Dr. Spirituality lesson 7

Here is lesson 7:

1.       Explain how the ladder of prayer has affected my understanding of prayer: After this week's lesson my understanding of prayer has grown. I learned that if we pray from a position of lack, of fear, of retribution for perceived wrongs done by others we are drawing lack, fear, and retribution to ourselves as we are all One. By accepting responsibility for our part in all situations/experiences we become free from debilitating guilt and are able then to move forward to the ultimate goal of joining with the All That Is where there is no fear, no guilt, no lack. As we join with others we move to humility (my definition of this word is to "be one with the truth") we reach the ultimate goal of total communication/communion with God.

2.       Write a prayer of need, change it to a prayer of freedom, then a prayer of joining & finally a prayer of humility. Lord, I pray to be forgiven for the rage I feel towards my ex-husband.  He has caused me a great deal of pain and suffering and there is a big part of me that hopes he will someday know what it feels like to hurt like this. Amen.  Lord, I probably drove the man crazy with my neediness.  I wanted the perfect marriage and made impossible demands on my ex-husband to fulfill my dreams and "needs".  I wanted him to fill me up, let me know that I was valuable, that I was important, and loved.  I now see he could not do this as it was not his to do.  It was/is my responsibility to allow myself to be filled up as I let go of my beliefs that I am somehow unlovable and lacking. Lord, as I learn to love myself help me connect with others who are working on this lesson.  Let us join together in connecting with You.  Let us come to know that we are not separate nor are we separated from You. Lord, thank You for bringing me to understanding and feeling Oneness with the All That Is. Show me how to serve You in Love and Gratitude. As Jesus prayed, "Let me be an instrument of Your Peace."

Amen

Universal Life Church

Re: Shamanism course Hypnosis

I have done self hypnosis for many years and have been able to relieve stress with this aide. I think I have done it even as a child. My parents used to tell people that if I was watching TV there woud be no use talking to me because i would never hear them but I never remembered what I was watching on TV. I would "Space- Out" as my mother called it and would not respond unless yelled at or touched. I remember this being said about me yet never remembered anything anyone said or did during that time period.

-- Virginia
ULC Seminary

Lesson 8 Dr. of Spirituality course

Hi Amy,

Here are my answers to this week's lesson:

1.       Give my understanding of what it means to serve Truth or illusions: I believe we have forgotten who we are.  We have forgotten our Divine selves. We have forgotten we are One with the All That Is. As we have "forgotten" our heritage we have invented an illusion that we are separate and we are small and not up to the task of doing whatever it is we believe we are supposed to do. We believe we are weak and we believe that if we fail to live up to some imagined standard that we will be punished and forever separated from the All That Is.  With the Holy Spirit we can "re-member" that we are not separate and therefore there is nothing to fear. Without fear we move out of illusion.  We change from "responsible" (and therefore guilty of doing or failing to do something) and we move into the ability to "respond".  When we respond in Truth we are answering our Divine calling.  We are in partnership with the Divine.

2.       In my own words explain how perception and projection work to dilute the power of prayer: I think that perception and projection are examples of separateness.  It keeps us into thinking of "me" rather than "I".  If we attend to "perception" i.e. our illusory beliefs about something we then must find a reason for why this perception is so.  When we do this we are locked into the illusion and are not open to the What Is.  These "defense mechanisms" keep us from realizing the Truth and from accepting any answer that does not fit into our false belief system. I am reminded of a Buddhist story I read several years ago that seems to fit this lesson.  It talked about a priest and his followers walking along a mountain path on their way back to the monastery.  They looked up and saw an elderly man walk into the river and saw him go over a waterfall.  They ran as fast as they could to try to rescue this man, however, were quite a distance from the river.  When they finally arrived they were astonished because the elderly man was wading out of the river.  They asked him "how he had survived" as they were sure he must have died during this experience.  The elderly man replied, "I learned a long time ago not to fight the river."  I think the priest and his followers represent "illusion" and the elderly man represents "Oneness with the All That Is." I think he also demonstrates that by surrendering ourselves to the Truth there is no death, there is no separation.

