Evolving Out of Not Enough | Rev. John Riley

Ready to Begin: Transforming Your Life and Changing the World

Well, are you ready? Are you ready to transform your life? Well, after that, I’m ready. Before I wasn’t so sure. Sometimes, you know, when we come from that space of looking for ways in which to grow, expand, and experience more of that joy, we get a little bit timid, don’t we? Sometimes we get excited about the song, and then we go home, and what do we do? Get back. We take a nap. We go back to our patterns. We go back to the old way of being the old set patterns and old set ways. Well, today we’re starting a journey of our fall enrichment program, starting a journey of evolving out of a sense of not enough so that we can have a greater experience of our self, sense of self, our sense of self with a capital s, that divine self, that higher self, our sense of self-worth. And as we start to develop that sense of self-worth, we will discover that that sense of not enough drifts away and life changes, we change. And when we change, we change the world. Now, that’s not too big of an ask. You ready to start?

Breaking Free from the ‘Not Enough’ Culture

So the the interesting thing is, you know, we’re, there’s a part of us that is looking at ourselves, our situation in life as a sense of not enough. We can’t help it because that’s how we were raised. That’s the culture that we were born into. That’s been the culture for thousands of years. That you’re just not enough. You’re not it. So don’t worry about it, just sit back and send in your type check and where we’re coming from that, trying to fill that sense of not enough. Most often we’re looking at filling it from the outside in. We’re looking for ways in which we can fill ourselves up. Whether it’s, you know, having a great job or getting a great car, or having enough money, right? Getting the right relationship, doing the right things, getting someone’s approval. Just having somebody say good job. That fills us up for a short period of time because it’s short and it’s transitory. Because what we’re doing is we’re looking outside of us to fill up that sense of not enough. That is our ego. And so our ego’s always wanting more, always seeking more, always trying to be more or do more, not really knowing that it’s not the star of the show. The star of the show is that higher consciousness within us, that self with a capital, ss that divine self, that noble self, that Christ self, whatever terms you want to give it, that’s that part of you that already knows that it is. Look, it deserves more. It has more. It is more.

Evolving Consciousness in the Modern Era

And so we’re, we are called to grow and transform into that greater sense of self more now than ever before. Because everything is changing. Now, I like to say consciousness is changing. I like to say consciousness is evolving because we believe in unity. We believe that everything begins first in mind. Everything begins first in consciousness. And we grab hold of these ideas that float around and that we give it shape and form and we create stuff, right? We do stuff. And we are really good at creating stuff, aren’t we? Especially here in Silicon Valley. We create all kinds of stuff and we’re so involved in creating stuff and moving in that direction that we tend to forget the greater sense of self, the creation that happens in here. And so culture is shift shifting as a result of the consciousness shifting. Culture is shifting as a result of our creating more stuff, because life gets more complicated. So culture and our individual consciousness has to shift and has to evolve, otherwise we can’t keep up. Now, there are some small shifts in the world that happen all the time. Small shifts in our lives that, that we recognize. You know, it didn’t quite pan out the way we thought it would. I remember back in the early nineties, I was a software engineer for an enterprise software company. Now, back then, we didn’t have this SaaS model internet thing going on that y’all have.

Navigating the Shifting Tides of Culture and Consciousness

I had to carry in a suitcase, my little microcomputer, my sun’s server that had the database on it. I had my laptop to connect to the sun server and all the networking equipment just so I can show them. So I can demonstrate our product. And I was on a sales call once with one of my colleagues, and we were sitting there driving the car to whatever place we were going, listening to the radio. And of course, we, we both like good music. So we were, we were listening to it, we’re, well, he turns to me and say, you know, I love modern Rock. I love modern music. I’m always gonna be on that cutting edge, always. I’m always gonna like, you know, the, the good stuff. And I said, yeah, me too. And you know, he was right. The only problem is Modern Rock ended back in the nineties. I still like it. But see, that was a small shift. That was a small shift in my culture because my kids today don’t know what I’m talking about except it’s coming back. Don’t tell ’em, don’t tell ’em, just let it come back.

