had I not set this intention. Moreover, I found, in that half-day seminar, a willingness to create a structure of knowing about whole new ways of looking at food, exercise, weight loss, and lifestyle choices. I discovered an active support system that helped me easily change many lifestyle decisions, and I effortlessly lost about 20 pounds.
Then, at the end of the year, I went to get my body fat measured, thinking that, since I had lost weight and exercised more diligently over the past year, my physical results would show up in a measurable way as a more lean body. Now, this was contrary to what the teacher at the Healthy Lifestyles seminar suggested, by the way. Instead, it was a residual belief from my old way of thinking and looking at things from “objective” reality, and of my preference for relying on metrics to measure my progress rather than relying on my own inner knowing. The body fat measurement at the end of the year did not match my expectations and I got terribly discouraged. I quit on myself, quit before my miracle manifested, because I reverted to my old way of thinking.
Looking back on it, I knew I was healthier; I knew I liked how I felt, looked, etc. and there was no need for me to go get my body fat measured. I discounted all I knew and had learned, and the result is that I have not been able to recapture the success I had at being the man I intend to be.
So, I am wanting to imagine that it is true that an aspect of my nonphysical self, (my Soul, or Higher Self, or my angels, or spirit guides, or whatever language you choose to express this idea), immediately goes to that place where I have firmly set my intention and becomes that future self. I have proven this over and over again in my life. And since this is so, then it follows without a doubt, that my job in my physical here-and-now life is simply to passionately hold the faith that my desire will manifest, and to say 'yes' when the steps along the way to my good manifest for me. Unfortunately for me, I clogged up my manifestation process around healthy lifestyle with doubt, fear, insecurity and mistrust of principle.
I know that: "According to your faith, be it done onto you," I think this might be what he means-- that our present life is impacted by our future actions to the extent we have faith.
We believe that this is a loving, generous Universe. We know that it is written that indeed, it is "the Father's good pleasure to give us the Kingdom." Thus, it all boils down to us trusting in our passionate desires, and day by day, thought by thought, inspiration by inspiration, we close the gap between our "here-and-now me" and the "future me".
This "future you", that is the intention you yourself establish for yourself, is presently encouraging the "current you" through love, joy, appreciation. This "you" of your heart’s desire is influencing your actions today with loving inspiration sent by your future choices, actions and intentions, to be the person you intend to be and manifest the good that is yours.
Wow, what a concept... what an exciting place to live--an unlimited multidimensional co-creative Universe!
John
PS Here is another example of the principle of a multidimensional co creative Universe in action: My future actions will be that in a few weeks I am attending a training in Berkeley, California for New Thought Ministers. My future actions of attending this workshop led me today to write this prosperity newsletter earlier in the month than I normally would, so it would go out and enrich you on time for March 2008.
May 2008 Prosperity
Affirmation: As a Truth seeker I constantly reexamine my core beliefs around my relationship with God.
It is, at some point along the way to spiritual maturity incumbent upon each of us to come to our own understanding about the nature of God. There are a few, I suppose, who are content to adopt the God of their parents without question. That has not, however, been my own experience. As I see it, humankind’s understanding and awareness of God has evolved over the generations. Thus, although God has not changed, our relationship with God and our consciousness about this relationship have changed. Therefore, I think it is vital for each of us to develop our own personal understanding of God and to continue to reexamine our core beliefs about the nature of God.
Likewise, I think it is worthwhile to examine the relationship at different times of the year because our direct experience of Nature often impacts our understanding of God. I have taught our Prosperity class in January, at the beginning of the New Year and in the fall around the time of the harvest. This next month, we will be facilitating the class in the abundant and flourishing springtime.
I have taught here at Unity the 5 GIFTS of Prosperity, Prosperity Guaranteed and Keys to the Kingdom. In each I incorporate things I have learned from some of the many other teachers in the field; Four “T”s, You and Money, Eric Butterworth, Catherine Ponder, as well as other lesser known programs, authors and teachers. This spring Debbie will be leading our prosperity exploration into the Nature of God. She will be using Edwene Gaines' book about the Four Laws of Prosperity. Edwene has been teaching prosperity principles across the globe for decades and she is a Truth teller and Truth seeker extraordinaire.
I think this is a perfect time to explore your relationship with the Divine. For some it may appear to be a revisit, trust me it will be time well spent. Debbie will be bringing her own flavor of insight, study and life lessons as well as her compassionate nature to the journey. Without intending to put too much pressure on her, I know it will be a profound and impactful class for each sincere student who joins us.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
April 2008 Prosperity Thoughts
Abundance is the experience that arises from the integration of two powerful structures of being. Currently, there are two best selling books that advocate using very different techniques to help us experience abundance. One is The Secret and the other is Loving What
Is.
One structure of being is proactive. In Taoist terms, it is Yang Energy. This proactive energy requires us to look at the world as feedback and analyze the results we have created. If we like our current results, then we continue doing as we have been doing. If we do not like the results we are generating, we can change our thinking and focus on what we do want/yearn for/desire, applying the Law of Attraction as explained superficially in the book The Secret.
The underlying concept is that if we are unhappy we need our outside world to change in order to increase our level of contentment. In order to be happier our proactive nature wants something different to occur and to accomplish this we need to manage our thinking. The idea
is that we are at cause and co-create our world.
