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October 13, 2013 – A Consciousness of Generosity

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10/13/13 Rev. David McArthur
Daily Generosity, and One Outrageous Generosity

After straightening out an order she had screwed up, a waitress continued to serve a large group cheerfully, but their “tip” was a note with a big zero and the words, “maybe you’ll get it right the next time.” What consciousness is that?! The next table had heard them preparing the “tip”, and left her a note, “Don’t let anyone take away your smile,” and a $100.00 bill! Now that was a consciousness of inclusion and creativity. The mind tells us what we get out of an experience. But the heart sees that what we give is ours.

Walking to school, a mother and her small son were reading signs. A homeless woman had a sign saying, “I am hungry and need food.” Taking half half of his sandwich from his lunchbox the boy gave it to her. Then he took his mother’s hand again and continued to school without commenting. A consciousness of generosity.

I have remembered “past lives”, if that’s what they were. I gained much from those memories. From being a war leader instrumental in spreading much human suffering to an obedient foot soldier on the front line, facing certain death. As a woman, I was abused, beaten, and raped; and as a child abandoned and starved to death. But I never experienced anything that I had not given previously. In each of those experiences there was always someone of loving generosity. These people were experiencing their spiritual selves. The more I learned of generosity from them, the more wholeness I began to experience life after life. Consciousness grows over time. Through the generosity of others I began to change. To the saying, “If you give a man a fish…” add, “If you teach a man to LOVE you feed a village for a lifetime, and they will feed the world.”

It’s like there’s a great energy that flows into the people and their lives. If there is a lack in our lives it is a reflection of a lack within ourselves. So we need to increase our generosity and be aware that we are opening our consciousness to this great energy. This week, each day, experience giving a little more, and once this week, give with outrageous generosity. Affirm with me, “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” “Joyously and generously God’s abundance flows through me!” It does, through you!–and it’s a kick! Bless you!

October 6, 2013 – Healing the Country’s Consciousness

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10/6/13 Rev. David McArthur
Healing the Country’s Consciousness

Our scientific understanding of intuition is growing. In work on the electromagnetic field of the heart, 4 subjects were wired up. 3 sent expressions of love (appreciation, care, and compassion) to the 4th, who had no clue about heart coherence. Yet his coherence response was very high. He even found it more difficult than usual to get into incoherence and feelings of discord and separation.

Jesus taught, “Love one another.” Were His teachings actually instructions on the work of transforming human kind? His instructions that we are beginning to learn not only lift us each up individually, but change the very fabric of humankind. Love heals the collective unconscious.

When I saw all the violence on the news, I went into judgment. It does feel good to know when I am right. But I had to ask, “What is the contribution we make to that experience of violence? What is needing healing?” Physical violence is an expression of pain, and thus a call for healing. Emotional violence is a call for healing emotional pain. Where we use our control of finances to hurt others financially is financial violence. In Congress, it is an out-picturing of the government’s consciousness, and since it is our government, of our consciousness.

I choose to send love when I see violence. It is our work. We can’t play the blame game anymore. Here we have made a conscious commitment to change violence in the world. Every Sunday we attune ourselves to love and radiate it out to others because it is part of our work. The experience of financial violence is our opportunity to heal the pain deep in our society experienced as financial loss.

What energy of love would heal that? The energy of unconditional love. Feel it go out from your heart. I noticed, however, I didn’t feel it for “them”, but I could feel it for any number of special people in my life. So I just let myself feel unconditional love for a loved one and then I can send that out to anyone! “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to our congressmen, regardless of party, “I enfold you in unconditional love!” —to those doing financial violence in our society, and to those afraid in their own homes of financial violence. “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to members of your own family, too. There is a world seeking to heal. You are here because you are a part of the Presence. You are unconditional love!

October 6, 2013 – Healing the Country’s Consciousness

by

10/6/13 Rev. David McArthur
Healing the Country’s Consciousness

Our scientific understanding of intuition is growing. In work on the electromagnetic field of the heart, 4 subjects were wired up. 3 sent expressions of love (appreciation, care, and compassion) to the 4th, who had no clue about heart coherence. Yet his coherence response was very high. He even found it more difficult than usual to get into incoherence and feelings of discord and separation.
Jesus taught, “Love one another.” Were His teachings actually instructions on the work of transforming human kind? His instructions that we are beginning to learn not only lift us each up individually, but change the very fabric of humankind. Love heals the collective unconscious.
When I saw all the violence on the news, I went into judgment. It does feel good to know when I am right. But I had to ask, “What is the contribution we make to that experience of violence? What is needing healing?” Physical violence is an expression of pain, and thus a call for healing. Emotional violence is a call for healing emotional pain. Where we use our control of finances to hurt others financially is financial violence. In Congress, it is an out-picturing of the government’s consciousness, and since it is our government, of our consciousness.

