How Can I Find My Path? | Rev. John Riley

Well, my talk today is finding the path, finding the path.  And we’ve talked a lot about this in this past year.  I guess it’s almost June so, this last six months of 2022, moving through it as looking for the path through the next experience, through change, through the trials, through the joys, in terms of creating more experiences, a greater sense of health, wholeness, and abundance.  

Finding the path.  So, how do we find the path through all of these distractions, through all of these situations for us?  We have been talking about this idea of divine love and the universe is waiting for us.  The universe is just waiting for us to step forward, to move.  But what path do we take?  

The Ego Path and the Spiritual Path

One of the paths — what we have been talking about — one of the attributes within us and the strengths within us is that idea of divine wisdom and divine mind, and being able to move through life, guided and directed by wisdom.  So, a lot of times I think what we do is we look and say I’ve got to find my path.  Anybody here saying, I want — oh don’t raise your hands– anybody here saying, “I want to find my path.  I don’t know what my path is right now”?   

Sometimes I think we know what our path is, and it just becomes an excuse for us to not walk our path.  That idea of, “Well, I just don’t know which way to go”, and so we sit grounded, stuck, because we’re not willing to take a step.  But the path comes to us through our prayer and meditation.  The path comes to us through our intuition, through our connection with Spirit because there are two types of paths that we can take.  There’s our ego path and then there’s our spiritual path and the reality is, they’re all one.  We think they’re separate but our ego path is just another part of our spiritual path.  

The Twelve Powers

So, what we want to really focus on in terms of moving forward on that journey, on that path, is the idea, the attributes of understanding, the attribute of will.  In Unity we have what we defined as twelve powers, the twelve attributes of our consciousness, and that make up the spiritual I AM of you, that divine essence within you.  And those powers — are you ready?  

Let me see if I can actually get them out — life, imagination, power, strength, judgment, understanding, zeal — thank you, that was the one I was missing — faith, love, order and will.  All of those are powers within us.  All of those are abilities within us and things that make up that I AM consciousness.  And when we have them all clicking and running at the same level intentionally at a spiritual level, then we are walking the path that we are intended to walk.  And it’s a path of joy and it’s a path of abundance and it’s a path of serving and creating a world that works for all, as we talked about at the beginning of the service.

Understanding and Will

So, what I want to talk about today is those two aspects; understanding and will, because it takes understanding to know, to learn these spiritual tools to get us into that place of knowing.  There is some education and study and effort needed, needs to be put into that understanding component.  But intellectual understanding is not enough.  The intellectual understanding of, “I understand these spiritual principles that we’re talking about”, but until you put them into action, they don’t mean anything to you.  You’re not embodying them.  

That’s the goal, is to embody those spiritual principles.  That’s where will comes into play.  There’s two forms of will.  There’s personal will that comes from personality and there’s spiritual will.  So, personal will comes from that idea of the persona that’s within us.  You might call it your ego.  And it’s not necessarily good or bad; it’s just self-centered.  It’s centered on me, whereas spiritual will is centered on the whole and our union with God, our oneness with the allness of life, love and wisdom.  

Personal will comes from that idea of persona.  I looked this up this morning and the root word of persona from Latin means a mask.  Like, comes from the theater when we put on different masks we put on different personas.  How true is that?  I mean how many personas do we actually have?  We come into church, well I’ve got my church persona on.  Let me hover as I move into the world.  We have our driving in traffic persona.  Anybody have one of those personas?  It’s different.  It can be.  We have, and you know what, these persona’s come up when we get triggered.  Our shadow comes up.  Our shadow button gets pushed and all of a sudden, boom.  There’s a different persona.  

They come and go so quickly.  They can come in a moment.  I’ve heard one could be angry, frustrated and then in the next moment, take a breath, and put on the other persona because I’m letting go of the fear and the shame and the guilt.  

So, the more we take off those masks, those masks of who we’re pretending to be when we’re at work, those masks of who we’re pretending to be when we’re at the water cooler, or out with our friends, or with our families.  Oh, there’s another persona.  We all have those personas.  That family system comes into play.  All of those personas that we put on trying to make it through.  