Rev. Monnie

Universal Life Church

Spirituality

Spiritualism or Defining Spirituality

An essay for a course from Universal Life Church Seminary 

Rev. Carol Birdwell

This course had 19 lessons and covered a great deal of the history of western thought and the development of religion. It was directed toward the minister so that she would know how to respond to people who argue against spirituality as unscientific.

It is my belief that today we are seeing science and spirituality merge and meet each other in Quantum Physics, but it may be years yet before this becomes widely recognized as fact. Just last week my 17-year old nephew sent me an email in which he expressed his atheistic beliefs, but did not wish to go into explaining why he feels that way. He has never been exposed to any religion in his young life.

I dove right in and took the opportunity to explain some of my spiritual beliefs to him in a very kind and loving way, that I hoped might be “dropping a seed” for him to pull out and look at some time in his future, perhaps after it has even “grown” a bit. There was only love between us in this email exchange and he wrote back a nice note and I was thrilled.

As ministers it is important that we observe people and decide which ones are mind driven and which ones are heart driven. If we want to talk about our beliefs to others it is important that we never, ever push our beliefs, but always be gentle, kind, and understanding, and be aware of where “they are coming from”.

In this course, we studied people whose names I was not familiar with, that I have never studied before, and we also studied many well-known names, such as Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, Einstein, Nietzsche, Merlin, Jesus, Buddha, Socrates, and others. We also learned of various movements and groups.

I agree with our course teacher that if Jesus were alive today, it is very likely he would not be a Christian, and if he were a Christian, he would not be the kind of Christian we are most accustomed to seeing most of the time. He would certainly not be a “fundamentalist” Christian, but more likely a Positive Christian or a New Thought Christian, like the kind of Christian I am. For many years I even took offense at the word Christian and certainly would not call myself one!

Jesus did not come to this planet to start a religion. None of our great teachers and avatars did. They came to teach. Jesus was our big brother and came to teach us that we are Gods, co-creators with all of the energy of the universe, of all that is and ever was and ever will be.

He came to teach us that LOVE is the lesson, and that we can do the same miracles he did and “even greater”, when we know and accept who we are, all of us a part of the Divine Creator, all Divine Energy, all the same Sons of God that he was, our teacher, not our savior as the fundamentalist Christian churches believe.

We walk our paths, our many different paths that all lead back to God, from whence we came and in whom we have our very lives and breathe our very breaths, the breath of God, with whom we are all one, and all of us are all one together, all the same Divine Energy, that changes form, forever and ever, and is always God, as you, as me, as the guy next door.

I very much enjoyed this course, and intend to continue to study it over and over. There is a lot of history and philosophy in it with which I want to become more familiar. There are more “reads” ahead for these lessons I have saved on my computer.

Thank you.