I choose to send love when I see violence. It is our work. We can’t play the blame game anymore. Here we have made a conscious commitment to change violence in the world. Every Sunday we attune ourselves to love and radiate it out to others because it is part of our work. The experience of financial violence is our opportunity to heal the pain deep in our society experienced as financial loss.

What energy of love would heal that? The energy of unconditional love. Feel it go out from your heart. I noticed, however, I didn’t feel it for “them”, but I could feel it for any number of special people in my life. So I just let myself feel unconditional love for a loved one and then I can send that out to anyone! “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to our congressmen, regardless of party, “I enfold you in unconditional love!” —to those doing financial violence in our society, and to those afraid in their own homes of financial violence. “I enfold you in unconditional love!” Send it to members of your own family, too. There is a world seeking to heal. You are here because you are a part of the Presence. You are unconditional love!

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September 29, 2013 – Handle What Is Important With Prayer

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9/29/13 Rev. David McArthur
Handle What Is Important With Prayer

Usually when we go into prayer we don’t know what’s really going on. Melissa’s mother had a stroke. The only thing to do was a surgical procedure with only a 1% chance of success, likely leaving her a vegetable. With a tradition of prayer, the family asked their spiritual community to join them in prayer during surgery. It was an 8 hour ordeal. That night, exhausted, Melissa prayed before falling asleep. She dreamed she was in a courtroom, and her mother was asking the judge, God, to let her return to health so that she could continue to aid her family. Upon awakening, Melissa felt a deep sense of peace. At the hospital Melissa found her mother conscious and lucid! Some of the equipment had already been removed because of her mother’s returning vitality. We have a difficult time understanding the spiritual experience, and so we use symbols. I believe that dream was an expression of a real spiritual experience. Melissa witnessed her mom having the experience of choosing to return to her family. I do not imply that every time we pray for someone that they get well. Sometimes they choose to let go of the body.

My belief is different from tradition. I do not try to remind an infinite being out there that they forgot something. Instead I believe we connect in our spirit to the spirit of the other person to support them in their spiritual choice. We never get spiritual control, but we do link to them. Our day to day experience of prayer is not as intense, but as our experience grows, our view of how we see others changes. We begin to see how beautiful and powerful others are spiritually—even our loved ones when they are lost in their pain or how weak they think they are. That’s prayer and it happens every day all the time. Those beings most dear in our lives are important because they keep growing our awareness. See the truth; tell them You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! What a joy to know that! And do you notice how it grows? One or two beings show up at the office—and one over there in line. And even yourself—I am a magnificent spiritual being! –no matter how hard you try to cover it up! I am a magnificent spiritual being! Yes you are!

September 29, 2013 – Handle What Is Important With Prayer

by

9/29/13 Rev. David McArthur
Handle What Is Important With Prayer

Usually when we go into prayer we don’t know what’s really going on. Melissa’s mother had a stroke. The only thing to do was a surgical procedure with only a 1% chance of success, likely leaving her a vegetable. With a tradition of prayer, the family asked their spiritual community to join them in prayer during surgery. It was an 8 hour ordeal. That night, exhausted, Melissa prayed before falling asleep. She dreamed she was in a courtroom, and her mother was asking the judge, God, to let her return to health so that she could continue to aid her family. Upon awakening, Melissa felt a deep sense of peace. At the hospital Melissa found her mother conscious and lucid! Some of the equipment had already been removed because of her mother’s returning vitality. We have a difficult time understanding the spiritual experience, and so we use symbols. I believe that dream was an expression of a real spiritual experience. Melissa witnessed her mom having the experience of choosing to return to her family. I do not imply that every time we pray for someone that they get well. Sometimes they choose to let go of the body.

My belief is different from tradition. I do not try to remind an infinite being out there that they forgot something. Instead I believe we connect in our spirit to the spirit of the other person to support them in their spiritual choice. We never get spiritual control, but we do link to them. Our day to day experience of prayer is not as intense, but as our experience grows, our view of how we see others changes. We begin to see how beautiful and powerful others are spiritually—even our loved ones when they are lost in their pain or how weak they think they are. That’s prayer and it happens every day all the time. Those beings most dear in our lives are important because they keep growing our awareness. See the truth; tell them You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! You are a magnificent spiritual being! What a joy to know that! And do you notice how it grows? One or two beings show up at the office—and one over there in line. And even yourself—I am a magnificent spiritual being! –no matter how hard you try to cover it up! I am a magnificent spiritual being! Yes you are!

