Audio – Unity of Walnut Creek Podcasts

January 31, 2016 – Creating Sacred Relationships

04/14/201701/31/2016 by Peter

Brenda Wade, P.H.D.
Creating Sacred Relationships

So many of us have a story of how we came to Unity. When I was working my way through the University of Washington, I found that modeling paid better than waiting tables. So I learned to look good even when I was feeling bad. I was working really hard on my studies. I wanted to be in my head. I wasn’t in my feelings, and you know what they say: “If you’re in your head and not in your feelings you are depressed.” I was. I was dissociated. One day I thought I was having a heart attack, but the doctor said it was a panic attack! I had made a habit of inauthentic behavior, of hiding my feelings.

Make a choice of unlocking your feelings, your heart. Right now tap your hearts. There is a very small gland on your heart which releases a hormone when you tap over your heart. In Unity we are all about opening the heart.

About that time a friend tried to tell me about Unity, but somebody’s church was the last thing I wanted hear about. However, for some reason I wandered in one day on a noontime meditation. The minister zeroed in on me and my built up resentments, and told me to unlock what really causes the pain. I opened up. I even told her about my boss. I didn’t like him and he didn’t like me. She said to bless him. Blessing a situation or someone is more powerful than resentment and complaining. So I started blessing my boss, the air he breathes, his clothes, just everything about him. In two weeks I felt better. Soon he even changed his attitude toward me.

In six weeks I was offered my dream job. I hadn’t even applied for it! It was my first national TV show. Similar things happened. Why? Unity gave me the belief I wasn’t alone, that there is something within us that wouldn’t damn me but love me. I had learned to open my heart and connect with other hearts.

We want people to come close, but no, not that close. It’s push-pull. Most often we keep ourselves safe with the blame game. “It’s your fault.” We carry hurt, guilt and shame that we got before the age of 8. Before then, a child believes whatever is wrong in their relationships is their fault. So right now I want you to tap your heart, and say to your 8 year old self, “You are 100% lovable!” Repeat. Take it in deeply. Repeat. That hurt, that wound that brought you to Unity was necessary to get you here. So for that say, “I am 100% grateful for this pain!”

I am 100 % lovable. You are 100% lovable. We are 100% lovable. There are many instances where we can do this. ISIS, you are 100% lovable! The NFL, you are 100% lovable! The Post Office, you are 100% lovable! We are one—it’s the magic of Unity. Bring this spirit of oneness and love to everything.

God bless you. I love you. Every one of us is a light. When we join these lights together there is power that can heal anything!

https://www.facebook.com/Dr.BrendaWade/

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January 24, 2016 – I Am Compassion

04/14/201701/24/2016 by Peter

Ron Salazar, L.U.T.
I Am Compassion

Two weeks ago Rev. Sheila taught us to live each day with a compassionate heart; not to climb into a friend’s pit of depression. Instead, hold the ladder to help them climb out. Last week Rev. David asked us to affirm for others and ourselves, “I hold you in the compassion of my heart.” I have the third week of speaking on compassion, and I ask you to say with me, “I am compassion.”

Charles Fillmore said compassion is “A characteristic of love and mercy prompted by an understanding heart. A compassionate mind sees the error, but does not condemn.” So when we are compassionate we are using the power of love. It is one of the 12 powers which are the expression of the divine spirit. Unity says compassion is the attracting, harmonizing power. When you feel love for anyone, even if they can’t give it back, there is still a peace within you.

There is someone in my life whose lifestyle had reached a point where I knew she had to change. Out of love I went to her to tell her she needed to change. I knew I was right, but she was really resistant. I saw I had to let go of my judgment of her, even though it was made out of love. I had to let go of being right. So I went to her in compassion, and she was then open to change. Now things are working out really well. Compassion is how we stay out of the pit and hold the ladder with love and spiritual wisdom.

You’ve heard that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a day, but if you teach him to fish you feed him for a lifetime. Stay in the power of love and SPIRITUAL judgment. When Jesus told those wishing to stone the adulteress that he without sin cast the first stone they melted away. Then he told the adulteress, “Neither do I condemn thee: go thy way; from henceforth sin no more” (John 8:11). His compassion saved her.

Love is the harmonizing and constructive power. During World War I, on Christmas night, in 1914, the German soldiers left their fox holes and began singing Silent Night. Allied soldiers joined them in the celebration. Gifts were exchanged. The war resumed the next day, but for one night their compassion brought peace.

