Welcome to the Lake Tahoe Spiritual Living Center!

We are halfway through the Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life class.  Can you believe it?  It seems like just yesterday that I was writing all about beginning metaphysics in preparation for the class: things like affirmations and visualizations.  I even got a very nice letter from a Unity minister who was concerned that I was sending the wrong message about our belief system by talking only beginning metaphysics in my posts.  But there is a method to my madness!

In the class, the students have learned that the bottom line is that it all starts within.  This is where  the meaning of life part of the title comes in:  everything comes from within.  ALL outside conditions begin within, and it is within where we must make the changes if we wish to change our outside.  This is what our teaching is all about.  And the key to changing our insides is changing our beliefs and changing the way we feel about things.  We’ve discussed this a bit in class.

Now, we are moving on to another bottom line in the class, and this is where we move a bit beyond beginning metaphysics.  It’s about giving.  For it is in the giving that we receive, just like all the ancient wisdom and traditions tell us.    But just like everything else, it is the feeling behind our giving that gives meaning to the action.  If we just give because we are told to do so and our sole motive is to receive, then we are defeating the purpose of the Law.  We are simply activating more of “what’s in it for me?” syndrome.

Giving is a profound spiritual way of living that truly does allow us to receive all the good that there is.  I’m not talking about simply giving money, or tithing.  I’m talking about giving of ourselves.  And I’m talking about giving because it gives us joy to do so, not with an ulterior motive in mind.  I’m talking about giving at work:  instead of showing up late and leaving early and thinking in terms of pay and benefits and what you can get out of your job, try showing up early and leaving a bit late and being fully present for the job and giving totally to it and being grateful for the work and thinking in terms of what you can contribute, not only to the job but to the team with which you work and the organization you work for.  (I realize that’s a run-on sentence, but if Thomas Troward can do it, so can I!)

I’m talking about giving fully in  your relationships.  Do you hold back a bit?  Not give totally of yourself to your loved one, whether from fear or from something else?  You will truly get what you give in a situation like this.

I’m talking about giving fully in your spiritual community.  I’m not talking about tithing here, although that is an important part but subject to a whole ‘nuther post on it’s own.  I’m talking about being a part of your community.  Not just showing up on Sundays and getting what you can out of the message and then leaving.  If that’s all you do, then that is all you will recieve.  I’m talking about being a part of a spiritual community, just like an extended family, and helping out in much the same way as you would help around the house at home.  You DO help around the house at home don’t you?

I’m talking about coming from an attitude of gratitude and givingness in ALL of your affairs, all the time.  When you do this, you will receive the Stars and the Moon.  You will experience all of life’s joys and treasures and abundance and every wonderful thing that is possible.

This is the true meaning of life.  The meaning comes from within us, and we can give that meaning whatever we wish:  either taking and resentment, or giving and love.  I prefer the latter, what about you?

One of the principles of manifesting abundance of any kind into your life is that of allowing or accepting.  You don’t have to ask, or demand, and even pray.  But you do have to allow the good that is already yours to come to you.  You have to accept that you deserve all the good that there is.

Do you believe that you deserve all the good there is?  Are there exceptions to  your belief?  It is in the exceptions that you can find the limitations you place upon yourself.  If you are experiencing limitation in your life in any area, do not look to the outside for the cause.  Your limitation does not come from the economy, or your partner (or lack of one), or any other outside effect.  It comes from within, just as everything comes from within.

It does not matter whether your lack manifests as not enough money, not enough time, relationship issues, or simply a yearning for something more in your life.  It all comes from within.  Take yourself on a journey of inner exploration and discover where your limitations are living.  Find the ruts in your life, and unfurnish them!  Allow those limitations to be released, with love and gratitude for the ways in which they once served you in your life.  Then open yourself up to that Power within and feel the new flow of Energy.

Within you is that Divine Source that knows all and is all.  You are a part of that Divine Source.  Connect with that, and know the same thing as Divine Source.  Connect with that great Reality deep within you, and you will feel the awesome Power that flows through you and then you will Know, just as Source knows, that all the good that there is was already there for you, it was simply waiting for you to allow it to flow in and through your life.

I don’t know about you, but whenever I start studying a spiritual principle, I see evidence of its truth wherever I go, whatever I do.  Such is the case now, as I have been diving into the two books for Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life for several weeks now, and am seeing and feeling prosperity everywhere.  So I know it was no accident nor a coincidence that I opened my current daily meditation book (Practice the Presence, by Edward Viljoen and Chris Michaels) to read an entry on abundance, that fits right in with what we will be studying in the class!  So, I’m going to quote it here in full because Revs. Edward and Chris said it so well!

“The things that will destroy America are prosperity at any price, peace at any price, safety first instead of duty first and love of soft living and the get-rich-quick theory of life.”

