Power of Oneness Spiritual Center

April 2007 Monthly Theme: RESURRECTION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

April 8, 2007 Topic: “Roll Away the Stone”

Easter is a time of return, rebirth, resurrection.  Originally, Eostre was the Great Mother Goddess of the Saxon people in Northern Europe. Known variously as Ostare, Ostara, Ostern, Eostra, Eostre, Eostur, Eastra, Eastur, Austron and Ausos, She symbolized the renewal of life that is Spring.

In later centuries, as Christianity rose to prominence, the resurrection of Jesus the Christ was placed at the traditional moment of Spring rebirth.  Since then, in Western culture, Christ's death and rebirth has been known as 'easter.'

What is your stone?

When all the flocks were gathered there, the shepherds would roll the stone away from the well's mouth and water the sheep. Then they would return the stone to its place over the mouth of the well. When Jacob rolled the stone away, he met Rachel. She was a shepherdess as well watering her sheep. He kissed her and he wept. And thus the legacy of Abraham continued.

Rolling the stone away is removing whatever it is that is blocking your heart. His heart opened up so much and so poignantly that it brought him to tears. You know what that’s like when your heart has been hardened and you have become so used to having a hard heart that you forget that it is hard. And then something happens to remind you. Your spirit gets stimulated by a song or by the very thing that you were most rigid about.

Like most of the stories around Jesus the Christ, there is an Old Testament reference. Because many of the books were written by Jews who wanted to promote the Hebrew scriptures, you will find a lot of similarities in the Christian scriptures that reflect the old ways.

I saw an associate of mine and asked her how she was. She said she was nauseous. And she had even put together that she used to get nauseous as a child in a car. And she realized that what was about to happen was that she was going on a road trip to West Virginia this weekend. So even before she got in the car, while walking around at work, she fell back into that pattern. I gave her some lemon and everything. I encouraged her to resurrect from this pattern. She said that it was easier said than done.

But I asked her what is the pay-off? Is it the attention? Is the pay-off great enough to stay in the pattern of pain and uncomfortable feelings?

This is what we have to look at when we are choosing between freedom and imprisonment. The Christ was always about freedom while living and ever living, he continued to be about freedom for all of us.

Jesus knew that in order for the sheep to get their sustenance, they needed to know that eternal life is the pay-off for freedom. They needed to know that there will be many deaths in life. And the more we can die daily to our old ideas, the more we can resurrect our true Self, our true identity as a spiritual being. And a spiritual being cannot ever be bound by situations, circumstances and conditions.

However, if we cling to the human aspect, the physical part of our being, we stay in the matter. And matter appears to be solid. If you look at a block of cement, it will appear really real. If you are experiencing a pain, it will seem really real. And because you are experiencing it, it is real. But it is never permanent. Pain moves around. But the deal is that God is right where that pain is.

In each moment of pain, God is there with the seed of something greater. Pain has a way of getting our attention.

My teacher, Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith has a phrase that says you can be pulled by a vision or pushed by pain.

I’m really clear that Jesus the Christ knew this. He knew that we could look at him and see the way without having to suffer or endure the pain. But if we choose pain, we could have that too.

He tried to revolutionize the way of thinking of the Jewish people. He was saying, change your thinking, change your life. Buddha said it in his own way as well. He said “ All that we are is the result of what we have thought. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.” He was saying that you have a choice.

You don’t have to hate the Jews for being Christ killers. They and no one can kill the Christ. You don’t have to hate Pilate. You don’t even have to hate Judas. Everyone has a part to play in the drama. However, if you remove yourself from the drama, there is no play. If you take away the conflict, there is no struggle. Ever try arguing with someone who won’t argue? It doesn’t last long.

As long as you have attachment to the body and attachment to objects, fear and suffering will be with you. Therefore, Krishna told Arjuna to develop his discrimination and rid himself of body consciousness. He told him that once he was free of body consciousness he would be able to develop integral vision. Mankind today has three types of vision. The first is body-oriented vision, which is totally superficial. When you have this kind of vision you see only the external appearance of others, such as the clothes and the ornaments they wear, their facial features, their body characteristics, their peculiarities of speech, etc. This type of vision is oriented only towards the phenomenal world. The second kind of vision is insightful vision.”

