Free to Be Me | Rev. John Riley

Thank you, Debra. Thank you, Russell. Thank you Ronnie. Good morning. Morning. Morning. What a joyful experience. The sun in the middle of the storm. So grateful for the sun and grateful for all of your presence here today. Today is our Whitestone ceremony, and the theme for the day is Free To Be Me. Free To Be You. It’s an opportunity for us to live into that authentic self that we know is there but we don’t always live with. I’m gonna check for a wifi controller next week.

How to Let Go

So last week we had our Burning Bowl service. How many were here for our Burning Bowl service? Wasn’t that fantastic? Did you enjoy that? Did you feel a little release in that? The Burning Bowl service is an opportunity for us to let go of that which did not serve us in the previous year, to let go and release everything that we’ve been holding onto. And the focus is for us this last week was really letting go of the old consciousness of attachment, letting go of that old consciousness of attachment, attachment to being right, attachment to the old issues from the past attached to the way of the, the way of it. How it was in the past. It’s had releasing our attachment to fixing and fixing other people. So as we release that attachment consciousness, that old way of being, we make room in ourselves for something new. We make room in ourselves for a consciousness of being, a consciousness of being. You see, our old consciousness, the old consciousness of our society, what we’ve been living through is a consciousness of attachment, attaching to things out there, attaching to, you know, our toys or, or our, you know, our favorite team winning, or you know, our….

I’m speaking for myself here. Of course, that’s none of you. Go Niners. Yeah, go ahead. Go Niners. You can say it. You know, last time they made it to the Super Bowl, I did the metaphysics of football, and I did the offense. And maybe if they make it again this year, I’ll do the defense. I don’t know. I’m not promising anything, but so we are, we’re letting go of that, those attachments that we have. Not because the stuff is bad, but just because we’re putting all of our energy into it so that we can create a new sense within a sense of being. And that’s really what the Whitestone service is all about. In his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul said, do not be fashioned according to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

And ye may prove what is good and acceptable and perfect will of God. This is all about changing consciousness. I think that’s one of the most profound statements that we have in the Bible that I’ve, that I’ve found that really tells us that it’s all about consciousness. You know, we can be in the world and have all of these wonderful things and, and, and be a part of that, but that doesn’t have to define who we are. And so often we are defining ourselves by those attachments, by what other people think of us, by, by the things that we do right, the jobs that we have, the things that we don’t do, rather than just the essence of who you are, that beingness. And so today is an opportunity to listen to your heart, to listen to that song within you. That singing that’s here to express all of the good that you have to uniquely express in the world.

What Unity Is About

Unity is about transforming your life so that you can live more joyfully, live more effectively, have be more peaceful, have a more joyful, abundant life, and so that you can be inspired to do good things in the world. That’s really what we’re, what we’re about. And so, as we go through this idea of transforming our consciousness, we realize that though we live in the world and we’re a part of it, right? That’s not the whole of who we are. That there’s something greater within you just bursting to get out, that’s excited to get out, that wants to sing, that wants to be, you know, that joyful you, that what I like to call your authentic you. You know, we have terms like your Christ consciousness and that Christ consciousness is in every person in the world. And Jesus was a great example of demonstrating that awareness.

You may call it that spark of divinity that’s within you. You may call it your higher self. I like to call it my authentic self because that’s really the truth of who I am, the truth of who I am, not the personas, right? We all put on personas, we put on our Sunday personas with our coats and our ties. I forgot my tie. We put on our you know, our, our work personas. We put on our neighbor personas. And, and you know, when, if you watch kids, you know, at school, they put on all kinds of personas, depending on who they’re around, and different aspects of them come out. And sometimes those personas are, are there because we’re afraid to be who we truly are. We’re afraid to be open and free to allow that divine essence, that light to shine and to be a part of you.

