Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

This is a second installment in a series based on the philosophy of Centers for Spiritual Living, taken from a piece written by founder Ernest Holmes called “What We Believe.”

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!