Robbins Hopkins

Spiritual Health: Being at Peace in Everyday Life

General

Judge Not

Who is to judge what is right and wrong?  When is speaking out called for?  When is accepting the point of view of another, called for?  Most of us are not heads of government but each of us is influential somewhere, at work, at home, in communities, in our spiritual groups, etc.  When we do feel called to speak out, how might we do this in our highest integrity?

My Eyes Are Set On Freedom #Iranelection by harrystaub
My Eyes Are Set On Freedom #Iranelection by harrystaab

In the end, these questions can only be answered individually.  We may connect with others answering as we are, but ultimately, we are called to keep our own counsel and keep it with Divine Presence, the best way we can.

  • First and foremost,  do no harm.
  • Secondly, do not resist evil.
  • Thirdly, speak the Truth as you know it.
  • Fourthly, face all human darkness with the power of the Divine Knowing.

These are principles which are in alignment with All That Is for all peoples.  However our interpretation of what this looks like can be wildly different from one to another.

The most challenging stance when deciding to speak out or not is, can one speak out in a non-judgmental way? Judge not, lest you also be judged is one of the fundamental spiritual principles in alignment with do no harm.   Why is this so important?

We are each and every one on our own spiritual path.  Some of us are highly conscious, some of us are barely conscious and some of us are not conscious, at all.  Being conscious  in this situation refers to being connected with Divine Presence and aware of that connection.  We can not know another’s  level of consciousness.  Therefore, we are in no position to judge even about those who are the closest to us.

The “right” behavior or choice for one may not be “right” for another due to his or her conscious knowing. Take for example a person who steals or smuggles.  Immediately we might say, that is always wrong, regardless of the circumstances.

Children of the Hills I by Papyrarri
Children of the Hills I by Papyrarri

If we are in a situation where all ways of making money have been closed to us as we see it, and the only way to survive day to day seems to be to steal or smuggle, we may be in integrity because we are trying to provide for ourselves and our family.  This might well apply to the children, for example, forced to smuggle along the Afghanistan and Pakistan border.  The judging of this is only for Divine Knowing to determine.  We are not that Knowing, generally.

What we can do is speak out about the injustices we see without condemning the people doing these things we have issues with. The same thing goes for our children and family members.  We may have a very rebellious child who is pushing all our buttons by trying to express him or herself in ways we find offensive and dangerous.  There is a huge difference in speaking out about one’s behaviors or choices and becoming angry and critical of the person who is making these decisions regardless of their age.  Separate the behaviors from the person and love can still remain while we are speaking out about the choices we find troublesome.  Confuse the person with the actions in a condemning way and we have crossed a line which is extremely damaging to most people. ( to be continued)

Loving Self

Loving  Self is the fastest way to create a stronger connection with Spirit. However, most of us are not proficient in doing this.  We may think we know all about Loving Self but it is the last area we master, as spiritually developing beings, in body.   This can take several lifetimes to fully master.  However, we are given all the chances we need to make decisions for ourselves which are loving and in integrity with our spiritual, True Selves.

1.  One step to Loving Self is embracing that God and I Are One. We are not separate from God/Spirit.  We may feel disconnected but in truth we cannot be separate no mater what we do, feel, don’t do, think or imagine.  We are One with All That Is and that’s the Truth.  Most of us do not know this however because we give our power to human fears, emotions and thoughts every day.  This results in making us feel we are separate from Divine Presence.

Many of us  do not gift ourselves with the experience of meditation and authentic prayer,

Meditation II by Roshnii
Meditation II by Roshnii

so we do not have the daily opportunity to learn from Spirit that we and God/Great Spirit are One.  Even if we do meditate, we may not be actively releasing our human fears, thoughts and emotions.  Therefore, we may be peaceful in Silence and then go right out and have an argument with our co-worker because we are not releasing our fears and concerns proactively, clearing our energy field and making more space for Divine Presence in our lives.