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September 22, 2013 – Evolving the Consciousness of Peace

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9/22/13 Rev. David McArthur
Evolving the Consciousness of Peace

                                           
This moment has the lowest level of violence, war and destruction that humankind has ever had! In other times, we burned women as witches and maintained slavery by constant violence. Repulsive! What kind of people can do that?! But human consciousness has been evolving.

In our lifetime there were many peaceful transitions: the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new democracies, the destruction of the Iron Curtain, and the Berlin Wall was hacked to pieces by students. The cold war ended without a shot, and China went from threat to economic partner. Look at the Arab Spring. In 1989 and 1990 there were 14 nonviolent peaceful revolutions. We are living at a time when peace is present on our Earth as never before! What has happened?

2000 years ago, Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. From this consciousness began a transformation of humankind and great teachers have called others to join them. Like Mahatma Gandhi. He threw off his country’s oppressors without killing a single Englishman. He didn’t really teach non-violence, but love. You have to care more for the other person’s safety than your own. The ensuing partitioning of India caused great violence, so Gandhi went into fasting—not a practice of starvation, but a spiritual practice of prayer. It involved accepting 100% of the responsibility for what was happening. In 3 days the violence in Calcutta stopped. In Delhi, the violence stopped in 5 days.

We are changing, beginning to find other ways. It happens with the power of prayer and it comes from forgiveness. It happens every Friday in the Muslim community, every Saturday in the Jewish community, and every Sunday for the Christians who meet and pray for peace. We do it here every week. The work is to send out our love to all people. It starts here. Send out that love. Send healing to all those in pain. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” In the morning. In the middle of the day when someone really pisses you off. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” At night, “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” You are not just sending it out, you are the divine presence of peace in the world!

September 22, 2013 – Evolving the Consciousness of Peace

by

9/22/13 Rev. David McArthur
Evolving the Consciousness of Peace
 
                                          
This moment has the lowest level of violence, war and destruction that humankind has ever had! In other times, we burned women as witches and maintained slavery by constant violence. Repulsive! What kind of people can do that?! But human consciousness has been evolving.

In our lifetime there were many peaceful transitions: the dissolution of the Soviet Union, new democracies, the destruction of the Iron Curtain, and the Berlin Wall was hacked to pieces by students. The cold war ended without a shot, and China went from threat to economic partner. Look at the Arab Spring. In 1989 and 1990 there were 14 nonviolent peaceful revolutions. We are living at a time when peace is present on our Earth as never before! What has happened?

2000 years ago, Jesus said to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. From this consciousness began a transformation of humankind and great teachers have called others to join them. Like Mahatma Gandhi. He threw off his country’s oppressors without killing a single Englishman. He didn’t really teach non-violence, but love. You have to care more for the other person’s safety than your own. The ensuing partitioning of India caused great violence, so Gandhi went into fasting—not a practice of starvation, but a spiritual practice of prayer. It involved accepting 100% of the responsibility for what was happening. In 3 days the violence in Calcutta stopped. In Delhi, the violence stopped in 5 days.

We are changing, beginning to find other ways. It happens with the power of prayer and it comes from forgiveness. It happens every Friday in the Muslim community, every Saturday in the Jewish community, and every Sunday for the Christians who meet and pray for peace. We do it here every week. The work is to send out our love to all people. It starts here. Send out that love. Send healing to all those in pain. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” In the morning. In the middle of the day when someone really pisses you off. “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” At night, “Divine love flows through my heart, enfolding and blessing the world!” You are not just sending it out, you are the divine presence of peace in the world!

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September 15, 2013 – Peace Through Compassion

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9/15/13 Rev. David McArthur
Peace Through Compassion

In the story of the Tower of Babel, mankind built a great tower to get “up there” close to God. This is a symbol of seeking vertical transformation, or higher understanding. Cinderella is another symbol of our vertical transformation, of acknowledging the presence of God within. With compassion, we can heal and go through transformation. More recently we talked of the Now Moment. It is another vertical experience of connection with the divine.

But in the story of the Tower of Babel, God sent the people out [horizontally]. In the second chapter of Isaiah it is written that in the last days (days when we near completion) the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be chief of all the mountains and all peoples will stream to it. They will beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they won’t train for war anymore. It is the mountain (the Earth) which is lifted up. The work we have been doing with each other lifts our consciousness and we are brought to the house of God (your heart) where we experience the direct connection, divine intelligence, love and understanding. From there flows out harmony among nations and heals our feelings. No need for war, but understanding for each other. All traditions teach that loves flows out from the heart.

