Dore Patlian's Podcast

Its a secret.

God is central to any discussion of spirituality and religion.  Let's talk about how Science of Mind views God and His/Her relationship to humanity.   A belief in a higher power, call it God, Allah, the Great Soul, Rama, Yahweh, the Universe, Spirit or whatever you wish it is a universal idea.  It all amounts to a great Mind, a great Soul that is the cause of all that exists, the thinker before the first human drew breath, the architect of the Universe.  Every human society ever studied has a belief in a power greater than themselves.  We are no exception. Many of us raised in the Judeo- Christian tradition have been taught "the Parent God".  The Parent not only gives you life, he remains involved in your life forever and ever, much as a human parent does.  All of us who have children know that even after our children grow up we still worry, sometimes give advice and even meddle a bit.  So it is with the great "Parent in the Sky".  This concept of God not only cares, meddles and has a plan for our lives ( much like many parents we know) but He punishes and rewards, just like any earthly parent.  The problem with a parent God is that He has never existed and never will.

That Divine Mind, that Great Soul we call God, has given us 3 great gifts that empower us to create any life experience in which we can believe. The first is will. The volition or will power to choose a course of action and hold to it through thick and thin is the basis of our freedom of action as human beings. The second gift is intellect or mind. This is the gift that allows us to adapt, to think, to reason and to triumph over adversity. But the greatest of the 3 and the one that is the hallmark of humanity is imagination.

Yes, it is good to acknowledge where we have fallen short of our best selves and to change our behavior to ensure that we no longer make the same mistake, but in order for real change to take place, we must change more than words and temporary actions. We must go beyond mere repentance and recognize that no "parent in the sky" needs our apology and promises, He knows who we are and who we are not; we must change ourselves from the inside out. We all understand that there is no real change in our lives until we change who we are; what we think, say and do. It is so simple to understand but its tough to do; we have to do a "makeover" from the inside out!

I have times in my life when things just aren't going as I planned or wanted. Things unravel, bills are more than expected, people do not behave as I thought they would, and life appears to have hit a "rough patch". Do you have times like this? I am having one today, which is why I chose this topic for the blog. We have difficult times, its part of the human experience but it need not be a common occurrence, but rather a rare aberration in an otherwise happy and wonderful life. In fact, if we diligently practice the principle I am going to discuss today, we might never experience another "rough patch". Wouldn't that be nice?

Last time we asked the question: "How many of our readers have experienced a consistent feeling of general well being; a feeling that most everything was going well; you were on top of things and life was good?" I wish that we could have taken an on-line survey for I believe that not very many of us would have answered "yes" to the question of well being. Last week, I asked each of you to look at your reflection and rather than seeing the face of an imperfect product of sin, living an imperfect life in an imperfect world; try instead to see the face of your Creator looking back at you. We discussed how hard this might be for so many of us because we have been taught a great lie; that we are flawed, sinful, "weak worms of the dust" that are imperfect by nature and must be "saved" from our own natures. The great Truth is that we are Divine Humans made in the Mind of God.

Last time we asked the question: "How many of our readers have experienced a consistent feeling of general well being; a feeling that most everything was going well; you were on top of things and life was good?" I wish that we could have taken an on-line survey for I believe that not very many of us would have answered "yes" to the question of well being. Last week, I asked each of you to look at your reflection and rather than seeing the face of an imperfect product of sin, living an imperfect life in an imperfect world; try instead to see the face of your Creator looking back at you. We discussed how hard this might be for so many of us because we have been taught a great lie; that we are flawed, sinful, "weak worms of the dust" that are imperfect by nature and must be "saved" from our own natures. The great Truth is that we are Divine Humans made in the Mind of God. Here is the proof.