Cultivating Worthiness and Noble Self in a Shifting World

So there’s these small shifts in us that we see changing in our culture. So think about your life experience. How much change have you seen in your life? How much change in the culture? How much change in the behaviors in our patterns? Have you seen, John? You’re going on what? A hundred and eight, ten, twelve 203, 103 next month, right? Am I right? 102. God. Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to make you older than you were 102. So really nothing’s changed. Yeah. You know, the one thing that does not change is Spirit. The one thing that really doesn’t change are spiritual principles. We just don’t like ’em because we got meditation, procrastination, because it’s effort, because it’s worth work. Now, the truth of it is, we are not going to change our lives and transform the world in seven weeks. Are you okay with that? I don’t want any false advertising here. But what we’re going to be able to do is learn a practice and learn some practices that help us move through the change that help us move through this idea of not enough, and help develop our sense of worthiness, our sense of self, of our noble self. And to begin to live from that sense of self more fully. Because that is what is needed in the world today.

From Not Enough to Noble Self in a Changing World

In order for us to, to direct or to change our culture in a way that’s positive. Because we’ve all seen the news, right? We all have some idea of which way it’s going. In order for us to impact and make a difference in the world, we have to first make a difference within ourselves. And so the major shifts that were happening have, were, were in, our culture began after World War ii and during the Covid 19 pandemic, with some say, we’re still in it, it accelerated those changes. And you can see that sense of not enough everywhere because people are beginning to look at life differently and sensing that uplifting and consciousness and new awareness that, well, there’s something more than what we’ve been focused on than the doing and the having and the, and all of the toys, there’s something more, but we haven’t quite placed it yet. And the sense of not enough occurs in all industry and all experiences, including, you know, the church experience, including religion. It has been said that since the end of World War ii attendance has declined. And as the pandemic came, attendance declined even faster.

Shaping Our Spiritual Landscape in a Shifting World

One of the authors that I’m reading I can’t, I’m losing his name at the moment, Jim Lockhart, he wrote the book, the emerging beloved Community or Creating the Beloved Community, beautiful book, and a great teacher. He now lives in France. And he relayed the story that in France, 1% of the population goes to church consistently. Every Sunday, just 1% talk about a sense of not enough. Church is hurting so much that the government’s starting to take over churches because they can’t keep the doors open on their own. So the culture is shifting. And if the church does not shift with it or does not lead that shift, it will be transformed into something else. That’s the way it works.

Breaking Down Walls: Uniting in Times of Change and Challenge

So our goal here is to really, because I think in unity, we have the tools that we need to help lead people through this transition and culture with ease and grace. Without that fear, withdrawal, ignoring, blaming, disconnect from the other increases. And that’s what we have experienced during the pandemic. Yes, during the pandemic, we shut ourselves in, we became more isolated for good reasons. We became more within our silo. And our silo, our group began to shrink. And the sense of other, the others began to grow. So all of that sense of separation is occurring. All of that sense of not enough is occurring within us at a great rate. And for us to really take hold of that, we need to step into a willingness to see, to look at ourselves, to start within, and then support the planet in changing and making a positive difference in the world. Without it, we get, we begin to have a sense of separation, of isolation, of desperation. Oh my gosh, I I sound like a u two song. Just let it go. Fade away. Thank you, bono, thanks for watching Bono. It could happen.

Overcoming Resistance on the Path to Transformation

Consciousness is shifting. And what happens within this, whenever we grow, whenever we learn a new spiritual practice or, or, or start a new spiritual practice, whenever we have that aha moment and we start to use it, there’s this term that the fillmores coined, which is called chemicalization. Because there is a reaction within you when you start to practice something new, when you start to hold a new belief, the old beliefs, the old patterns, do not like it. Have you noticed? And they do a very good job of fighting back. And that’s what Chemicalization is. It’s our old self, our old patterns, our old way of doing things back in the day that are holding on for dear life. And they often win. Sometimes they give us the illusion, oh, you’re doing such a good job, and then something will happen. And we forget all about our practices. That’s why they’re called practices.

The Power of Consistency: Affirmative Prayer and Meditation for a Transformed Life

Now, Lisa was talking about this idea of affirmative prayer and meditation. And that’s something that I’ve been practicing for a long time in my life. And there was periods where I’m, I’m good at it, and I, and I just, I months when I go by, when I don’t even think about it. So there’s cycles in me, there’s ups and there’s downs. But I know that when I do it consistently, I show up better. I know when I do it consistently, I feel more uplifted. I’m more inspired, I have greater ideas, and I have a greater impact in the world. And when I do it consistently, it becomes a non negotiated task for me. It’s not an option when I’m doing it consistently. It’s like, oh, no, I’ve got to do this. I make time on my calendar. You know, we make time on our calendar for the funniest things, except for our wellbeing, except for our spiritual connection. Except, except for, you know, moving in through that. And what it takes is a willingness to move through it. Because we’ll all have that meditation, procrastination at some point in time.

