10-21-01 Putting the Past in the Past

[Guest guest]

Emerson Center for Spiritual

Awakening

Redwood City, CA

Dr. Susanne Freeborn

 

Putting the

Past in the Past

10-21-01

 

Join

me today in affirming:

" Blessed be this day and this place. " Kahlil Gibran

“God is peace. We enter this peace in such degree as

we withdraw from confusion.” Ernest

Holmes

UNITY

“The Axioms of

Reason declare that that Which is Infinite cannot be divided against Itself.

The Infinite is, therefore, Indivisible and consequently a Perfect Unit.

" Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is One Lord.” It is also, " That Whose Center is everywhere and Whose

Circumference is nowhere.” All of

It is present at any and every point within It. It is not approaching a point nor receding from it, but is

always at it. The Whole of God is

present at any and every point within God. It was to this Indwelling Spirit that Jesus prayed; for God

is within man as well as throughout all Creation. It is, " That thread of the All-Sustaining Beauty Which

runs through all and doth all unite.”

" His lines have gone out into all places.” " There is no place where God is

not.” This concept enabled Job to

say, " In my flesh shall I see God.”

All Life is bound together by One common law of Love, and Love is the

Self-Givingness of Spirit, manifested in and through all that is visible and

invisible. It was the realization

of this One Presence that illumined the saints and sages of the past. " I and the Father are One.” " The Father dwelleth in Me, He doeth

the works.” We must come to sense

this Marvelous Presence; for It is the secret of metaphysical work; God in all

and through all.”

Readings:

People still hold the view that what is handed down to us by

tradition is what in reality lies behind us - while in fact

it comes toward us because we are its captives and destined to it. The purely historical view of tradition

and the course of history is one of those vast self-deceptions in which we must

remain entangled as long as we are still not really thinking. That self-deception about history

prevents us from hearing the language of the thinkers. We do not hear it rightly, because we

take that language to be mere expression, setting forth philosophers'

view. But the thinkers' language

tells what is. To hear it is in no

case easy. Hearing it presupposes

that we meet a certain requirement, and we do so only on rare occasions. We must acknowledge and respect it. To acknowledge and respect consists in

letting every thinker's thought come to us as something in each case unique,

never to be repeated, inexhaustible - and being shaken to the depths by what is

unthought in his thought. What is

unthought in a thinker's thought is not a lack inherent in his thought. What is un-thought is there in each

case only as the un-thought. The

more original the thinking, the richer will be what is unthought in it. The unthought is the greatest gift that

thinking can bestow. But to the

commonplaces of sound common sense, what is unthought in any thinking always

remains merely the incomprehensible.

And to the common comprehension, the incomprehensible is never an

occasion to stop and look at its own powers of comprehension. " This silence is language; it may

speak more eloquently than any words...it is the primordial attunement of one

existence to another, out of which all language comes. It is only because man is capable of

such silence that he is capable of authentic speech. If he ceases to be rooted in that silence all his talk

becomes chatter. "

By Martin

Heidegger

Putting the Past in the Past

These two readings address putting the past

in the past simply by setting a context.

The One by Holmes clearly expressing that God is all that there is, that

all that we are exists within God.

The other by Martin Heidegger being apt because of the wisdom in it, and

the fact of his own narrow focus and complacency in the face of the rise of

fascism in Nazi German. Heidegger

was so focused on his work that he failed to bring the same examination to the

culture in which he lived that he brought to his philosophical writing. We can be just this shortsighted

ourselves. Nonetheless, what he

had to say about what is left for us to discover in the unsaid, the unthought,

this is deep wisdom, great medicine for our time, and the personal mistakes of Heidegger’s

life only point out exactly how awake we need to be in our real lives.

Consciousness is everything. We

don’t live solely in our intellectual reality, our intellect serves to frame

our experience of reality, and consciousness determines the outcome.