When Jesus said, take away this bitter cup, he was saying take away this attachment that I have to the body. I was reminded of this a couple of years ago when my father was dying. I was reminded that I had an attachment to the body. I had placed a certain amount of focus (not too much, though, because I wasn’t totally unconscious. I did have some sense because I was a practitioner). But it was my Daddy, you know.

Krishna was asking Arjuna to let go of body consciousness and develop his vision. We’re metaphysicians. We want to move beyond the physical. Ernest Holmes tells us that the fact that we exist beyond our bodies (see chapter on Immortality) is proof enough that we are immortal.

We want to have insightful vision.

In 1954, Einstein said: "A human being is part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from the prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. The true value of a human being is determined by the measure and the sense in which they have obtained liberation from the self. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if humanity is to survive."

Roll away the stone. Be free.

How?

Sri Sathya Sai Baba says: “Service is the highest spiritual discipline. Prayer and meditation, or knowledge of scripture and Vedanta (holy scriptures of India), cannot help you reach the goal as quickly as service can. Service has a double effect, it extinguishes the ego and gives bliss.” Now, let me tell you about ego. Ego wants to keep you small, where it can control you. Because as long as your focus is on the small, you won’t grow and ego has no danger of being eliminated from your life. It is about its own survival, not yours. Ego is attached with external reality. It is supposed to serve the id’s demands. The id needs to reduce tension, increase pleasure and minimize discomfort."

Have you ever built a muscle? It requires tension. It hurts sometimes. And is not comfortable. However, in promoting the growth of the muscle, you are promoting your own strength. You can choose to stay weak by taking it easy and not doing any more than you have to do. But Jesus was about service. He needed to build his spiritual muscle. Don’t just look to the crucifixion and the pain of it all.

In the act of washing His disciples’ feet, Jesus not only expressed the importance of cleansing, He also demonstrated the importance of service, serving one another. He said, "You call me 'Master' and 'Lord' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Then if I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. I have set you an example: you are to do as I have done for you. In very truth I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor a messenger than the one who sent him. If you know this, happy are you if you act upon it." (John 13:13-17).

Do you want to be happy?

Be in service. Jesus said I have set you an example.

Another interpretation of stone: as a pillar, as God, as a witness. Come now, let's make a covenant, you and I, and let it serve as a witness between us." So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. He said to his relatives, "Gather some stones." So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, [c] and Jacob called it Galeed. [d]

Laban said, "This heap is a witness between you and me today." That is why it was called Galeed. It was also called Mizpah, [e] because he said, "May the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other. If you mistreat my daughters or if you take any wives besides my daughters, even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me."

Muhammad said: "The strong man is not the good wrestler; the strong man is only the one who controls himself when he is angry." Are you free enough to let your ego be set aside. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone. Einstein says: "I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." It’s not about what happens to you on the outside. It’s about what happens to you on the inside.

 Jesus is on the cross.

Soldiers have just driven nails through his hands and feet and hoisted him up by those nails. He does not fear those who kill his body; he pities them and prays for them. If they knew how much this hurts, they could not do it to anyone. They are unwitting instruments of the higher purpose that brings him here. When Jesus said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34). He means even though it feels excruciating and they think they are punishing me. They are punishing themselves instead. Any time someone intentionally does something cruel to another human being, it is reflecting their own pain and usually perpetuating that pain. Jesus the Christ is saying let my Higher Self take prominence here because my earthly self and these people are unaware of what is really going on.

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)
is really translated wrong. In the Aramaic translation (and Aramaic was the language that Jesus actually spoke in – before it was translated into Greek, Latin, English and any other language), he actually said: My God, my God, for this was I born.

He knows that he has a divine destiny. This is a destiny for him to move into his Higher Self in order to know eternal life. However, still being in the earthly body, he realizes that there are others who will be left behind.

