Spiritual Living Podcast

The three things that people are most afraid of are death, other people, and their own minds. The Buddha said this, "All we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thought. It is made up of our thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage. "All we are is the result of what we have thought. It is founded on our thought. It is made up of our thought. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him." So if we're miserable, what do we do? If we're unhappy or suffering, what do we do? The answer here is clear.

Motivational guest speaker Elizabeth Manuel speaks today about presence, awareness, and intention. She considers the question, "What's lurking beneath the threshold of our consciousness?", as she weaves examples of practical spiritual principles into triumphant stories of her life's struggles.

As a modern society, we tend to operate in ways that are not sustainable. This is our enchantment with progress. But we are not stuck, and we teach spiritual principles that we can apply in our lives, individually and collectively, to change the way that we show up in the world.

Ernest Holmes wrote that in the New Thought movement "we are likely to indulge in too much theory and too little practice." We need to practice these spiritual thoughts and spiritual modalities, to integrate them into the foundation of who we are. "As a matter of fact, we only know as much as we can prove by actual demonstration."

Ernest Holmes wrote, "We can know God only in so far as we can become God." We must practice these things as we work towards waking up our consciousness. "It is necessary that we release all thoughts---as well as things---that clutter up our lives." "I am looking at the face of God. You are beautiful. I support you in releasing and dissolving and eradicating whatever it is that you know is no longer required. You've got this. I celebrate your freedom and giving birth to the infinite possibilities!"

Divine Power is the energetic field of unconditional love and infinite possibility. When we move into that field, that's where instantaneous healing takes place. It is never too late. We are never too old. We are never too young. We are never deficient in any way, shape, or form. This is the only moment. We are in this incubator of unconditional love and possibility. This Presence is immersed in us. Divine Energy is unceasingly seeking an outlet. There is a Universal Mind, a Spirit, an Intelligence that is the origin of everything. It is First Cause. It is God. This Universal Life and Energy finds an outlet in and through all that is energized and through everything that lives. There is no spot where God is not.

"Protector and controller, may we please move through the Doorway of the Infinite Possibility of Love?" This January, Dr. Patrick explains the basics of the Science of Mind. Through Dr. Ernest Holmes, he explains how the engine works, and that it works for everyone. The study of the Science of Mind is the study of First Cause, Spirit, Mind, or the Invisible Essence, the Ultimate Stuff and Intelligence from which everything comes, the Power back of creation. There is a Divine Plan, and the Divine Plan is one of Freedom. Freedom is the birthright of every individual. All instinctively feel this. The inherent nature of man is forever and forever seeking to express itself in terms of freedom.

Dr. Patrick gives us three tools to look over the past year to help us move into the new year. He considers the "disease of more", a look at our values, and new ways of practice.

Why do we have the Feast of Christmas? Dr. Patrick considers the history of how we approach Christmas and the birth of the Christ. It turns out that Christmas and the Winter Solstice are linked in a very beautiful way. The deepest dark is not where grace goes to die, but the place where grace goes to be born and reborn.

The teens and their advisors, Aleisha Cloutier-Parcels and Daniel Sande, share their personal stories on how they are learning empowerment through self-discovery.

Musician and spiritual hero Amy Bishop moves us with her powerful songs and stories about being awake.

Transnarrative cognition is understanding and going beyond our story. Dr. Patrick looks at "Green", the final meme in the first tier of Spiral Dynamics, which represents community. Remember that your perception of the world is a reflection of your state of consciousness. You are not separate from it, and there is no objective world out there. Every moment, your consciousness creates the world that you inhabit. -- Eckhart Tolle

This week, Dr. Patrick looks at "Blue" and "Orange", the fourth and fifth memes in the Spiral Dynamics. Blue represents the rule of law. The establishment of order. The quest for ultimate peace. Orange represents the achiever-self. Playing the game to win. The quest for material pleasure. He then gives us three spiritual practices to help us awaken through the challenges presented by the above memes.

Dr. Patrick looks at "Red", the third meme in the Spiral Dynamics, which represents the warrior.

Dr. Patrick looks at "Purple", the second meme in the Spiral Dynamics, which represents the tribe.

Dr. Patrick looks at "Beige", the first meme in the Spiral Dynamics, which represents survival. We all rely on others for our survival.