Better Yourself 

So today is really about connecting with what is waiting to emerge within you. The consciousness that’s waiting to be birthed, that’s waiting to come forth, that will give you just a greater understanding and expression of that authentic self. Right there I don’t wanna talk about it in terms of, of you know, perfection, or imperfection, because it’s all a scale and it’s all a, you know, it goes from one to another. We slip back and forth, back into our old consciousness of attachment until we recognize and remember, oh, I can let go of that, that fear. I can let go of that concern. I can let go of that story that’s creating, you know, my suffering. And I can just step into beingness, step into those aspects of my being that are here to be expressed. Maybe it’s, you know, the aspect of faith, the power of faith within you, the power within you to shape substance, to create your experience in the world.

Move in The Direction of Your Dreams

Maybe it’s the power of love, the energy of the harmonizing energy that flows throughout the universe, that agape love, that divine love. Maybe it’s, you know, strength or wisdom or zeal or, you know, whatever term that’s bubbling up within you. What aspect of you is waiting to be born? Eric Butterworth Unity minister and author once wrote, “we are human in expression, but divine in creation and limitless in potential.” So notice how he doesn’t say, you know, forget about the humanness or forget about the ego. He just says, we are human in expression and we are divine as our authentic self and our potential to express that is infinite. And how we bring that out into the world, it goes on to say, dare to conceive of greater things for yourself. Dare to see yourself as strong, confident, successful and poised and possessed of the patience and the stability to keep moving in the direction of your dreams.

Dare to be that anybody, anybody want to dare to be that. That sounds pretty good. That’s who we are. Just dare to step into that essence of you and allow it to be. And, you know, every day we will go through the process of releasing our attachments, releasing our old stories, releasing our old consciousness. Every day we will go through that because there are, you know, habitual within us. There are patterns within us, sometimes unconscious. And so every day we will find ourselves, oh, there I am again. I can release it and, and mentally go through that burning bowl service again. And then I, I like to, or you can physically do it. I like to use my shredder. Anybody like that?. Anytime I do a worksheet, anytime I do anything, you know, write down my issues or whatever in the morning when I’m journaling, it’s like, yep, I don’t want that anymore. I’m gonna shred that. That’s my burning bowl exercise.

Your Potenial Is Limitless

So every day we’re going to have the opportunity to remember that yes, we are human in expression, but we are divine and our potential is limitless. Your potential is limitless. Your potential to express that divine aspect of you and everyone will express it a little differently. Cuz we’re all an individual expression of the allness of life. And that’s the beauty of it. Oh my gosh, can you imagine what it’d be like if everyone was John Riley? I don’t think I could take it. I argue with myself enough, then I’d have to actually argue with myself out there. We’re all this beautiful expression, authentic. So it’s an opportunity for us to allow that aspect to emerge in a greater expression, to do greater work in the world, to be a greater presence for peace, a greater expression of love, a greater empowerment of faith. The Whitestone ceremony is one that we’ve done for many, many years, well before I’ve been here.

And it comes from it, it is drawn out of the a verse from Revelation chapter two, verse 17. He who has an ear to hear, oh, sorry, lemme start over. He who has an ear, let him hear what Spirit says to the churches, to him who overcomes to him. I will give some of the hidden man and I will give him a white stone, and a new name will be written on the stone, which no one knows, but he who receives it. So let’s just take a look at that for a moment. Literally, this story goes back to when back in those days when people were released from prison and the person who wrote this was in prison, when, when they released them from prison, they give them a white stone to signify that they’re now free. So that’s where the, that’s where the idea came from.

Put Attention on Consciousness 

But of course, we in Unity, we look at the Bible as metaphysical and as a metaphysical interpretation. That is a spiritual interpretation, a way to look at ourselves in consciousness. And so it begins with he who has  an ear to hear, those of us who have an ear to hear, let them hear, because spirit is always there. That divine intelligence, that divine inspiration, that flowing energy, that energy and activity. Spirit is always there, but we don’t always hear it because we’re too, you know, we’re chattering in our ear. We’ve got that, that voice that just keeps running over and over again.

