Aladdin—No Fear In Oneness

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

Our journey of consciousness. Aladdin lived in poverty and always felt he had to take from others. As we do at this level, he felt like a victim. At this “miserable sinner” level we are asleep to divine love. Then when adversity shows up we feel it proves we are of no value. Through adversity, though, Aladdin is brought to caves filled with treasure (the subconscious) where he finds many many beautiful things. When you overcome adversity, you feel power. This changed Aladdin's consciousness. Feeling that he now had some power, some value, he didn't need to steal. And he could love. Goodness showed up out of the bad. At this level we are still asleep, but how we think of ourselves has changed. We feel we can get a little good from life, from the adversity, from the bad.

Spiritual awakening. You are not miserable sinners. Then Aladdin sees the princess and falls in love. The head experiences the heart. Aladdin now has purpose. He feels he has value. He now sees that power is for serving the purpose, to serve wholeness. The genie (which fulfills the power of the heart) creates for Aladdin and the princess their own palace away from the Sultan, who is the Father figure. (They woke up; they now know they are children of God.) At this level, you know you are fine and wonderful just the way you are. The world loves you.

There is only good and more good.Then the princess and the palace were taken by the sorcerer and Aladdin knew “it had been too good to be true”. This is believing in 2 powers, good and bad. As long as you believe it, it'll show up. But Aladdin went back to the heart. The resolution was not through the thoughts (Aladdin) but through the heart (the princess). She denied life to the 2^nd power (the sorcerer); she killed him. Love overcomes fear. That's the gift.

The truth.  The One Power dwells within man and all other beings and throughout the universe. One. In the heart, which knows the truth, there is no fear. No tension. No nervousness. You are at one with every other living person on Earth. No separateness. You have touched this oneness—with babies, with good friends, or in the silence. Nothing else is real. We can manifest and play with a 2^nd power, but it is not the truth. God is good all the time! There is only one presence, one power—the all loving goodness of God! And that's the truth!

Journey Into Oneness

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

We are one.  We really are one. It doesn't look that way. It appears that you are separate from me. Emilie Cady said, “Man, who is at first living in the selfish animal part of himself, will grow up ...to the divine or spiritual understanding wherein he knows that he is one with the Father...” The Father is the part of the divine that loves and cares for us, and is within us, yet is infinite.

You are one with that other political candidate, and more troubling, all those people you just don't get who support that candidate. When watching the debate, I first felt condescension for them. It was an experience of separation, viewing them as less than. It was uncomfortable. I thought maybe I should try something different. I stepped back and I saw that all the people really cared. A sense of connection took place. I stepped farther back and saw all the country experiencing a polarization which hurt, and I felt compassion. How difficult it is to work with those hugely complex issues! And I saw that the polarity blocks clarity, and our fears are surfacing. When we fail to see that the One Power cares for us all, we instead empower our fears. We see ourselves as separate and different. We fail to see our oneness unfolding in the most important vote, which is for care.

All you see you are.  This world can't see beyond its opposites, or see our oneness. That comes from within us. Jean Houston: “I was no longer just Jean Houston, age 6. I had awakened to a consciousness that spanned centuries. Everything was important. It was as if I knew everything, was connected to everything. I was an infinite being.” She said, “It's your true self.” Alfred Lord Tennyson told that from boyhood he frequently had a “waking trance” in which it was as if individuality was gone and he was part of the “boundless pure being”. Vedanta teaches “Thou art that. All you see you are. Thou art one with the Universal Being. Every soul is your soul. Every body is your body. The Universe is my body.” We journey to consciously touch and know that.

This beautiful connection teaches us our oneness. We sense the presence, the power, the oneness. We touch that beautiful wisdom moving through life, and see that God is good all the time! God is good all the time! All the time God is good! Practice this chance to vote for love!

Ho'o pono pono: I love you. I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you.

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

You have the power.  Dr. Hew Len, in Hawaii, healed so many patients that the ward was closed in just three years. He did this without therapy. He did it by working on himself, using Ho'o pono pono.  We believe what is out there is a reflection of what we have within. If it is in your world it is a part of you. If you don't like what you see, you can clean it out. You have the power to change it.

