This is the fourth statement in the Philosophy of Centers for Spiritual Living.  If you are just tuning in, I’ve been doing a series of posts on this statement which is distributed as a sort of informational statement in Centers for Spiritual Living throughout the world.  This statement was originally written by founder Ernest Holmes and is called “What We Believe.”  Before I get any further with this post, please know that the statement is a guide, sort of an informatory handout for people who want to know what we are about.  The reality is that everyone I’ve ever met in any Center has their own beliefs, including me, and that sometimes we have the same beliefs and sometimes we don’t, and it’s OK.  This is what I like about CSL:  we are free to believe whatever we wish. The bottom line is that we are in alignment with our own truth, and all of our classes and teachings are designed to help you with finding and keeping that alignment.  In terms of this third statement, what we teach will allow you to find heaven, right here, right now.

So… heaven is within.  I’ve always felt this.  I’ve never identified with the “heaven as a separate place” philosophy, just as I’ve never identified with the “God as a separate entity” philosophy.

I like the more accurate description of  the kingdom of heaven which comes from Unity founder Charles Fillmore in his Metaphysical Bible Dictionary.  He says the kingdom of heaven is “a state of consciousness in which the soul and the body are in harmony with the Divine Mind.”

What does that look like?  What does it feel like when our souls and our bodies are in harmony with the Divine Mind?

For me, it looks like freedom and feels like peace.  It is when I am comfortable in my own skin, fully aware and accepting of who and what I am.  There are no doubts, no fears, no hesitations, and I am able to listen to that still small voice within and know….simply know.

Can I do this and be this all the time?  No.  And this is the beauty of what we teach in CSL, because I have tools to get back in alignment when I get out.   All the spiritual practices:  meditation, journaling, introspection and others are designed specifically to help us remain in alignment.  And when I can’t remain in alignment I go to a coach to help me.

If you don’t feel like you are experiencing heaven in your life, consider taking a class at your nearest Center, or take advantage of one of the online classes, or hire a coach to help you.  In Centers, we have Practitioners which are licensed to do just that.  You are worth experiencing the heaven within.

My mom was a, shall we say….ahem….colorful character.  She liked fast cars and faster men, in an age when such a thing was REALLY frowned upon.  She also liked the lifestyle that went with fast cars and fast men.  Some say I had an abnormal childhood because of who and what she was, but I never compared my childhood with others, so I didn’t see it as abnormal. I never doubted my mother’s love for me, even if it was expressed in unconditional ways.  Our relationship was rocky, and there were years when I did not speak to her and years when I lost my respect for her.  She was never really a traditional mother figure for me, but she was, still, my mother.  At the end, I had done my work and loved her and honored her place as mother in my life.  At the end, forgiveness was complete for me.  I continue to be grateful for what my mother taught me, so here is some motherly wisdom for you.

1.  Always tip the cab driver, because you never know when he’s going to sit at your table.  Back then this had a practical aspect:  she was a waitress and I ended up being a waitress for many years while putting myself through college.  Today I know this wisdom is another  way of voicing a basic spiritual truth:  we receive what we put out, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

2.  Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do something because you’re a girl.  My mother was a feminist from the get go, she didn’t believe in women not being able to do anything they wanted because they were women.  She illustrated this by becoming a very good amateur race car driver, she raced Porsches.  She taught me to drive, and owning a Porsche Targa convertible is on my bucket list, that’s a legacy from my mom (my dad prefers British cars…just sayin’).  Today I see what she voiced back then as another version of the concepts of non-duality and non-separation.  Just as Spirit is not separate from us, neither are we separate from other humans by virtue of our gender, race or any other perceived difference.  To this day I really don’t much care for all women retreats, or for anything that excludes because of gender or race.

