The Inner Calling

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“Sometime, somewhere, every human being must come to himself. Having tired of eating husks, he will ‘arise and go to my Father.’”

Emilie Cady, quoting from the parable of the prodigal son given by Jesus, is stating an encouraging truth. The life many of us are living is likely but a representational fraction of the life that is trying to express itself through us. We sense the call to arise, to come up higher, and we translate this call into a vision of better, more freeing external conditions. The conditions we envision, however, may not be the true reflections of what God has in store for us. We are responding to the inner calling but we may not be fully surrendering to it.

Acknowledging that you are being called by God is the first and most important step toward the life you seek. Many do not realize that their desire for a freer life is really the expansive nature of God seeking to out-picture through them. By holding the thought that our desire for freedom is a product of personal ambition rather than a divine movement, we restrict the universal flow of greater good to a personal vision that will not exceed our senses-based understanding.

It is important to spend quality time laying aside all personal imagery of what we think our life can or should become and meditate on the inner call to arise. Jesus reminded us that it is the Father’s good pleasure to give us the kingdom. The giving of this kingdom is not an act that will begin once we prove to God we are worthy of receiving. It has already begun. Our job is to learn how to receive it in its unconditional, unrestricted form.

In your quiet time, focus on your inner urge for a better life knowing this urge is the voice of God drawing you up to a free and satisfying experience. The attitude of surrender will free you from the tendency to tell God what you need or want and will align your thoughts with the higher purpose. As you go about your day, affirm something like, “Thy will is now being done,” and know that everyone and everything is coming into alignment with this inner calling.

The Quest for Freedom

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“Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself …”

                                                           Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King championed the cause of freedom from racial prejudice and a level of social inequality that today we find difficult to comprehend.

Freedom is a state of being, universally desired by all living things. The desire for freedom includes but goes down beneath the need to be free of oppressive social conditions. We desire freedom because, at the deepest level of our being, we are free.

It is this level of freedom Jesus referred to when he said to his fellow Jews, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:32). His audience did not grasp his meaning, for they said, “We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will be made free’?”

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” The “sin” that most of us commit is that of knowing the truth, of being consciously out of touch with our spiritual essence. We may, like his listeners, be relatively free of imposed restrictions. If we are prone to worry and fear, on the other hand, we are imprisoned by these mental and emotional restrictions. We can achieve freedom from oppressive conditions while remaining in bondage to internal conflict.

To know the truth that sets us free is to touch that inner flow of unrestricted life that is our very essence. This inner freedom can be experienced regardless of external conditions. Yes, we want freedom in external conditions but without the inner connection the outer, however wonderful, will not satisfy.

Your quest for freedom is a response to a deep level of yourself that is already free. Meditate on this and invite this free Self to step forward.

The Heart of the Matter

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 12

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A genuine experience of the spiritual dimension is a subjective event that takes us into an understanding beyond that of God merely as a partner or as the supplier of material goods. The activity of God, we gradually begin to see, is the very fountainhead of our being. The actual experience of God makes us less inclined to inform God of our needs. We become more interested in exploring the deeper levels of Being that are available to us. The experience of the soul’s oneness with its Source is the one thing that fills the yearning for home that we feel at our center. The moment we have even an inkling of spiritual realization, we know we have touched something real and important and our interest shifts accordingly.

We are spiritual beings expressing through a physical experience. As such, we have material needs. There is no material acquisition we can make, however, that successfully addresses our yearning for freedom. We labor under the thought that solving our material issues will give us this freedom. Observe yourself. You are probably better off materially than you were at some earlier time. Are you also freer? Are you closer to the type of self-realization that generates inner peace and poise?

The idea of seeking first the “kingdom of God” is of great practical value. When you seek God, you find yourself. When you find yourself you understand that God, your living source, is the true fulfillment of all you need. Consciously connected with God, your material life reflects the freedom and abundance of your eternal Wellspring. “The Father knows you have need of these things,” Jesus pointed out, referring to what we shall eat, what we shall wear, and what is needed to shelter the body.

The paradigm of oneness is the formula for the kind of freedom we seek. God is our source, we are living expressions of God, and there is no possibility of separating ourselves from God. When this realization drops from our head to our heart, we shall have found the truth that sets us free.

The Soul’s Journey

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 11

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The paradigm of separation sees the soul on a journey from birth to death, culminating in an afterlife either in Heaven or Hell.

 The paradigm of oneness allows for the soul to experience multiple incarnations for any and all purposes the individual sees fit. The universal goal of each person is the experience of absolute freedom. Our intense desire for this state of being is a response to the fact that, at the deepest level of our being, our native soul is already free.

The common belief that we choose various incarnations so we may learn and grow comes into question when we see that a material environment is not required to awaken to the deeper levels of our being. To the contrary, we achieve spiritual understanding by periods of closing the senses to the material realm and opening the mind to our spiritual center.

