April 22, 2013

• Positive and negative thoughts and actions

• Questions and answers about Jesus

• Study religious stories for true meaning, not for specifics

God speaks to all in mysterious ways, for there is a level of mystery. The mystery is not because something must be hidden but rather because of the normal inadequacies associated with human life. God speaks, and we your guides hear that Presence. We don’t hear words, but we know the absolute meaning nevertheless of what is being said. God speaks to us in ways no different than when that Spirit Center descends, if you wish to consider it such, into your own lives. God speaks—we know. God speaks—you have faith, you have a nudge, you have a feeling of what God wishes. You have a feeling for the guidance that comes from God through your guides. That feeling is incomplete but nevertheless real.

When God speaks to you, we hear what is intended, and it is our wish to lovingly assist each of you to comprehend all that God is. You can be open in your acceptance of God through your thoughts. You can be closed to that acceptance through your thoughts. You can be open to others through those thoughts. You can be closed to others through your thoughts.

When we spoke of the energy of thought, we were talking about the energy of communication, the energy of connection. The connection that is essential is not merely a connection of one human being to another. It is a connection to the Spirit Center, a connection to God, a connection to the insight that comes from opening yourself to God’s presence.

The question has been raised by you regarding the relationship between your experience of anger and its relationship via thought to judgment. It is clear to you that you are not to judge someone else. It is clear to you that that judgment is not a judgment of value but goes far beyond. When you have thoughts which are not filled with light, such thoughts in themselves are not necessarily counterproductive to what it is you truly pray for. We have said before that you can criticize another’s behavior and yet affirm the value of that individual, that individual being equal to all, not subordinate, not somehow missing what is required for acceptance. But being motivated by an affirmation of the value of another human being’s life, you are capable of being critical about your views of life as they relate to others.

Being critical does not in itself imply being negative or emphasizing what is destructive by its very negativity. As you so rightly observed, you can be angry about an injustice, and that is good. Each of you in your own ways must oppose what you believe to be unjust, for what you are truly doing is affirming the strength, the value of someone else. That affirmation can be positive because you stand for what you believe to be right. True, you are opposing what you feel to be wrong, but positive thoughts and negative thoughts are not defined by “yes” and “no” perspectives. Yes, this is good—no, that is bad, and therefore the “no” thoughts are negative. If you oppose what is wrong, you are actually standing on the side of what is just, and that is positive.

As you learn the application of positive and negative thoughts, you will find it easier to discern how the positive is defined. If the end result or the end objective of the position you take is in opposition to some held belief, and your position is a position of positive energy, you can be assured that you are not acting negatively. The end result is positive, and therefore what may seem negative in the short run is really positive. You cannot go through life denying your opposition to what it is that you feel to be offensive, because in so doing you are refusing to acknowledge what can and must be accomplished.

Thoughts are in themselves more important than deeds, for too many deeds are empty and carry with them simply the energy of action without real intent. Thoughts can have intent, and it is that intent that is the energy that leads to growth and strength and affirmation. Never remain quiet in your thoughts about what you find to be offensive. Others may agree, others may disagree, but if your position leads to an affirmation of your concept of godliness, then you can be assured of the positive energy that you are promoting.

Your perceptions of where humankind must go in its evolution will change, will develop and mature. Such commitments are never without change, so you must accept the lack of a straight line that leads from where you are to where you hope to be.

Negative thoughts with their negative energy generally come from a preoccupation with self. If you are a person consumed by the importance of self, you will find it’s nearly impossible to accept a perspective that counters your own. The result can be the presence of many negative feelings, negative thoughts. But when you take the self out of the equation, you begin to perceive your lives as “us” and not “me.” You perceive lives to be “we” collectively, inclusively, not “me.” The individual who is consumed by self finds all other perspectives to be a threat, and it is out of that fear that the negativism, the negative thoughts and actions, prevail.

You know that anger is the result of fear—fear coming from a loss of control, fear of giving up a false belief in the totality of self-reliance. You have nothing to fear when you believe others can be inclusive of you. Where there is fear, there is a sense of pending loss, however that loss may be understood, and it is that fear of loss that promotes the desire to assert oneself to put down others, to be dominated by fear. Taking the self out of the equation and inviting the “us,” the “we,” implies that others may have worthy perspectives on life, others may have a refined sense of what needs to be done. You are not alone, and therefore you cannot act alone. The negative thoughts come from an isolation of self. They do not come from a disapproval of what others may be doing.