To transform.  The divine always expresses to us in wholeness and harmony. You cannot hold back the divine wholeness within you, the perfection which is you. So when something shows up, use these four steps. However, while thinking them might make a difference, it will not transform you. To transform, instead of saying “I love you”, feel it. Thinking is nice, but doing the loving is transformative.

1^st is “I love you.” FEEL it, if you want transformation. Your love goes to that part of yourself that is out-picturing the disharmony. The part of you which is divine love goes to it, too, and has all the power. It is waiting for you to ask.

2^nd is “I'm sorry.” FEEL free to let go. If you remain in your head, your head will give you all the reasons “they” were wrong. Reasons don't matter here. Have the willingness to let go. “I didn't mean to create disharmony.” This is repentance.

3^rd is “Please forgive me.” FEEL the deep desire for freedom. The disharmony has no place in your life anymore. Ask the divine presence to remove it, to free you fully.

4^th is “Thank you” and it is easy. We FEEL fully the appreciation for, and complete acceptance of, what is given.

God will heal anything in your heart. She will remove any limits, if you want to feel better.

A NASA rocket was hopelessly off course. It had no self guidance system, and one of the scientists knew they had no control. She went to prayer. She had done some Ho'o pono pono work before, so she called Dr. Len in Hawaii who does the “unseen” work. With his guidance, she told the rocket, “I love you”. They worked the four steps of Ho'o pono pono, and the rocket self-corrected!

What are you one with? Ask yourself. —That amazing power!

“Thank you!”

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

Ho'o pono pono / "I Love You"

We have some control.  I want to touch something new. When we pray we connect with the divine presence and hold in mind someone we care about. Then we want the universe to bring healing to them. But there is a teaching that what is out there is a reflection of what is within us, and we can get rid of it. So we have some control. We can do something.

All is within.  Dr. Hew Len was counselor for the criminally insane at a Hawaiian hospital . The patients had committed the most violent, heinous crimes. But Dr. Len didn't meet with the patients. He didn't interview anybody. He practiced ho'o pono pono. It says all is within, so he worked on himself! Several weeks passed and the customary daily violence in the ward lessened. Inmates began cooperating and forming into active, productive groups. With the exception of only two inmates, the entire ward of thirty patients was healed in three years and the ward was closed. “I had to take completely within myself the responsibility for what I was experiencing. I had to clear myself of toxic thoughts and replace them with love.”

Violence stopped.  Gandhi's approach was slightly different. Observing the violence as India struggled for national freedom, he fasted to remove from within himself whatever might have contributed to the violence that he saw outside himself. He practiced a complete focus and dependence on the love of God. The violence stopped.

Whether in the collective unconscious or a memory pattern.  Is it all here, inside? You don't need to understand. Spirit will bring meaning to you. Just hold the idea in your heart in neutral.

Power to transform.  When you see that which you want healed, the response is these words: “I love you.” Whether it is a reflection from the collective unconscious within, or a remembered pattern, the response is “I love you.” If you want to free someone in your world, say, “I love you.” To that within yourself, say “I love you.” To that Divine Presence, say, “I love you.”

What an amazing way to learn our oneness! —That you have the power within to transform the world around you. You have that power and I share it with you simply because “I love you!”

Open other possibility- a whole other level of power

From Rev. David McArthur (edited by Mike McGuire, not reviewed by the speaker)

Whatever is within our awareness is part of our consciousness. This is not always comfortable now that we know we are one with the power that makes us. Remember the good old days when we could blame our problems on someone else? Now it's, “What is this that shows up in my world?”

Healing power.  Byron and Marsha Smith were shocked when Byron's MRI came back showing inoperable cancer. He was given a month or two to live. The following day was spent sharing their special memories of their love together. Then friends and relatives remembered them in prayer, including Marsha's father who told them when he prayed he clearly got the feeling everything would be all right. By going from fear to love Byron and Marsha opened another possibility, a whole other level of power and energy which healed Byron—he was subsequently found to be cancer-free! With darkness gone, full potential was embraced.

Eastern philosophy says this world is transient illusion. The Bhagavad Gita says that for those who love Krishna, he will dwell in their hearts and destroy darkness born of ignorance with the shining lamp of knowledge. But isn't there something missing, something more?