Theodore Roosevelt

And, the writing from the book:

“ABUNDANCE

Prosperity teachings must be balanced with emotional and spiritual maturity in order to make sense. Otherwise, ideas of prosperity or abundance result in the thinking that there is a Universal Vending Machine that doles out anything we want, no coins required. This is not how the world works.

Prosperity comes from a deep appreciation of the Presence and how it works in your life. An awareness of the Presence leads to service, love, and contribution. By implementing these practices, you will begin to notice the flow of love and every good thing in life.

Abundant living has more to do with awareness of the fullness of life as it is, rather than with amassing huge sums of money or avoiding the responsibility to contribute. As you practice charity, meditation, and sacredness, you pay the required price of knowing your true abundant self better. It is part of the natural order of things to realize that you live, move, and have your being in a Universe that works for you.”

Thank you Revs. Edward and Chris!

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

“Carry your white cloud of syntrophy out into the world.”  It’s another quote from Spiritual Economics, by Eric Butterworth, which is one of the books we will be studying for Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life.

What exactly does syntrophy mean?  I had to look it up, and according to various dictionaries, it is the interaction created by the merging of  two entities that neither could do alone.  And according to Butterworth, it refers to an innate drive in living forms to perfect themselves.  As humans, this concept is illustrated in our drive.  Those of you who are taking this class, as well as others who are studying, doing spiritual practices every day, seeking to improve that contact with Spirit and allow it to live and move and have its being in their lives are practicing syntrophy.

It is the merging of our being with that of Spirit’s to effect change in our lives, because neither can do it alone.  Spirit needs us to experience the physical, and we need Spirit to flow through us to allow us to experience all the good that is ours to experience.

So when we carry our white cloud of syntrophy into the world, it means we are one with the One, and no outside force can effect that.  We are not subject to whatever people are saying the economy is doing these days, that is irrelevant.  We are subject to our own higher truth, and all is well.

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

One of the things we will talk about during the Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life class is where your abundance comes from.  If you’ve been a metaphysician for a while you might already know that money does not come from outer sources such as your job, your investments or any outside source.  That’s just an effect of what is inside of you.  Abundance comes from your beliefs, your thoughts and your feelings.  And more specifically, abundance comes from your relationship with Spirit.

Are you still harboring beliefs of a God that needs to be feared, that punishes us or judges us?  Do you still believe in a limiting God?  If so, you will experience limit in your life.  But if you believe in a Spirit that is All, unlimited, infinite, every where present, then you will experience abundance in your life. It is time to examine your beliefs about God.  If you are experiencing lack or limitation in your life it is not God’s fault.  It’s no one’s fault, but it is an indication that some beliefs need to be changed.

Lack and limitation do not have to manifest financially.  There are other ways lack and limitation can manifest:  perhaps your relationships don’t function the way you want them to, or maybe health issues are limiting your freedom.  Do you find yourself saying, “I can’t do that because…..”?  If so, it is time to examine your beliefs, because it is there that the seeds of your life are being planted.

Go within, search for how you feel about Spirit, and Cause and Effect, and Abundance in your life.  Make some changes if needed.

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City (for 8 weeks beginning October 13) and on Thursdays (beginning October 14) in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

Can you see money as a symbol of love and integrity?

This is one of the concepts we will be covering in the Money, Metaphysics and The Meaning of Life class.

The flow of abundance comes from within.   The more we embody emotions of love, gentleness and peace, the more we eliminate limitation in our lives.   We are trained to think, especially in Western culture, that all of our peace, prosperity and joy comes from outside things.  This line of thinking stems from a time when religion was used to control the population.  All schools of thought that encouraged us to seek, connect with and develop that power within us were eliminated in favor of a religion that instead created ways to control the populace:   An outside god which could only be reached through an approved  intermediary (priest) in an approved place (church).

Today we are experiencing a groundswell of teachings that are allowing us to think that perhaps there might be a different way.  We have all power, simply by connecting with the Source within us.  We can make that connection in any place,  at any time.  And if we embody the qualities of Source, we will experience the results we have been seeking.

It’s a bit of a scary thing to realize that we have ultimate responsibility for our lives.  I remember when I first had that realization, and for a brief moment I wanted to return to the old way of thinking: that of an outside God which controlled everything, including my life.  But the lure of all that freedom that comes with the responsibility was too strong, I wanted to be free!  And so I began a journey which has culminated in me being where I am today:  teaching a class called Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life to other folks who want to be free!

I was blessed with wonderful coaches on my journey, and am privileged to still be blessed with awesome teachers on this journey that continues.  It makes the journey easier to have people in my life who have walked the path before me, and it is indeed a gift that I now am in a place to light that path for others who want to follow it.

I hope to see  you in class!  But if not, keep reading, for much of my blog the next month until class starts will be featuring some of the things we will be covering in the class.

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Karen Linsley, RScP, is a licensed Spiritual Coach and current Ministerial Student at Holmes Institute.  She will be teaching Money, Metaphysics and the Meaning of Life on Wednesday nights in Carson City and on Thursdays in Lake Tahoe.  For more information, email her at karen@laketahoespirituallivingcenter.com

The first step in achieving a goal successfully is knowing who you are.