The other structure of being in abundance is receptive. In Taoist terms it is Yin Energy. This receptive style also sees the world as feedback, but in a way that is very different from proactive energy. From the receptive viewpoint, when we are content it is because we
are in the flow of God s good, and we are open to allowing our good to express in our lives. When we are discontented it is because we need to change our thinking so that we can experience the gratitude that comes from being nurtured and cared for by a loving, all powerful Presence. The inquiry process in Loving What Is best describes the transition needed to be happy experiencing the world from the receptive approach.
This inquiry explained in Loving What Is confronts the initial discontent with the question Is this true? - and, of course, the initial reaction is Yes! So the inquiry process then asks again, Is
this really true? -- and our reply is inevitably an opening that infers that the perception of condition we are upset by is not actually true. Instead we notice our upset is simply caused by a
structure of knowing that is nothing more than an idea we hold on to about what ought to be true to make us happy. Then the inquiry process asks how we feel as we hold onto that thought. We always feel some set of bad feelings since we are inquiring about something that
we do not like. A more subtle inquiry would go even deeper into the yin energy and sort out precisely how it feels throughout our physical being, looking for the deep seated energy behind the mental discontent. Then we are asked to use our imagination to experience how it would feel if we were to let go of the initial upsetting thought- inevitably it feels better.
Then we are asked to turn the issue around. There are typically about three different turnarounds and we are asked to select the one that feels the most authentic and true for us.
I know this process may seem abstract without an actual example. The idea however is not to teach the Loving What Is spiritual practice; instead it is to give the reader a sense of the style of
transformation asked from our receptive structure of being. The shift asked from the receptive style of being is in our thinking, just as it is in the proactive style of being, but the change expected is in our being, rather than in the outer world. Can you see this distinction?
When we are not experiencing abundance in the world, it is important to notice which quality of our nature needs to be healed and integrated. So many teachers focus on being proactive or being accepting as the best answer. I want to urge you to consider that it is not one or the other that is need for healing;, instead, the abundance lies in the integration of the two. Sometimes we do need to take action and change our thinking with the idea that we will change our circumstances, and sometimes we need to change our thinking with the idea that our circumstances are right and perfect and all that needs adjustment is how we perceive our circumstances.
Bless You, John
Carrying the torch for the Dalai Lama and Tibet
I think this is a spiritual question, however most seem to see it as a political or diplomatic issue with possible economic and or military solutions. Currently there is a lot of pressure on the Chinese about the Olympics. Western leaders are being pressured into not attending the opening ceremonies- which would be a slap in the face against the Chinese. Also as the Olympic torch is being relayed around the world, the honorary torchbearers are being bushwhacked by political demonstrators to gain symbolic attention to the plight of the Tibetan people.
These issues seem to invite an inquiry as to what response is spiritually sound.
I have only a passing knowledge of Tibetan culture and history and only a superficial understanding of Tibetan Buddhist teachings, but even with this limited perspective I would suggest we look at the Tibetan question a little deeper before suggesting any overt actions or interventions.
Tibetan Buddhists believe in reincarnation (the same soul being born again and again into the world after its body dies). They also believe in karma (the current effects in this lifetime are often the result of actions in a past life). I think well meaning people ought to take these values into account, as well as a little history of Tibet, before determining right action.
For something like a dozen generations
During his rein as leader, for nearly 1000 years,
Consequently, Western ideals such as religious freedom or religious choice were not possible in
There was no democratic inclination whatsoever. For over one thousand years there was not even a whisper of some sort of popular right to vote or impact the governance of the country.
There was almost no private ownership of land available, most of the country was owned by monasteries and temples and ruled over by the monks who reported directly to the Dalai Lama. The common people were no better than surfs and more likely slaves. The level of oppression is hard to imagine today but it was near absolute a few dozen years ago when the current incarnation of the Dali Lama was born.
While the Dalai Lama ruled, there were zero paved roads in
Now, after 1000 years of relentless exclusion of Western Influence, the Dalai Lama seems to want the West to intervene on behalf of Tibet. After 1000 years of unmitigated oppression, the Dalai Lama wants freedom for Tibetans. After 1000 years of continual unchecked rule by one leader, the Dalai Lama seeks some sort of democratic rule for the Tibetan people. Now, after being invaded militarily by the Chinese-and after the standing Tibetan army was crushed and the Tibetan violent uprising and resistance crushed – then the Dalai Lama begins thinking about nonviolence and democracy and benevolence.
It seems to me that what is happening in
We know that grace is available to transmute karma and transform any difficult situation into a blessing. One essential ingredient is to see what we did to create the karma in the first place and make direct amends to those we have harmed by our actions.
While I do not pretend to know God’s will or God’s ways, it seems to me that if the Dalai Lama is repudiating the Tibetan Buddhism and the teachings he has used to organize his country for so long, that he should be very clear and open about it. If he has changed his opinion about self rule, about religious plurality and about nonviolence, then he should be explaining how his soul in this incarnation has been blessed by living in the West and his consciousness has been uplifted through the interaction with Western teachings.
Before intervening economically or diplomatically into some other countries karma, I hope we should consider a deeper understanding about what might be working out in the spiritual plane.