Your responsibility is to express your own individual experience of the divine spirit within you. Be yourself. Express your own experience of God and it helps others to do the same. That’s how WE ARE COMPASSION. Myrtle Fillmore: “As you do this, you will touch the reality of individuals, and you will invite only the best from them.”

It isn’t that we each have good in us, it is that all of us ARE good. If divine spirit is love, is compassion, and we are expressing the divine then: I am compassion. I am compassion. I am compassion. Thank you! Have a beautiful Sunday!

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January 17, 2016 – Exploring Compassion

04/14/201701/17/2016 by Peter

Rev. David McArthur
Exploring Compassion

We are on an amazing journey: learning the power of compassion. A group of Muslim communities raised $100,000 for the sufferers of that gunman in the church in Charleston, and the fires at black churches that followed. After the shootings in San Bernardino, Muslim communities raised $180,000 for those suffering there. The spokesman for the Muslims said, “Just simply say we love them from the bottom of our hearts and they should know that they are not alone in this calamity. We share their sorrow.”

The Koran most often speaks of “God the compassionate”, more properly translated as “God is compassion.” This beautiful religion shares this with us. Charles Fillmore said compassion was the unifying, harmonizing power. There are billions of people all over the world striving for love and compassion.

Perhaps Jesus’ greatest lesson on compassion was his story of the Good Samaritan. A priest and a Levite passed by the man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead. It was a Samaritan who took pity, tended to his wounds and at his own expense put the man up at an inn. Jesus then asked which was the good neighbor to the man who was robbed. The lawyer who had challenged him replied it was the one which had mercy on him. Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”

Study Martin Luther King to understand that compassion is transformational. From Gandhi, he learned that power is of two kinds: power can be based on fear of punishment or on love. Power based on love is a thousand times more powerful and effective. How long it has taken for mankind to awaken and learn how to use this power! Dr. King taught that non-violence means not only to refrain from external violence, but also from internal violence of the spirit. “You not only refuse to shoot a man; you refuse to hate him.”

Dr. King stood with people who desired change, resisting with non-violence those with guns and authority; with non-action showing they wished their oppressors no harm. It touched us all, this amazing power over violence and hate. Imagine that you are standing there beside him among those with completely justifiable anger. Now hear the words of Lao Tzu: “The gentlest thing in the world (love) overcomes the hardest thing in the world (hatred, anger, guns and bullets)… That which has no substance (love) enters where there is no space (the closed, hardened heart).” This is the masters’ way, the way of Martin Luther King, Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddhist teachers.

Respond with compassion this week, when you come upon someone angry or feeling victimized, or the oppressor acting on his pain, This morning we prayed for those in ISIS who are acting out of their pain and fear. They are also children of God. I hold you in the compassion of my heart. For those around us at home or at work, I hold you in the compassion of my heart. And when you find you are the oppressor, or do “OMG! I am a victim!”, I hold me in the compassion of my heart.

What a beautiful way to hold the people of the world! Most importantly, what a beautiful way to hold yourself!

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January 10, 2016 – A Compassionate Life

04/14/201701/10/2016 by Peter

Rev. Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
A Compassionate Life

Compassion doesn’t mean that you should climb down into someone’s pit of despair and wallow in it with them, but that you should hold the ladder for them to climb out of their despair. To have compassion for or “suffer with” is to bear with the other person as they move through their experience. We stand in our passion to guide and lift them up until they can acknowledge who they are.

We are now being called to compassion because we are on the threshold of a shift of the energy on this planet. The conflict and violence that now come up do so that they can be revealed and seen to be healed.

Our elder brother, Jesus, taught the parable of The Good Samaritan. Our first look at it tells us when we see someone suffering we either see them as being different from us or as the same as us. Metaphysically, the man was going from Jerusalem (the consciousness of spiritual peace) to Jericho (the intellect, external consciousness). Leaving his peaceful state for the human experience, he was subject to having things taken from him (being robbed). The priest and the Levite passing by on the other side of the road explain religions are not always spiritual. The Samaritan, considered the least of people, was the most compassionate.

First we forgive and shift our perspective (we clean our window to see clearly) and then we show up as God, as compassion, as Meister Eckhart said. We are called to live life in a way to shift as the planet is shifting, to add compassion as it shifts.