Feel free to disagree. Feel free to question. Feel free to introduce new ideas, new perspectives, new concepts, new moralities, new truths as you perceive them. Being positive is not living with blinders on your eyes but rather seeing what is godly in everything around you. The objective, of course, is to eliminate fully any presence of negative thoughts. But you are human. You are capable of what is positive, what is negative. You are capable of elevating your sense of God’s presence. There is no expectation that you must think only positively. It is a goal to be affirming of others even when it means being in disagreement. The goal is merely a goal. It is the lighthouse, it is the buoy, it helps keep you on course, but it is by no means an objective that must absolutely be met in all cases.

We say there is no need to be guilty when you have thoughts that are not approving of others or approving of whatever situation you encounter. Life is a balance between what you seek and what you can achieve. Life is not something that is won or lost. It is not a race toward perfection or a judgment or failure. When you are aware of the impact of thoughts, that simple awareness is in itself an important lighthouse. The efforts you make to see as a reality all that you seek through goodness is enough. It is the effort, it is the process that is of ultimate value.

For true completeness of spirit, you must rely on your life beyond the physical. That’s what we are. We are in a condition of fulfilling, not complete fulfillment. But we are more successful in seeing what we seek than can be fully achieved in human life.

That sense of greater fulfillment is also part of the meaning of Easter that we referred to. Did Jesus exist? Yes, without question. Was Jesus somehow perfect in his development of positive thoughts, positive energy? The answer is undeniably no, for Jesus, just as for all human beings, human life consisted of human emotions, human frailties, human strengths, human strivings, human pain and agony. But the reality of Jesus as a person is far different than that which is promoted through more traditional means. Was there an execution? Yes, there was. Was there a physical resurrection of the body? No, there was not, but that is not important. If it helps some to perceive an advancement of the spirit as being demonstrated through a change in the physical, then that is appropriate. It is not important to know specifically what occurred around which an entire belief system was formed. What is important rather is the meaning of what occurred.

Too often in all religions far too much emphasis is placed on stories of what happened with less emphasis on the meaning, the true meaning. The meaning of these stories is not limited to the belief in specifics. Each of you as spiritual beings is asked to discover meaning, to learn about meaning. Our purpose in your lives is to help provide meaning. It is not to further stories where stories become their own meaning. Stories are important, for stories can embody much deeper truths, but it is the truths that one seeks, not the stories themselves. Thoughts are energy, and if thoughts are centered upon the stories, then that energy misses the real purpose which is an understanding of meaning and truth.

You study history not only to learn what happened, but more importantly to understand the significance of what happened. If you have an encounter with another, it is not the encounter that is important but rather what comes from the encounter, what results from that exchange. It is the affirmation of the other, not the details of what happened. Try to observe in your own lives whatever you experience to be a kind of starting point for understanding its significance. Don’t stop with what happened, for if you stop with what happened, your thoughts will be focused on just a small component of what the true meaning really is.

Find meaning in your connections with others. Find meaning in your experiences in life. Find meaning which extends far beyond what you initially experience. Ask “why,” not “what,” and in asking “why” your thoughts will create the positive energy that can be used to provide the answers for what you seek. By limiting yourself to asking “what,” you stop before you derive the meaning that is so important. You encounter others because of what you draw from that experience. It is not the encounter itself that is of ultimate value.

Let your thoughts move toward an understanding of meaning. Those are the thoughts that create the positive energy you seek. Try as you can to reduce your attention on the “what.” When your attention is so focused, it is okay, there is no reason for guilt, but nevertheless find any opportunities for focusing your spiritual energy on the meaning of your experiences and not the specifics of the experience.

We bless you not because of what you do but because of who you are. The “who” component is the meaning of your lives. The “what” is merely the immediate manifestation of your lives.

We love you for who you are because we love you for the meaning that is a part of your lives. Be comfortable in all that you are able to do that gives meaning to your own life, that gives meaning to the lives of others, and you will be in great measure fulfilling the potential that human life provides for all.

We give you peace now. We give you peace always.

Amen.