Back To The Garden

For several years, I had been interested in doing a lesson on The Wizard of Oz. One day, while watching the movie for the umpteenth time, a thought crossed my mind: “Who wrote this and what were they thinking?” The reason for my curiosity came from the realization that the story is very similar, metaphorically, to the parable of the prodigal son. In fact, for Unity, this similarity can be extended even further to the overall concept of the Bible being representative of our spiritual journey. These ancient stories involve the classic telling of a hero's journey which begins "at home", in a place of comfort, then ventures out into an unknown land. That unknown land is always filled with many adventures for the hero: some happy, some not so happy. The protagonist nevertheless presses on and eventually he or she ultimately returns home. In the case of the Bible, that home is heaven. In the Wizard of Oz, that home is Kansas. So, who wrote this story? It was L. Frank Baum, and in my search, I learned he w

Introducción al sendero espiritual Unity

The biblical story of Easter is rich with symbolic meaning about the unfolding of the human soul. Philosophically the question is: are we fundamentally matter, or are we fundamentally spirit (energy)? The vast majority of people on this planet see themselves as fundamentally matter and thus, separate from God. Transformation in our consciousness will rectify this error perception. Jesus, our way shower, made this clear when he heeded us to "repent". The word repent means to change direction, to change our way of seeing ourselves. The Truth is that we are all expressions of God and, as such, cannot be separated from God in reality. In consciousness, however, we can be separated from God because of free will. A crucifixion of our old consciousness is required in order to allow for the resurrection of a new consciousness.

What is the most basic idea there is concerning the topic of spirituality? Jesus was asked a similar question when the Pharisees challenged him to narrow down the importance of the 620 plus Jewish laws. His response was, “Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.” Two commandments; one message: Love. These were not the words of Jesus, though; he was quoting Torah. The New Thought Movement, of which Unity is a part, in some sense has a similar idea for simplifying the spiritual message. For us it is all about Oneness. It is also about returning to the simplicity of the message of Jesus: love and forgiveness. Many who come into the Unity Movement do so because they have always had the feeling that all religions and all paths ultimately lead to the one source. In Unity we honor and draw from all paths to Spirit.

The 12 Powers

Peace

Prayer-Connecting with Source

Our Thoughts Create Our Experiences

The Divine Spark Within

God is Good and Everywhere Present

The episode is based on an audio CD by Dr. Bruce Lipton called “The Wisdom of your Cells”. The central question this book raises is this : what is the relationship of our beliefs and our biology? The short answer is “everything”. Our beliefs have everything to do with our biology! The fact is our beliefs influence, affect, and even change our biology. In other words, our body responds to what we believe. Our thoughts and our beliefs create our world, our reality.

The Science of Natural Healing

As human beings we are highly influenced, and even deceived, by the world around us. In our effort to understand our place in the universe, the general approach has hitherto been that we are observers of an objective universe. A universe that exists independently of us. In short, that life is happening “to us”. In the 1700s German Philosopher Immanuel Kant proposed a distinction between what he called the noumenon (the thing itself) and the phenomenon (our perception of the thing). According to Kantian philosophy, the only reality we can know is that which we create in our minds through our perception (the phenomenon). Revelations in science and phenomenology have led us to change the view of an objective universe to a totally subjective one. One in which we are participates in the process of creation of our lives. Evidently, this has long been known because even the Christian Bible tells us not to be taken in by appearances. “Judge not by appearance, but by righteous judgement,” and “So that things which are

In the first episode, I talked about the allegory of The Garden of Eden. I included some references to the creation story. As a reminder, these stories are found in Genesis One and they represent the author’s attempt to address the classic philosophical questions: who are we, and where did we come from? As I was considering several topics for this week’s lesson, I came across a talk I had done some time back on the story of Cain and Abel. It occurred to me that this would be a natural continuation of the previous lesson, as well as an interesting view from the perspective of metaphysical interpretation. The story of Cain and Abel is found in Genesis 4. The passage tells of Adam and Eve’s offspring: Cain, the older brother, and Abel, the younger brother. Cain, we are told, was a tiller of the earth. Abel, a keeper of sheep. According to the story, the time came (the ancient practice began, we could say) of giving offerings to the Lord. Cain made an offering from his work as a tiller of the earth, and Abel m

New Thought-The Greatest Story Never Told

Unity and Me (Part 2)

Unity and Me (Part 1)

Unity sees Jesus as the Master Teacher and Way-Shower. Christian Scripture points out that many of the teachings left by Jesus are in the form of a parable. A parable is defined as a story with a moral or spiritual meaning.  In all there are some 46 parables recorded in the New Testament, but perhaps the most notable is one called The Parable of the Lost Son, or Prodigal Son. Many of the parables have more than one lesson within their content. Certainly this parable is one such example. In this story the three main characters are: the father, the one prodigal son, and the one obedient, yet ultimately resentful son.  Several keys points are made by the story. One is our free will to explore new possibilities in the form of changing our present setting. This is referred to as a journey to a far country. Another is the feeling of guilt when we fail in a new endeavor. A deeper point is the reminder that we intuitively know that at any time we can return to our true state of being. This is represented in

Science and Religion

Shift Happens