This week I received a mailing from the

Affiliated New Thought Network entitled “POWERFUL THINGS THAT YOU CAN DO DURING

THE CURRENT CRISIS.” The

suggestions in this writing don't tell you what to conclude, but I want to

point out that they use the same principles we discuss here week after week,

and these principles are focused on the creation of peace. No matter what you think we ought to do

right now, if you focus your thinking on retribution and retaliation, you will

draw that which you have allowed to dominate your thinking to yourself, and to

those you love, through the Law of Attraction. I ask you to pray with me for the highest good for everyone,

and to do so on a regular basis. Sometimes when I pray I ask for " this or

whatever is better " because I know that somewhere in the mind of God is

the highest best idea, and while I may not be thinking that right now, I know

that my thinking is always headed in that specific direction, that God hears me

and knows that the highest and best out come is what I wish to see manifested.

This week I have seen a good bit of arguing

about what is being called “The War Against Terrorism.” When I see polarized positions taken I

don't believe that I am in the presence of authentic self-expression. There are infinite possibilities

available for expression, there cannot be just two. I know that people can and do express ideas that are

authentically the highest best thoughts that they can contain and express at

this moment in time, just as I do.

Nothing that anyone can say right now is the

" final answer " and if you think it is, ask yourself if God would

agree with you. If God were acting

unilaterally, with one voice for all of life, would God say what you are

saying? Would God act as you are

saying our government ought to act?

Perhaps, but it is good to ask because, as the Heidegger quotation I

read states so clearly, what lies in the unthought and the unsaid can be so

very powerful. It is the room left

for us in which to do our own authentic inquiry. Leadership can in some ways define the issues, but we have

our own real thinking, speaking, and actions to be responsible for at this

time.

Whatever we experience in life, all actions

are a result of what we do with the divine stuff of life that we have the

privilege of manipulating. It is

with our hands, our minds, and our words that we demonstrate our most deeply

held values. Perhaps some of these things have not been expressed because for

so long they went without challenge.

It is a most important time to ask ourselves the question “What are your

most deeply held values?” Focus

upon them now. We need the

expression of these values now.

What we focus upon most is what we experience through the outpicturing

that the Law of Mind provides for us.

It is our word that sets this Law into motion. We must consciously focus our word upon what we want most

fervently now.

The media will, historically, focus on the

two most common positions about any particular issue. This method will not bring about peace. It is not its purpose. The purpose of journalism to help us

sort out the Truth. But there is

Truth contained in what they tell us.

We just have to train ourselves to find it, to listen with a discerning

ear, as suggested in the handout I gave you written by Corinne McLaughlin and

Gordon Davidson. If we do not

learn from what we have done, seeking only retribution without taking

responsibility for how we got to the moment in time, then we truly are behaving

as irresponsible idiots. We cannot

wait this out as if it will be managed by political leadership and soldiers

over there somewhere. I believe we

have to ask ourselves some tough questions about the mental equivalent states

that have led us here, " Where have we murdered life itself? " " Where have we contributed to the

suffering of another? " We

have to look for all that we may have contributed to these events.

How can we ever believe that by failing to

pay attention to what has been going on in the world, that by this

demonstration of ignorance, and in the absence of our own failure to intercede

on the behalf of others who suffer, we are now somehow entitled to get on a

high horse and demand that the world cooperate with us? We must change, and it is up to us to

change consciously in a way that contributes to all that life is, and not just

our petty individual and national interests. All of the founders of New Thought, Emma Curtis Hopkins,

Thomas Troward, the Fillmores, Christian Larson, Ernest Holmes, and those who

now follow them now in time, ALL believed in the Unity of all life, which means

that each act, each thought, by each and every one of us is connected to the

whole of life.

When I hear folks saying " They can go

back to selling camels " and similar and more colorful but limited insults,

I wonder, “Can't we have a higher vision than that for other human beings, they

are connected to us in the unity that God is, how can we wish them ill?”

We must not forget to affirm that God is all

that there is.

The kind of polarization of political opinion

that arises reminds me of the same play as conducted by bullies in schoolyards

the world over. Just give the

biggest, meanest ones all nations full of sheeplike human beings who fail to

think about the ramifications of their choices. How is this more mature? It is just more dangerous.

