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Perhaps even you and I
sometimes feel close to despair
when it seems our idealism and
religion have not produced better
results for humanity. But it may
be that we are much closer to the
beginning of this activity than
the time of harvest!
Recently I have been thinking
of humanity as at the dawning of
God consciousness. We have hoped
for spectacular results, but
maybe we really are just beyond
the dawning.
What I am meaning is that,
whereas our universe is said to
have come into physical form
between thirteen and fifteen
billion years ago, the appearance
of what we now call "the human
being" is dated as maybe a bit
shy of two million years. Think
of how long it took the cosmic
(God) process to form our solar
system and our wonderful planet
which is said to be about
four-and-a half billion years
old. This process first assembed
aII the elements of the periodic
table before the manifestation of
life as we know it could even
begin!
Tom Harpur reports that the
great scholar Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn
contended that "the single most
important religious event in all
human history was the awakening
of self-reflective consciousness.
At that precise moment, we
stopped being purely animals and
became 'quickened' as true human
beings with intellects and
souls." This is the meaning of
the creation story of Genesis.
You and I have no conscious
recall of all that has happened
before we appeared on the scene
in this incarnation. But the
human family has evolved beyond
that dawning. We have a God
concept; we believe in love and
peace and one human species. Even
General Eisenhower deplored war
as the way to settle our human
differences. We want results, and
we want them now, right now!
One example of this is the
almost universal human feeling
that love ought to be able to
solve all our problems. Charles
Fillmore wrote of love as "a
universal solvent", but he also
said that he realized that, when
all of us had a prosperity
consciousness, most of the other
problems would probably be solved
too. This brings up what I
consider the validity of his idea
that God-Mind translated into
human terms might be thought of
as being constituted of 12 primal
ideal ideas: will, understanding,
imagination, faith, zeal
(enthusiasm), power, love, wisdom
(good judgment), strength, order,
elimination or renunciation
(denial).
The dawning of
God-consciousness would signify
the beginning of the evolution or
development of all of these
qualities. Obviously we will be
expressing our Christ potential
completely only when we have
wholly developed each and all of
the 12. What is important for us
to realize is that no one quality
will be expressing completely
until the rest of the ideas
support it. For example, love. We
are looking for love to solve
everything, but we also need good
judgment, understanding, lots of
faith and renunciation (the
ability to say no.) We often say
yes too easily!
The dawning of love probably
related to the closeness felt by
mother and father and child and
brothers and sisters and tribes.
Even today these so-called "close
or loving" relationships are
marred by threats (supposed or
actual) to our well-being - our
space, our privacy, what is
"ours", our ideas and beliefs and
opinions, etc. etc.
Sexual relations, which we
think of as the epitome of
closeness and love, have proved
to be threatened also by all of
the above.
Love and trust have been
linked as being about the same,
but trust is love supported by
judgment and strength and
understanding, to name a few!
For the world really to work,
we human beings must accede that
our behavior must be taken into
consideration in order for trust
to be a wise or secure expression
of love. Discipline is an
excellent example. A lot of us
have come to realize that love is
best expressed in parent/child
relationships through the code of
discipline equally expressed by
both parties. Interestingly the
same element of behavior forms
the basis for how we trust each
other in every and all aspects of
human relationships, to wit, our
relationship with our garage!
I like this approach because
we all share the same
responsibility for our behavior.
It helps us not to place too much
burden on our "love
expectations." There is a
positive aspect of our needing to
"deserve" trust. This is not to
say we need to deserve love.
Someone might well bring up
the valid idea that all of us
appreciate being loved and even
trusted unconditionally with no
requirements placed upon us. But,
as I think it through, if we
really get it across to a person
that "you are loved no matter
what", this support induces good
behavior.
All of this is an ongoing
process, of course. Love, trust,
good behavior, etc., must be
given the opportunity to develop,
evolve. If we may be just beyond
the dawning, the process must be
allowed to complete itself
through the whole day!
Don
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