When we criticize, condemn, or judge we do so from our erroneous perception, from how we see the world. We need to clean the window. We need to renovate, to restore the child’s heart that has not yet taken on erroneous perceptions. Remember, “every attack is a call for love” (A Course in Miracles). Wounded people wound people. Something happened along the way. What could possibly cause them to do the things they do, i.e. ISIS? We are all one. There is no difference. We are in this together. We need each and every one of us to survive. ‘It is God’s will that every need be supplied. You are important to me. I need you to survive.’ (From “I Need You To Survive”, by David Frazier.)

Affirm, I live each day with a compassionate heart. Use it where ever you go, whatever you see. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I live each day with a compassionate heart. I love you! I need you to survive!

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January 3, 2016 – A New Way to a New Creation

04/14/201701/03/2016 by Peter

Rev. David McArthur
A New Way To A New Creation

We are at the most amazing time for the unfolding of spiritual awareness of all mankind. It is a time of higher energy, a time to step up to a higher level. Emily Cady said to affirm the good you desire. “Desire in the heart is always God tapping at the door of your consciousness with his infinite supply… The thing you desire…has already been started towards you…and it is the first little approach of the thing itself striking you that makes you desire it…” It has been given and your desire is awakening to it.

Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” But in Taoism, Lao Tzu says, “Desires wither the heart.” Does this mean, “Don’t ask”? Are Jesus and Lao Tzu having an argument? For ages we suppressed our feeling nature because we didn’t know the difference between heart emotions and those initiated by the brain. I believe Lao Tzu was referring to the ego-based desires. My understanding is Jesus spoke of the heart asking, not the head.

The consciousness we have grown into is enough for this moment. But never be satisfied—why stop now? You are limited only by your capacity to understand. We have grown in our capacity and we have grown as a group consciousness.

What are the things we ask for? More money? That’s ok. But the desire for money is usually for the empowerment it provides to do what we came here for. Is it for health? Well, let’s get well and get on with what we came to do. Is it for a better relationship? Are you spending all your energy on a poor relationship? Harmony supports us.

The head’s desire is to have something come TO you; the heart’s desire is to have something come THROUGH you. I had always wanted to share the power of the discoveries of HeartMath at the large gatherings of Unity leaders, but Unity ministers are not asked to be keynote speakers at any of those. So I went deeper in my heart to ask what do I really want. It was a desire I could feel. I could feel it’s power! And things just changed! The next year I was the keynote speaker! Receive the love already given. It blesses you.

How? Start with feeling love. You can always feel love for another. Hold them in that beautiful feeling. Now you’re deep in your heart. Step back and let that love be the divine love for you. It is right there without condition. Then ask what do I really really want? That love has infinite wisdom. It knows deeply and intimately the desire of your heart. The answer will be given. Say yes! It is a blessing which comes to you and through you. Unlimited blessings flow to me and through me! Right now we are open to unlimited blessings. It’s ok that they come to you. Unlimited blessings flow to me and through me!

You can have beauty, talent, and a comfortable life. It’s not so you can have “more than…” Unlimited blessings flow to me and through me! You can tell when you hit it right because it is really fun!

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January 3, 2016 – A New Way To A New Creation

04/14/201701/03/2016 by Peter

Rev. David McArthur
A New Way To A New Creation

We are at the most amazing time for the unfoldment of spiritual awareness of all mankind. It is a time of higher energy, a time to step up to a higher level. Emily Cady said to affirm the good you desire. “Desire in the heart is always God tapping at the door of your consciousness with his infinite supply… The thing you desire…has already been started towards you…and it is the first little approach of the thing itself striking you that makes you desire it…” It has been given and your desire is awakening to it.

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December 27, 2015 – Appreciation: Key To Letting Go

01/09/201612/27/2015 by Peter

12/27/15 Rev. David McArthur
Appreciation: Key To Letting Go

At Thanksgiving we open our hearts with appreciation; with Christmas we go even deeper into our hearts. Then we step into New Years and say yes to the energy we have built up to bring something new in. But we have to let go of something old. It’s the Law of Closets and Bookcases. That’s the reason for the Burning Bowl ceremony.

Paul Simon wrote about letting go in “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover.” “You Just slip out the back, Jack…Just get yourself free… get yourself free.” Don’t you wish it worked that way? But this isn’t just a 3D world. “I am a spiritual being living in a spiritual world governed by spiritual law.” Real change comes from within.

