How Stories Shape Us Today | Rev. John Riley

Well, we are, we are continuing our stories about story – our talks about story, and we’re gonna go back to stories of the past, not your past. We’re gonna deal with those later so you can take a big sigh of relief. We’re gonna go back further than that. We’re gonna talk about mythology and the story of culture because it’s really those stories that we grew up with. The story of our societies, the story of, of our cultures, and – what we grew up with and how we live that mold and shape our experience of life. Joseph Campbell talked about it like this. He defined myth as the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos are poured into human manifestation. Wasn’t that beautiful? Big? Okay. I think it was beautiful. The idea, the secret opening within us, where that inexhaustible source, that inexhaustible expression of life, love and wisdom gets poured into us, and we bring that into manifestation.

What is Mythology? 

And that’s really what he defines as myth. And what myth is – you know mythology are the universal stories. And they come in different forms. They may come in fairy tales in fables and legends and allegories and biblical tales and narrative stories. They’re the window of understanding that provides an interview for our own path of self-discovery. So all of these things that we grew up with, right? They frame how we live our life. They are the, the patterns in which we are ingrained within that are ingrained within us. And so understanding the myth, understanding the stories from our path past, allow us, give us that window into our own development, our own awakening, our own spiritual experience. For encoded, in every story, in every universal story, we find deep spiritual truths that transcend culture, race, religion, language, age. They may be in different outer wrappings, depending on the culture, depending on how they were described.

So the outer wrappings of them may be different, but the inner wrappings, this, the, the messages within us are universal. And so we all resonate with us. That’s why we love movies like Star Wars and Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. And you can see where my genre lies. But whatever your favorite stories are, they all have within embedded within them that spiritual pattern that we’re all seeking, that human experience, that we’re all filtered. That has been put upon us. And the wonderful thing about that is once we recognize that all of these stories that we’ve lived with about our culture.

You know, our race, about our age, about our, the, the past, all of them reflect who we are because we are molded by them. And knowing that allows us to move beyond it to transcend some of those patterns that don’t service very well. Some of them service quite well, but there are others that really don’t. And so it allows us to include it, not to shove it away, not to pretend it doesn’t exist, not to ignore it, to honor it, include it, and then transcend that which no longer serves us so that we can understand ourselves from a higher level. So within every story, we can see ourselves and the characters. Every one of us has a Darth Vader within them, Don’t you? Every once in a while, doesn’t your Darth Vader come out just once or twice? There’s some honest people right there.

Thank you very much. And every one of us has a Harry Potter. Every one of us has Ron Weasley within us. Every one of us has a Hermione within us. All of those archetypes, all of those stories are represented within us, and we can find ourselves in each of those characters. And that’s why the, the movies, the stories that we’re telling each other resonate so much because it’s, it’s reflecting ourselves on the screen. And we can identify ourselves with, you know, name a movie that you really love back to the future. So you can find yourself in, in Marty, Thank you. Or the Doc. I find myself in the Doc all the time. Usually it’s when I get up in the morning in my hair, you know, it takes a long time to get my hair to look this good. So thank you. Thank you.Okay. Okay, little bit. I’m just checking to see if you’re awake.

Your Spiritual Journey Through Story 

See, we find ourselves in those stories, and those stories empower us or disempower us, depending. But all of those stories, even if it’s the Darth Vader within us, it gives us the opportunity for us to see, “Oh yeah, there’s my, the dark side of my force coming out.” Now I know now I have the opportunity to heal it. I can bring it out. I can include it as in, in that healing process. So these mythical stories are so powerful for us because concealed within them are the elements of your spiritual journey. Your spiritual journey is within all of these stories. I’m in a class with it’s called the Integral Ministry, and it’s supplying integral theory to ministry. And Dr. James Simmons colleague and minister, Unity minister and author, talks about it this way. Every character in mythology has a message for us. It mirrors something for us hidden within these mythological stories, we find archetypical symbols that provide insight into our own spiritual journey. It gives us a window to explore what’s really going on within us if we care to awaken to it. 

And this is really the idea that started, or that founded this unity movement, is looking at the Bible, our textbook, what Charles and Myrtle Fillmore called the Textbook of the Unity Movement. And looking at it from a different perspective. There’s so many ways in which you can interpret the Bible. You can look at it literally. You can look at, at literally as in this literally happened in the past. So historically, this is something literal that we need to do today. It could be you can look at it spiritually. You can look at it from the perspective of metaphysics. And metaphysics is the, the art of the science, of looking at something from the perspective of your thoughts. It’s, it’s looking at the state, our experience of being this outside of the physical laws.