Let us remember that anger is an emotion that

signals the suppression of a deeply held value. If we express only the anger we fail to cherish and express

the precious underlying virtue that we feel has been offended. I challenge you to excavate that value

and magnify it.

Think about how you can distinguish yourself

from those who hurt others and if your choices do hurt others, don't lie about

it. Tell the truth and do your

best to make it right again, for yourself and for those you chose to

injure. Forgive them, forgive

yourself. The innocent people who

are now being frightened, injured and killed in Afghanistan and those countries

surrounding it deserve it no more than those at the World Trade Center, the

Pentagon or on the planes that were efficiently and sadly used as bombs. Include them all in your prayers,

please.

Think about what has not been thought

before. Be willing for your

inquiries and peaceful contemplations to go where human thought has not yet

penetrated, into the heart of that which can finally resolve conflict without

violence. There has been much

written and much said about the waging of war and the creation of peace. It is not all complete in objective

reality, but we know that the perfect solution lies within the mind of

God. Let us be so conscious in our

thought, words, and actions that the value of Peace becomes so clearly the

higher value that to choose otherwise becomes impossible. As we affirmed at the

beginning of this talk: “God is peace.

We enter this peace in such degree as we withdraw from confusion.” Life is something that is

eternally made new. “Every time we think, something new is being done. God is not a static God and there is no

time when creation begins; in the eternal now Spirit moves upon the face of the

waters. In the eternal now,

by thought, Spirit moves as the Law of the Universe and out of it arises a new

creation.”

Prayer for World Peace

by Dr. Ernest Holmes

" The earth is the Lord's and the

fullness thereof... "

I know there is but One Mind, which is

the Mind of God, in which all people live and move and have their being.

I know there is a Divine Pattern for humanity

and within this pattern there is Infinite harmony and peace, cooperation, unity

and mutual helpfulness.

I know that the mind of man, being one

with the Mind of God, shall discover the method, the way and the means best

fitted to permit the flow of Divine Love between individuals and nations.

Thus harmony, peace, cooperation,

unity and mutual helpfulness will be experienced by all.

I know there shall be a free

interchange of ideas, of cultures, of spiritual concepts, of ethics, of

educational systems and scientific discoveries- for all good belongs to all

alike.

I know that, because the Divine Mind

has created us all, we are bound together in one Infinite and perfect unity.

In bringing about World Peace, I know

that all people and all nations will remain individual, but unified for the

common purpose of promoting peace, happiness, harmony and prosperity.

I know that deep within every person

the Divine Pattern of perfect peace is already implanted.

I now declare that in each man and in

leaders of thought everywhere this Divine Pattern moves into

action and form, to the end that all

nations and all people shall live together in peace, harmony, and prosperity

forever.

So it is now.

Let God enter your heart and know that

in so doing you are embracing the hearts and souls of everyone touched by this

human tragedy today.

And So It Is!

Send Thy Peace

Pir O Murshid Hazrat

Inayat Khan, 1st Spiritual Leader of the Sufi Order of the West and

Creator of Universal Dances for Peace

Send Thy peace, O Lord, which is perfect and everlasting that

our souls, may radiate peace.

Send Thy Peace, O Lord, that we may think, act, and speak

harmoniously.

Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may be contented and thankful

for Thy bountiful gifts.

Sent Thy peace, O Lord, that amidst our worldly strife we may

enjoy Thy bliss.

Send Thy peace, O Lord, that we may endure all, tolerate all in

the thought of Thy grace and mercy.

Send Thy peace, O Lord, that our lives may become a divine

vision, and in Thy light all darkness may vanish.

Send Thy peace, O Lord, our Father and Mother, That we Thy

children on earth may all unite in one family.

Thank you for being here

today.

Ernest Holmes,

The Science of Mind, (1926 Ed.)

10-21-01

Putting the Past in the Past,  ©

Dr. Susanne Freeborn                                                                                

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