I spoke recently at the Oakland Center for Spiritual Living’s Wednesday Night Service. I called in from our “Landing Pad” home in Antioch, CA, just back from our first official Consciousness Caravans excursion. 

We explored together the talk title: Reveal, Release, Rise (repeat). I requested the participants to prepare themselves to act during the discussion…have pen and paper ready. As you read this post, you might want to do the same. Here’s the talk outline prepared in advance of the meeting.

Let’s start with “Revealing the Truth”

The Truth of Who and Whose we are is a given…it already is. God is Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent. Wherever we are whatever we are doing or being…God is. Revelation (bringing our God-self out) comes from the recognizing our Divinity combined with the willingness (our own free will choice) to cultivate, willingness to be consistent in our awareness of that Divinity within us. By our very own recognition, we create an opening for higher knowing and activate more, greater volumes of the flow of Divine Energy. Yes? Does this sound familiar? For those of us who have been studying the Science of Mind (SOM) for some time, it does. This concept, Recognition, is the first step in a Spiritual Mind Treatment, or SOM prayer.

Eckhart Tolle tells us in Stillness Speaks that: “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” (Stillness Speaks, by Eckhart Tolle; © 2003, page 64)

Raymond Charles Barker says in The Science of Successful Living that: “Those who know they are the inlet and the outlet of Ideas born of a larger Mind and a greater Love become the vehicles of the Spirit.” (The Science of Successful Living, by Raymond Charles Barker; © 1957, page 127)

Consciousness Caravans Vision is that: We are the vehicles of Spirit and Consciousness. Life is our grand adventure! And we intend to live it consciously and authentically. Everyone does this…reveals their own understanding of Truth.

Let me say a word about authenticity…what is authenticity? Authenticity is the difference between performance and expression. Performance is for others, but expression is for the Self. That is the “self” with a capital “S,” or the God-self within. The focus is key…I ask the question…Knowing each of us is a fully formed Divine Idea in the Mind and Heart of God: What is calling to be expressed and can only be expressed by, in, through, and as you?

Dr. Holmes wrote in the SOM text on page 147.4, “We all have the ability to transcend previous experiences and rise triumphant above them; but we will never triumph over them while we persist in going through our old mental reactions.” 

TIME TO PRACTICE

Willingness is a key to Revelation. Are you willing? Let’s do a simple practice that you can repeat again and again after this talk…Get out that pen and paper I mentioned earlier. Take a few minutes to consider some good you are willing to experience and wish to affirm for yourself. Write an affirmation of this good for yourself. Keep the statement in the present tense, begin with “I am…” Ready? Put that aside for now.

I AM… I AM HEALTHY AND ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN LIFE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES EVERY DAY.

“Releasing the Blocks”

Ernest tells us on page 283 of the SOM text that: Releasing the weight of past limiting beliefs and judgments frees us to rise in faith (faith being the “mental assertion” of our good) and be elevated to the plane of realization (of that good).

“We believe that Heaven is within us (here and now) and that we experience it to the degree that we become conscious of It.” – from What We Believe. So, if we are not experiencing Heaven or the good we desire, then there must be some blocks (imagined or physical) in our way.

What blocks are keeping you from attaining your good, or rising-up? When challenges show up (and they will whether personally or in the collective – has anyone listened to the news lately?), it can be difficult. The real challenge is not in any of that, it is in remembering to “name and claim” not the challenge, but God as Source, Substance, and Truth. 

Our recognition of this Truth opens us up for Life’s vitality and creative energy to reveal Itself in, through and as us – the Whole, Perfect, and Complete ideas of God that we are. Working with a Practitioner, Minister, or trusted prayer partner is a good way to identify patterns of blockages. I know from my own spiritual work with myself and others that patterns of blockages, or repeating behaviors, can tend to block the good from expressing when recognition of who and whose I am is missing. Remember, in Truth, we are unlimited channels for possibility. 

Last Sunday, Rev Katherine Saux spoke of rolling to stones away from the tomb. She used props of stones and gave examples of various blockages we may have getting in the way of our rising up from the tomb. The idea of rolling way the stones from the tomb is even more powerful for me, when I substitute the word “womb” for “tomb.” I may not relate to the idea of my body being placed in a tomb, but I have had the experience of catching an idea (being impregnated by Spirit’s call for me in the womb of my heart) and then having stones – my false beliefs, doubts and fears, and/or other ideas of “not-good-enoughness” pop up and keep me from taking action on Spirit’s call.  The easiest example for me is Consciousness Caravans…this idea of Spirit was planted deep in my heart early on in my ministry and I needed to do the work to roll away the stones that kept me from birthing it. 