3.  Forgiveness gives the person doing the forgiving the relief, not the forgiven.  My mom wasn’t the only one who taught me this, but she was the one who taught me it was important to forgive before they move on to the next plane of existence.  Forgiving to someone you can’t consciously communicate with is, at least for me, unsatisfactory.  Somehow, when she was getting ready to move on, I knew this, even though I hadn’t yet even begun my Practitioner training, and made sure that nothing was left unsaid before she went.  I also made sure that I did everything humanly possible to be there for her and be a good daughter to her in those last months.  This entailed many trips to Fallbrook, CA, where she was living at the time.  I would work my weekends as a wedding photographer,  then go to see her for a day or three during the week, then fly back home to Tahoe and do it all over again.  During my times with her I would sleep on the floor in her bedroom (no room for a cot, and it was too painful for her to share the bed) because she didn’t want to be alone, and I would spend the days with her watching TV together, or talking, or reminiscing.   I am so grateful for that experience!

4.  Downshift and slow down coming into a curve, then speed up coming out of it, and hug the corners.  This is standard race car driver speak, and she taught me well.  I’m sure my  mother never meant any of the stuff she taught me to be metaphors for life, but that’s what I’ve done with these lessons.  The metaphor here?  We all experience curves in life, those times when the path we are on becomes a bit tougher to negotiate.  This is the time to slow down a bit and be gentle with ourselves.  The slower gentler pace will make it easier to negotiate the curve, and when we begin to come out of the curve we can speed up a bit if we like.  And just as there will always be curves, the curves will also always straighten up.

5.  My mom also taught me some lessons that I’ve had to unlearn.  The biggest one was “don’t rely on anyone for anything.”   I don’t know why she felt she couldn’t rely on anyone, but I do know that the people in our lives are mirrors for ourselves.   All that color and character did make her a bit unreliable in certain situations, so it is no surprise that she attracted unreliable people into her life.  My journey has first been to make myself reliable, and then to know that others are reliable too.  And in order to rely on others, I’ve had to have a certain amount of trust.  Guess what?  I had to trust myself first before I could trust others.  I still have to consciously remind myself that I can ask for help, and it is always rewarding when I do.

I am so grateful for the lessons my mom taught me. I would not be the person I am today if it weren’t for her influence, and I like that person.  Today is a day when many are celebrating their moms.  If you’re mom is alive, spend some time with her and tell her how grateful you are for her influence in your life.  And if you can’t do that, just wish her a Happy Mother’s Day and make it a goal to be able,  by next Mother’s Day, to be grateful for her and to express that gratitude to her.  You will be glad you did.

Basically the third statement says that while our physical bodies may wither, decay and die, our souls live on….forever and ever.

That’s a lot of souls.  Do I believe that MY soul never dies?  Well, never is a pretty strong word. I believe my soul has been around a long time, and that what I do in this present incarnation is caused by my soul’s longing, bottom line.  Maybe I believe that when the soul stops its longing is when the soul transitions into another realm.  Pretty heavy duty stuff.  And then there is the question of what, exactly, is the soul?

And really, why is this important?  Is it really important to know what happens to our souls?  Is it important to have a belief as to whether or not we even have a soul?  Is it really important to know what a soul is?  I’m thinking that it might be more important to lighten up.

Besides, I’m currently taking a history of New Thought class and have discovered that What We Believe is really what Ernest Holmes believed.  So the Centers for Spiritual Living are putting out a belief statement based on the statements of our founder.  Nothing really wrong with that, because the What We Believe statement is generally accurate for our overall belief system.  And because really, we are free in this movement to believe whatever we wish, we can take it or leave it, accept it or not.  I like to think the What We Believe statement is more of a thought provoker:  really?  Is that really what I believe?  Why?  And what kinds of ramifications does this have for my life?  The statement is also a sort of informational thing as well, because we are all over the map in terms of beliefs.  A newcomer walks into a Center and asks, “What are you guys all about?” and the answer he or she will receive will depend on who is answering the question!  The cool thing about our movement in particular is that we really don’t care what you believe, as long as you are happy and at peace.  And if you aren’t, change your beliefs and it will change what you manifest.  And to change your beliefs do these spiritual practices and your beliefs will be changed.  That’s really a very short description of what we teach around here.

I’m thinking the importance of the third statement is not so much what it states, but what it causes in terms of introspection.  Introspection is a key spiritual practice.  The practice of introspection will allow you to get to know the beautiful being that is you, and that’s a good thing.  Spend some time in introspection about your soul today and see what comes up for you.  I’d love to hear about it!

I wrote about the first sentence in What We Believe here.