Like I said, I’m not saying that it’s good or bad because sometimes those personas create or inspire individuals to create things that are wonderful.  But the persona that, if we just took off the mask and lived more from your spiritual I AM, the persona wouldn’t matter as much.  We wouldn’t be guided by self-centeredness.  We’d be guided by God centeredness.  We’d be guided by oneness centeredness, a sense of being together in this vast universe as one, as one spiritual experience.  As Rusty talked about earlier, that first principle, God is in us.  I like to say God is in us like the ocean is in the wave, there’s no separation.  It’s the allness of life that we’re in.  So, the will is our willingness to step forward into our lives projecting that spiritual I AM nature in every situation.  

Now, what happens is we get afraid to do that.  When I get out with my friends and it’s like, “Well I’m not going to be Mr. Spiritual here.  It’s not that kind of relationship.  Oh, here he goes again”.  So, can we be in those situations without the persona and have the will to move through life from that spiritual I AM?  

Steps Along the Path

How many of you have a goal, have a target, have something you want to accomplish, or you want to purchase, or you want to become?  Maybe it’s a relationship goal.  There’s all kinds of goals that we have out there and things that we’re striving for.  And how many of you — don’t raise your hands — how many of you are actually taking steps towards that goal?  I said don’t raise your hand, but you get an A.  You get a star anyway, just showing up everybody.  But if we don’t take any steps then we’re not going to move down that path.  

I’ve got a great goal.  You know my mom’s 92. I want to write a book with her.  I’ve got twenty years left.  She’s not going anywhere.  But how often am I taking steps down that path?  Or am I thinking I’ve got to find the right you know, type font, or whatever the excuse is?  We make all these excuses because our will is not weak and that’s the problem.  We think we don’t have any self-will, we don’t have the strength to do it.  We get mad at ourselves or down on ourselves, but the will is just following that persona of fear, that persona of I’m not good enough.  So, shift out of that persona, take off that mask and shift back into your I AM spiritual consciousness where all things are possible.  

The I AM Consciousness

There’s a great story in the Bible that I would like to relay and it’s — actually I have it written down.  It’s in, I think it’s Mark.  Mark, yeah.  Mark 4 Chapter 4 verse 37 – 41 where Jesus and his disciples are in a boat and it’s in this stormy boat.  It’s in the stormy seas.  The waves are rocking, the wind is blowing and Jesus, the I AM consciousness is right up in the bow sleeping.  Now let’s just pause there for a moment.  Jesus, the representation of that I AM consciousness, that Christ consciousness, is asleep.  

So how many of us during our storms, that I AM consciousness is asleep?  What a great metaphor for what we’re experiencing in life.  That I AM consciousness falls asleep.  Then all of the disciples wake him up and say, “Do thou not care for us?  You’re just sitting there sleeping.”  Jesus stands up and he speaks to the sea and he speaks to the wind.  He rebukes the sea and speaks to the wind, “peace, be still”, and the sea and the wind are calmed, just like that.  

Jesus was the master of the situation because he was a master of his own thoughts, because he agreed with God always.  He wasn’t disagreeing with God when the storms were raging, when the wind was blowing.  He was hunkered down and just napping it out.  That’s the wonderful story about this.  He kept himself in tune in a state of spiritual unity with God.  This was accomplished through discipline, through spiritual will, through the practice of meditation and prayer which he did continuously by retuning and refining himself and getting him back in tune with that one presence and one power, getting him back in tune with the allness of life, love and wisdom, with that energy of divine love, with that energy and power of faith, with the wisdom and understanding and the spiritual will to put it into action in life.  

Now, it’s a wonderful metaphor for us because this is our innate ability to move through whatever storms you’re going through, with ease and grace as we return to that indwelling spirit, to that indwelling place within us that is untouched, that is peaceful, where infinite joy exists, by returning to that place.  

Now, you’ll notice Jesus didn’t say, “Don’t worry boys, it’s okay. I know it’s a little rough here, but we’ll get through it.”  He didn’t identify with the situation as being good or bad at all.  He just said peace, be still.  In your storms, in your situation as you’re going down your path, how much of it is, “Oh my gosh Becky, look at what’s happening to me now.  Look at what’s going on to me.  Look at what’s happening here” and just identifying with the problem, identifying with the situation rather than just saying “peace, be still”.  

