| Dated: Feb. 15/00 |
For those of you who do not know I have been in Unity
Village and I will remain there for the rest of the two years to become
a Unity Minister and I just finished my first term and I am break, and
I just had to run back and see you all. I love Unity Village. I love the
transformative process that I am going through; the curriculum, the classmates,
the instructors; and it is all so beautiful, but I do miss family and friends
and I do think of Unity of London as my wonderful friends. It is beautiful
to be back here with you.
I am going to do things a little differently today. I
have been guided during my sojourn in Unity to decide that we have to do
more experiential prayer and meditation in the service, so I am going to
start with a shorter meditation. After the lesson we will do some more
meditation and we will see how that goes.
So I invite you to get comfortable in your seats and join
me in this holy time for prayer. Sit back comfortably and close your eyes,
if that feels good to you. Just begin to relax into the arms of spirit.
Feel that comforting and beautiful presence, as it enfolds and supports
you. Focus on your breathing and become aware of your breath, as it comes
in and out. Don't try to control it, just become aware of it.
Turning your attention to your heart. Feel that perfect
peace within you. Feel that wellspring of joy that resides within your
heart, just allow it to expand and radiate until it fills your whole being.
Peace and joy are our natural birthrights, our natural state and as we
allow spirit to move through us, we experience that awareness and we invite
that awareness into our beings, now!
As we acknowledge that God is our only source. There is
only God, the One Presence and the One Power. Infinite Potential, within
us, infinite possibilities, limitless!
Thou dost keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed
on thee. As we remain God centred, we experience the peace that passes
all understanding. Thank you, God for your healing and nurturing presence,
and I invite you to remain in this God centred state, to be open to the
truth and in the name and in the power of the Christ, we say God, amen.
[MUSIC now for a time.]
Thank you Randy that was wonderful!
"Signs and wonders," the title of my talk today. I saw
a great sign in the front of a church, the other day, and it said; " Need
a Sign?" That is all that it said! Here's one! [Laughter] and all around
us are signs of spirit. We just need to recognize them, and to understand
what they are telling us. Yoggi Berra once said "that you can learn a lot
just by watching." One thing that I have learned in the past few months
of living at Unity Village is that every event that happens and every person
that crosses my path has meaning! If I can learn to look at those things
with those spiritual eyes, with that spiritual discernment, I can really
understand what is going on, inside of me and what signs are telling me.
There is an old Italian proverb that says, "To him (or
her) that watches, everything is revealed!" so if you look at all these
events, you start asking the question, "What is spirit telling me?" What
is the blessing in this for me? What is the lesson here? When we can start
to get answers, when we ask ourselves those kind of questions, we actually
can get the answers. So let me tell you about a sign that I received one
warm summer night in July in Unity Village.
One night there I was, very open, to all of the limitless
possibilities that were in store for me in the next two years of my life,
living on the grounds at Unity Village. I'll never forget the moon that
night. It was so beautiful and full. It was a warm summer night and I had
just been at an all day meditation retreat, so I was really feeling open
and expansive and I was not ready to go to sleep yet, so I was walking
the Village.
I walked over to the activity centre and if you look in
the windows of the activity centre you can see the huge portraits of the
Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, the cofounders of Unity. It appears that they
are looking down at you and smiling. So, I stood there looking at Charles
and Myrtle, and I said you know, I really love this movement, this Unity
movement and I want to be a good minister and I need your help. So I walked
over to a spot that is known as Myrtle's Grove, outside, and I sat there
and I listened to the sounds of the night, and as people walked by I could
feel their voices, I could hear their voices; kind of melting through the
summer air and it was really a magic night, it was kind of a God moment.
So, in that state that I was in, I went into meditation
and I began to pray and pray and I just said, "God, give me a sign! You
know, give me something that is so clear, so unmistakable that I cannot
miss the meaning! Burn me a bush! Like I really want to hear this message!
