That divine principle, that divine essence that is the story of our master teacher Jesus. And today I’m going to begin a four-part series of the book, “Discover the Power Within You.” This is a book that was written by one of the thought leaders in Unity and a leader in the world in terms of new thought consciousness. And he wrote this book, “Discovere the Power Within You.” And so we’re gonna do a four-part series as we head our way into Easter. And the book was written originally, I think in 19, I wrote it down, 1968.

1968. And then updated by him in in 1989. And so some of the stories are from the sixties. Anybody remember the sixties? Barely. Barely. Yeah. I was born in the sixties, so not so much. But I think what you’ll discover is when you read the book, if you read the book, some of the stories that are in the book really will resonate with you if you, if you look at it from today’s perspective, it is timeless work and it’s really, if you wanna understand what Unity thinks, this is a great fundamental book to read. And I’ll be offering a class in it later on in a, in a month or so after Easter. So this is a relic. Anybody feel a sense of a sense of nostalgia with the platform, with the podium up? Any, any? Yeah. You just noticed?

Yeah. Yes. Yeah, I called it out. No, it’s kind of white noise now, isn’t it? Do, do you feel it? It’s lovely. Do do you like it? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Don’t get used to it. I know, I’m so mean. So it’s a relic of, of this last weekend when we had our, our annual meeting and we needed a podium. And so I put the podium back up and I forgot to take it down. And what I’ve learned is to just go with the flow of what happens. But I do want to bring in one point that we made at the annual meeting, cuz not everybody was there.

Unity Palo Alto Community

Each year we come together as a community and our members, our voting members are, are invited to vote on things like the, the board of trustees in the minutes and the nominating the minutes. Yes, you vote on the minutes, but gee, that’s not an important one. But you vote on the budget and the nominating committee and whatever else comes before the board. And it’s an opportunity for us to share what has happened in the past year. And so the one thing that I wanna bring into this meeting to, to this meeting, to all of you, is this concept, this idea. We had over 60 people volunteer at our spiritual center in the last year. So Felix, would you put up the slide for me, please? The, I would like to ask, look at all of the opportunities that we had to serve from the prayer chaplains to the to the, oh, the, the Brown versus Board of Education. Play to the board of trustees. If you have nominated, if you have volunteered in our spiritual community in any way in the last year, would you please stand up so that we can honor you today. Would you give them a big round of applause?

Whether it was one day or the entire year you were, you create Unity Palo Alto. So stay standing. I see you’re almost sitting. Hang on a second. We’re gonna bless you. Are you ready? If you don’t know our saying, just send love. But volunteers, we love you. We bless you, we appreciate you, and we behold the light in you, you are what makes our spiritual community a community and makes us go. So please give him a round of applause. Thank you so much. Thank you Felix. And after the board of trustee, after the manual meeting comes our board of trustees meeting our retreat rather, and we began our retreat last yesterday. Oh my gosh, my words are just not here today. Can you bear with me? Sure. Okay, so here’s the scoop. We had our board of trustees retreat part one yesterday. Now I’m gonna say usually, but that was four years ago.

We would actually go to a retreat center and it would be a time for us to connect spiritually, and to do some work. Well, yesterday we kind of, we did a little spirituality at the beginning and at the end, and then we crammed all of the work into one day. So people were, were kind of tired at the end of the day, but it was very productive. Would you not say, would you say Yes, board members, volunteer board members? I, I didn’t get a yes at it. Yeah. Well, you and I are gonna have words later. I thought it was very productive. And what was interesting is it was the first time in three years when we did not talk about the pandemic,

We didn’t have the questions of how are we going to reach our community when we’re closed? Because we didn’t have live streaming. We didn’t have questions like, how many people can we fit legally in our sanctuary when we reopen? How far apart do they have to, we were measuring the pews to see how far apart we would have to have people sit. Do you remember that? And now, today, here we are. And instead of looking about how we’re gonna solve this issue, solve this problem, we’re looking at what, how are we going to emerge? What are we gonna look like in this coming year? What, what’s, what are we gonna start to build in this coming year? And it was a wonderful experience of being able to come from that perspective and to just hear all of the ideas. Now we don’t know yet because part two is after the service today, we’re gonna get back together and roll up our sleeves and be more productive, Marcy Lao.

