October 8, 2006

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Meditation

Reading

Message

Martin Luther King, Jr., in being asked to publish some of his sermons, wrote in the preface to his book, ““. . . a sermon is directed toward the listening ear rather than the reading eye. . . I offer these discourses in the hope that a message may come to life for readers of the printed words.”” This is my hope for you, dear reader.
——Rev. Linda

October 8, 2006

CORE CONCEPT ONE:
THE FIRST COMMANDMENT

Anyone noticing any changes going on? In your life? In the world? In our Center here at The Maine Beacon? Lots of changes.

This week I was talking with a practitioner at Mile Hi in Denver, and she was telling me how she was admiring the magnificent aspens turning to such brilliant golds, and marveling at how nature so gracefully and beautifully evolves and accepts change. It doesn’t resist it. Here in Maine, yesterday Bill and I were out leaf peeping and observing the same thing with all the bright oranges and yellows and reds of the leaves as they give in to life, gracefully evolving as it goes through its cycles.

And I had to ask myself, do I change as gracefully and beautifully as they? Did I celebrate my first gray hair?! Is that why leaf-peeping is so popular here? Because there’s something in us that recognizes at some very deep level that we’re like the leaves and long to express that beauty and grace in our lives as we give in to life, evolve with it and not resist it.

Well, for sure the known can feel more safe to us than the unknown. And our first reaction to change is usually to try to hold on to the way things always were, even though they weren’t working very well. But at least we know what we’re dealing with, right? The status quo may not be very satisfying, but it is familiar. And familiar does have a certain sense of security in it. But I can’t help but think with Robert Browning, “the best is yet to be.” So how can we gracefully go with the flow?

We make the change in the only place we can, the only place of power for us—in our minds. The only way we can consciously change our lives is to change our thinking. As we all said together earlier. . . It’s only a belief and I can change it. Thoughts have power. Thoughts are things.

This week in continuing to focus on our first Core Concept, which you have a copy of there, I’ve been reading a fascinating book by Ervin Seale, Ten Words that Will Change Your Life, all about the Ten Commandments, which the ancients referred to as the Ten Words.

It reminded me of the Cowboy's Ten Commandments:
(1) Just one God.
(2) Honor yer Ma and Pa.
(3) No telling tales or gossipin'.
(4) Git yourself to Sunday meeting.
(5) Put nothin' before God.
(6) No foolin' around with another fellow's gal.
(7) No killin'.
(8) Watch yer mouth.
(9) Don't take what ain't yers.
(10) Don't be a hankerin' for yer buddy's stuff.

I reckon cowboys just kinda tell it like it is!

Well, I always was a cowgirl at heart. But seriously, the Ten Commandments or the Ten Words are more than just some rules that somebody said we “should” follow. I’m sure you all know that there were two tablets Moses brought down from the mountain: 5 commandments on one, and 5 on the other. But did you know that the two tablets are symbolic of that natural pattern in nature of the division of all things: the spiritual and the material, the inside and outside, implicitly recognizing the dual nature of humanity.

The first five commandments all refer to the spiritual world, the world of thoughts and consciousness. The last five deal with our actions in the outer world. This is significant because, you see, if we get the first five, then we’ll automatically be okay with the rest. If our thinking is right, then our actions will be in alignment with our thinking.
So then, as Dr. Seale says, the Ten Commandments are not so much rules for conduct as they are prescriptions for thinking. They’re really “the first step toward a life of self-government.” So the first 5 commandments are about keeping our inside nature in order. Because “if [we] want to change any condition [that which is outside], [we] must first recast [our] own thoughts about it.”

So we might ask, then why do we even need the other 5? We need them because “The civil law is absolutely necessary and right for a society which is in ignorance of the spiritual law. [People] tend to believe that the laws of their lives come from without and not from within.”

And the really interesting thing about this is that “outside regulations for the conduct of [humanity] have never really improved that conduct.” In fact, I dare say that everyone in this room, at one time or another, has broken every one of the Ten Commandments.

Now for our purposes here today, we’re most interested in the first of the Ten Commandments, or Ten Words, because this is exactly what our Core Concept One is all about. The first Word is “I am the Lord thy God.” And this is really the whole Ten Commandments in a nutshell. “The others are elaborations and explanations.” And that’s true of our Core Concepts, as well. If we really get the first one, we’ll already have the rest.