Conflict happens in every area of life. Using Dr. Gary Simmons' book The I of the Storm, we can learn what is conflict, why embrace it, and how can we stand in the eye of the storm. We need to understand that change and movement are the heartbeat of the universe... the field of creation. Change is never ending and follows universal, predictable rules. All events have their origin in opposite, complementary forces, like yin and yang. This is our curriculum. This is how we evolve. Conflict is a tool. It brings us to the edge and gives us the chance to make a choice. Only at the edge of the abyss of our insecurities do we realize they are filled with potentialities. Conflict leads to rebirth and transformation.

The Centre is undergoing a transformation from a minister-centric community to a ministry-centric community. This is guided by the Genogram activity and our community's Shadow Card and Q Card. The Shadow Card is when we are acting outside of our integrity. The Q Card is the diamond that we are being called and shaped into. Visionary Tama Kieves says it this way, "I hate transitions. But I am black coal, and this compression is turning me into a diamond. And as much as I want to conform and just be like every other chunk of coal, I am cursed by my need for a life of meaning. I will walk or crawl through transformation because I want a life of diamonds."

Dr. Patrick presents the community's Q Card. The reverse side of the card speaks of the shadow qualities of our community, while the front side of the card speaks to our destiny as a vibrant, impactful ministry-centric spiritual community. Dr. Patrick's talk is followed by a meditative musical experience presented by Dennis Goodwill, using singing bowls, gongs, and other instruments which were not captured well by the recording, and hence not included in the podcast.

No one is against us, even our own lives. Our lives become predictable because attention and awareness continually re-frame the present moment to the context of past influences. These are our patterns. Consciousness is poured into the creative framework of attention and awareness to set in motion the forces that organize the manifest universe. If consciousness is in bondage to the past, or if attention is mesmerized according to ingrained patterns of awareness, the future is simply an extended line from here to tomorrow. In other words, we just keep repeating the past.

As we begin to do church around the purpose of transforming lives instead of doing church around the purpose of feeling better about ourselves, we in the community begin to feel a greater sense of empowerment, partnership, and ownership. This week, the Centre's transformation coach, Dr. Gary Simmons, visits to teach us how to not be triggered when we're judged. Knowing how is not enough to begin practicing not being triggered when someone judges us. We need to know why we should not be triggered. Right now we're living in a story of separation. But we're shifting into a world of inter-being, a shift to a context of wholeness, of oneness. When we are being judged, here is what we say: Tell me more. Why? Because the judgement is not about us. And we may find that behind every judgement is the gift of the revelation of an unmet need. But to get there, we need to stand in the place of "Tell me more."

This week, Dr. Patrick previews the upcoming weekend Genogram activity with Dr. Gary Simmons that will happen at the Centre. The Centre and its ministry has a history and thus a pain body. The purpose is to identify the unconscious patterns that drive or run our ministry when we are not conscious, as well as those patterns and the unintended consequences of the current way we do ministry in the minister-centric practice. We then seek to answer: Who did we come here to be? Why does the Centre exist? There are states of being and stages of being. A feeling of oneness is a state, and how we view it will be coloured by our stage of development. Limitation and poverty are not things but are the result of restricted ways of thinking. We are surrounded by a Subjective Intelligence which receives the impress of our thought and acts upon it. This natural Law in the Mental World is neither good nor bad. It can only be said of It that IT IS, and that we may consciously use It. The Law is a law of reflection; for Life is a mirror, reflecting to us as conditions the images of our thinking. Whatever one thinks tends to take form and become a part of his experience. The Medium of all thought is the Universal Mind, acting as Law. Law is always impersonal, neutral, receptive and reactive. Look into the mirror with love.

We have within us a Power that is greater than anything we shall ever contact in the outer. A power that can overcome every obstacle in our lives and set us safe, satisfied, and at peace, healed and prosperous in a new light, in a new life. We've fallen asleep and gotten caught up in the outer. But waking up is so beautiful and wonderful. We do this by working to our edge, to the limits that we've reached previously. Mind, all Mind, is right here. It is God's Mind, God's creative power, God's creative life. We have as much of this Power to use in our daily life as we can believe in and embody. Let us heal our sense of separation. Let us stop listening to the mind and start listening to the heart. Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. -- Joseph Campbell

Service is: Giving to others, service to self, being a presence, compassion, being unselfish, doing something for others without expecting reward or gain, helping without expectation, and helping people when they are unable to complete a task for themselves. Being in service to others reminds us of our humanity. It's a chance to share our life experience with others and to realize that we are not so unique. It helps us to feel better about ourselves, and to feel better about our world. It is our opportunity to share our goodness with others. At the end of life, what really matters is not what we bought but what we built, not what we got but what we shared, not our competence but our character, not our success but our significance. Live a life that matters. Live a life of love.

