Keeping Your Eye Single | Rev. John Riley

Good morning. Good morning. So I had a talk all prepared, but there was something in the news that really caught my eye. And I don’t know if you saw it, you know, there’s a lot of change happening in the world. Have you noticed? I mean, it’s the hottest month on record. There’s a lot of unrest, there’s a lot of cultural changes. And the latest thing that I saw, maybe you saw it in the news too, but there had been appearing in various places in the world, these strange oliss that kind of come to a point around the country. And, and, you know, there have been pictures of them and, and people have been studying, studying them. The scientists are baffled. It wasn’t made with ai, it wasn’t photoshopped. They can tell by whatever tests they make. I don’t know if you’ve seen them or not. And then finally, someone got a picture of, kind of a back view of what was really happening. Ethan, can you share this picture? This is what was really happening.

Exploring the Lens of the Mind and the Hidden Shadows of Belief

Now, I don’t know if you can’t see it at home, I’ll describe it. They’re all of these pictures that have not been photoshopped, they’ve been original pictures, seen through the lens of the rhinoceros. And in the middle of their lens is this obelisk. It’s a true story. So we can’t see the world without us being in it. We can’t see the world without being in the world without our viewpoint. I call it a your filter. We call it your lens. But you can’t see the world without knowing that that exists. And a lot of the times we’re completely unaware of it, as you can see in this picture. It’s just what is, at least that’s what we perceive to be what is. And we perceive it that way because we have been taught over our lifetime that that’s the way the world is. It’s called our worldview. That that’s the way my life is. It’s called my personal view. And we can’t see the world without it in the way. And now it, we call this, this is, there’s another term for it. This might be our shadow thought. This might be our shadow beliefs. 

Uncovering Hidden Reactions and Liberating Awareness in the Quantum Living Journey

Those, that shadow operating system that runs just under the surface that drives some of our automatic behaviors that drive some of our reactions to things. You know, reactions, meaning the things that, you know, tick us off in the world and we react to them. Anybody know what I’m talking about? Not that you have experienced it, but surely you know somebody who might’ve been reactive at some point. Yes. Yes. So these, this is just simply what’s in our way. So what are the beautiful horns or obelisks in your life? Are you aware of them? And the whole key here is to start becoming aware of what those are. We’re taking the, we’re in the middle of the quantum living class and we’re, we’re getting into the chapter. So this is a preview.

Discovering the Hidden Barriers and Embracing Release for Transformation

If you’re in the class of looking at our view, our viewpoints, and realizing that our views are limited, our views are limited ’cause we can, because we can only see the world through our filter and experience it through our filter. But when we take a step back and observe ourselves observing the world, then we can get a clue that, you know, something else might be in our way. That there’s something that I have that’s, that’s hindering me, that’s reacting, that’s the button inside of me. And one of the keys, I think, to getting beyond that shadow belief or whatever it is that, you know, maybe coming up in you is letting go, is releasing and letting go in the moment as best we can. And if not in the moment, then afterwards, and if not afterwards, then three weeks later. Or you can carry it with you all your life if you want. It’s just not as helpful for us. It’s better for us to understand and see that view that’s in front of us. Thanks, Ethan. You can take that wonderful rhinoceros off the screen. I appreciate you.

Cultivating Freedom and Happiness Through Letting Go

The Vietnamese Buddhist monk, thi not han once wrote in his book, the Heart of Buddhist teaching, he said, letting go gives us freedom. And freedom is the only condition for happiness. Freedom is the only condition for happiness. If in our heart we still clinging to anything, any anger, anxiety, resentment, possessions, anything that we’re clinging to in our heart, we cannot be free. And so the goal is to begin to let go of those things that are causing that big bolus in our life that are causing that impediment in our life, that are blocking, that’s blocking our view is to start to look at those things that are in us so that we can let go of it and see a greater picture of the world, see a better view of the world.