Lately when I turn on the TV, I identify with the people who are being wronged by others. But to feel compassion is to feel for the ones who are wrong, too. And feel it for the decision makers, and for the ones fleeing their homes. I even felt compassion for the Russians. It was harder to feel compassion for the people who were bringing the pain. But I remember times when I was out of control in my world, when I was not compassionate.

The people who are figuring out what to do—that’s their job. Our job is to feel the compassion and to send it out to all of them. You can see them in your compassion, even in their lowest times. My belief is that the time is coming when conflict is resolved with compassion. We can start now, when we turn on our TVs, to watch the world with the compassion of our hearts. Affirm, I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. This is the time!

September 15, 2013 – Peace Through Compassion

by

9/15/13 Rev. David McArthur
Peace Through Compassion

In the story of the Tower of Babel, mankind built a great tower to get “up there” close to God. This is a symbol of seeking vertical transformation, or higher understanding. Cinderella is another symbol of our vertical transformation, of acknowledging the presence of God within. With compassion, we can heal and go through transformation. More recently we talked of the Now Moment. It is another vertical experience of connection with the divine.

But in the story of the Tower of Babel, God sent the people out [horizontally]. In the second chapter of Isaiah it is written that in the last days (days when we near completion) the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be chief of all the mountains and all peoples will stream to it. They will beat their swords into plow shares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they won’t train for war anymore. It is the mountain (the Earth) which is lifted up. The work we have been doing with each other lifts our consciousness and we are brought to the house of God (your heart) where we experience the direct connection, divine intelligence, love and understanding. From there flows out harmony among nations and heals our feelings. No need for war, but understanding for each other. All traditions teach that loves flows out from the heart.

Lately when I turn on the TV, I identify with the people who are being wronged by others. But to feel compassion is to feel for the ones who are wrong, too. And feel it for the decision makers, and for the ones fleeing their homes. I even felt compassion for the Russians. It was harder to feel compassion for the people who were bringing the pain. But I remember times when I was out of control in my world, when I was not compassionate.

The people who are figuring out what to do—that’s their job. Our job is to feel the compassion and to send it out to all of them. You can see them in your compassion, even in their lowest times. My belief is that the time is coming when conflict is resolved with compassion. We can start now, when we turn on our TVs, to watch the world with the compassion of our hearts. Affirm, I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. I will watch the world with the compassion of my heart. This is the time!

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September 8, 2013 – The Teaching of Acceptance from Carol Ruth

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September 8, 2013 – The Teaching of Acceptance from Carol Ruth

9/8/13 Coy Cross with Rev. David McArthur
The Teaching of Acceptance from Carol Ruth

Of the many wonderful ministers over the years here at Unity of Walnut Creek, Carol Ruth Knox stands out for me because of her teachings of non-duality and acceptance. She taught that life was a dance with the divine. Acceptance is not laying down and giving up, but like St. George, it’s knowing the dragon can knock you down, but you get back up—that’s acceptance. My favorite affirmation is “I let everything be as it is.” It lets my mind be clear so I can decide my course of action. There are tremendous gifts in confronting a major challenge in life with acceptance. When you can’t change or fix the challenge, what you can do is be consciously present. It means to take it all in, to accept it as it is. To be totally present with someone. Bring your best self. How it turns out is none of your business. There are things you can’t change. Part of your commitment is to listen consciously. Be totally honest, authentic, grounded. Focus on what you know to be sure at the time. Create a new normal. For those things you can’t do, especially men—ask for help. Even in the worst challenge, acceptance allows your relationships to deepen.

Non duality: In my Fundamentalist upbringing, I always tried to please God but ended up filled with guilt. When I heard Carol Ruth, I heard, for the first time in my life, TRUTH! When you look back over your life you see the “coincidences” are like the dots in a child’s dot-to-dot, and when they are connected, your picture emerges. You have your Dark Night but sharing it in acceptance makes you stronger. God is in this too, and you will find courage through prayer, meditation, and acceptance.

From Rev. David: There is only one presence, not two. It is not good and bad. It may be difficult, but it’s all part of our journey. Acceptance opens us to be able to be in and open to this beautiful power that guides us. Whenever our challenges arise, we remember God Is Good All The Time! It doesn’t mean it’s always comfortable or easy all the time. But is does mean that you are able to be present and experience the challenge which is worthy of the being that you are!