This week, guest speaker Nadene Rogers teaches about never giving up but always giving over. On the theme of surrender, we learn how to let go of our identity to find ourselves, to let go of the roles we play and the masks that we wear. We give ourselves over to who we are being and how we are feeling and what we are thinking in every moment. We give ourselves over to that which is so much bigger than we are. We need to embrace our humanity to know our divinity.

This week, Dr. Patrick teaches from the ideas of Shariff Abdullah and his work for societal transformation. There are three stories that are alive on the planet. The first story is the Keeper Society, who live in harmony with all of life. They are the indigenous people on the planet. The second story is the Breaker Society. These are the ones "creating a world that is best for me". They predict and control. They represent separation. The third story is the Mender Society, who create a world that works for everyone. They embody the unitive consciousness, the idea of One Life, One Presence, and One Power. Keepers say, "Earth is Abundant." Breakers say, "There is never enough." Menders say, "Abundance needs our help."

In the system of Spiral Dynamics, the first tier is all about action. In the second tier, the theme is being. And as we move into the second tier, into yellow, we begin evolving from separation to inter-being. To facilitate this evolution, we accept what is, we honour what has been, and we understand that our actions may not shift things immediately. We must take heart that others are answering the call and are taking action to be part of this paradigm shift.

Guest speaker Elizabeth Manuel speaks about the important link between prayer and happiness. Prayer is not an act of overcoming God's reluctance, but should be an act of acceptance of Its highest willingness. Through prayer, we recognize a Spiritual Law and put ourselves in alignment with it. Prayer is constructive, because it enables us to establish closer contact with the fountain of wisdom, and we are less likely to be influenced by appearances around us or to judge according to experience.

Guest speaker Rev. Patrick Harbula speaks about living for the joy of it. Life is not just something to be endured. It is to be lived in joy, in a fullness without limit. We have a song to sing, we have a joy to bring to the world, and love and peace and happiness. Joy is not the opposite of sadness (that's happiness). Joy is an ever-present pervasive spiritual quality. A deep inner peace. A connectivity. As long as we don't resist life's experiences, we get to experience joy all the time.

Continuing his teaching on the Spiral Dynamics framework of human evolution and change, Dr. Patrick discusses the mechanisms behind the emergence of a new paradigm. Each paradigm shift is a reactive, adaptive response to the inadequacies of the previous world view. Namely, our move from survival to shamanic thinking, to tribalism, to individual warrior consciousness, to the rule of law, to innovation and democracy, to meaning and balance, etc. First-Tier thinking is about sourcing our well-being and comfort from outside of ourselves. The Second Tier is where we can appreciate healthy aspects of each perspective and find ways to communicate with all the world views, regardless of whether we agree with their actions or not. It is about growing up and waking up. Growing up is when we stop being a victim. Waking up is when we begin to recognize the One Life that is All.

Our youth, returning from summer camp, share their stories of transformation and personal self-empowerment through shadow work and re-cognizing their self worth while being fully supported in a loving, intentional community of others.

There's a power for good in the Universe, available to everyone, and we can use it. Dr. Patrick continues introducing Spiral Dynamics, a system that looks at the patterns of cultures. The first tier is about doing. The second tier is about being. This week, Dr. Patrick covers the Second Tier. There is not a process of adjusting reality to the conditions that need to be changed, but of adjusting the condition that needs to be changed to a reality that already exists. In other words, we don't need to fix anything, we need to evolve into something.

Enlightenment is not about magic. It is about seeing clearly. In this week's talk, Dr. Patrick introduces the First Tier of Spiral Dynamics, a system that looks at the patterns of cultures. The first tier is about doing. The second tier is about being.