At the very least, affirm out loud and daily,

  • There is One Power, One Source, One Life Force.
  • I Am One with All That Is.
  • I Am an Individualized Expression of God.

This brings  Divine Knowing more readily into our energy fields as we affirm these truths regularly.

2. Loving Self has nothing to do with personal indulgence and everything to do with living in integrity. Loving Self is  going out with friends and NOT over drinking, over eating, over smoking, over spending, over gambling or over sexing with others.   Anything prefaced by “over” is not living in integrity.  We usually know when we have “over” done something though frequently, not at the time.  Perhaps for a time it feels easier to pretend to ignore this information we have about ourselves. This pretense is costly to us.   When we “over do”  we are by definition, out of balance.  This absolutely affects us mentally, emotionally, spiritual and physically.  Living in integrity is Loving of Self and by the way, benefits not only ourselves but all whom we meet.

The energy of being with friends,  can be a very self loving experience if we are able to be our authentic selves in their company and receive affirmation for our own True Selves. This looks like being able to say I’m sorry for something we have done which was unkind or unthoughtful and being forgiven.  This looks like being able to say, “this was great but now I need to get some rest to function tomorrow”.  This looks like being able to set good boundaries for ourselves and have our friends or partners respect this in us.

3. Other acts of integrity include saying “no” to requests of us which are not good for us,  helpful for others or respectful of our own inner knowing for ourselves.

Robert (name changed)  is a management consultant in his late thirties,  in international management.  When just setting out, he felt he had to take all work that came his way for financial reasons. He loved the bi-play around negotiating new work, agreeing on the rates, specifying deliverables and getting the contract.  However, time and again, he experienced a sense of deflation when it was time to actually do the work.

Robert did notice repeatedly,  that if a  contract was good for him,  it was almost without exception,  good for the clients as well.  He began to try to determine while negotiating contracts, if he would enjoy the actual work.  He  made some spectacularly bad choices during this time.  His fear of having enough money continued to play heavily into his judgment about clients.   After 3 years of working with this rather directly, he turned away a very large contract for 6 months of nearly full salary, because it felt really wrong for him.

After that time, he had appreciably fewer bad contracts show up in his life, because his learning was complete.  His soul was at peace with regard to these learnings and therefore he no longer attracted these situations to himself.  He had learned to live in integrity with himself and not to “prostitute himself” for the sake of prestige, money, recognition, or safety. In Loving Self enough to only accepting work situations which were good for him, Robert  radically transformed his life for the good,  in all areas, not just with work.

In facing these situations for yourself ask the following:

  • Is this a loving choice for me?
  • Am I being honest with myself, about whether this is good for me ?
  • What is making me consider working (or staying) in this setting which I know is crummy for me?

4. Loving Self requires proactive attention to our deepest needs. If we are not getting enough exercise, eating well, getting enough sleep, or spending endless hours before a computer or TV, we need to attend to this.  It is a loving act to pay attention to these things.  If we are deeply lonely, we need to take steps to be with others even if it feels like a big risk.  If we are in a bad relationship, we need to ask for Divine Help to come forth within us, release all that is our part of the bad relationship, and bless the other person regardless of the past.  If we are bored, we need to name the fear behind this and face it squarely so that we can move on from the languishing energy.

Loving Self is creating more compassion with ourselves in all areas of our lives. Love heals all things, no matter the size or complexity of what we might be facing.  Clear the fear you carry connected with the situation, call in Love even though you may not know what next steps to take because such acts create a stronger connection with All That Is, which leads to Inner Peace.

Intentional Partnering with God (excerpt)

Sermon for May 24, 2009
Comm-Unity On the Hill, Washington, D.C.
Rev. Robbins S. Hopkins, Ed.D.

Editor’s Note:

I recently began attending a Sunday service at a Unity Church in Washington, D.C. I found this group after several people independently recommended this spiritual group to me. I am very happy with this group’s inclusiveness, openness and joyful singing. This post is an excerpt of the sermon I offered when asked to speak one Sunday. You can read the full sermon here. If you are looking for a place of worship, do consider coming one Sunday to visit. Specifics about the congregation are offered at the end of the full sermon.