And but what I’m recognized in that was through all of that time of the pandemic, through the fear, through the uncertainty in our personal lives. You know, I remember we shut down our services two Sundays before we were told we had to shut down. And I remember, you know, running the wire, well, I didn’t, Kent did, ran the wire through the attic to get internet into the sanctuary cuz we didn’t even have internet then. And I remember the feeling of coming in here on the first couple of Sundays and doing a service here with nobody in the room, but a camera in front of me and my wife Tiffany, at a table running the livestream. And then we got tired of that. So we moved it to our master bedroom. So for a year you were, you were seeing me from my house. And through all that experience, what I am recognizing is that you can have the best laid plans.

The Kingdom Of Heaven Is Within Us

Do you know what the theme for that year was? 2020 Roaring twenties. The roaring twenties. That was our theme here. That’s the theme that came to me. The Roaring twenties, the spiritual. Because in the roaring twenties back in the 1920s, it was the birth of all kinds of things. It was the birth of, and now I’m gonna forget because I’m really tired because the second part of my story. But it was the birth of of okay, well, you know, you go read about the roaring twenties. But the point of that I was trying to make is this is the birth of a spiritual revolution. It’s the birth of, of a spiritual time where we will explode into a new state of being. And what happened as a result of that? Okay, maybe it wasn’t a result of that. Maybe I’m not the cause of the pandemic, but what happened a few months later, we were all shut down. So best laid plans. And it’s really, it’s so tied to this book because today’s topic is the great discovery. And the great discovery is that was made by Jesus is that idea that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us.

Within us. And back then, that wasn’t the case. That wasn’t the thinking right there. Everyone was living in the Old Testament God, where God was out there somewhere. God was creating and destroying. God was blessing and damning and God was very capricious in terms of what he, what he decided to do. And then Jesus had this awakening, this discovery within him that this is, that allness, that power that’s within me. And what he discovered is that Christ potential. And he started to live into that idea of the Christ potential. I don’t know if he really understood the power that he was, that he was discovering at that time, but it’s that power that, that knowing that you have within you, everything you need to navigate, whatever comes your way. And we sh we did that during the pandemic and it reminded me of the, the phrase of let go and let God let spirit guide you. So wherever you’re headed, if all of a sudden you’re heading over here, then go over there and allow Spirit to emerge through you. And as you.

So in his book, Eric Butterworth wrote the idea when he was talking about this great discovery that the master teacher, named Jesus, who was known as son of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth wasn’t very special as a kid. In fact, when he went back to, to Nazareth, as it says in Matthew 13, four 54, what’s so special about Jesus? We knew him as a, as the boy in the carpenter shop. No big whoop. What is so special about this guy? What’s special is this is the discovery and into the better word, says into the consciousness of this thoughtful lad came an idea so great that he probably didn’t catch its full implications. At first it was the concept leading to the full realization of his Unity with God, the breaking down of the middle wall. The middle wall of partition between us and God.

Everything You Need Is Within You

So it’s that discovery and as Jesus put it, the kingdom, he knew that the kingdom of God, the wealth of the universe was within the depth potential within him. He was committed and a polished teacher with the amazing message that the kingdom of God is within you. Now over the years, that message has been manipulated or changed or, or reinterpreted into different things. And of course Unity is reinterpreting into what we think is more realistic based on our scholarship. But I think what the meaning here is, and, and the thing that’s very important is as we teach here in Unity, you have everything that you need within you. That power, that presence that that they call, that we call the Christ, that Christ potential. And that Christ potential is what lifts us up. It’s that divine spark that’s within us. And that divine spark is what what helps us move through, through life with ease and grace. Even when things go crazy, it’s that inner nature, that divine wisdom that flows through us when we’re walking our path.