This is when I go to my teacher, Jesus. In the story of the man blind from birth, the disciples (us learners) asked Jesus who sinned that the man was born blind, his parents or him? At this time Judaism was examining the laws of Karma and Reincarnation. It was taught that if you followed the rules as written, you were righteous and prospered in health, finances, and relationships. To have suffering meant you weren’t righteous; you weren’t in alignment with God. Jesus’ answer was that neither this soul nor his parents had sinned, but that people showing suffering did so as an invitation for all to awaken to the greater pattern within the being. (He never did say, “I have healed you’” He always said, “Your faith has healed you.”) He spat on the ground and took the mud (as if to say yes, we are in the 3D world) and by putting it into the blind man’s eyes meant the awareness of the spiritual gives us sight.

A woman I have known for a long time, Edwene Gaines, grew steadily in this knowledge. Her husband of a short time had walked out on her, saying he didn’t love her any more. Left alone, 6 months pregnant with little money in Hong Kong, her reaction was understandably anger, hatred and resentment.

It literally became a cancer inside her. Her doctor told her to write her will. Her spiritual advisor told her she had a choice: to forgive or to die. She found that the more she forgave the more her cancer subsided. She says that what her ex had done to her seemed to be the worst thing anyone could do. However, she is now truly grateful for it. “Without it I may never have learned the power of forgiveness.” She now can experience her own wholeness with others. There’s no victim in that.

How did she know she had accomplished forgiveness? Appreciation. With appreciation, we retain the learning but free ourselves. I appreciate the wisdom I have gained. I appreciate the wisdom I have gained. I appreciate the wisdom I have gained. That’s how we get free. That’s the experience of the spiritual being.

Receive it. Hold it. You are a conscious spiritual being. You have learned. You are wise. It is illumination. Your light shines!

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December 20, 2015 – Creative Higher Consciousness

01/09/201612/20/2015 by Peter

12/20/15 Rev. David McArthur
Creative Higher Consciousness

In this time we are consciously growing from the “eye for an eye” consciousness to a greater consciousness. I have studied the Edgar Cayce information on the Christmas story. I have no idea what really happened then and I do not say this is the way it was. Cayce said the Essenes had intentionally created a state of consciousness to bring in a soul capable of the change to the greater consciousness. They focused mind and body on a process of spiritual attunement. They trained their young women to be able to be the mother of the expected one. Mary started training at age 4, and by age 13 she was the most promising of the group.

One morning when Mary reached the top step of their temple, there was thunder and lightning and a halo of light illuminated her. Also in the halo was the Archangel Gabriel. He led Mary to the altar. I believe this is when she accepted God’s will, but it would be 4 more years until Mary fulfilled it. So Mary’s training intensified. She not only would be the mother but the first teacher of the one who would become the Christ.

Later, when Mary and Joseph were turned away from the inn, it was because the innkeeper felt they would not have any privacy there or be safe, as Essenes drew more attention from the officials. This shows me the story unfolded because of people’s choices and intentions, not because of intervention from a descending cloud. It is my experience that’s how consciousness enters the Earth.

Rick, at the young age of 38, passed just a few weeks before Christmas. The family made a small altar with his photo to keep his presence alive through the season he had so loved. Christmas Day was hard on the family. His mother was on the edge and she asked her husband to turn off the radio. But it wasn’t on! They couldn’t find anything playing in or outside the house. They traced it to his altar. It wasn’t traditional recordings, but Christmas-like beautiful, ethereal music. Then Rick’s Mom said, “We have to turn on the radio!” It was playing “I’ll be home for Christmas.” They realized there was a connection where they had felt only great separation, a connection created by their choices and desire to be connected. We create connection by the choices we make.

That’s why this Christmas is important. Every time we make a connection in the greater consciousness we contribute to the greater consciousness of all mankind. What we are creating is already in the hearts of everyone. It was best expressed when the angels sang, “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” It’s the peace we want to touch. Wouldn’t you like that? “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” When I think of the more than 1000 Unity churches around the world, and Silent Unity all wanting “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” Many millions of people all over the world are saying they want it. “On Earth, peace and good will to all!” In homes and synagogues and mosques (where they recite the 157 verses of the Koran which honor peace because they want it!)

It is time not to bring forth a being, but to bring forth a humanity that teaches and practices “On Earth, peace and good will to all!”