Now, at the board, at our board meeting, which is coming up next month, which we just had, we’re changing things up. And each month we, we look at a component of what we’re called, what’s called the Integral Ministry practice. And it’s using integral theory in recreating church culture, spiritual center culture, or the way we do things because culture’s changing, culture is changing. Now, I, I’m very sure of this because this last weekend, I, it is this, this weekend. So on Friday, Thursday, I don’t remember, I think it was Thursday, a couple days ago, I went to, I’m getting old. I can’t remember, I can’t, I went to a concert that was, there’s a new venue down in Menlo Park on El Camino for, for concerts. It was fantastic. It was of the English beat. Anybody remember the English beat? There’s a lot more people here that remember the English beat than I thought. I thought I was gonna be three of us world two, me and the Whitfield you might know them as general public. Okay, I lost half of you there. That’s okay. And all of the younger crowds, like what?

Music, Perception, and the Ageless Joy of the English Beat

This was a, this was a, a fabulous band. The English beat, they, they were in the early eighties. They began in 79. And I’m sitting there thinking, am I really that old? Because age has nothing to do with it. Age has nothing to do with it. I may have been probably not the youngest. No, I wasn’t the youngest there. But there were a lot of people my age or older who were all dancing to ska who were all jamming. And this was, they sound just as good. There’s only one left. The rest of the main band had had, has transitioned over the last four years, but they have a new band with them and they sound fantastic. And Dave Wakeling sounds fantastic, amazing. And I was brought back to that moment because it has nothing to do with age. It has to do with my perceptions.

The Influence of Viewpoint on Experience and Time

It has to do with my perceptions. And when I thought about them being, you know, oh my gosh, that was 40 years ago. All of a sudden, that felt like a long time. But it has nothing to do with age. It has nothing to do with the timeframe. It has to do with my viewpoint. In that moment, I saw that obelisk, I’m like, yeah, I’m dancing. The whole room was dancing for about, you know, almost two hours. It was fantastic. And then I went home, and the next day I listened to their whole albums, all of their albums. And now then I couldn’t get them outta my head. Anyway, you know, you know how that goes. So back to the board, our perception of life is through our lens. And if we have that block that says, I’m too old. I’m too young, I’m not healthy, I’m too strong.

Perceptions, Perspectives, and the Ageless Dance of Life

I don’t have enough of this, I don’t have enough of that, those are all of our own self-imposed limitations. And those are the things that cause that, that Tekon Hanh was talking about. Those are the, the beliefs that create the anxiety, that create the resentment, that create the frustration all within me. And if I can let go of all of that, then I can be in the moment, be present to what is and allow it to just flow through me. Now, one of the biggest ways in which us human beings don’t, you know, resist this idea. One of the things that we do is the idea of needing to be right. Anybody know? ’cause Of course this isn’t us. Anybody, someone who always wants to be, right? Yeah.

Transformative Insights from ‘The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

And so the, at the board, we’re studying the book, the 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership. And every month we take about a half hour, 20 minutes to review what we’ve studied and how we’ve applied it in our life and how we can apply it on the board. It’s advanced leadership training. And it’s fantastic. It’s really changing our board culture. And so the, the commitment from last week was the commitment to learn through curiosity. And with each commitment, there’s an above the line behavior and below the B-line behavior. And the basic of it is what if you’re below the high the line, you are in your own funk. You are in your own stories. You are, you are the bolus. You can’t see past it. And when you decide to go above the line, you rise above that, that dysfunction and create more structure, more beauty, more love, more experience of Spirit in your life. And so the below the line behavior for this one is, I commit to being right and to seeing this situation as something that’s happening to me. I commit to being defensive, especially when I’m certain that I’m right.

