The Circle Is Unbroken

 

Recently I’ve been reminded, “What goes around comes around.” I’ve been newly reacquainted with the teachings of Dr. Albert Ellis, a very popular psychologist in the 70s and 80s. Dr. Ellis died recently but his teachings are enormously important. His teachings laid the groundwork for the field of cognitive behavioral psychology. To me his ideas fully reflect the body-mind-Spirit continuum that is so very much the focus of spirituality and psychology today. Dr. Ellis was a very positive, brash, perhaps eccentric man. His major premise was we have the capacity to love ourselves unconditionally and we have the capacity to change our thinking and our behavior. He named five points, ABCDE, of Rational-Emotive therapy (RET). A is adversity. The question is how do we respond to adversity? Is it a stepping stone or a roadblock? B is our beliefs. We have a belief about any event. C is the consequence for that belief. The consequence shows up in our thinking, behavior and feelings. D is we must dispute any irrational thoughts and beliefs we hold, and E, we are energized as we dispute the irrational belief and replace it with a rational belief. Dr. Ellis’ work so clearly parallels the teachings of the New Thought spiritual movement I love so very much. His teachings also have many similarities with the mystical Vedic teachings. He was controversial. He disputed Freud’s teachings. Dr. Ellis persevered. He was finally acknowledged by his field and received their highest award for distinguished service. Dr. Ellis said it doesn’t take years of therapy to change. I feel his ideas are the precursor for the science of EFT which is so popular now. Getting to the root cause allows change to happen quickly. Changing our thoughts and behavior changes our brain pathways. EFT changes our brain pathways even more directly and quickly than RET. EFT physically taps into our spiritual nature. A common EFT phrase is, “The same stuff that created the Universe created me!” The Abraham teachings say, “What you do is miniscule in comparison with what you choose to think because your vibration is so much more powerful and so much more important.” This is because what we do comes out of what we think! When we get that turned around, thinking that doing is all that matters we’ve really lost connection with who we are! Recognizing the power of our thinking is especially important when we consider science’s finding that we have as many as 50,000 thoughts a day! As I’ve said before science is showing us what the mystics have been saying for millenia. We are powerful!

All these teachings show us our true relationship with fear and pain. Fear and pain are wake up calls. Fear and pain are meant to be temporary, not permanent! We are spiritual beings having a human experience as physical beings. We need fear and pain as buffers before illness sets in. I see illness as crystallized inattention to what is needed!!! I see Infinite Love saying to us, “Please wake up. I love you so very much. Please pay attention to who you truly are!” In the Abraham teachings I am particularly intrigued by the pyramid of feelings moving from despair to joy. I see despair as one step from a total disconnect. Rage is one step up the ladder from despair. Rage has often frightened me. Now I see it differently. I see rage as a call from our Life Force saying, “I want so very much to have a different relationship with my Life than the one I currently understand.” I see rage as our unconscious understanding that we truly are Love. We just don’t know how to get there right now! I see all the wars raging worldwide as microscosms projected into the macrocosm. I see war as our wake up call to Love! I am also particularly touched by the comment that “the goal of moving from one level to the next is relief.” That realization goes all the way through me! I feel a huge new level of compassion and concern for this process. I am also fascinated by the comment that “we can’t immediately jump from despair to joy. The vibrational frequencies are too far apart! They’re polar opposites.” I am also profoundly touched by the teaching, “Your action has nothing to do with abundance! Your abundance is a response to your vibration.” I’m so dramatically learning the power of attention: “Where your attention goes, Energy flows!” As we cultivate stable attitudes of gratitude, appreciation and connection we are not only increasing the flow of positive circumstances into our lives we are buffering ourselves from falling back into the unconscious habit of dwelling on and in the negative. We awaken much more quickly. We move back into the vibrations of Love and Joy which are expressions of our true divine nature! We create a new Life each moment!!!

I’m also group studying a book, “How Then Shall We Live?” This book, written in 1996, is another powerful and needed reminder of how much Good there is in the world. The author, Wayne Muller, asks us four questions: 1) Who am I? 2) What do I love? 3) How then shall I live, knowing I will die? 4) What is my gift to the family of the Earth? Muller says these questions “enable us to gently awaken the four fundamental realms of the inner life: Identity, Love, Daily Practice, and Kindness.” The lessons in this book remind me so passionately of my first intentional awareness, “I don’t want to die while I’m still alive.” As Thoreau said, “I want to suck all the marrow out of life.” My mantra has become, “I want to live the highest, holiest vision of Life I know!” Muller says, “If we are aware of our mortality, we can live less by accident and live instead with clarity and purpose.” Muller speaks of Siddhartha’s learnings on his journey toward awakening to his divine nature, the Buddha, which means “the one who is awake”. Siddhartha had been practicing extreme self-mortification. Instead of insight he was becoming weary and weak. “He decided to seek a middle path, to cultivate a more gentle practice of mindful attention to the quality of his experience.” On his journey the Buddha was asked, “Are you a god or a man?” The Buddha said, “I am awake.” Our own awakening journey is highlighted in Dr. Masaru Emoto’s work featured in the movie, “What the Bleep, Do We Know?” He photographs the immediate mutation of a water molecule when words of hate are focused on it. New research shows our bodies are 97% water. In our Life Mastery class Rev. Mary stated, “Cancer doesn’t start in our bodies! Cancer starts in our energy field!” We so clearly are an integrated continuum of body~mind~Spirit. We are Spirit made manifest! We are Divine Law in expression! It means so very much to me that we are expressions of this Divine Law. It means so very much to me that we are inextricably linked to these impartial, loving laws of the Universe. The greatest of these laws is the archetype we know as Divine Love. We are the unmistakable expression of this highest law. We have the unmistakable opportunity to create the life of our dreams and to live it into complete fulfillment. I invite you to join me in living this quiet, gentle, amazing, joyful adventure knowing the circle is unbroken! May we live in Peace! May we live the profound Joy we are! May we give our gift! May we open to Love! As the Buddha says, “I am awake!” May we also declare, “I am awake!” Love to you, Universe of Love!!!!! Namaste!!!!!!!

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