You know how it is. You may have a loved one who should have made their transition sooner, but they were waiting for you to get ready. He said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother!" (John 19:26-27)

Not quite alone, He looks down. Which hurts worse: the pain of being crucified, or the pain of a mother watching her son be crucified, or the pain of a boy whose beloved teacher hangs bleeding before his eyes? He understands their pain in the midst of his own, and tells them to care for each other. We have the charge to be here for each other. Life is an eternal cycle. We each get an opportunity to love one another and be there for one another. Don’t miss your divine opportunity to be in service to love.
Jesus said: "I thirst!" (John 19:28). We're talking about rebirth, renewal and resurrection. Christ yearns for the living waters to quench his suffering from the earthly realm so that he may drink infinitely from the well of everlasting life.

This is misinterpreted by the cynical men who are focused on his physical anguish: The Jews and Romans shouted: "If you are the Christ, prove it! Save yourself and impress the people."

But a dying thief on the cross next to him says, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." His kingdom is not of this world. He ignores the shouts and ignorance and reassures the thief: "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise." (Luke 23:43)

Paradise is a place of ideal beauty or loveliness.

Let’s go there. Shall we? I invite you to close your eyes and imagine that you are in the most beautiful place that you can imagine. It is lovely there. It is peaceful. It is vibrant. It is loving. You are surrounded by compassion. Everything you ever desired is there.

Jesus knew that our minds can take us anywhere that we want to go.

The mind doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality. It will use fantasy to create Reality. If it is good, the mind will reproduce it. If it is bad, the mind will reproduce it. Because the Law of Mind in Action is impersonal. It doesn’t care what you put into it. But to the degree that you are passionate about it, it will deliver it in that dose.

In other words, if you feel strongly about something, you send that power to the universe. Because you are one with It, It must respond to you. Now the question is to what do you want it to respond? Choose this day whom you will serve. I hope to choose to serve God. If you do, you will be choosing to serve yourself.

We needn’t be caught up in what’s going on in the external realm. It is, after all, fleeting.

He knew that his temporary duty on earth is complete. He has shown the way God wants us to live. He has demonstrated the fact that faith and hope and love cannot be destroyed by anything men can say or do. And he says:"It is finished!" (John 19:30). Like a trusting child, he turns to the Father and takes the next step. He has bound himself by love, to both God and the human race. Soon he will begin his long-term ministry by demonstrating the fact that human beings survive physical death. Then he will continue to draw to himself, and thus to heaven, everyone he can ... for as long as it takes ... until whosoever will has come.

Can you trust God? After you have done all that you can do. Can you stand? Can you let go and not try to get busy and “help” God? It’s hard for me, because I am a doer. But there comes a time when you have to ask yourself, what more can I do? If there is a way to be more loving, do it. If you have done all you can do, then let God do the rest. Jesus knew he was complete. And he said: "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit." (Luke 23:46).

Metaphysically speaking, resurrection is the raising of man’s mind and body from sense to spiritual consciousness. This is accomplished by the quickening power of the Holy Spirit. You know, Spirit moves quickly. When something happens quickly, know that It is Spirit working.

In Romans 8:11, it says: “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Well, the Spirit that raised Jesus does dwell you. The Spirit is raising you now from the dead ideas and false beliefs that you have been attached to for oh so many years. Hear me now. The Spirit within you is releasing you from those things that do not serve you. Let go! It’s time to move on.

Y’all don’t hear me though. See, everybody wants to focus on the crucifixion. It’s like this whole species of masochists have been bred. I’m inviting you to paradise now. I’m inviting you to move past all of your old stories about not having the ability to have successful relationships, not having the youth to be healthy, not having the time to do the things that bring you joy, not having the money that will bring you peace of mind. These are fables. And the worst part of them are they are fables that carry no meaning to your life. Aesop always had something for ya. He had a principle or a lesson to be learned. But your stories don’t bring you anything. Until you choose to leave your story behind, your life stays the same. Until you choose to leave the stone behind you, your life stays miserable. Until you choose to roll away your fears, you live in fear. Until you choose to roll away your ego, it will continue to provide you with ideas, fantasies, misperceptions about what everybody is doing to you. And you remain in this victim mentality, persecuting yourself – worse than any Roman could ever do. And this is the lowest rung of spiritual growth. IT’S TIME TO STEP UP.