The ultimate experience of understanding and love.  Jesus went further, saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind... And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” He also said "...as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." When you see someone else with a problem, it is part of your consciousness. So ask, “What is mine to do?” If Krishna is in the heart, who have you loved when you love your neighbor? 

Whatever is going on now in your world where there is a limit—physical pain, poor relationships, financial difficulty—if you choose to love, the barriers will be removed. No matter who or what it is, just send your love. That is the greatest teaching. Then what is there is filled with light. You are divine light. That's what you are. Call it Krishna, Jesus, or God, it is love. Affirm, “I am divine love. I am transforming my world.” We have work ahead, and it's going to be fun!

Experience your oneness with Creative Energy

We are one with Creative Energy. It is never depleted. It always responds to us. It must give; that is its nature. (from Charles Fillmore, Prosperity)

How many forests are in a single apple?

Thoughts of lack limit your wholeness. There is no thought of lack in Divine Mind. Abundance is in every level. It is your birthright to prosper. You are a spiritual being. Call prosperity into manifestation here and now. Prove it.

• Set a time for this every day.
• Go into the silence. “Seek first the kingdom of God.”
• Look to God as the Source. Everything is God.
• Pour your living faith into the substance of Spirit.
• Affirm “God is my instant, constant, abundant supply.”
• Affirm that in gratitude.
• Affirm it in your power.
• Affirm it in joy.

from Mike McGuire, Prayer Team
Summary of Rev. David's sermon

Unifying Power of Prayer

At a time when fears divide our world, prayer unites us.

At a time when political beliefs polarize our nation, prayer unites us.

In a world where there are many names for God and many different ideas about God, prayer unites us.

In our families where life’s activities pull us apart, prayer unites us.

Within ourselves, where we feel conflicted as we try to respond to life’s many demands, prayer unites us.

Prayer unites us with that which is greater than every concern, larger than any difference and the answer to all we seek.

With you in prayer,
-- Rev. David McArthur

Let There Be Peace on Earth

Let There Be Peace on Earth... and Let it Begin with Me

It is often a startling discovery that peace is not the result of being peaceful. It’s not that being peaceful isn’t helpful—it certainly is. However, the dissolution of the discord that removes our peace requires an even more powerful state of consciousness than peace. It requires love. Charles Fillmore called love the unifying, harmonizing power. That is because when we actively engage conflict with love, we release that which has the power to dissolve discord. Love actually creates a higher state of consciousness in which harmony and unity can exist.

Love has the power to transform those parts of ourselves that have not yet been brought into wholeness. In one of the translations of the Tao Te Ching, it is spoken of as the tiger having no place to put his claws. I understand this to mean, that the parts of me that would have sustained conflict have been transformed as I became the expression of Divine Love to those around me, regardless of their position or peacefulness.

We become involved in the pursuit of peace because our love compels us. It asks us to journey into that experience of connectedness in which another’s well being is crucial to our own. Love flows through us, creating harmony around us. The change of consciousness is not because we avoided conflict to be peaceful. Rather it is brought about because in the midst of conflict we let love flow from our hearts so that we were transformed and others uplifted.
­—Reverend David McArthur

A Stroke of Insight

On Sunday, April 20, in my talk on "Aladdin," I used a video clip many people were interested in pursuing further.

I invite you to view the full 18-minute video, in which Jill Bolte Taylor discusses the insights she gained about human consciousness during her own experience with a massive left brain stroke.

A Blessed Christmas

The message of Christmas is one of the most profound revelations given to us as growing spiritual beings. It is the revelation that the Divine is incarnate in us in our human experience. We are no longer to view ourselves as separate from Divine Love, but rather as children and heirs of that love. The Divinity celebrated in the Christ Child is the story of the discovery of the Divine presence within ourselves. This is not just the celebration of His birth, but also the celebration of our birth into the awareness of our oneness with Divine Love. It is no wonder that during the Christmas season, we feel the peace that the angels proclaimed, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

You are invited to renew the peace of Christmas in your heart at our special services of remembrance, Christmas music and candle lighting. Let the deep peace of Divine Love fill your heart throughout this sacred season.

—Reverend David McArthur