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While I was contemplating what
to say about a thought that was
generating for my December piece,
a title for it came through: THE
PERSON I AM AND THE PERSON I AM
BECOMING.
As we study these sentences,
at the outset it is interesting
to consider the idea that The
Person I Am Becoming Is The
Person I Am! What this means (in
the Unity way of looking at life)
is that life is the process of
our expressing (becoming) what we
already are (have the capacity
for) spiritually (our oneness
with God).
Before I had even heard of the
metaphysical concept of the
all-possibility of our being, I
tuned into it when I interpreted
the French verb e'tre (to be) as
implying every possible state of
being for humanity. In talking
with a UVIC professor, I found
that this was probably a
subjective rather than an
accurate interpretation, but he
could see how it was possible for
me to have thought about it this
way. That happened when I was a
freshman in high school 'way back
in 1931, but I've always
remembered that interpretation.
The Latin form esse seems even a
more likely candidate for my idea
because it seems to mean essence,
and I think the essence of our
being is that there is no limit
to what we can be!
I learned about the Unity
teaching (in my first year of
university) that each of us has
the unlimited possibilities of
the same Christ potential that
Jesus taught and expressed. In a
philosophy course I wrote a paper
on "Being Precedes
Expression."
I had already turned this
piece in to Gordon, our website
guru, so he could put it on to
the website on his computer, but
then I found the following in the
November/December 2003 Unity
Magazine. It's a quote from THE
PATH TO PRAYER by Sophy Burnham,
as excerpted under the title
"What God Do You Pray To?"
"It is no accident
that YHWH, the vowelless
Hebrew word for 'the One Whose
Name Cannot Even Be
Pronounced'--is related to the
verb 'to be.' God is pure
essence. Beingness. It is
YHWH: 'I AM WHAT I AM' (as
Moses learned at the Burning
Bush). The Buddhists call it
'suchness'
Later she quotes this poem by
Rainer Maria Rilke in his Book
of Hours: Love Poems to
God:
I am, you anxious
one.
Don't you sense me, ready to
break
Into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you
like shadowy wings.
Can't you see me standing
before you cloaked in
stillness?
Hasn't my longing ripened in
you from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?
I am the dream you are
dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am
that wanting:
I grow strong in the beauty
you behold.
And with the silence of stars
I enfold
Your cities made by time.
Quantum physics came along
later, corroborating the
possibility concept as perhaps
the most significant definition
of what life is all about.
When I got out my journal to
begin the sketching of these
ideas, I found some words I had
written on a slip of paper, which
I had tucked between the pages so
as not to lose it.
"All the God
qualities we speak of as our
12 powers in the Unity
Movement are active every
moment in us, initiated by
God. When we affirm them, it
is well to remember that we
are not initiating them INTO
us, but responding to them as
IN us now and unfailingly."
Just as we assume that an
infinite number of songs can be
written from the
notes/sounds/vibrations God has
initiated, we realize there is no
end nor finiteness in the
possibilities of our 12 powers.
Our "12 powers" refer to our
whole and complete God-nature and
capacity. The number 12 may be
arbitrary rather than accurate or
significant in itself. What the
12 represents is the Christ
within us as symbolized by the 12
disciples as the Body of
Christ.
I love Barry Manilow's "I
Write the Songs". This is what we
are all doing, writing the songs
with the notes God has provided,
becoming more and more empowered
as we use the limitless powers
God has provided.
The essence of my fascination
with this whole way of looking at
life is that I sense (as I
believe Humanity has through the
centuries) that we are on a
deathless, endless, thrilling
adventure of becoming, becoming,
becoming--becoming what? That's
the point, we don't know, we
almost don't have a clue except
that we really do! We know
somehow that what we are becoming
is the product of lots of
becomings on our journey and that
it becomes more wonderful as it
evolves. Here is something to be
fascinated with: Every step ahead
we make THIS DAY affirming and
applying the limitless
possibilities of our being, paves
the way for what we are becoming.
Becoming what we will be in times
and dimensions that are as yet
undiscovered and
unexperienced!
Microsoft is using the slogan:
YOUR POTENTIAL/OUR PASSION. You
and I could adapt that as a great
affirmation: MY POTENTIAL/MY
PASSION. This is what Unity has
been encouraging from the
beginning of our movement!
Don
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