MORE PRACTICE – My affirmation

I AM… I AM HEALTHY AND ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN LIFE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES EVERY DAY.

Let’s take that affirmation you wrote down earlier…read it to yourself and be aware of any “negatives” or blocks that arise when you imagine yourself having or being that good…Even if you don’t hear anything immediately, you can do this practice by writing down the opposite of the good you affirmed. This is a twist on our normal practice of identifying a limiting belief and then stating its opposite. Write down the opposite of your good. Got it? Now, using your writing instrument, strike out the opposite statement. Do it in such a way that you can see the opposite and see it has been struck void. 

Opposite of my good?

HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU ARE HEALTHY? YOUR KNEE HURTS WHENEVER YOU EXERCISE…THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU, IT…

CROSS IT OUT!

HOW CAN YOU SAY YOU ARE HEALTHY? YOUR KNEE HURTS WHENEVER YOU EXERCISE…THERE MUST BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH YOU, IT…

Now rewrite your affirmation. Many of us are kinesthetic learners, we learn by taking physical action…this practice gives us the ability to kinesthetically learn our good. 

I AM… I AM HEALTHY AND ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING IN LIFE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES EVERY DAY. (Wow! that feels good to release the blocks to my expression of good.)

All creation, any idea, must gestate before birth. Design comes before form. There’s a period of time, a design period, for the idea to take form in Mind. All creative ideas and possibilities must gestate (in the womb of Divine Mind) and remember, RECOGNIZE, you are an inlet and outlet of Divine Mind. Every creature (humans included…and ideas) progresses through a period of hidden darkness, trials and tribulations that are part of the birthing process before being brought forward into its Whole, Perfect, and Complete physical form. I can think of a couple of examples: the acorn itself is Whole, Perfect and Complete (WPC) when formed, an acorn must break open its shell in order for the seedling, which is also WPC, to then be able to break free of the encasing soil where it’s been planted and grow into the giant oak tree; in honor of Easter, a baby chick must peck open its eggshell before bursting out to live as a bird. And, in each of these “forms” in whatever stage that it’s in is WPC.

In our own creative lives, when we are willing to go to God first, i.e. reveal Truth in and as we are, then the guidance we seek is Divinely inspired and informed by Infinite Loving Intelligence – expansive once released from the blockages and challenges. It does not mean that blockages, challenges won’t exist, or that they will completely disappear, but we won’t stay stuck or mesmerized by them for so long. Revealing Truth allows us to Release Blocks and rise up.

Rise up and Bless the World

The Infinite Invisible is always wanting to create through Its creation (you) and It, Divine Intelligence, will not be denied. Rising beyond our blockages, resentments and fear-based stories frees up spiritual bandwidth (energy) for innovation and as-yet-un-dreamed-of creations. Consciousness Caravans…taking SOM to the people where they camp, it’s never been done before. It took a willingness on my part to say Yes!

Ernest Holmes wrote that the SOM is: a teaching and a practice. If we want (if we are willing to) rise up, we must practice rising up, we must practice releasing that which is not spiritual Truth, and daily, discipline ourselves to practice rising up, above the race consciousness or blocked ways of thinking and being. “Cross out the opposites.”

Create a new and transcendent narrative for your life based on what is possible, not what has been blocking it. Write a new story of self-love, self-care, and self-expression. Dare to “cross out” the doubting words of others, the negative news headlines, and the dogma of religious fear. 

Every step we take in growing our awareness of God and our awareness of our Oneness with God will, yes, lead us further and further from familiar, comfortable realms of thought and belief that keep us small and restrained. It may feel scary, unpredictable, or nerve-wracking. But this sacred life we are living is not a rehearsal, nor is it a punishment.  I encourage you to dare to see yourself as a victorious being of Pure Spirit. Dare to LIVE as more than you ever have. 

Reveal Truth. Release Blocks. Rise up! And, do it again and again. Blessed Be! And so it is.