Awakening the Power Within

We’ll all have that chemicalization. And it means we just have to keep going, keep moving through it, keep practicing and use your power of faith. So often we try something, it’s like, okay, I meditated. No, nothing happened. I’m still the same. I don’t feel any different. Right? We expect something specific to happen. We expect something. And when we expect something, we’re holding onto or we are attached to an outcome. And when we can release that outcome, let go of that outcome and just allow it to be, then we’re not struggling with it, then we’re not frustrated with it. Oh, yeah. Prayer, meditation. I was talking about prayer, meditation. But how do you do it? Well, we’re gonna talk about that today. So the question really comes down to this. Are you ready? Because right now, even now that chemicalization is burning within you, even right now, those ideas of Yeah, but are coming up those ideas of Yeah, but you should are coming up, right? You don’t have to raise your hands. It’s in me, therefore, I know it’s in someone.

Moses: From the River to Royalty – A Journey of Faith and Transformation

The appetites, the yabos, what do I call them? The yabos and the Shiites from Ancient Egypt. You don’t know about that. It’s documented in the book. So, well, let’s talk about that because we’ve all heard that story, right? There’s a story that we’ve all heard. It’s about this little Israelite baby that was born. And at the time, Pharaoh was going around killing all the sons that were born, all the boys. The girls can stay, the boys gotta go. Remember that story? The mother put the baby in the basket and sent it down the river to protect it. She kept it as long as she could. About three months. She said, okay, I, I can’t do anything more. So she let it float down the river in the hopes that something would happen. Well, it was spied by the Pharaoh’s daughter. And the pharaoh’s daughter sent her maids out there to, to fetch the basket and to see what was in it. And there’s this little baby, and the pharaoh’s daughter named the baby Moses. ’cause It came from the water. And it, she raised the baby, right? She went out and got a nurse that apparently was the baby’s mother. And the baby’s mother got to nurse the baby. And the baby grew and realized that here I am, living in a palace, living with Pharaoh, living that life.

Moses: A Burning Bush Encounter – Discovering Purpose and Transformation

Can you imagine what that’s like of knowing that you’re different, knowing that you’re not the same, recognizing that you are a different people, and then learning that you are an Israelite. And then one day going out into the public for the first time as a young adult and seeing the abuse, the abuse that the Egyptians were inflicting on, the Israelites, his mother hit her, people were beating up his people. I mean, talk about a little bit of a freakout. That would be a little difficult to understand, wouldn’t it? Well, he did freak out. In fact, he killed the man who was beating up the Israelite. And then in a panic, he fled. He fled to Midian. And for years he lived there and he met a family. And he married the, the farmer gave his wife to him, and they married and he settled down. And he was tending the sheep of his father-in-law. He didn’t own anything. He was living off their land. He went from the palace to tending sheep. And so here he is tending sheep, he’s moving a flock. And then all of a sudden he gets this flash of inspiration. All of a sudden he has that aha moment. All of a sudden he sees this burning bush off in the off in the distance. And he’s looking at it amazed because the bush was burning, but it wasn’t burning up. It was like a fire from within. It was like a glow from within.

Answering the Call of Transformation and Purpose

So he went over and then he heard the calling Moses. Moses, here I am. And Moses is like, what, what is going on here? So that call of Spirit, that call of God, that voice that’s calling us and speaking to us, is urging us forward. So Moses goes over there and he starts to have this dialogue with God. And God has to go through time and time again convincing him of who he is. Moses wasn’t buying it. Moses wasn’t believing it. Moses wasn’t thinking, oh, here I am. I’m the dude. No, Moses. Like, what do you, what’s going on here? And God said, I’ve, I’m here to free my people. Now the story goes in the Bible. He’s here to free the Israelites. And by the way, Moses, you’re gonna do it because God doesn’t do those things except through us, through our hands and feet. We are the hands and feet of Spirit. If we want the world to change as it is today, then we have to change ourselves. And then we have to make a positive difference in the world to help the world move in the right direction, at least the positive direction. God called out, called out to Moses and said, here I am.