It’s time to resurrect.

If it’s too hard for you. Follow the steps. Jesus said “I am the resurrection and the life." The resurrection is the lifting up of the whole man into the Christ consciousness. The Christ consciousness of is our awareness of our oneness with God. That’s what we’re talking about when we say the Power of Oneness, we’re talking about the Christ consciousness. We’re not talking about believing in Jesus. We’re talking about believing Jesus. He says, no man shall come to the Father, but by me. He was saying do as I do. You know how your parents said to do as he or she said. But then you watched what he or she did and you did that instead? Because you do not want to do as some people do. But you do want to do what Jesus did, because it moved him from a consciousness of the imprisonment to a consciousness of freedom.

Anybody who’s ever been in the penitentiary can tell you that it is much better to be free than to be locked up. Hello? And that don’t mean just be out of prison, that means being free of the stigma of being in prison. That means getting your record expunged. Clearing the record, hitting the delete button, blotting it out. Now you can’t just do that casually because that doesn’t make it go away. You need to look beneath what you did to what you felt when you did what you were punished for at that time. And see what kind of false beliefs you had that made you want to take an action that would bring you consequences. Nine times out of ten, you were already in prison because you thought you were lacking something or you weren’t enough. And you thought whatever it was you were going to do was going to make you feel full or enough. But that’s not what does it. So the person may have had to sit and think about it.

But we’re not here to talk about the past. We’re here to talk about the present.

Yeah. We have our persona, which is the appearance we present to the world. And then we have our ego, which we’ve already talked about.

Underneath the ego is the shadow, the animus and finally, the Self. The shadow gets repressed because it contains all of the negative tendencies the person wishes to deny. The anima (in man) and animus (in woman) serves to focus on the psychological material that doesn’t fit with our self-image. It assumes the role of the conscious and the unconscious until it is integrated into the Self.

The Self is the central archetype. It is the union between the conscious and unconscious. It embodies the harmony and balance of the opposing elements of the psyche. Christ, Muhammad and Buddha are symbols for the self. They are symbols of wholeness, unification, reconciliation of polarities and dynamic equilibrium, the goals of the individuation process. The self is a deep, inner, guiding factor which is different from the ego. I learned a few things in ministerial school and one of them was Spiritual Psychology. So we’re talking about having an understanding of our psyche.

Know who you are!

You are the Beloved. You are not simply a body. You carry a Self that it is full of love, harmony, peace, balance, abundance, creativity, life! There is nothing that can contain you.

You are power Itself. There is no stone that can keep you in the dark. You are Light! You are Love!!!

Now is the time of the resurrection. The hour cometh (John 5:25) and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.

Flock, get your sustenance. Roll away the stone and drink from the living waters.

The resurrection is the lifting up of the whole being – spirit, soul and body. The resurrection lifts up all the faculties of mind until they conform to the absolute ideas of Divine Mind. And this renewing of the mind makes a complete transformation of the body so that every function works in divine order and every cell becomes incorruptible and immortal. The resurrection is an organic change that takes place daily for all those who are conforming their lives to Truth.

Death does not change man or woman and bring him or her into resurrection and eternal life. Death has no place in the Absolute because God never dies. Hello. Death is the result of separation from God (some call it sin). Everyone must be restored so we get these bodies in order to work out our salvation. Limited relationships do not continue in this resurrection. Those raised into the Christ consciousness will let go of all that is personal and selfish in their relationships and come into the larger love, the love universal. Here is where we do the will of God. Here is where we are fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters. This universal love is our resurrection.

Rise up!

Rise up into the awareness of your oneness in God. Rise up and know that you are perfect. Rise up and know that you are the love that you are seeking. Rise up and claim your wholeness. Rise up and leave the ego behind. Rise up and be your authentic Self!

Rise up and leave your stories behind. Don’t worry about Judas' betrayal. Rise up and leave your pain behind. Never mind the nails in your feet. Rise up!

Roll away the stone and let the stone be a witness to your glory!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Whooh! Praise God. I am so grateful.

Peace and blessings!