So, just at that moment, I became very guided to stand up, right then,
and it just felt like, "Get up and move!" Right then! So I started to walk
and every step felt like I was making my way to a divine appointment and
I was about to cross paths with something that was going to give me a sign
and it was just really felt good. I just really understood this feeling
of destiny and purpose. So there I was feeling so expansive, the night
sky was so beautiful! I was looking up and I was so full of this feeling
of God, of being God centred, and I started walking down the road which
leads through the golf course, to the home that I live in, and as I was
walking through the golf course, I was looking up, I was so engrossed in
how I was feeling, that I failed to notice that not 2 feet away from me,
on the side of the road, was a skunk. [Lots of laughter]
Wow! I suddenly became aware of this animal presence,
very close by, and when I looked down I could see the unmistakable black
and white. Right there at my feet. The skunk sat there and I noticed that
the tail was poised and ready to strike. I ran very, very fast! Now, I
am a fast runner, and I like to jog and work out, and I am talking hyper
space! I do not think my feet touched the ground! I was halfway through
the golf course when I finally allowed myself to slow down and I my knees
were weak and I was shaking and I looked behind me and that skunk was nowhere
to be found. I was [thinking], like, "Oh God, thank you!" Wow! I calmed
down a little bit and I got really angry, and I said, "What kind of a sign
was that, God?" You know! At Unity Village we hear these wonderful stories
of people asking for a sign and they get these anonymous $50 dollar bills
in their mail boxes. They get butterflies landing on their heads.
I get a skunk! [Laughter] You know, it did not look good!
I was just telling Charles and Myrtle that I want to be a good minister.
Was this some kind of message? I do not know! So I got into the humour
of it, you know and I thought, a cosmic joke. This is very funny, thank
you, God, that is good.
So I rounded the bend to go home and who do you think
that I met up with again? The same skunk! You see, this skunk did a bee
line through the golf course and I did the perimeter. The law of mathematics
says . . . The same skunk! You know what! We stood there looking at each
other in disbelief. [Much laughter] Neither one of us could believe it!
Well, this time I did not run and I slowly edged back and gave a respectful
distance and just watched the skunk as he lopped across and disappeared
into the night. I was just shaking my head and you know, not once but twice
and you give me a message. What is it? I went home and I went to bed, and
I was very confused and I could not understand it and I am just going to
sleep and forget about this.
So, the next morning I got up and my house mate was in
the kitchen having her breakfast and then I said, "I got to tell you what
happened to me last night." So I sat down and told her the whole story.
She sat nodding and smiling. When I finished my story, she had finished
her Cheerios and she said in her delightful North Carolina accent, "Well,
you know Jane, when you try to run away from things that stink in your
life, they are just going to cross your path again later." [Great laughter]
Well, she had a point! You know, I was running from something,
and it was showing up over and over again in my life, so I resolved right
there and then, to do something about it and I thank Charles and Myrtle
for their advice. At ministerial school we have this saying that says,
"That will preach!" I decided that will preach! So I journalled this whole
experience and just put it aside so I could use it in a talk. It really
spoke to me. It was like, you know, ask for a sign and you will get one.
Ask for guidance and it will come! Maybe in a way that you have to think
about it, but it is there! It happens. Red sky at night, sailors delight.
We have learned to read and interpret the signs of the physical world around
us. Today is the end of the summer, the beginning of the fall solstice.
How do we know it? Well, we look around us and we see
that the leaves are changing and the air has a definite crispiness to it.
The signs are unmistakable and we know how to interpret that. Well, we
need to find that same way of interpreting the events of our outer lives,
in the same way. Then we can understand their meaning, the same way we
can understand what it means to have leaves falling. You see? In the book,
"The Celestine Prophesy," one of the nine insights is that everything that
happens, every person that crosses our path, (every skunk that crosses
our path), brings us a message from spirit. If we begin to view our lives
that way, it opens the door to greater and greater understanding.
The Pharisees asked Jesus to give them a sign, and his
answer was, "You know how to discern the face of the sky but you cannot
discern
the signs of the times." Then he adds, "No sign will be given to you except
the sign of Jonah." I thought that was kind of curious, what did he mean
by that? Well, if you remember poor Jonah in the Bible, he was a reluctant
prophet. That is, he could receive divine instructions but he did not act
on them. What happened to him? Because of his narrow religious beliefs,
it was beyond his spiritual understanding.
One of our assignments this term in school was to get
up and do a three minute talk on, "How we got to ministerial school!" Try
to do that in three minutes! It is really challenging. Of course, we had
a total diversity of stories. We all came from different backgrounds, different
places. We all got here in a different way. But, there was one commonality
to the stories, that was almost to a person, and that was, when each of
us got the idea of becoming a minister; every one of us said the same thing.