So let’s look at Core Concept One on the yellow sheet you have, and let’s read it together. (Read from paper)
“I am the Lord thy God.” This commandment is “designed to focus the attention on the mind at the point of concentration where power and right action begin.”

The whole verse reads “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” “It is [really] a call to that mind which is wandering in the wilderness of matter and haunted by the terrors of this world, to come home, to return to center, to behold the truth, to see the power [within us].”

What it’s really saying is that we are “born into this life . . . equipped with a spiritual power adequate to [our] needs and purposes, no matter how formidable the difficulties of [our] position. There is a way out of every trouble. There is a way into every good.” There is a way out of Egypt.

“Egypt is a state of mind or consciousness.” It’s a place of slavery, a land of many gods, gods of worry and anxiety, where there is no peace or stability, where we’re victims of circumstances and our environment rules us. To escape from Egypt, is like in baseball. . . “it is extremely important to return to home base at frequent intervals. Otherwise there is no score, nor is there any fun. When the outside world dictates too much what [we] shall think about, [we] are at the mercy of events.”

Dr. Seale says, “There is no peace in Egypt, nor is there any freedom.” And I love the metaphor he uses to explain what it’s like. He says, “You are being rolled around by events and conditions, like a piece of mud on the rim of a fast-moving wheel. You are not in control of your situation. Your motion is not your own. . . When you move to the center of your wheel or the wheel of your life, you will not only find stillness and peace, but you will find power and capacity and the means to initiating movement itself. . . Cling to the center, is the meaning of the First Commandment. [We] will [not] find peace until [we] discover the power of [our] own mind to act upon conditions rather than allowing the conditions to act upon [us].”

There is only One Power. It is Mind. God is Consciousness. Things and conditions have no power in and of themselves to initiate movement in any of us. It is only our attention to them that has power. Only consciousness can bring us out of Egypt. “There can be no experience without mind, and when mind changes, experience changes. The road out of difficulty is through a change of mind. The expression I am is a name for inner consciousness or awareness. . . [and is] the basic nature of [humanity].” And this I am-ness, consciousness, precedes all manifestation.

Now really the only way we can know of the Great I AM, of the One Cosmic Reality Principle and Presence in the Universe, is at the point of where It has become us. In us, we can know It. The secrets of creation are within us. And if we take the time to examine ourselves, really get to know who we are, we’ll find that we are divine beings, that there is the I am within us. We’ll also find that we create and can and do control our lives with our thoughts.
Get this: “When the mind walks away from any problem, that problem will die and cease to exist for that mind. And when a mind approaches any good desire in confidence, it gives life to that desire.” The First Commandment and Core Concept One are a “trumpet calling to [us] to bring back [our] wandering attention from the phenomena around [us] and to think upon the central truth of [our] being.”

So what’s going on right now in your life that is particularly vexing for you? You already know there’s no point in going around and around feverishly with the problem, like that little ball of mud in the wheel. “You have to have something bigger than you and your problem to focus your attention on. Focus on the I am. It’s bigger than the condition, because It’s what makes and unmakes conditions.” It’s the Law and It’s the Presence.

The First Commandment, so beautifully stated in Core Concept One, “is an instruction to remember, to recollect, to get in touch with the source and cause of things. The average person in trouble is too much like a baseball player who gets caught between the bases. When the opponent gets too close, the thing to do is to seek the base. The base is the I Am, the Lord.”

The Lord is the Law, our good and faithful servant. And the Law is consciousness. So “to get on base is to recall the spiritual cause of all action and experience. The spiritual cause is thinking and feeling.” Always remember this: “thinking is cause, the condition is not cause.” So don’t fear conditions. Think. . . of new and better conditions. Our founder Dr. Ernest Holmes always loved to say, “If you want a new thing, get a new thought.” And then watch it manifest in your life.

We are powerful, creative, divine beings. The Pharaoh’s in our lives have no power over us when we declare that they do not, when we hear the voice of God within us as it was to Moses saying, “Behold I have made thee god to Pharaoh.” (Exodus 7:1) Let’s use the power of our consciousness to lift us up out of Egypt and into lives of joy, prosperity, health and peace.