So it’s metaphysics is looking at the thought, our thought process, how we came to be our consciousness. It’s the study of consciousness. And when you look at the Bible from the perspective of consciousness, as Charles Fillmore would say,”the Bible is a story of human consciousness.” It’s the story of the evolution of human consciousness from the creative power that’s within us, the stories of Genesis to the stories of exceptional oneness that Jesus expressed from start to finish. It’s the story of our expression of consciousness. Now, one of my colleagues, dear friends, Reverend Sky, St. John used to say when he taught the class and the Bible, he said, “the worst thing that ever happened was they put a back cover on the Bible.” Because the Bible was written -the text that’s in here was written over 15 over – sorry – a hundred over 1500 years. It began in 1445 in the, in the BCE. And then it continued to about a hundred ce. So 1500 years of writing. And many of the stories that were written down were told as, as stories were told through, through through stories. What’s that word I’m looking for? We had to have it written down here…Oral tradition. Thank you, professor. Thank you, professor. Whoever said it, Thank you. It’s – they were told through oral tradition, they were told through stories, and then along the way the they started writing them down. So 1500 years of stories that shape our society, that shape who we

Are simply because it’s, it’s the, the archetype that the worldview that we have been living in, the worldview that that says you know, this is the way we’re supposed to show up. The challenge is every one of you will have a different interpretation of this book. Now, there are many religions, many, many, many, many, many religions that have popped up interpreting this and saying, This is the way to do it. What works for me is the metaphysical interpretation, because what Fillmore had done was look through the Bible and said, “Okay, if this is really about consciousness – his theory- If this is really about consciousness, then every character, every person within it, he says, every person within it is a spiritual representation interpretation that demands every figure, every parable, every symbol be in harmony with the fundamental principles of being.”

So if we look at it from that perspective, we see it through a new lens, a spiritual lens, if you want to call it a metaphysical lens. So as metaphysical interpretation takes what was written many, many years ago and what was spoken about many, many years ago, and what our societies are created by and our cultures are, are based on and looks at it fresh from your perspective. You can read it and interpret it for your life and see how it works for your life. Shall we try it? Yes. All right. I think I lost the rest of you, but about five people are excited about it. I’m going to read this is the, the passage from Mark chapter four, verses 35 through 30 through 41. It is “Jesus Calming the Storm.” So let me set the backstage.

Calming the Storm

Let me tell you the story, the story of Mark. So Jesus had, had entered Galilee and in Galilee, he was a busy guy, right? He was looking at it from the perspective of creating – he was teaching, he was healing. He was calling for his disciples. He and his disciples were done. And he is like, “Okay, let’s head toward the sea cause we’re gonna head out.” So he heads towards the sea and this throng of people starts to follow him. Now, now imagine he’s been there for a while and people are just coming out of the woodworks and he’s ready to go. Anybody done and ready to go? He gets to the water and all these people are asking questions. So you finally, he gets into the boat, he paddles out a little bit. He’s in off the shore so that he can address the throng of people.

And he tells them more. He tells them parables of the sower, of the lamp under the bushel basket, the parable of growing, of the growing seed, the parable of the mustard seed. He taught and taught and taught parable so that they can apply it in their life and in a language that was interesting to them so that they can soak it in for themselves. And then finally at the end of it, he’s like, “Okay, let’s hit the road.” So he and his disciples get in the boat, and here’s the story. On that day, when evening, evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side and leaving the crowd behind.” They took with him…they took him with them in the boat just as he was. Other boats were with him, a wind, a great windstorm arose and the waves beat into the boat so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said, “Teacher, you not care that we’re perishing.” He woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace be still.”

Then the wind ceased and there was dead calm. And he said to them, Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith? And they were filled with great awe and said to one another who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him. Who then is this? So you can look at this from a historical perspective. Historically, Jesus was done in Galilee. He did the proverbial mic drop, got under the boat and left. And there was a storm. You can look at it literally and say, you know, at the time, he literally got up and he created this miracle. And isn’t that incredible? You can look at it from the perspective of a scientist. Scientifically, he was done, he was tired. In some translations of the, of the Bible, they call it a squall. And so, you know, Jesus was a fisherman.

He knew the, the, the sea. He was hunkered down in the back until the sea was calming down. He knew it was gonna calm down and he got up and said, Stop. And it was at the end of the storm anyway, so you can look at it scientifically and you can also look at it spiritually, metaphysically. So how does this relate to you? Can you see yourself in any of those characters? So let’s describe them for you first. There’s Jesus, Jesus the Christ. The Christ consciousness represents the I am within each one of us. The I am that Brenna spoke about, that divine essence, you might call it the spark of divinity, you might call it your, your higher nature, your your, your better self. I like to call it the authentic self of the capital A cuz that’s the truth of who I am. That divine essence. And then there were the 12 disciples and the 12 disciples as Charles

Fillmore defined them and, interpreted then were the 12 powers, the 12 abilities within human manifestation. That, that all together create this idea of the Christ’s consciousness, the I am. So each one of you has those powers within you. Those 12 powers of life and love and wisdom and, and elimination and zeal. And the other six, Do you remember all 12 disciples? I mean, come on. But all of those are within you. So the idea of going to the other side when the masterful Im moves from the consciousness to the subconsciousness. So how often has this happen to you? Right? You’re, you’re speaking, maybe you’re presenting, maybe you’re doing your best work, you’re in front of people and you’re talking. Or maybe you’re just in a, in a situation, in a relationship where you’re being your better self and you’re, and it’s causing you to, to rise up to that.