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December 13, 2015 – Mary in You

01/09/201612/13/2015 by Peter

12/13/15 Rev. David McArthur
Mary in You

Our beautiful Christmas music and decorations take us back to amazing feelings which children experience as magic. My love of the spiritual Christmas has grown. I see a very powerful evolution of mankind. I see something crucial in the story that is the cause of the story—the awakening of consciousness, captured in the person of Mary—the willingness of the soul to receive.

In the Book of Luke the angel tells Mary what is to come. She answers, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your words be fulfilled in me.” There is a place so pure and deep within us we can describe it as “virgin”. It is beyond the mind. A place where there is a receptivity of higher purpose, a powerful movement within us. Open; open to this simple idea: within you is a receptivity. You receive from higher being direction which brings higher consciousness into the Earth.

Gloria had known a guy in high school only a few years back. About nine months after he had been murdered, she felt she should visit his family. They were decorating for Christmas when she knocked on their door. The last year of Gregg’s life he had spent hanging with the wrong crowd, a lifestyle where murder was not uncommon. His mother didn’t know if Gloria was one of them. But Gloria talked of how she and Gregg had their “first date” back in high school. How kind and attentive he was; how comfortable she felt in his company. Gradually, his mother remembered what a good kid he had been before his downward spiral into crime. She had a lot of guilt for not being able to keep him on the straight and narrow. As she and Gloria celebrated the memory of Gregg, her guilt healed. Why did Gloria go there? She hadn’t known Gregg all that well and certainly didn’t know his family. It took place because that young woman had been willing. She said yes. Something inside her told her to go. And a greater consciousness came to them all.

Lao Tzu asked, “Do you have the patience to wait until your mud settles to the bottom and the water is clear (that’s the “virgin”, the place of purity)? Can you remain still until the right action (the higher consciousness, the greater wholeness seeking expression) arises of itself?” When we are in that receptive place, we don’t know what will happen, but it feels right. Our role is to be willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing. Yes I am willing.

We are opening to a greater consciousness. The beautiful images of other Christmases do help, but this year is different. There is now great pain and conflict coming into consciousness. Each time we say yes I am willing, no matter how small the request of us, we bring in a greater consciousness. This Christmas let us hold that greater receptivity. I know you will because I know it is important!

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December 6, 2015 – How Adored You Are

01/09/201612/06/2015 by Peter

12/06/15 Stowe Dailey & Karen Taylor Good
How Adored You Are

From the original Aramaic, “Our father from whom the breath of life comes, who is not separate from us, may we feel you in our hearts. Thanks for your forgiveness. May we forgive ourselves and others, too. May we walk in love, not fear. The kingdom of heaven is here.”

Peace is all I know. What if prayer is not a tearful plea of desperation, but breathing in and out God? What if your life is a prayer that God is praying? What if your thoughts are words that God is saying? What if you knew without a doubt that God is within and without?

Stowe Dailey: A few years ago, near death with cancer, I was advised to move into hospice! With my body, my spirit also needed healing. I visited a friend, a spiritual healer. She asked, “Do you love yourself Stowe? Your mother died when you were 9. You were abused emotionally and sexually. You must have felt abandoned and unloved, maybe that you didn’t deserve to be loved? Picture your beautiful daughter; imagine that she experienced the abuse you experienced.” I was horrified. My friend continued, “Now picture the beautiful child you are. Love her like you love your daughter.”

With my healing, I got a second chance to live, a second chance to laugh, to love, to sing, to dance. A sweet and precious gift. I had allowed my fear to sabotage my dreams, but I learned fear doesn’t stop you from dying, it stops you from living.

Everything happens for a reason; there is perfection in everything! Karen Taylor Good: My mother always had the answer. She was a Leo and a member of Mensa. But the last 8 years of her life she faded away with dementia. The woman that never forgot a grandchild’s birthday couldn’t remember my name. I went to some very dark places, very angry places. “If there is perfection in this, God, then show me! Why would you play such a cold-hearted trick? I thought your job was to love! It’s not fair!” But I got an answer, “she’s going to fly. She’ll have to let go of the things she can’t use. Memories and faces, people and places are just too heavy to carry on angel’s wings. When her time here is through, she’s going to fly.” It’s not easy, but it’s perfect.

Know you are a gift, God’s precious child, perfect, whole, and enough. “I am a gift!” Take a breath. Hear the voice of God, “Child of mine, do you know how adored you are? You’ve never been alone. In my heart you’re always home. I’m you’re greatest fan. You are enough. Do you know how adored you are?! Because you are! You are loved; all is well. So be it.

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