He never identified with the good or the bad of it.  He never disagreed.  He just said, “This is, and now everyone let’s get centered again.  Let’s have that spiritual union with God, allow that I AM consciousness to come forward and to be present.”  

The Greatest Mistake

Eric Butterworth, in his book, Discover the Power Within You, said, “The greatest mistake is believing that we’re only human”.  Now, sometimes we say that, right?  “Well, I’m human.  There’s my comfort zone.  Of course, I make mistakes because I’m human”, but there’s our scapegoat.  We’re identifying or we’re affirming this is, I’m going to make mistakes and the truth is you are.  We all are.  Why?  Because we’re human.  Yeah, okay.  

So, as we’re going through that, though, we don’t have to identify with the condition, with the situation and call it good or bad.  We can return always to that inner centered place in consciousness.  “So, the greatest mistake is believing that we’re only human.  We are human in expression but divine in creation and limitless in potentiality”, limitless in potentiality.  

Good and Evil

There’s a saying and it comes from Genesis Chapter 50 — I just had it. Verse 20, I think.  Yep.  – “And as for you, you meant it for evil but God meant it for good”.  Have you heard that saying before?  Whatever is happening out there, yes, you may have meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.  The message there is, there is always something that I can learn and grow from that experience.  

And I believe that it needs updating because I don’t think God meant it to be.  The evil that we see in the world, the anger and destruction and frustration and outbursts that we see in the world are not meant by God.  That’s created by our humanness.  That’s created by our separation from that one presence and power.  That’s created by forgetting that I AM consciousness within us and allowing that shadow persona to take over.  So, it happens.  It happens.  

I think the phrase could be updated is “God, God’s will, will out.”  That will to express divine love will overcome.  That will to express infinite wisdom will overcome.  That God wills out and that if we’re — when we’re in alignment with that and even if we don’t, aren’t conscious about it, we get these intuitions or these sparks within us that say here’s something good that has occurred as a result and then we can say, “God meant it for good.”  But it’s just God expressing good, God expressing love, the universe, the universal consciousness expressing that divine harmony that’s always present.  That’s what wills out, even in the face of tragedy.  

Setting an Intention

So, when we tie into that essence, when we consciously make a decision – here’s where the trick is — making an intention, setting an intention to say, “I’m going to consciously live in that I AM experience.  I’m going to consciously express that I AM consciousness in every situation that I can.”  With that spiritual will, we’re able to walk the path, to experience more joy, more creativity, more abundance in our relationships, in our career, in our finances, in our health, whatever you want to call it.  But it’s that spiritual will that takes off the persona of fear and frustration and anger and gossip and everything else that’s not it, taking off those masks and allowing our true self to move forward.

As I was working on this talk this week and thinking about it, I asked the question, what’s next?  I immediately saw this little book on my desk.  It’s Metaphysical Meditations by Paramahansa Yogananda.  I think it’s one of my mom’s books.  She bought it in 1969 for sixty cents.  I said, “Okay, what does the Yogi have to say?” and sure enough there’s a whole section about developing will, spiritual will, a conscious effort to move forward.  So, I would like to read some of this and if it makes, if it resonates with you, I invite you to take it with you.  

“Today I make up my mind to succeed in whatever I do.  Willpower is a tremendous factor in all activities.  It can start endlessly.  It can start endless motions of cosmic energy.  Oh eternal energy, awaken in me conscious will, conscious vitality, conscious health, conscious realization.  Teach me, oh spirit, to cooperate with thy will until all my thoughts shall conform to thy harmonious plains.  There is hidden strength within me to overcome all obstacles and temptations.  I will bring forth that indomitable power and energy.  Invincible Lord, teach me to use my will unceasingly in the performance of good actions until the little light of my will burns as the cosmic blaze of thine all powerful will.”  

So, the intention, knowing that you have within you everything that you need to move through with calm, with peace, any storm you’re in, the intention to use and draw forward that inner peace so that you can become the peace in the world, the intention to allow that loving presence, that spiritual energy to flow effortlessly through you, through your spiritual will.