"No way am I doing that!" No way! We pushed it away from ourselves. No,
God, you made a mistake. I am not doing that. It took a series of events
for each one of us to finally say, "Yeah, maybe I should be doing this!"
We were receiving that guidance and we were just pushing it away and ignoring
it. How many of us have actually developed to the point where we are receiving
spiritual instruction and we are not acting on it? I am one of those people,
yes. Although, I am learning to follow the guidance now. That is my big
lesson at Unity Village, is to take that to heart and to know the truth
that God is telling me what to do and is showing me where to go, and actually,
following that guidance.
Well, God told Jonah to go east and assuming that is east
[pointing eastwards] to Nineveh and to preach to those people. Well, he
did not like the people of Nineveh. So, not only did he not go east, but
he got on a ship and he went as far west as he could. As he was going on
the ship, a great storm arose and the sailors decided and understood that
Jonah was the problem. So they tossed him overboard and well, what else
would you do? He ended up in the belly of a whale, for three days, thinking
about what he had done. You know, when we disobey our highest leadings,
we get ourselves into trouble. We bring that trouble upon ourselves. The
interesting thing is that the condition you think will save you, getting
on that ship and going west, is the very thing that will bring us more
problems. For those problems just get worse, and in fact we find ourselves
floundering in the belly of the whale. Just like Jonah, we cry to the Lord
and that is what he did. After praying he gets regurgitated and is given
a second chance to do God's Will. God always us a second chance. God's
Will for us is our highest good. God's Will for us is Love. There is always
that second chance from God to do it again, so we did not quite get it
this time, it will come around again and we will get another chance. This
time Jonah does as he was asked, although reluctantly. Have you ever acted
in the wrong spirit, knowing what you are doing is right, but not coming
from that place of love? Not really feeling the feeling, but just going
through the motions. Well, every time I have done that, I have never been
happy with the results. That in itself, is a sign. If I am not happy with
the outer conditions in my life, with the way my life is going, it is a
good indication that I am not coming from the heart. That there is something
inside that I have to look at and make a change there.
A person said. "Each one sees what he carries in his heart"
"Each one sees what he carries in his heart!" What you see around you,
is indicating what is inside of you. It is an important message. We are
meant to be about our Father's Business. That's why we are here! It is
our commission from God. If we are not doing what we came here to do, we
will be off track and we will know it. The word sin actually means, missing
the mark. It is a term in archery and if we are sinning, and I don't like
that word. But, that is OK. That is all it really means, we are off track.
We have to get back on track. George Sweeting said, "that the main thing
is to keep the main thing, the main thing!" Keep the focus, be on track.
If you are off track, get back on track! How do we do that? Let me tell
you a story!
There was a certain guide that lived in the Arabian Desert,
and he never, ever lost his way! Because, he carried with him a homing
pigeon with a very fine cord attached to its legs, and whenever he was
in doubt as to which way to go, he would let that homing pigeon go, and
it would immediately tug in the direction of home. Then he would bring
it back in and that would be the direction that he would go. Because of
this unique practice, he was known as the dove man. So to, even as the
story ends, the Holy Spirit, the heavenly dove, can guide and direct us
in the right path, if we listen and follow the lead. That is the answer.
We listen to spirit. We have to listen. We have to get quiet and be still
and go to that place within us that knows and listen. Ask the questions
and listen for the answers. Its gentle prompting is always for our highest
good. If we do not feel right with ourselves and our world, it is so easy
to turn to outer things. People get into substance abuse and overeating
and over exercising. Anything to deal with that feeling that our life is
not going the way that it should, when what we need to do is to go within,
and just listen to that voice. In the Course In Miracles, there is a lesson
that reads, "Let me be still and listen to the truth" and in that lesson
we are instructed to, listen to God and [I love these words] Listen to
God through his appointed voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless.
Isn't that good? "The thunder of the meaningless." Our inner voice is always
with us, no matter how far we have strayed from the path. No matter how
far [away] we have left our inner convictions. No matter how high the wall
we have built, around ourselves. No matter how loud the thunder! That inner
voice is always there, always waiting and willing to lead us back and to
hold us steady. To carry us forward, and to help us reawaken to the truth
of who we are.