Here’s the second in the series of twelve statements: ” We believe in the individualization of the Spirit in Us, and that all people are individualizations of the One Spirit.”

In plain English, basically what it says is that each of us is the physical manifestation of God.  This is one of my favorites in the series, as it has powerful ramifications for how I live my life.  See if perhaps it doesn’t for you also.

Can you believe that you are a physical manifestation of God?  Think about it.  If you are a manifestation of God, that means you have power.  Lots of it.  Awesome power.  It means you are nothing but good and love and abundance and joy and peace.  It means that all of the attributes of Spirit are also your attributes.  I don’t know about you, but I am filled with wonder and excitement when I contemplate this.

If you believe that you are a physical manifestation of God, you also have responsibility and empowerment.  If this statement is true, then attributing the stuff that happens in our lives to God is not accurate.  I can no longer say, “God did this,” or “God did that.”  I can no longer give responsibility to God for anything in my life, because I am a part of God, a physical embodiment of Spirit.  What is true  is that “I did this” or “I did that” or “I am good.”   God does not do things.  God simply is.  We humans are the doers, God is the be’er. As physical embodiments of Spirit, God is a force that provides us with the strength and power to be and do that which we were meant to be and do.  When we are out of touch with this connection is when we experience negativity in our lives.

I don’t know about you, but when I first “got” this, I was a bit frightened.  It meant I could no longer blame anything or anyone else for anything in my life, which meant I had to take responsibility.  After I realized that ultimately responsibility meant empowerment this concept no longer frightened me, it exhilarated me!

This concept also means that what I call myself, I am also calling God that.  All that negative self talk had to go.  I just didn’t feel right about putting God down, and if I’m a part of God, I’m not going to put myself down either.  This is where a very good concept of humility comes from, by the way.  Humility is not about putting ourselves down, it’s about knowing our truth and embodying it.

Try this statement on for size.  See how it fits in your life.  I’d love to hear your thoughts about this!

Does a bear do what it does in the woods?

No, I didn’t really say that. But I sure was overjoyed at the opportunity to sing the praises of CSLs all over the world, and what we do.   This lady and I have had some conversations before about spiritual stuff.  She is intrigued and searching, and I was happy to answer all her questions.  She said she wanted to take a class this summer and I told her she was in luck, that I was planning on teaching one at our very own CSL in South Lake Tahoe!

We talked about what she might like to take, and so I thought I would list some of the options here.  There are two types of classes taught at CSLs all over the world.  Certificated classes are those which you get credit for.  Most of the Certificated Classes are required as prerequisites in order to take the Practitioner course of study.  Certificated  classes are rich with knowledge and will provide you with a firm foundation upon which to build your spiritual practice.

Here are some of the Certificated Classes you could take:

The Power of Your Word 8 week class on prayer

Meditation is More Than You Think 8 week class (I’ve taught this one three times, it is VERY popular!)

5 Gifts Course – new certificated course 8 week course (I am particularly excited about this one as it is a new course and if no one chimes in with a request, this will be the one I teach)

New Foundations Class 10 week class (I’ve taught this one before as well, it is highly recommended for new comers to CSL.  You will emerge from this class knowing the difference between prayer and treatment, with a basic foundation in meditation and visioning, a bit of history and best of all, how to apply the spiritual practices we teach to better your life.)

Beyond Limits 10 week class

The Essential Ernest Holmes 10 week class

From Whence We Came: A History of New Thought 10 week class

Visioning 8 week class

Practical Mysticism 10 week class (this was the first class I ever took.  It launched me on the path I know create.  I knew from the first week in this class that I would go on to become a Practitioner.)

The Essential Ernest Holmes 10 week class

The non-certificated classes I offer are fun and rewarding.  Most of these classes are ten weeks:

The Art and Technique of Photography  10 week class (I designed this curriculum myself)

High Consciousness

Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life

God Is, I Am

Courting Love

High Consciousness

Living Deeply

Happiness, Living God’s Will

Loyalty to Your Soul

Entering the Kingdom

Whew!  I’m excited about all the possibilities here!  Does something call out to you?  Are you ready to launch into a new way of being?   Are you seeking and not sure where to look?  Feeling like perhaps there must be something more?  Well, this is the place to start.  I’d love to hear your comments!