I am consciousness, that divine consciousness. And then at the end you’re like, okay, I’ve gotta rest. You know, I’ve done my, my best work here. Now I have to rest. Has anybody felt that before? Yeah. That’s the idea of the, “I am consciousness of going to the other side.” Metaphysically. That’s what happens when, you know – we’re doing the great work and then at the end it’s like…okay…we get tired and that “I am consciousness” within us goes to sleep, is sleeping at the back of the boat. And then the winds and the storms come up and the winds and the storms represent the, the storms in our lives. The boat, the boat represents the positive sustaining state of consciousness that prevents one from sinking into negative condition. And yet the boat’s being filled up by that storm. All the negative conditions in our lives are now beating upon us.

It could be a squall, it could be a very quick storm that’s flowing in and flowing out. And yet we see it as the end of the world. Have you ever experienced that? And during that time, have you ever experienced, you know, this idea of love, your, your power of love being turned inside out and saying, Oh my gosh, nobody loves me. Oh my gosh, I’m being attacked. What’s happening here? Have you ever experienced that in those moments, that idea of wisdom going out the window and all of a sudden we’re judgemental our wisdoms to, to judgment and we are judging every person in the, in the storm, we’re judging ourselves. “I’m not worthy.” Anybody experience that? Have you ever in that time, have you ever experienced the disciple of faith? Your faith within you jumping overboard saying, “Oh, see ya, I’m done. I’m baked.” Without that centering

principle of the “I’m.” All of those powers within us, all of those attributes within us start to express themselves in ways that are not as powerful as when that centering principle was present. So when during that panic, during that frenzy, during the fear, all of those principles are saying, Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do now? How am I gonna live through this? How am I gonna survive this? And that inner voice that’s still inner being within you, that light within you just says, Peace be still, peace be still. When our faith is ready to leap out and elimination is deeply trying to bail the water out, but can’t cuz the water’s coming in too quickly, peace be still. Don’t try so hard to get rid of the storm. Don’t resist the storm. Just relax into it. Just hunker down in the back. And as you do, regain your state of awareness.

Strengthening Your Awareness

So there’s the practice of prayer and meditation, there’s the practice of mindful breathing. There’s the practice that we talked about last week of interrupting, right? Those, those thoughts. When those crazy thoughts start to start to rise up within us, we, we interrupt them. When the fear comes in, we just interrupt them. Maybe it’s a somatic, maybe you go for a walk. Maybe you, you, you do what I like to imagine the Fillmores calling a a denial, right? Just a gentle brushing away of the cobwebs. It’s like, “oh, there’s that thought. Okay, I’m not that I’m whole a spiritually whole, I’m safe, I’m wellbeing. I’m going to affirm the truth of that being that authentic self. To me, that’s the definition of denial and affirmation. It’s just a quick, oh, there I am, the denial’s done. The problem is we don’t like the word denial because it’s old languaging that has different meanings for us now it’s like, oh, there it is, I’m done. I release it. We tend to go on and talk about the storm, don’t we? I mean, you get to the other side and get to your friends. What do you talk about? You won’t believe what happened to me in the way home from Galilee.

There was this storm, this guy’s in the back sleeping. It was mayhem. I don’t know what happened to faith. He’s still in the river somewhere. We all have that tendency because our natural human tendency is to look at things negatively, to look at things as if they might be a danger. But in our awakening, in our stop, you’re safe. 

We have the opportunity to awaken to the present moment and know that’s not the truth of who I am. I was experiencing anger, I was experiencing fear. I was ready to jump overboard. Those are all fine. And I moved through it. How often do we talk about our moving through it? It’s not as exciting to other people. The storm is what’s exciting, isn’t it? Hey, you know, I just, I, this is what happened. Something happened. And you know what I did? I moved through it smoothly. I just, I, I stopped myself and said, You know what, John, you’re safe. You’re okay. I took some mindful breaths, I took a pause and then I proceeded and oh, it was wonderful. And everyone who you tell it to, I’m sure this is not any of your friends are like, Well, good for you. Well, Mr. Hyen mighty. Yeah, well, let me try it this way. You know, here was the storm. Oh my gosh, that’s incredible story. You know, when I was in that storm, because they all wanna make it about them, right? When I was in that storm, this happened and that happened. And then you’re talking about the storm again. And then you’re going back to all of that thinking that got you into that place in the storm, in the beginning.

All of that from that small passage, all of that from that small passage is it passage. And that’s how Unity uses the Bible as a way to talk about consciousness, as a way for us to look at and apply in our life to see how can I move through life a little bit easier, a little bit gentler? How can I live more? How can I let God be God in me? How can I allow spirit to flow in through and as me?