There is a wonderful poem which reads, "God speaks to
me within the silence of my soul. I go apart to learn of love, and there
He teaches me the secret language of His Heart." The secret language of
the heart! Those inner feelings and intuitions and feelings; and the pure
knowing that it is within us. "Even the gods emulate those who are awakened,"
said the Buddha. Establishment of a meditation menu meant freedom and being
at peace. It is through our beautiful time in the silence that we open
the door to the blessing of the spirit, and we hear that voice of God.
The silence is not just the absence of sound. It is that place within us
that is our connection to the divine.
I once read about a mother monkey in a zoo whose baby
was sitting in a tree with her. The baby began to venture out and explore,
until he got farther and farther, and suddenly it occurred to him that
he was too far from mother, so he ran back, just to touch. Then he ventured
out again in another direction, and he went farther and farther, until
he remembered, and then he ran back and touched the mother again. He repeated
this behaviour over and over again, and it made me think that this is an
illustration of our own journey. Return to our source, we touch and we
tap that divine parent within us. We turn our awareness to the other world,
we go out and we venture and we explore, and then we have got to come back
in and touch that divine parent again. We have to keep that connection
very strong. Charles Fillmore sat in the silence for hours, every night.
He called it the door to the fourth dimension. I love that! It is so 90's,
and he said it way back. It was in that beautiful time of prayer that we
tap into our higher self.
I like to think of myself as God's secretary. I go in
and get my instructions for the day, and ideally I carry them out. Frequently
that is becoming more and more the truth for me. There is a saying that
says, "Go as far as you can see, and when you get there, you will always
be able to see a little farther." Maybe we don't see the whole picture
right now, but if we keep on following those steps that spirit leads us,
we will be given the next piece of the puzzle as we need it. I heard a
great line the other day, "God gives us life on a need to know basis."
That is good!
Whenever I look over all of the events that brought me
here, it amazes me, how each piece of the puzzle fit where it should, and
how right it all was. Our mission in life is to lead a God centred life
in perfect peace. Our way-shower demonstrated such a life. By focussing
on the Christ within us, we can understand our purpose and we can bless
all those around us and bless ourselves. Because we are each really a spark
of the Divine Will, we will never be satisfied until we are actually doing
what we came here to do. Peace on Earth, peace between the nations, peace
between communities and peace between family members; it all begins in
the individual. You and I, empowered to share our life together. I want
to leave you with a sign. I want to teach you a sign. This is a sign from
Unity, and I will show you how to do that. Put your fingers together, like
this. Put your three fingers up, join up the thumbs, and we start at the
heart, and we turn to the right twice in a circular motion, and then forward.
There! That says, Unity! Wonderful!
I want us to experience a meditation together. We are
going to get still and really tap into that, knowing inside of us, because
it is really there. It is just awaiting our discovery. So I invite you
to sit back in your seats. It is our time to become still [music is beginning
for the meditation] and to just allow the God within us to express. Let's
slow down our breathing and listen to the words of the song.
[A tape of a song is now played by Jane]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Be still
and know."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Be still
right where you are, just as you are."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "The voice
of love speaks to you again and again."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Let your
breath take you to that secret place."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "The place
the ancients called the Holy of Holies."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Right, where
you are."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Just as you
are."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "With every
breath I send my message of love."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "In each moment,
I send my message of peace."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I call to
you to remember, my joy."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I have called
you by your name."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "You are my
beloved in whom I am well pleased."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I am in you
as love."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I speak to
you in the music of the spheres."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I speak to
you through the grass of the prairies."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I speak to
you from the depths of the forest."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I speak to
you through the peace of the ocean."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I am in you
as light."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "I am your
life."]
Be still and know, I am God. [Jane repeats; "Be still
and know."]
[Music ends] Here in the silence we will know God. [SILENCE
for a time]
Here in the quiet we shall awaken to the truth of our
being. Be still and know!
Thank you, God for the oneness that joins each one of
us, for the blessed divine spirit, that resides within us. Thank you for
the peace in this room. Thank you for the understanding that you are our
source. Amen.
Thank you for letting me share with you today. I bless
and honour each one of you. I want to let you know what a joy it has been
to be back up here, today. I look forward to our next meeting. God blesses
you!
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