I can tell you that I’m one of those people who believes God has everything to do with everything, and I’m also one of those who thinks that you don’t have to subscribe to a traditional religion to have a God in your life.  In fact, the only reason I call it God is because the word is easy to pronounce and spell.  I’d much rather call it The Force (as in Star Wars’ The Force).  “Feel the force!”  That’s me, feeling the force wherever I go, whatever I do, most of the time.  When I’m not feeling it, I’m feeling it.  In other words, when I am not spiritually in tune with and knowing my connection with God, I do not feel right.

So today I ask:  what is your God?  How does it work in your life?  Is it working in your life?  Did you know that if God doesn’t seem to be working in your life you can get a new one?  Did you know that God doesn’t have to have anything to do with religion?  Did you know that having some sort of God in your life will improve your life?

I don’t claim to be an expert, but I’ve got this license that says I am a spiritual coach, and I’ve got lots of study under my belt about this kind of stuff, and I  have a lot of experience, so I’ve discovered a few things about God. Incorporating what I’ve discovered into my life has allowed me to live a better life.

1.  God does not do things.  Yep, you heard that right.  God doesn’t do.  God doesn’t give you more than you can handle, because God doesn’t give things, God doesn’t do.  We, as humans, are the ones that do.  God simply is.  God is a be-er, we humans are the doers.  God didn’t create any of that outside stuff in our life, not the good and not the bad.  God simply is.

If you had a God that simply was in your life, instead of a God that did, how would that change your life?  If you had a God that wasn’t giving  you things, how would that change your life?

I remember the first time I “got” this concept.  It was a bit scary, because it meant I had to take responsibility for my life.  I couldn’t blame God for the bad stuff and I couldn’t give God credit for the good stuff; it was me as the individualized Spirit of God that could take responsibility.  But it was also very empowering, because it meant I had that responsibility…no more victimization by a capricious God who knew the rest of the story but kept it from me for reasons I would never know.  No more stuff simply happening in my life because of a “wise” being separate from me who was handing things out to people as he saw fit, sort of managing the universe and all the people in it like a gigantic puppeteer.  No more of this I don’t know what God’s will is, but if I’m a good girl he will give me something good.  None of that has ever made sense to me.   That kind of languaging is why I never could get interested in the traditional religions we have today.   This is why I like Centers for Spiritual Living so much.  In CSL, I have found a home.    In CSL, we have a statement of what we believe, and it fits me  pretty well.  Here it is.  What we Believe.  In part, it says that “We believe in the individualization of the Spirit in Us, and that all people are individualizations of the One Spirit.”

2.  God is not separate from me.  It is not a being out there somewhere.  I tend to get irritated when I hear people talking about God in the third person, as in “God’s will…God did this…God did that.”  That’s separate God speak.  Around CSLs call it duality or separation, and I can tell you that when I forget who and what I am and start believing in duality it isn’t pretty.   God is an energy force, everywhere present.  Yep:  everywhere.  In you and me and everything else.  This force obeys what is called Law, and Law says that what we think and believe manifests, because Law always says yes.  In this way, God does give us stuff, but it is only giving us that which we asked for……

Ooops.  I know that’s a biggie, and it is the one thing that most people have a difficult time with.  Not only is this a revolutionary idea for most, but it seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people.  All I can tell you is that an entire long-lasting worldwide movement has been founded on the concept of “change your thinking, change your life.”  It’s worked for me, maybe it will work for you too.  Even Albert Einstein said that you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it.  You must change your mind to solve the problems in  your life, and to do that, changing your concept of God is a good place to start.

So, if you are questioning the God stuff, you may want to ponder these sorts of things, and ask yourself how God works in your life, what God is to you.  Or if your life seems to consist of one problem after another, or if things just aren’t working out the way you wanted them to, you may want to consider learning more about God and how it can work in your life.

Here is the first of the twelve statements:

“We believe in God, the living Spirit Almighty; one, indestructible, absolute, and self-existent Cause. This One manifests Itself in and through all creation, but is not absorbed by Its creation. The manifest universe is the body of God; it is the logical and necessary outcome of the infinite self-knowingness of God.”