Life mirrors back to us what we are. Our consciousness precedes our experience. So are we keeping our commitments? Do we expect the Universe to behave any differently towards us? In the practice of the Power of Eight, we "power up" through the heart connection. We are energetically connected, and when we set an intention as a group, doing so through unconditional love, we step into the Mystery and into the Unknown. This allows the Power That Creates Worlds to do Its work in us and through us, making miracles happen. We have a miraculous power within us waiting to be released. -- Lynne McTaggart

What is a miracle? According to Einstein, a miracle is "spooky action at a distance". Virtual entanglement: We are connected whether we realize it or not. For every action that we take, even if no one witnesses it, it matters. Every action matters. Caring for one another is caring for ourselves. Praying for one another takes us out of the spin of ourselves. There is miraculous power that we hold inside to heal our own lives that gets unleashed ironically the moment we stop thinking about ourselves. Our internal state is very important in this process. When we hold an intention---the perceiving power of the mind---and link it with kindness and caring, we access the ability to shape substance. And when we get out of our stuff---and with altruism, compassion, and genuine concern for another---when we get into that space and send others positive intention, we open the door to healing, both ours and theirs. Miracles abound in this story of inter-being.

What is a miracle? A miracle is an event or an action that apparently contradicts scientific law. Dr. Patrick introduces Lynne McTaggart's The Power of Eight, a book that looks at harnessing the miraculous energies of the small group to heal others, to heal our lives, and the world. This books documents the transformative and miraculous changes that have taken place through the power of group intention and offers very compelling evidence of the power of the mind.

Parenting oneself---the creative process by means of each one of us---is never-ending. So it is today on Mother's Day that we celebrate the part of us that is the feminine face of God, because that is in fact the creative part of thought, the thought process that puts whatever ideas we might have into form. The idea from Stoicism known as Amor Fati represents the immense power of learning to love our fate. Amor Fati is to not only accept everything that life brings us---good or bad---but to love it, to embrace it, and to revel in it. It has all come for us, so that we can look at it and heal it, and not stay stuck. Epictetus said, "Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would. But rather, wish that everything happens as it actually will, and then your life will be serene."

The divine impulse is always to grow---to evolve and change. Periods of dormancy are normal, but when we cling to the past and refuse to grow, we stagnate. Every moment is our opportunity to challenge ourselves to awaken to a new experience, to transform and be the best version of ourselves.

Life is an adventure in which we never know what is going to happen just beyond the turn of the road. But too often our today is filled with regrets over the past. If we could convince ourselves that the limitations of the past need not be carried into the future, what a happy outlook we should have. Today is the only day in which we live. And yesterday has forever passed. The change that we need to make within ourselves must be made today. We have to live each day as though it were complete and perfect unto itself. We have to live each day as if all the Joy in the Universe were ours now. If we make every day a day of praise and thanksgiving, a day in which we recognize the Divine Bounty and the Eternal Goodness, and if we live today as though God were the only Presence and the only Power there is, we would not have to worry about tomorrow. Jesus did not seem to think that this change required months and years of strenuous effort. Unlike those around him, he knew that God, or the Divine Spirit, wishes only good for everyone. He knew that we are all rooted in Pure Spirit, in Perfect Life, and that at any moment we can so unify ourselves with the Power of Good that evil will disappear from our experience.

How old is old? And when does a person get too old to enjoy life? Could a person be as young at 80 as he is at 18? Some of the scientific minds today are telling us that while time exists, age does not. That, in reality, time is not a way of measuring years and months and days, but rather, a measure of experience in a limitless life. God's Mind is the only mind there is. And God is eternal. The whole proposition in this we believe because God lives in us and we are able to think because the Mind of God lives in us.

The intellect is not the creative factor in the universe. Rather, it is feeling that is creative. God speaks to the heart through a language of feeling, a feeling which is affirmative. The best psychological balance is between the intellect and the heart, because the intellect can give a certain definite form to feeling. But unless the feeling is there, the intellect will have merely provided the empty mould. We want not only to feel but to think. We wish not only to think but also to feel. Another way to say this is this: "Love makes the world go around, but the Law keeps us from getting dizzy."

We are here to transform lives, starting with the journey of rediscovering the truth for ourselves. Accept yourself as you are in this moment. Let how you are right now be okay. Once we learn to be authentic, we can explore ourselves and figure out what resonates with this one. This expands outwards to the whole world. Second, we learn open-hearted living. We impact those around us by being our authentic self and living with an openness. We create ripples!