So Butterworth talks about Jesus as having a very unique view of God, especially in the day of fire and brimstone. Cuz Jesus came back and said, no, it’s not about the fire and brimstone, it’s about love, it’s about connection. It’s about our oneness with God. As he said, many times the kingdom of heaven is within and the kingdom of God is that experience that we have when we connect with one another. So he was teaching Unity, I think back then, and he was teaching that idea of oneness well before its time. And I think today we’re starting to get an understanding of what we call oneness. We’re one with the allness of uni, of the life, the allness of life. Love and wisdom. That’s my favorite term for God. Divine wisdom, divine love, infinite intelligence, all of these different aspects of that higher energy, that higher consciousness that is us and available to us.

Jesus’s unique view of it was you are all the chosen, you are all the most high, that you all have this potential. And it wasn’t so much a bar to live up to, it wasn’t a restriction. You have to act this way, you have to do that way. But it was more for him, it was a way of living, of living that expression, that energy, that love in everything that he did. And so bringing that love to one another, bringing that energy to one another, bringing that consciousness of creativity. So if we understand the idea of oneness, that you and I are all one, that’s, that’s one of the main concepts in Unity. If we have an intellectual understanding that you and I are one and we started to embody that understanding, then our lives are experiences with each other would be a lot different.

Oneness or Allness? or Both?

We’d be showing up for each other differently than showing up trying to get something from one another, right? That’s the the and the concepts of we’re here to give. If you want more love, then give more love. Because that’s what comes back. That’s what circulates and that’s what that master teacher was teaching that each of us has within us. That Christ potential. No, I like to call it our authentic self because it’s really who we are. Now. We’re all here to express that in our own unique and special way. That’s why we’re all different. That’s why we all have something different to bring to the table. And so when our meeting yesterday, I sat back and we just said, okay, what’s everything that’s important to us as a spiritual community? What is it that we want to focus on as a spiritual community as we move forward in this year?

That concept of oneness. We’re here together to create an experience where people can come and have that felt sense of Spirit in their life. Have that felt sense of love, of divine love. Have that felt sense of inner peace and have that felt sense of connection with each other. And we’ll learn along the way. I think one of the best things about Unity is we always tell you, don’t take my word for it, practice it, put it in your life and see how it works for you. I had a wonderful discussion this week with, with one of our spiritual community members. We sat down and we talked for about 45 minutes about God. You know, she grew up over here with the i with the understanding of the Old Testament. God, God is outside of us. God’s the guy in the sky. And on the very end of the spectrum, she started to become aware of, well, science is pretty cool too.

So how do you connect the two? And for me, there is no separation between the two. See, on one side, on this side of the equation, someone may have an awakening experience, may have that aha moment, may say, “ah”, and they’re looking at it through that lens of whatever lens they have. And it may be the lens of, you know, Jesus is the son of only son of God and therefore this is the only way to do it. On the other hand, you may have a similar experience, an awakening experience a knowing of your oneness and consciousness of a single…of an allness and consciousness. And there is no God in your lens. The awakening experience is as valid. And when we can start looking at everything in between that whole spectrum and recognize that we’re all having this awakening experience in one form or another, in one way or another, we’re just translating it through our own lens. If we can have an understanding of that and an appreciation for that, then we can include all of it.

The Shadow Side – Let Go

And with all of it comes a shadow side. And the biggest part of that shadow side is I’m right and you’re wrong. The biggest part of that shadow side is I had this awakening and this is how I got here. This is the path y’all need to walk. But we know there are so many paths to this awakening. So can we honor and respect each other in our paths and still find out what path is working for us, what path. I know people who’ve gone through different religions in different paths and have settled on Unity because those are the ones who come and talk to me. The ones who don’t settle on Unity don’t talk to me. I dunno why that is. And they tell me, well this is the one that resonates with me because I feel welcomed. And yeah, I may think of this and I may think that, but I’m still welcomed here and the discussion is welcomed so that I can grow. And you can’t grow, you can’t evolve unless you’re willing to let go of something, unless you’re willing to challenge your own beliefs. And that’s what Jesus’ message was. Challenge your beliefs. Toss over the money tables in your mind and your own consciousness. What’s really working for you to create greater harmony in your life?

