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In preparation for writing
this piece, I was meditating,
seeking clarity for what I wanted
to say. Suddenly it came to me
that much of human consciousness
is like a thin layer of poison on
the surface of the earth. And,
when I saw that it was a
thin layer, I was
really filled with relief and
hope!
That which is on the surface,
is superficial, like symptoms,
often seems very difficult,
sometimes almost impossible to
deal with. This is the way I was
seeing our human relationships on
this planet. We don't dig deep
enough; we don't look into each
other's eyes and hearts and lives
and backgrounds and individual
experiences deeply enough and
long enough to understand!
So that's why my sermon on
Sunday, September 1, here at
Unity of Victoria is about the
importance of understanding
consciousness.
Emmet Fox, one of our greatest
contemporary metaphysicians, said
very simply "LIFE IS
CONSCIOUSNESS." I was
privileged to hear him at Unity
School deliver the address that
became one of his most famous
pamphlets. He was saying that
whatever our consciousness is,
that is what our lives are like.
Do you see at this moment that he
was right?
The truth is that there is one
creative system, set of
principles, from which life, the
universe as we know it, comes
into expression. When we get
below the surface of ethnicity,
race, color, country, creed,
religion, we find human beings
charmingly similar and able to
get along famously well! But the
thin layer of poison changes all
that as if it never were the
case.
We have learned also that the
fruits that come into our stores
from all over the world are
covered with a thin layer of
poison that it is well for us to
wash off if we don't want to get
sick.
And, oh, is our world sick
from the thin poison layer of
consciousness that we need to
understand so that it won't be
poisonous any longer.
I'll bet that someone in your
early life tried to teach you to
"Get the facts!"
Right? Basically this is a large
part of what each of us needs to
do - and can do - in our various
relationships. From the one to
one level to the relationship of
nations and world religions, our
great need is to get the facts so
we can understand each other.
What I perceive is that there
various states of consciousness
that show up all over the world -
the same attitudes, suspicions,
hatreds, prejudices, lifestyles.
What we need is to dig deeply
enough to find out what causes
these states of consciousness
that gather people into
categories. Instead of writing
people off if they land in
a category unpleasant to us, we
need to write them into
our search for understanding.
There is hardly a person, an act,
a way of life, we could continue
to hate once we understood it -
maybe even a little bit!
Don
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