The controls of the incarnation process are at the disposal of each individual. Why we choose to incarnate is a question only we can answer.

The idea that you and I are here by choice presents us with a puzzle and an opportunity to rethink our life’s purpose and our reason for being here. The puzzling part is that we may not have a clear memory of why we decided to enter the three-dimensional plane. The practice of meditation can reconnect us with the native soul and a recollection of this vital choice. The opportunity lies in the fact that we can no longer think of our human experience as a quirk or the effect of actions outside our control. It is empowering to accept that we are here by choice.

The paradigm of oneness starts with the understanding that we are already connected with God, our limitless Source of life and intelligence. The answers we seek are within our reach. You and I stand in our current position in life by choice (free will), and choice will continue to take us where we need and want to go.

Meditation

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Emilie Cady

[From Lessons In Truth: Bondage or Liberty, Which?]

Every man must take time daily for quiet and meditation. In daily meditation lies the secret of power. No one can grow in either spiritual knowledge or power without it. Practice the presence of God just as you would practice music. No one would ever dream of becoming a master in music except by spending some time daily alone with music. Daily meditation alone with God focuses the divine presence within us and brings it to our consciousness.

You may be so busy with the doing, the outgoing of love to help others (which is unselfish and Godlike as far as it goes), that you find no time to go apart. But the command, or rather the invitation, is “Come ye yourselves apart . . . and rest a while.” And it is the only way in which you will ever gain definite knowledge, true wisdom, newness of experience, steadiness of purpose, or power to meet the unknown, which must come in all daily life. Doing is secondary to being. When we are consciously the Truth, it will radiate from us and accomplish the works without our ever running to and fro. If you have no time for this quiet meditation, make time, take time. Watch carefully, and you will find that there are some things, even in the active unselfish doing, which would better be left undone than that you should neglect regular meditation.

When you withdraw from the world for meditation, let it not be to think of yourself or your failures, but invariably to get all your thoughts centered on God and on your relation to the Creator and Upholder of the universe. Let all the little annoying cares and anxieties go for a while, and by effort, if need be, turn your thoughts away from them to some of the simple words of the Nazarene, or of the Psalmist. Think of some Truth statement, be it ever so simple.

No person, unless he has practiced it, can know how it quiets all physical nervousness, all fear, all over sensitiveness, all the little raspings of everyday life—just this hour of calm, quiet waiting alone with God. Never let it be an hour of bondage, but always one of restfulness.

Religion

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 10

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Broadly speaking, traditional Christian sects hold at their core the paradigm of separation. Christian-based New Thought religions hold at their core the paradigm of oneness. While there are many points at which these two distinct streams of thought may touch, perhaps even agree, their starting point, their trinity of core values is in complete opposition, a fact that, when understood, makes it easier to agree to disagree.

The parable of the prodigal son provides an excellent model for religious thinking. The young son represents the wayward sinner. The elder son represents the mindset that seeks strict compliance with religious rules. The father extends his love and compassion to both. He goes out to greet his wayward son and he goes out to console the elder son who refuses to join the celebration of his brother’s homecoming. God as love transcends our mistakes and our attempts at winning God’s favor by doing good.

Each person must establish or clarify their own personal religion beginning with a clear statement of their understanding of the nature of God, themselves, and their relationship to God. Each needs to consider how this trinity of core values works in their understanding of prayer, of prosperity and healing, and of all the important aspects of their lives.

When the rich young man came to Jesus asking what he must do to attain eternal life, Jesus said he must sell all he owned, give to the poor, and follow him. He was basically advising the young man to reduce his identity to ground zero, to stop defining himself according to what he had but according to what he was in Truth. This was a paradigm shift the young man was not willing to make. The paradigm by which we operate is our religion and it is up to each of us to determine if it is a productive, spiritually enhancing framework of ideas or one that leaves us wanting and dissatisfied.

Unity and the Bible

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 9

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From the paradigm of separation the Bible is seen as the word of God, that is, God’s means of communicating with people literally. Shifting to the paradigm of oneness, this view quickly changes. The Bible is not to be thought of as God’s communication to humanity but as an expression of each writer’s understanding of God, the world, and their place in it.

Whatever our preferred paradigm, the scriptures that mean most to us are those that support our trinity of core values. Those who embrace the Bible as the literal word of God make the assumption that these scriptures put forth a uniform view of God, the individual, and the individual’s relationship to God. One can quickly see, however, that the paradigm of separation and the paradigm of oneness are both clearly represented, an indication that individual contributors did not share a uniform understanding in these areas.

Conversely, those who believe that the Bible is a kind of metaphysical treatise, a written record of the soul’s evolution, are reading into this body of work a perspective that is not supported by Biblical scholarship and would not likely have been embraced by any of the original authors who had no idea their works would wind up in such a collection.