But once you recognize that, it’s like, okay, let me just calm that voice down so I can hear what Spirit says to the churches. Now, metaphysically, churches represents consciousness. That place within you that is sacred and holy, that aspect of you, that is that center, that authentic, where that authentic self comes out, that’s your part of consciousness. So when we become still, when we open our minds and to divine inspiration, to, to that idea, then we hear it and it changes our consciousness and it changes who we are fundamentally. Now, if you’re having, you know, if there is some specific issues that you’ve been working on, how many of us have those issues that have been going on forever? And, you know, they just, they keep coming back and I keep doing my spiritual work. I do another worksheet and I shred it, and here I am again.

Release the Story 

It’s just the practice of rewriting that pattern that’s within us. It’s the process of letting go and releasing the story. Now, if, if you have those kind of things, and or if you’re, you’re wondering, how does this idea of who am my authentic self, how does that, you know, show up? I actually have a class coming up. It’s called The Art of Quantum Living. I think we’re calling it now. And Rusty’s gonna tell you a little bit about that. But it’s an opportunity to embrace those parts of us that we don’t like so much. Or the embrace the shadow part of us that we’re afraid of, or that’s driving our, driving us. So that once we embrace it and bring it into the light, we can release it and we can allow more of that magnificence to emerge from us. So today, as we go through this process, just think about that idea of what is bursting out of you, what wants to emerge?

And you may not recognize it right away and may come as a feeling because sometimes we don’t recognize, right? When, when evolution and transformation is happening, we can’t always see it because we’re in it. But later we get some, some clues about it. Later we start to hear things, we start to see things, we start to feel things. So, so if you don’t get a word this week or today, just be open to the word that you’re going to receive during the week. Now, as you came in, hopefully you received a white stone. And I’m gonna ask someone, I think the white stones are in the back. Thank you, Karen. If you don’t have a white stone to raise your, thank you, Christine. If you don’t have a white stone, raise your hand. And Karen’s gonna go back and get them and bring them, bring them up so that you can have one, and we’ll give them time. But I want to tell you a little bit about this white stone. This is a white stone from Israel. And this is one that I’ve had, I think for a couple years now, I can tell because it’s, it’s pretty smooth. It’s a little, has a blue tint to it because I put it in my pocket and I wear jeans most of the time. So it’s starting to turn a little blue.

This white stone is a symbol, just a representative, a representation of that which you want to bring into manifestation this year. That which you want to create, that, that authentic self that you want to bring forward this year. And what I do with it. Now, some people will, what we’ll do is we’ll go through a meditation and then when you, when the word comes to you or the phrase, you can write it down on the word, so you’ll re it’ll remind you of. And some people have a little altar or a place where they put it, where they see it, and they, and it reminds them for me, it’s a touchstone. And like I said, I carry it in my pocket and I carry it in my pocket. Because anytime I want to remind myself of who I’ve come here to be, I can just get in there and grab it.

That’s all it is. It’s a touchstone for me to remember. This is who, this is more of my authentic self. Now, the idea of authenticity. Some of us, you know, grew up in a situation where we couldn’t be our authentic self, and that’s where our personas came in, right? Or that’s where those masks came on. We had to pretend to be something and someone different. Now, here in Unity, of course, we’re welcoming and inclusive of all people. So however you want to express that authenticity, you’re welcome here and you’re welcome to do it and however it comes forward. And where the, another phrase that we like to use is, wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you are welcome here because we’re all seeking to express more of that authentic divine self. We may have different paths, we may have different processes, but as long as we hear, at least we’re open, you, we’re open to all of that authenticity with love and compassion.

In a moment, we’re gonna go into a meditation where I’m going to invite you to just open up to relax. Let the monkey mind relax, let the chatter calm. And sometimes, you know, the thing about meditation is you can’t try to relax. I’m gonna relax, right? It just has to let you just have to, you just get to let it be. So if words come up, if sensations come up, if you know sounds or, or feelings come up, we just notice them. The most effective way to allow them to pass by and to re return to that idea of silence is just noticing them without any attachment to them, without any blame or shame. Oh, I’m not a meditator, I can’t do it. Five minutes is enough. Just let it be. Just let it be until it’s six. That’s the best way to get into it. And then give your brain something to do, like, focus on your breath. Take mindful breaths or give your brain something to do. Like, repeat an affirmation. I’m at peace.