And who you are is a Being of Light.  You are a part of Spirit.  You are Essence.  You are Life Itself.

You are all those Attributes of Spirit that we strive for in Treatment:  joy, abundance, happiness, peace, well being.

All you need to do to reach your goals is embody who and what you are.

As you go through your day, ask yourself if the way you are behaving embodies your Truth.  Did the way you just treated that person allow your Essence to shine through?  Does the way you treat yourself allow you to know who and what you are?

Embody your Truth, and you will reach your goals.

Today’s post is about abundance.  If you look around at what Mother Nature has to offer, it’s abundance.  Consider the ocean, with never ending waves rolling in to the beach, one after the other, merging with the sand.  Consider the sand.  How many grains of sand are there?  An abundant amount, you can be sure.  Even in times of seeming lack, for example in a drought, there are critters and plants that thrive in drought situations.  Have you ever seen a hillside covered with wildflowers?  It is an amazing sight, and never fails to remind me of nature’s abundance.  There is abundance everywhere, but sometimes we need to look for it.  Remember that what you place your attention on thrives, so think about examples of abundance in  your life today, and thrive!

Sometimes, like this morning, I get up and start to contemplate what I’m going to write about…..and nothing comes.  So I go trolling on Twitter for ideas, and didn’t get any.  Normally some of my friends  on Facebook will post cool quotes in the morning and I can grab hold of a topic there, or perhaps get one from one of the daily inspirational emails I recieve.  But nothing was jumping out at me..except..yesterday a lady I’ve known as an acquaintance asked me, “how is it that you are  so peaceful all the time, so spiritual?  I want that!”  Now, this is a lady who knows nothing about New Thought, nothing about the Centers for Spiritual Living, nothing about Practitioners, treatment work, or daily spiritual practices.  I had a newbie on my hands, and found myself tongue tied!  Here she was, asking for information, and I started stuttering.  What’s up with that?  I guess I was so excited to be able to bring this wonderful message to someone that I got all puppy like:  you know, when a puppy gets so excited they don’t know what to do with themself and so they widdle all over the floor?  Sort of like that.

But I finally calmed down and gathered my wits about me and pulled up What We Believe on the main Centers for Spiritual Living web site (http://www.unitedcentersforspiritualliving.org/Philosophy/phil_beliefs.php) and then we had a good discussion about the difference between prayer and treatment, daily spiritual practices, specifically meditation and journaling, shame based organized religions, guilt, immortality and reincarnation.  Whew!  It was fun!  The conversation ended with her making a treatment request, which was way  cool as well.  We will have more conversations, she and I, because she is hungry, and I am excited about that.

So I get up this morning, and all I can think of  is what a wonderful world this is.  What a wonderful world that we have choices as to what to believe, what to do that brings us peace, what we can say.  What a wonderful world this is that I have, um….about a zillion places to go on the web for inspiration, and about a half a zillion books to open for more inspiration.  What a wonderful world this is that I can go to my morning place with my pillows and my heater and my kitties and my cup of coffee and sit in the silence and go within to that special place that is always full of peace.  What a wonderful world this is that I can then grow that special place, enlarge it, so that the peace within shows up on the outside for people to notice.  And what a wonderful  world this is that I get to talk about it:  on this blog, with my clients, at my Center, and with a bunch of  like minded people that keep showing up in my life.

I hope  today that you are able to know what a wonderful world this is.  Make a gratitude list.  Go outside in the nice spring weather and enjoy all the bounty Mother Nature is stirring up at the moment.  Feel the abundance:  of air, of inspirational sources on the web and in print; of little spring things cropping up, of ideas, of fun things to do, of work, of play, of peace.  If you are reading this blog today, know that my treatment for you is that you too will know what a wonderful world this is!

And so it is!

“There is no great and no small, to the Soul that maketh all; and whence It cometh all thingds are, and It cometh everywhere.”  Emerson

This quote is awesome.  I like it because it calls that Great Oneness an “It” and because it also calls It Soul.  There are lots of names for what most people call God, and all of them are appropriate.  My favorite right now is probably The Force.

I quite frequently will suggest to my clients that they come up with their own definition of Spirit.  Even though, by Its very Nature, It is undefinable and we place our own human limitations on something that is Infinite, it helps to have a concept of It that is uniquely our own, the we can identify with.

But I’m getting off track  here! The point of today’s blog is that there is no big and no small to the Universe.  There is no request to great that Spirit cannot handle.  The Law sees 17 million dollars the same way it sees 17 dollars, there is no difference.  The limitations come from ourselves.

So when sitting down to affirm the good in  your life, be sure not to limit yourself.  Think outside the little box that we seem to place ourselves in.  Go big, aim high, set your intentions for the  grandest thing you can think of, and know that the Universe is conspiring for your good!