Rediscovering Your True Identity

In, in Exodus chapter three, verse 13 and 14, Moses was still arguing, but okay, I’m gonna go to all these people who don’t know me or Mayhan know me as, you know, the, the Pharaoh palace dude, right? Who lived apart from them, who wasn’t a part of them, who led the, the the cushy life. And I’m gonna go talk to these people who have been oppressed for many years, and they’re gonna believe me. Who do I say sent me? But Moses said to God, if I come to the Israelites and say to them, the God of your ancestors has set, has has sent me to you. And they asked me, what is his name? What shall I tell them? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. I am who I am. And he further said, thus you shall say to the Israelites, I am has sent me to you. Now, just think about this, because this is the ushering in of that I am consciousness. That I am consciousness that Lisa was talking about before, that, that I am one with the infinite, infinite intelligence of life, love and wisdom, that the infinite intelligence of God lives in through an asme. And that’s who I truly am. And yet my ego’s in charge.

Walking Forward in Faith

So are you ready to take on that mantle in this story? G Moses was not. He went on to say, I’m not the right guy. You should, you know, check out my brother. He’s a really good speaker. He gives Ted talks every two weeks. You know, go find somebody who can really connect with these people. I’m not it. And every step of the way, Moses struggled and fought back. But what did he do? He kept walking forward. He kept going forward, even when it was hard, even when there was famine, even when, you know, he had to go up into the mountain, Mount Sinai to find, to speak with God again, to get the, the 10 commandments, the law to bring it back to the people. And when he came back, they’re off doing their thing again. Making their idols going back to their old consciousness, going back to their old way of thinking. And again, he had to admonish them and say, no, this is not the way you go.

The Burning Bush Within

Now, the thing reason I love this story is that when you look at it metaphysically, it’s a beautiful, beautiful story about us and our consciousness and our struggle and, and fighting against these divine ideas. So anybody ever have an aha moment? Anybody ever have a moment where you say, oh, this is it. Or, oh, I’m, I’m more than this. Anybody have within you that pull to something greater that’s that burning bush within you? And how often do we say that’s it? And then you go back to doing what you’re doing? Don’t call me again. Call the guy next door. He needs it more than I do. Lemme tell you, I’m all right. I’m all right. But that guy, we have all kinds of ways to, to pushing back against this idea, this call within us to be a greater expression of our true self. As unique, as beautiful, as different as we all are. We’re here to be that.

The Journey of Self-Discovery

Now, it’s not gonna happen overnight, it’s not gonna happen in seven weeks. But this is the start of the journey for us as we move into that practice of, of living into that moment. You know, you may not, may, you may be like Moses and say, no, I’m good, thanks. And that’s okay. That’s choice. And your life will be what it is. But if you want to grow, if you want to express more of your divine nature, more of your abundance, more of your sense of beauty, sense of creativity, sense of knowledge and wisdom. If you want to create something greater in the world or simply in your life, then it’s time to step forward. Spirit is calling and consciousness is evolving. And you can make the choice to say, I’m moving in that direction intentionally. Or you can make the choice to say, nah, I’m good. And be pulled through it kicking and streaming ’cause it’s happening. So what I’d like to offer as our practice a discernment practice. ’cause Right now what I’d like you to do is just think open. You know, have a curious mind, have a curious mind, and open your heart to start to think about areas in your life where you have a sense of not enough.

Owning Your Sense of Not Enough: A Path to Healing and Wholeness

Now we know there’s some people that don’t like to look at the negative, but if you don’t, sometimes you’re spiritually bypassing. If you’re ignoring it, then you’re not owning it. You’re not bringing that part of you out for healing. And then that part of you begins to drive you and own you. So you better own it before it owns you. So with an open mind, with a curious mind and open heart, we can lovingly ask the question, where do I have a sense of not enough? Where do I have a sense of lack? And, and whether it’s I’m not good enough, I’m not smart enough, I don’t have enough, there’s not enough time, there’s not enough money, I don’t have a career, there’s not enough activity. Even the outside or the inside, we can look to see what’s appearing in our lives. And that will reflect something that’s in you, even if it’s in the outside. And the practice that I’ve been using is the five step unity prayer practice. Are you ready? Yep. The first step is relaxation. ’cause In all the stress, right, our bodies are triggered. Where minds are triggered, our emotions are flooding. We, we are just off the rails when we get stressed out. So relaxation is the first step. Just take a breath and relax.