Include that. And when, when you look at your own shadow self, your own, if you’re willing to look at where you are, pushing other people away, where you’re self-righteous, where where you are you know, misinterpreting world. If you’re willing to look at that shadow self and bring that into the light, heal it and everything that isn’t working for you anymore transcendent, allow it to slip away. Let go and let God. This is a great mystic meister Eckhart who once said, let God be God in you. Let that divine essence that is you, be you, your authentic self. Let Spirit be you.

I know in Unity I often use the phrase, “allow divine love to move in through.” And as you. It’s that, as you part that is so important because that is our Unity with Spirit. Everything else is duality to me through me. It’s not me, it’s Spirit that’s still a dualistic nature. But if we’re looking at it for perspective of Unity, it’s oh, it’s asme and we’ll each show up as our unique beautiful self. And that’s the unique vision and view that Unity teaches that Jesus had. And so then we come to the great decision.

Embody Love – Practice It and Live it

What are you gonna do with it? How are you going to embody it? You know, we, there’s a path of growth that I think includes the idea, the intellectual idea of what we’re talking about and we understand it. But until we embody it, you know, it’s just words. Until we put it into our daily practice and we start to live it, there’s another path where we experience it and we’re living it. But if our intellectual hasn’t caught up with it yet and we’re still holding, this is the only way to do it, we’re still, we are preventing ourselves from growing even further. So when those two things merge, when we allow that the beingness, the intellectual knowingness to merge, then our doing this is simply living our best life.

Let Spirit Guide You

Now what happens when you do? It’s not something that everyone wants to do because it’s scary. My friends aren’t doing it. If I do that and come to my friends, they’re gonna say, who the heck do you think you are? But what I’ve discovered is when I live more from that authentic self where I’m open and receptive to divine wisdom, where I don’t hold onto the idea that I have all the answers at all. But infinite intelligence does, when I hold onto the idea that and the feeling that I’m just one with the universe and allow whatever emotions come in to just wash over me and fall away, but stay centered, then life goes smoother and easier. And when those big challenges come up, we can shift with ease and grace. So yes, we’ll all have our plans, we’ll all have our goals, we’ll have our direction. And if we look at it just as simply, this is the direction I’m going to take and we start to walk and then along the way Spirit guides us. It may be small course corrections towards our highest good. If we stay open to them, we just take the course corrections. It may be a full on gust of wind that sends us in a different direction.

Let God be God in you and just move with the flow of Spirit because that direction will maybe take us out of the hurricane that’s ahead of us. Maybe take us around it, maybe take us somewhere completely different. But what I’ve learned is that if you just allow God to be, if you allow Spirit that energy to flow and you move your feet with it, the way it opens up to an easier path, to a more joyful path, to a more abundant path, to a path that I love walking. And so part two of our board meeting is not so much about what will we do, but for me it’s how will we be and how will we as a spiritual community allow Spirit to be the energy through which we flow?

How will we allow that new consciousness of oneness, the embodiment of oneness that was taught so many years ago to emerge more fully in us. Now I think that’s what’s happening in the world around us, in the collective consciousness and the  in the global consciousness is that there is something emerging. It’s time for a Aza Buddhist call it, it’s time for a new turning. A new consciousness is emerging and we can fight it cuz that’s typically what we do. The old beliefs are gonna hold onto the, the old way of doing things or we can let go have non-resistance and just allow the the new consciousness to unfold in through. And as thank you, five of you get in through and as us. I’m one with the infinite flow of the universe. I’m one with the infinite flow of the universe.