Sound a bit complicated?  I know it used to sound that way to me.  Now it isn’t.  Simply translated, it means we believe that one can call God anything one wants.  Whatever we call it, it created everything so that it could  experience the physical, yet it is not affected by the physical.  God simply knew, and what God knows becomes.

Taken a bit further, it means you were created by God as an expression of God so that it could experience the physical.  You are a part of God.  And because you are a part of God, you can also create simply by knowing.

Whoa…heavy duty stuff there.  Try it on for size.  See if it doesn’t feel better to know you are empowered to create, rather than simply having stuff created for you.   I know it felt better for me.

I’m stopping there.  Otherwise this will turn into another little mini book.  But I hope this will provoke something in you.  Maybe you will even feel moved to comment and start a discussion. I would love to see how others think and feel about this statement!

I thought that was appropriate because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what Easter means to me. Before I began ministerial school, the traditional stories of Easter never made much sense to me. What has made sense is the renewal and new life of spring, sort of a Wiccan/Native American/early goddess kind of thing.  I’ve written about such translations before.  But this year I’m in a new place.  It’s a bit of a different place, because for the first time in my life, due to a class called Metaphysical Bible, the Bible has come alive for me.

While many in New Thought consider themselves Christian and celebrate all the Christian holidays, I don’t.  So along comes a Christian holiday and I just want to hide under the covers until it all goes away. Even after two years of a very challenging Masters degree program designed to turn me into a minister.

I’m turning into a minister, but not a Christian one. I’m turning into a New Thought minister, and I am happy to embrace anything and everything as a spiritual tool if it will help improve my life and yours.

So I got to thinking about Easter this year, and about what I have learned, and about how what I have learned has once again changed me from the inside out.  What I really wanted to do was give a kick-ass Easter talk from a podium somewhere today, but in the absence of that, I’m just going to write this blog.  But if you ever see me behind a podium on Easter Sunday, you might hear a talk based on this post.

Easter, at least as the Bible tells it, is about the literal resurrection of THE son of God who gave his life so that all of us could be saved.  And then he was resurrected so he could come back and teach us all about the word of God.  Like I said, I have issues with this. I believe we are ALL the children of God. Not only that but I have been taught, and also believe, that we are physical manifestations of God, created so that God could experience the physical. And in New Thought we are taught that there is no such thing as sin, only a mistake, so being saved is totally unnecessary.

But what if there were another interpretation of that Bible story? I’ve learned the Bible is rich with wonderful life lessons that are indeed spiritual tools that can improve our lives. So let’s take a look at this story and see if we can’t bring out some richness in this story, maybe a spiritual tool or two that you can use to improve your life.

First of all, know that I’m going to take things out of context here.  I’m not going to write about the whole story leading up to the death of Jesus, and all the rich meaning in that story.  As I mentioned, the Bible is rich with good stuff, and I could write an entire post about one or two verses.  Maybe next year I’ll tackle Good Friday or Palm Sunday.  But for now we’ve got Easter, and the resurrection, the story of which is in Matthew 28.  Basically the story says that Jesus not only rose from his tomb, but there were witnesses in the form of his apostles and disciples.

Here’s where the richness comes in:

According to the Metaphysical meaning of the word resurrection (from the Metaphysical Bible Dictionary by Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity) is “the raising of man’s mind and body from sense to spiritual consciousness.”  A little bit further in the definition Fillmore says that resurrection is a lifting up, a renewal of the mind that makes a complete transformation of the body.”  And again, “The resurrection is an organic change that takes place daily…” and “the resurrection takes place here and now in all who conform their lives to the spiritual law under which it works.”

Dr. Rocco Errico is an expert on an accurate Biblical translation, and has worked to free the Bible from 2000 years of literal translation.  He has this wonderful explanation of the resurrection story (from the book Let there Be Light), which ties in nicely with the metaphysical definition.  Errico says that “the answer to understanding the resurrection of Jesus lies with the apostles and the disciples themselves.”  He says that when Jesus was crucified, all the hopes and dreams of the apostles and the disciples disintegrated.  They experienced a dark night of the soul, and from that proceeded to experience deep mental and emotional changes in their consciousness.  These changes allowed them to “transcend their former reasoning and begin to perceive things spiritually.”  Once they began to perceive things spiritually they were able to know that the spiritual influence of Jesus lived on.