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

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Spiritual Awareness

Masters of Spiritual Awareness Final Essay Rev. Barry Deel             When I decided to take the spiritual awareness course I was in a time of my life when I had become disconnected from my own spiritual path that I had chosen.  I was trying to find a way to fan the flame that I had so become depended upon in my life.  I had become bitter and resentful of all the situations and people involved that seemed to be some how against me or out to hurt me.  I had thrown all my beliefs out the window and stopped using the lessons that I had learned over my life to guide myself through this time.  I had even thought that I had lost my connection to Divinity and thought that my chosen gods and goddesses had turned from me leaving me alone and without any reason as to why they would have done this.  I spent many hours in self-loathing and pity cursing the fact that I had made really bad choices.  I was going around asking people that I knew and thought that I could trust beyond a shadow of a doubt to see if they could help shed some light on what I was going through, but they could not give any information or reasons that made any sense.  So, I decided that I need to take a good look at myself and see what I could find.  All that I could come up with was the fact that I had an urge that was very strong to learn something but not knowing what it was I had no where to even start looking for this new learning.  When, I would be out and about among the people that had some how hurt me I would here about the ULC in some way or form.  The ULC kept coming up, coincidence, I don't think so.  I thought what the heck, I am a member of the ULC and what could it hurt to see what they had to offer.  Well, I found that the ULC was exactly what I needed and was looking for.  The first course I took was the Maters of Metaphysical healing do to the fact that I was a Healer with my own practice I figure that I would use this course to judge the validity of the lessons offered.  By the time I had finished the twenty week course I had come to realize that this was "It".  I found myself going through the courses being offered and deciding which courses that I wanted to take after I had completed the metaphysical healing course.  At that moment when I made the choice to continue with the learning provided by the ULC the courses lined up on there own as to which would be next and all the way to the last course.  I knew right then and there that my divinity had not stopped talking, but, that I had stopped listening.  Once that connection had been realized within me the flame of my spirit sparked and began to burn though it was not as bright as it had been in the past.  I realized that my divinity had wanted me to return to a beginning point to reassess my life and what I had learned.              The masters of spiritual awareness began with a very simple insight, find beauty in life.  This insight was so simple and so easy that I thought what in the world are they trying to convey?  Well, even the simplest of things and actions can have the impact of a lightning strike.  I followed the lessons of the awareness course and practiced the techniques and found that the flame of my spirit was getting brighter.  As all of this was going on I realized that the course was teaching me the same things that I had already done in my life and practice when I started out on my chosen spiritual path.  It was like a homecoming to me and every time I made a connection with what was being taught and my earlier years I would found myself laughing.  Yes, at my self for being so stupid in forgetting were I had come from.  I had gotten caught up in my mundane life of trying to make money, pay bills, meet my needs that I had lost myself and had forgotten my vision and purpose, which I now understand to be the incorrect choice, not the wrong choice.  Due to the fact that I now know I am fulfilling my vision.  But, everything in life needs to be in balance.  The spiritual awareness course was just what I needed to reassess and become even more connected in my spiritual practice and balanced in everyday life.  By becoming aware of the coincidences in my life and truly looking at them I now have had great opportunities arise that I thought that I would never have in this life time.  The Spiritual awareness course was a spiritual life preserver for me and I would recommend it to anyone who feels or thinks that they are not connected to divinity or to life. ******************** Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button. As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary. Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spiritual Awareness

Dr. of Spiritual Awareness Final Essay by Rev Sharon J. Mayer

I used this course to build on the information learned in previous classes I have taken through UL C Seminary. It is much more intense and involved than the wonderful Spirit Quest course, which should be taken before this class is attempted. The instructors are very knowledgeable and each new concept is explained in terms that anyone can understand. Since the concepts and practice, as presented, were complete I did not use other texts or interpretations of ideas or practices during the course.

Each concept of learning was building upon another. I was so glad to read that not all beings are not able to do all things. So many times I have read that one should just do this or that and everyone who tries is able to see auras, or project good feelings or health to all. At one point I had given up trying and believe that is when my life was in a downward spiral. It has taken me forever to come to terms with where I should be on my path and all because I misunderstood where I should be and what I personally could do or accomplish.   The ideas presented in this course of  Spiritual Awareness is to go at your own speed and practice until you attain the desired level, but if it does not come you are just not to that level on your path as yet. 

The explanation of the Laws was new to me and explained in details that I was able to understand. Many of them I had not heard of before but during the lessons when we were to explore our feelings and understanding I was able to see where each came into play in my own life. I may never attain a high mastery of the all information given but I feel better about what I can do, what I must work on, and what I never might be able to do at this point.  