Unveiling the Dynamics of ‘Being Right’

So just very simply, when does that show up for you? I took out the word if, because we all know it shows up at one point in time or another for my son and my wife. It’s like sport. It’s like pinging pong. The tennis, they’re going back and forth. Well, actually it was, this was, and they’re just, and I just sit back and watch the tennis match. But they have an awareness of it, right? They’re not trying to, it’s not a, a fight between them, it’s more of this is a game that they’re playing. Who’s got to be, who gets to be right? He’s looking at me through the mirror, through the window. I can’t believe you’re talking about me. So that’s what it feels like to be below the line. That’s what it looks like. So what causes you to go below the line? What conditions do you feel like you have to be? Right? That’s not a feeling. See, this is a good part of our class. That wasn’t a feeling. That was a thought. 

Beyond Rightness: Embracing Curiosity for Conscious Growth

What belief do I have that says I have to be right? The feeling behind that’s probably I’m scared, I’m feeling insecure, I’m feeling, you know, fear. But the belief is I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough, I’m not enough. And those situations create me, create this experience in me where I need to be, right? And when I need to be right, I close myself off from anyone else’s point of view. I close myself off from any other worldview. I cannot see the world except for this, through this lens of wanting to be right to shift above the line. It’s so simple. It’s just being curious. So the commitment above the line is I commit to growing in self-awareness. Because if you can’t identify and realize, oh, I’m commit, I’m committed to being right. If you can’t see that in yourself, you’ve got nowhere to go. But if you can take a moment to listen to your thoughts, to listen to your words, to ex to exp, listen to the experience and see, oh, this is where I’m committed to being, right? So if I commit to self-awareness, then I’m also committing to rega regarding every interaction as an opportunity to learn. 

The Path to Growth and Compassion

Everyone take a nice deep breath because I know what happens is immediately you go to that situation that’s just so far off the rails for you that you, you can’t see that in your life. But let’s come back to present moment. Let’s come back to daily living. And in daily living, can you commit to regard every interaction as an opportunity to learn? I commit to curiosity as a path for rapid learning. There is no growth without change. There is no growth without being willing to let go of some concept so that another concept can come in. There is no growth if you’re not willing to be open to what is, and to see the world through a broader perspective, to be able to kind of see how the other person might be experiencing life. We don’t have to agree with it, we don’t have. But at least if we acknowledge it and understand where is that in me? Then we can have more compassion for people, then we can have more compassion. And we can more easily be in these situations and see, oh, here’s an opportunity for me to grow.

Unlocking The Golden Key to Growth and Fulfillment

Now there’s a little booklet, I don’t know if we have any of the bookstore we used to, but it’s called The Golden Key by Emmett Fox. And Emmett Fox was a a new thought luminary back in the day. And I think he was with divine science or another form of new thought like similar to Unity. And this in this little booklet, he says, I’m gonna net it out for you. Here’s the truth. Here’s if you just remember this, because what happens is what he says is the mistakes many made by many people when things go wrong is to one focus on what’s wrong. Focus on the obelisk, focus on the tusk, focus on my own impression. Here’s what’s wrong, here’s the belief and I’m focusing on it. This is all that’s wrong in my life. He also says that people tend to skimm through book after book without getting anywhere. Here’s what’s wrong. I gotta go read another book. Hey John, did you hear about that book? Yeah, I give a talk about that four weeks ago. Where were you?

Shifting Focus from Problems to Infinite Potential

Because they’re all universal truths. But the book after book is just another way of ignoring the growth of ignoring curiosity. What’s another way in which I can look at this? What’s another way? How can I see myself in it so that I can gain that perspective of self-awareness? And so what he says is that the, the simple golden key is to do not focus on the problem, focus on God, do not focus on the problem. Focus on God. Now, God is our short term, our, our our little acronym, right? Because when I say God, I mean you know, the allness of life. Like Lisa was saying, God is in you, like the ocean is in the wave and God is within all of you. Like the ocean is in the wave. So if, if you’re all ocean, if we’re, we’re all God, if we’re all one individualized as this expression, then how can we see anything different?