Jesus did not resurrect physically, what he taught resurrected in the consciousness of his apostles and disciples.

This is what Easter is all about.  It’s about a change in our consciousness, a raising up of our consciousness, to allow us to see things in a spiritual way.  Such a change, unfortunately, usually only comes about after a dark night of the soul, a loss so great that we wonder if we will ever recover from it.  The Easter story says yes, we will recover.  It says yes, we will experience an uprising of our soul.  It says we will transcend the difficulty, whatever it is, and we will know peace.  I think the Easter story is a story of hope.

In a way, the springtime metaphor really is a good one.  My crocus has been underground, in the dark and cold, all alone, desolate, waiting for a signal to spring forth.  Since this morning, the bud that emerged has opened up a bit to reveal a beautiful bright orange piste inside.  It has transcended the darkness.  We don’t know, really, the process of how a bulb transforms from a bulb to a beautiful flower.  But I can tell you how a human can transform from darkness to light, from grief to peace, from shattered dreams to joy:  it’s about forgiveness and connection and process.  Again, the subject of several more posts, lest you begin to think I’m writing a book. Blog posts are supposed to be short so I’m going to stop here.

I feel better about Easter now, don’t you?  It’s a beautiful time to be alive!  A great time to enjoy new life, and to see that new life as a metaphor for our own lives:  a raising up of consciousness to an existence of joy and peace.

Happy Easter!

But the metaphor of a surprise rearrangement of furniture reminded me of change, and how we sometimes don’t do well with that…at all.  What is up with that?  I can walk into a room and see the furniture rearranged and see the humor in it all, but spring a change of a bigger sort on me, say a relationship change or a career change or a living situation change, and I am experiencing all sorts of fear based stuff like self pity, intolerance, judgement, sadness, distrust.

You would think I didn’t have a Power in my life that allows me to know that all is well, all the time.

The fact is, I do have that Power, and that makes it even worse.  Because having that Power should mean I shouldn’t be feeling all those fear based things, right?  We’ll talk about “shoulding” on yourself in another post, lest I get off track into dust bunny land again.  Back to the topic:   Fear should not be on my list of things to do with Power, right?  Well, that’s a lot easier said than done.

Here’s the deal with change, and fear based reactions, and having a Power in one’s life to help with all of that:  it takes consistent and persistent spiritual practices to be able to respond (not react) with love instead of fear.  It takes introspection, paying attention to one’s self, to be able to know that all is well in the face of uncertainty.  It takes meditation to feel a calm and a peace, no matter what.  And it takes constant thinking about that Power in our lives to be able to live a love based life rather than a fear based one.

It’s like taking a shower:  you can’t expect yesterday’s shower to keep you from smelling bad today.  One needs to shower every day.  One needs to do spiritual practices every day too.  That’s just the way it is if you want to live a happier, more peaceful and freer life.

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Except……somehow, I wanted to tie in today’s post with the image of the month.  These images are from a calendar I produce every year.  The images are mine, the quotes come from lots of different sources. The quote for this month just happens to come from…me!….Gotta tell you, it was a weird feeling to get the calendars back from the printer and open up to the month of April and see my quote there.  I liked it.  Anyway, here’s the quote and the image:

“When one does not know one’s own truth, one is subjected to the truth of others.”  (see those spiritual practices I talked about above, that’s how you know your own truth).

If you like this image, it is available for purchase (as a stand alone image, not with the black background and quote, although if you want that it’s available too!) here:  https://vando.imagequix.com/gallery.html?id=49R7J9W&eventid=1046-8080-0087

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Weekly meditation discussion group, Monday’s from 5 to 6 pm at the Center for Spiritual Living Lake Tahoe.  Cost is $10, address is 3665 Tamarack, South Lake Tahoe, CA

Looking for some one on one help?  Perhaps some coaching in a specific area of  your life?  Or some lessons on how to deepen your spiritual practice?  Karen Linsley is a Licensed Spiritual Practitioner and offers sessions over the phone or in person. Contact her at 530-906-9336 for pricing and more information.