A.R.E. Meeting for 2/15/21

Leader: John

Experiment 1: When you are feeling low or troubled, affirm that this is just part of a larger growth process, that since you have set a spiritual ideal, your pain is but a part of a new self being born. Look for ways to appreciate the down times and listen for God’s presence in the midst of them.

Experiment 2: Take time to consider your own concept of God and His Spirit. List the ideas and thoughts that you have (e. g., I think God is responsive to sincere prayer, I think God’s Spirit is within every person. ) Choose one aspect of your concept of God and write down two or three specific ways that you could work on expressing this in your relationship with others over the next few days. Work on giving this better concept to the world. 

Reading the last two experiments in the “experiments book” and choosing to work with one of them during the upcoming week concludes our lesson, “Know Thyself”.
 
“Know Thyself” is not an easy lesson. To look into the mirror of the universe, to see one’s dark side, and realize, “yes, those annoying behaviors I see others do, are the very same principles of the behaviors I do.” For example, I may not feel entitled enough to demand money I don’t own from a bank teller. But I may feel entitled enough to be late wherever I go, as in “rules don’t apply to me” entitled. Those irksome behaviors are reflections of my darkness within; darkness I can release forever! I can change my behavior. In fact, only by doing so, can I let more of Divine Father-Mother’s God light shine through me to others. Ouch! Let’s get to the next lesson.
 
John’s suggestion to consecutively sign into Zoom for our full two hours meeting is working beautifully. This was our second week to do so. Every member attended, not all of us for the full time, but our meeting was excellent.
 
And beginning with February leadership, his original suggestion to meditate before signing in, to become better prepared to use our spiritual study time well, is such excellent preparation for entering our Sacred Space on Zoom! If you haven’t already done so, take an extra few minutes to try it.
 
Six reported on our experiments, about half doing the first, others doing the second one. Interesting was the the work done in truth telling and “seeking to know what the highest Spirit Spirit within me wants for this relationship.” This challenge yielded lessons learned and insights gained, or perhaps a deeper understanding of a spouse, of the complementary balance of two contributing completely different skills and talents that add up to “totally providing all needs” for a long happy life together. Much inspiration was gained just listening to each other’s results from our work with one of the two experiments.
 
“What is my Ideal?” is our lesson in “A Search for God, Book l,” begun by four Divine Feminine Souls and four Divine Masculine souls and read through in its entirety in one meeting! This is an unusual first, for a migrational ASFG group going home to home to library to Zoom but meeting consistently since 1980’s.
 
The affirmation on seeing humanity in our spiritual leader or “Universal Forces “ and God in people, brought to mind a famously enduring, well loved poem by Robert Burns, modernized herein without its lovely Scottish brogue:
“Oh the gift that God would give us to see self as others see us.” Sometimes more than the afore famous quote goes on: “It would save us from many mistakes and foolish thoughts. We would change the way we look and gesture and to how and what we apply our time and attention.”
 
Also recalled by our prompt, stated by a group member with excellent memory another description of an Ideal:
“...Christ consciousness is the awareness within each soul imprinted in pattern upon the mind and waiting to be awakened by the will, of the Soul’s oneness with God....” Edgar Cayce Reading #5794-14, given May 14, 1949. Recognizing our Oneness with each other is another way to see this higher consciousness to strive for, this enlightenment.

Yet another member gave a Zen wisdom gleaned from “The last Samuri.” After a lifelong quest for the perfect cherry blossom a realization came. There is not just one single perfect cherry blossom. All cherry blossoms are perfect.
Or our military servants in training learn to excel in cleaning, polishing, presenting their best self for daily inspection. Every day another trainee gets a turn of having their best undone, criticized, messed up, a metaphor on the reality of life. There’s no protection for the beautiful, cleaned and polished work accomplished. Life will throw mud on it, put it in disarray, perhaps destroy it. Lesson learned is— keep doing our best anyway.
 
Thank you, Greg, for sending out previously Cayce’s verbatim original readings, “What is my Ideal?” And for sending us “The Ideals workbook” now as well. Every group should be as lucky as this one is to have a great librarian like you!
 
The challenge of this affirmation led to discussions on “seeing God in others is fine, but surely one can’t see humans with frailties, dark sides, desires to kill serially in God.” The qualities of evil, dark desires, cancer cells just aren’t Godlike, are they? No. Not in our religious concept of an all knowing, all loving, everywhere present, all powerful God of forgiveness. For some, God is so great as to actually be the universe, the body containing multiple solar systems , stars, galaxies. A Universe that expands each time a human soul increases Zen, develops, evolves, loves more, learns to forgive (a step necessary to open a heart wide enough to give and accept love). And yes, the quantum, atomic level humans, the whole of which on earth can both have darkness or cancerous cells and still be like just one cell in the body of God.
 
Mankind can easily be atoms within God, with human desires, dark and evil deeds. “No”. “Yes.” The discussion continued. Only the all knowing, the Omniscient Creator knows whether the family members of a Jeffery Dahmer victim may have been given (thru the grace of a loving God) an opportunity to understand the grief and loss others relatives experienced due to their own killing of someone in another place, another lifetime. Perhaps that which we judge evil is/was true justice at work with opportunities for some to choose new ways, new paths next time? Faith urges us to accept God is Good. Evil is but an illusion mysteriously being used in some unknowable way. Isn’t it?

More discussion to come next week on ideals and the presence of man in God and God in mankind., etc.
 
In loving Oneness,
Sylvia Raye