Discovering Self-Awareness Through the Lens of Others

What we’re seeing differently is someone else’s shadow. What we’re seeing differently is our own shadow reflected in someone else. So anytime you get frustrated or upset or triggered, that’s an opportunity for self-awareness. If you’re curious enough, just simply be curious enough. So what does it mean to focus on God? I mean, what does that really look like? Last week we had the exercise of defining some of your spiritual values, right? Some of the values in which, and how you wanna show up in life. Whether you wanna show up as love, as wisdom, as fun, as power, as strength, as humble. You wanna show up as kindness and compassion. You wanna show up as willingness, curiosity, all of these ways in which we show up to express that which we call God. Now, as soon as you put God in a box, what have we done? We’ve limited it. There is no way that we are gonna know the allness of it except to allow it to show up within us to allow Spirit to move you, to allow us to see in that beautiful song. Can you see, I don’t remember the lyric. You know the, the birds, the bees on the flowers.

Letting Go of the Need to Be Right

Can you see the beauty that’s all around you? Can you see that beautiful Spirit running through each person? Can you open to it to just allow it to flow? And meditation and affirmative prayer is our practice to get there, but it’s simply a matter of letting go of our attachments to gut, to having to be right, letting go of our attachments. And let me, let me clarify. I’m not talking about being right. There’s value in understanding. There’s value in knowledge. I’m talking about wanting to be right. I’m talking about I don’t have value unless I’m right. I’m have more value than you because I’m writer than you. That’s what I’m talking about. We let go of that needing to be the right in the right space. So how does it show up for us? You know, having that brother who doesn’t see your point of view, having that sister who has a dependency problem, having that boss who is just climbing the ladder and you’re just a footstool having a child that is so tired of hearing your wisdom and advice. I’m not talking about you, we’re gonna talk later. Ethan’s running our live stream. Thank you Ethan, right? I, I forget what I was talking about.

Navigating Life’s Currents with Compassion and Wisdom

Being right, being right instead letting go of all of that. And just being in the flow, allowing our, you know, allowing our feet to move as wisdom comes to us, acknowledging someone else and having compassion for them because we know that they are just simply not aware of the ocean that’s within them. The ocean of possibility, the ocean of potential, the ocean of love, the ocean of peace that is already there innate within them. And the best way to describe it to them is to show them instead of being right. Well, you know what you need to do? You need to go to unity. Well, I kind of agree with that one, but that’s right. What can I say? So this, this simple rule. There’s another quote where this idea of keep your eyes single. And what that means is keep your eyes single and focused on God. So when problems come up, come back to God. This is for Matthew chapter six, verse 22. This is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount. When Jesus, the master teacher said, the light of the body is the eye. 

Illuminating Life’s Path with Unity and Light

The light of the body is the eye. If therefore thy I be single, thy whole body shall be full of light and by thy body, the whole of your consciousness, the whole of your consciousness, and the way you see through the world. If you, because that is where we have agency. We have the choice. We have the opportunity to decide how we’re gonna look and react and respond to the world. And so with that agency, if we keep focused on the light, then we are filled with light. We are filled with that that loving presence. We’re filled with that, that immutable law of abundance. We’re filled with that idea of knowing our unity with Spirit and our unity with each other.

Choosing Freedom: Embracing Curiosity, Forgiveness, and the Flow of Spirit

Now, it doesn’t mean you don’t do your work. ’cause There are times when there’s something going on. When we need to do our work, meditation and affirmative prayer, we need to do some forgiveness work. And I take the word need out. I’m gonna say we can choose to do forgiveness work. We can choose to do meditation and affirmative prayer. We can choose to be curious ’cause we all survive pretty well without it so far. Yeah. So it’s not really a need unless you want to feel that freedom of letting go of that anxiety. Unless you wanna feel the freedom of being in the presence of pure Spirit, being in the presence of pure love, and to allow that to flow through you.