Awakening to Abundance

The second step is what we call meditation. And that’s where we give our brain something to do. Because that’s what it does, is it thinks So you tell it, you give it the instruction to become the observer. To just be curious. You can use mindful breathing, mindfulness, meditation. You can use, I like transcendental meditation where you focus on a sound or a a an ohm. You can use an affirmation to bring you in, but something to give your brain something to do so that it can begin to relax and become the observer. And when you do that, the emotion settle and the body settles relaxation and meditation then comes realization. In that state of meditation, simply ask the question, what is mine to do? Where do I have a sense of lack and not enough? What’s my next step? Ask the question and then be in the silence. Be in the silence. Just be present.

Awakening to Your Divine Worthiness

Now the answer may come in a flash during your meditation. It may come three hours later when you’re off doing something. It may come in your dreams later that night. It may come in the things that other people are telling you. All of a sudden there are five people telling you where you need to grow. But the answer always comes if we’re open to it. Realization is that part where we’re sitting in the silence, sitting in simply the allness of life, the allness of wisdom, the allness of love. We’re just in it. We ask the question, we bring that into that prayer field. And then we affirm. The fourth step is affirmation. I am whole. I am spiritually whole. I am spiritually worthy. I’m one with the infinite flow of life. Love and wisdom. All of those things are true. This isn’t a jack handy affirmation, right? I’m good enough, I’m smart enough. And gosh darn it, people like me. Stuart Smalley, thank you. Sorry. I dunno where Jack Handy came in. Thank you Kent, my eighties guy. We’re affirming truth. We’re affirming the truth of our being, that higher sense of self.

Transforming Your Life through the Power of Prayer and Meditation

We’re not letting ego get involved ’cause that’s all an illusion. We’re not letting ego get involved. ’cause That’s all a sense of lowercase t false truths or belief system or bss. If you’re new to unity, bss dancer, belief system, Mostly relaxation, meditation realization, affirmation, gratitude. Be thankful. Be thankful for the experience regardless of what your experience was. Just be thankful because gratitude will develop that sense in you that this was worth it, that this was worth it. So keep an open mind and if you are involved in our fall enrichment program, there are, and if you’d like to be involved, this is a small group program that meets once a week. Starting this week we still actually have four groups that are still open. There are three open on Wednesday. One is in Milpitas, one is in the Saratoga end of Las Los Gatos, and one is on Zoom on Wednesday night. And if you are in your forties or under, there’s a forties and under group that are meeting on Thursdays here in the Yes hall at Unity Palo Alto.

A 7-Week Journey of Self-Discovery and Growth

You can sign up for those out in the courtyard. And if you are in the small groups or if you’re not, if you wanna do this on your own, if you’re just curious, I have created for you a spiritual reflections guide for this talk. It has an opening prayer, it has a closing prayer, it has some talk highlights. The practice is written down there and it has some questions for you to deepen your understanding and your experience. And if you are part of the Full Enrichment program from New Hampshire, don’t worry. If you’re on our list, I’ll email it to you. It will also be on our website after the service in about an hour after the service. Gimme time to do it. To put it up there. This is just an a way for us to deepen our experience of what we’re using here and to practice during the week and to decide. And the one question that I want you to, to come away with is to think about during that discernment process, what are you willing to work on during the next seven weeks?

The Path to Transformation: Embracing the Call of Spirit

What are you willing to work on within yourself where you can, you know, you sense there’s a sense of not enough where you can begin to heal that and bring that out and, and apply the practices that we’re going to be talking about. So you can see the change in you throughout this next seven weeks. So you can see how it changes and how your, you shift and you change. It’s a brave thing to do. And not everybody wants to do it. Why? Because we have a deep sense of that procrastination, because it’s work, you know, because it’s leading the Israelites out of Egypt was a lot of work. But it doesn’t have to be if we just take it lightly, take it gently and just take one step at a time. Let’s move to our affirmation, Felix. I’m gonna read our affirmation and then invite you to affirm it with me with a curious mind and an open heart. Sorry, with a curious mind. I open my heart to the guidance of Spirit.