How do we do Easter as metaphysicians? We interpret scripture metaphorically and metaphysically. There is a meaning upon the words. It's all Spirit, it's all God. In this dualistic world that we fall asleep in, what is happening is that this Icon, this Idea, is giving Itself to the world to bring forth the light of Radiance into the world and to reveal that nothing is separate from Divinity. Jesus' story of death and resurrection is a story of new orientation. When the self has been annihilated and drops away, we witness a resurrection, we realize a new orientation. We are no longer the centre of our own individual lives. Easter is a wonderful metaphor about living from the Christed consciousness. As Dr. Ernest Holmes said, "Jesus was not the great exception---he was the great example. And as the human gives way to the Divine, in all people, they become the Christ."

Following Derek Rydall's Emergence, Dr. Patrick leads us through an exercise of activating our "emerginations", to help us discover and process our soul's purpose. He then gifts us with a Rumi poem about breaking up the soil, a metaphor on how breaking our old patterns is necessary to cultivate the life energy of our soul. "Our spirit needs to follow the changes happening in the spacious place it knows about. There, the scene is always new, a clairvoyant river of picturing, more beautiful than any on earth."

To the scientific mind, the will of God is manifest in the immutable laws of the universe. For the overzealous religious, their definition of the will of God appears to come through some special revelation giving birth to a certain spiritual system of thought which forever after is to be taken dogmatically and accepted without question, a truth and a faith once and for all delivered. But it is evident that God's will and God's nature must be identical. If the nature of God is limitation and bondage, then the will of God must be limitation and bondage. When we use the word God, we mean the Great Reality. The Infinite Unity. The Final Truth back of all manifest life. The Absolute and Causeless Cause. The One Unconditioned Complete and Perfect Being. Indivisible, Changeless, and Whole. If the nature of God, or Reality, were unhappiness, then the will of God would be toward unhappiness. But to suppose that the nature of God could be toward any form of limitation is to suppose not only an inconsistency, but an impossibility. The Truth is Limitless. The Nature of God, then, is not one of limitation or bondage but liberty. Our divine inheritance is self-sufficiency, perfection, peace, wholeness, and this must include abundance, self-expression, accomplishment, and happiness.

We, like all others, are seeking the joy of living. This urge is in every individual; it is in every thing. Life has entered into us and, with it, the irresistible impulse to create. Socrates called it Spirit. Jesus called it Father in Heaven. Some ancients called it Atman. Why not just call it Me? The Complete Me. This is the Infinite Presence, and we are It.

This Sunday, Rev. Tammie Banting considers the difference between and the merits of worshipping the God we believe in or the God Who Is. The God who is believed in is, at times, some part of the God Who Is. Therefore whatever God we believe in---provided we believe this God is already in us---must respond to us at the level of our belief. It is done unto each of us as we believe. The principle is infallible. The practice is what we make it. She also asks whether we see Dr. Patrick as an ordinary professional minister or as a spiritual superhero---red tights, cape, and all!

Belief is a certain way of thinking, it is an activity of consciousness. Faith is an affirmative mode of thought that says "I can" as opposed to "I can't" or "I shall not". Prayerful communion ascends to that place Where unity has not yet become variety, Where the unformed One is ready to take any specific shape. In this act of communion, the individual Becomes co-partner with the Eternal And gives birth to time, space, and conditions. -- Dr. Ernest Holmes Dr. Patrick weaves together these three concepts into an awareness and insight on how they can pertain, assist, and transform our lives in 2018.

In today's talk, Dr. Patrick touches on the artist's mentality, the experience, and how to take offense the right way. Spirituality is a rather elusive thing. We can touch it through an artist's mentality. The Artist feels beauty, senses its presence, and to a degree communes with it. In the same way, we can find a communion with the Invisible Harmony, the Supreme Being, the Mind, the Heart of God, or the Creative Essence.

We are the ever-expanding Principle of Conscious Intelligence. -- Ernest Holmes Today's talk is given by Dr. Jane Simmons, an ordained Unity minister, author of You Can't Sleep Through Your Awakening. She reminds us, as Gurdjieff wrote, "We can't unconsciously become conscious." Let us not forget, we are spiritual beings having spiritual business to transact on this physical plane. We came here to really embody this truth, that we are Spirit expressing Itself in a body.

Digging into Ernest Holmes' book Living the Science of Mind Dr. Patrick looks at the chapter entitled "Self-Awareness is Not Enough". The three main points are: paradox, self-awareness, and self expression. A paradox is a statement or situation that defies logic. Our big paradox is that we are human and yet we are divine. We are here in complete freedom. We can choose to be a vessel for Spirit or not. Self-awareness clears the track for right action---self-expression.