The determining factor for what we draw from the Bible is that which supports our own set of core values. A particular scripture stands out because it reflects and supports our understanding of God, ourselves and our relationship to God. A reader who is in the habit of highlighting meaningful scriptural passages will discover, in reviewing their highlights, that these passages are meaningful because they resonate with their trinity of core values.

All of this points to the need to believe in yourself. No written authority has more of an impact on your life than your own beliefs. Become aware of the paradigm you embrace.

Who is Jesus?

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 8

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The paradigm of separation sees the person of Jesus as the exclusive means by which the believer is united with God. There can be no doubt that many of the New Testament writers presented Jesus in this light. The question of whether or not Jesus thought of himself in this way is another issue entirely. The paradigm we hold, whether it is one of separation or oneness, determines how we view the role and the teachings of Jesus. There are a sufficient number of scriptural passages to support either approach. The reason for this mixed message is simple: we do not have a gospel according to Jesus. We, therefore, do not know who Jesus was and we do not actually know what he accomplished. We know only how the Gospel writers and people like Paul wanted their readership to think of him.

However, the meaning of Jesus is not to be surmised from the scriptural accounts but from our trinity of core values, the paradigm of oneness. The deeper we delve into our own spirituality, the more we recognize which of those sayings attributed to Jesus are reflections of his own spiritual awakening. Viewing Jesus from the paradigm of oneness we can see him as one who lived with a perpetual awareness of his own divinity and encouraged others to awaken to theirs as well. His message of new wineskins for the new wine was an admonition to shift from an outer to inner orientation, from practicing the letter of the law to an experience of the spirit of the law.

From the paradigm of separation, we view Jesus as the theology of separation dictates. From the paradigm of oneness we view Jesus from the core value of unity with God. From this point of view we see him as a Wayshower, as one who understood and demonstrated the ultimate awareness we seek in our own experience.

For Jesus to have relevance to our spiritual journey, we must take him at his word: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (John 14:12).

Consciousness

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 7

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The paradigm of separation causes one to place a great deal of emphasis on morality and sin. Moral thoughts and actions are pleasing to God, immoral thoughts and actions are not, with the discerning factor of what is moral and immoral being derived from select scriptures. The emphasis is placed on conscience rather than consciousness.

 The paradigm of oneness understands consciousness as the sum of our beliefs. The character of our beliefs affects the way the Creative Life Force expresses through us.

In metaphysical literature the soul is often depicted as evolving. It is not the soul but the consciousness, whose nucleus is the trinity of core values, that is evolving. The paradigm of oneness sees the soul as complete. The experience of God as an all-encompassing, all-sustaining presence, the acceptance of the truth of our wholeness, and the acceptance of our unity with God stimulates a basis of understanding that builds a system of consciousness that is in harmony with Truth. The inner awakening prompts a natural morality in thought and behavior. These moral standards are governed by the individual’s awareness of what is and what is not in alignment with the truth of Being.

Because consciousness provides the foundation for our external conditions, we see in this evolution of understanding a natural improvement in all that concerns us. Added to the principle that consciousness precedes demonstration is the understanding that the trinity of core values precedes the consciousness from which we live our life.

Speaking with realization the following three affirmations will help build a oneness based consciousness: God is my ever-present Source of all good. I am whole and free right now. Nothing can separate me from the life, love, power, and intelligence of God.

Thanksgiving

A Paradigm of Oneness: Part 6

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From the point of view of the paradigm of separation, giving thanks is something we would do after having received some desired good. We normally think of thanksgiving as an effect. From the standpoint of the paradigm of oneness, the act of thanksgiving is understood more as a cause, an activity we engage in before there is visible evidence that our desired good has manifested.

You recall that Jesus gave thanks before he had the disciples begin passing out the meager supply of loaves and fishes. His attention was not on the apparent limited quantity of food available but on God as his ever-present Source. He blessed the food, which means he was seeing it from a consciousness of wholeness. The action of having the disciples begin passing out the bread and fish was based on his consciousness of unity with God as his unfailing supply.

The focus we place on this story as a miraculous act performed by a supernatural being causes us to miss the lesson we can draw from it. We are often faced with circumstances that proclaim, “There is not enough to go around.” Perhaps you are in such a situation now, where it seems your resources are inadequate. You may find yourself reverting to the paradigm of separation and turning to God asking for help. From the paradigm of oneness, you first lift your attention above the appearance and acknowledge that God is your unfailing supply. You then give thanks for the solution that is now forthcoming.

The paradigm of oneness is a state of openness to the truth that our answers are present even before we perceive a problem. Our previous appearance-based training has us reacting to the problem in a way that degrades the quality of our inner life. Fear and a sense of helplessness often set in and we resort to pleading for help. From the paradigm of oneness we pause to let go of the negative energy we have placed in the appearance and we begin giving thanks that the proper solution is now forthcoming. Thanksgiving becomes an action rather than a reaction.