The course has shown me that I must never feel inferior or give up again. It is very hard to maintain a positive attitude and give of your energy all the time. I believe my next step is to find a way to have more positive energy given to me on a continual basis. Right now that does not seem to be the case. I try very hard to use other energy instead of my own but it seem at present I am in an area of my life where there is more negative energy directed toward me than external positive energy I have been  working on sending to other.  I will be working on that in the time to come.  I have reached a point of self-love which should help and I no longer feel that I have to do things to please others so my esteem is maintained in my own mind. I am finding my own pace and quiet time to enrich my own nature.

The weeks that have been spent with the lessons are showing an improvement in my well-being and it will be an on-going growth to reach higher levels and goals. This is not a read, learn, and put away class. It is a continual process of growth and the lessons given in the course will assist with the progress I am able to make. I do see very positive change in thought and feelings. I am learning self-love and that it is fine to care about yourself and not selfish at all in doing so to enable you to give more to others.

Some of the information given was new and I am not sure I can accept all of it at this time but will think about it and try my best to understand. I am new to the lessons of spirituality even after about three years of study. I do have a willing to take all information give to me to move forward in my quest. I have learned from the course that this is normal so it does not worry me as it once would have. Being a person who must understand and study all sides of each idea it may take a while longer for me to accept or reject things but while doing so I am learning and this course  has allowed me to think positively about doing things in that manner.  

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

As a long time member of ULC, Rev. Long created the seminary site to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church  materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar

Spirituality

Defining Spirituality

Final Essay

Rev. Brendan C. Cook

Spirituality. A word that means so much to so many people. Life defining, life changing concepts can be bound up in that one word. But how is it defined? What does it mean? How does one approach understanding the many concepts comprised in that one word? Though many have attempted to do so, and many systematic approaches have been developed, it is my belief that defining spirituality is at best an exercise in frustration.

Why, after taking such a superbly prepared and well-informed course, would I argue that defining spirituality is surely an exercise in frustration? Quite simply because the definition of spirituality is highly individual. There may be elements of commonality within what is commonly thought of as spirituality, but the specifics are defined and determined by the individual in question.

How many times have we, as ministers, heard the following: “I’m not really religious, but I do consider myself spiritual,”? When we hear that, what does it really mean? Is the person atheist? Agnostic? Anamist? All of the above? None of the above? Some of the people we meet in our ministry may fall into some, or even all, of these categories at some point in their lives. They may not even be sure themselves where they stand, or may not be able to precisely define their belief set or system. And that’s perfectly fine!

As ministers, it is our job to develop an understanding of the process of developing spirituality. A scientist, for example, may not believe in God in the traditional sense, or even consider him/herself a spiritual person. But they may have a clear sense that they are part of something greater than themselves; a part of the Universe which they are striving to understand through their science. As cogently argued in the lessons of Defining Spirituality, science is itself a religion of a kind and scientists are its priesthood. The evolution of this worldview, its components and influences, are essential for a minister to understand.

A grasp of the evolution of Western thought is, as the course makes plain, essential for every minister in today’s world. Defining Spirituality provides a clear, concise understanding of the major underpinnings of modern Western thought, which is especially useful for those who may not have had exposure to such a depth and breadth of ideas and ideological influences before. The course makes clear how modern thought and modern spirituality are inter-related.

Likewise, however, every minister should have a solid understanding of Eastern thought and philosophy as these both can heavily influence those who declare themselves spiritual and not necessarily religious. Eastern thought, with ideas dating back thousands of years, has become part of the modern American mindset over the last 40 years and been widely embraced by those who do not find fulfillment in traditional religious practice. In order to define spirituality and not be frustrated in the attempt, it is clear that we must define it as broadly as possible and seek to learn and understand as broadly as possible.

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Ordination with the Universal Life Church, is free,  and lasts for life, so use the Free Online Ordination, button.

The  ULC, run by Rev. Long, has created a chaplaincy program to help train our ministers. We also have a huge catalog of Universal Life Church materials.  I've been ordained with the Universal Life Church for many years and it's Seminary since the beginning and have loved watching the continual growth of the seminary.

Try our new free toolbar at: ULC Toolbar