Opening Prayer

Spirit of the Living God, we open to the Presence of Love within us and among us, as we gather here today. Our thanks for the blessings of our lives and for this time of worship and reflection together. And So It Is. Amen.

Sermon

I am so happy to be here with you, today. I have been earnestly looking for a spiritual congregation for three years where I might worship and share my talents. I fortunately have had a lot of signposts and help along the way. At the Sacred Circles Conference in February of this year at the National Cathedral, four different people told me of this congregation. In fact, the workshop for that conference which I gave was held in this very room.

After those four different conversations, I imagined a loud voice saying rather pointedly to me, “Robbins, are you getting this? This is the place you have been looking for.” I just laughed. I rarely get messages which are that emphatic and pointed. It would have been most unwise for me to ignore that. So, I have been happily coming here since the end of February.

I am also so pleased to have been asked to speak with you. I am a minister of spiritual healing. Among other things, this may be the very first place in years perhaps ever, really, that I could say this out loud, from the pulpit and not wonder if a significant number from the congregation might actually get up and leave. This is the absolute truth.

Green Buddha by EugeniusD80
Green Buddha by EugeniusD80

As a minister of spiritual healing, I work with unseen energies. I work with energies in our mind, in our hearts, in our bodies, in our relationships, in our spirit, and in our Universe. Unseen energy includes feelings like fear, anger, love or appreciation. Unseen energy also includes the energy of my passed mother, my relationship with my brothers, a client’s depression, loss or cancer, the energy of Ascended Masters like Jesus and Buddha, the nature spirits, energy of our ancestors and the presence of the Angelic Host, to name a few.

Editor’s Note: Read the full sermon here: Intentional Partnering With God.

Death is simply another state of being (part 2)

Every single person regardless of his or her circumstances surrounding death is exactly where he or she needs to be. Even those who leave us through cruel or tragic circumstances,  I have come to understand, are exactly on the path they need to be upon.  Sri Sathya Sai Baba,  an avatar and mystic from India said, regarding the death of young girl, ” Oh yes, wonderful child.  Her karma was all finished, why hold her back?”   In other words, some of us need to only come here a short while to accomplish our purpose.  Why would we want a young child to remain here if he or she could be with God and Divine Energy in the great beyond?   Love is eternal, that can never die.  Our links with these early departed children, partners or spouses are as strong as ever whether they are in body or not.  This type of love is eternal, it cannot die.

There is also spiritual evidence that those who are taken from life as a result of violence, where they were innocent victims,  often play critical roles in taking enormous amounts of dark, negative energies with them to be transformed by the Light.  These energies are humanly created and when an innocent person is killed tragically, they can through their innocence, take darkness right out of this dimension for purification.  I have had the privilege of working with a person where this was her role as she was leaving this life.

I love this toy by Spitzgogo_Chen
"I love this toy" by Spitzgogo_Chen

We have a very small lens on what really happens beyond the here and now. If you don’t spend time in Silence, your mind is likely to be the part of you that tries to make sense out of death.  The mind cannot do that effectively.  The heart needs instruction in the energies surrounding death for us to know ourselves what is what.  The next best thing, perhaps is listening to someone you trust who is spending time with Divine Knowing.  The ways of death have been with us since time began.  I take a cue from the Bible which has 365 “fear not” passages throughout the books, one for every day. Death is one of those states of becoming and being which we are not to fear.

If you feel you are nearing death or know someone who is ,  endeavor as much as possible to stay in the present.  Resist the temptation to look at the past or worry about the future. Rejoice in the love around you, trust that all will be provided for you and for all those who will miss you or your loved one.  There is only the present and therefore, call forth the Divine Knowing about death for yourself or your loved one.  This helps with the fear which we as humans tend to hold onto as we face changes in our life circumstances.  You might say, “ I call forth Divine Knowing about death and dying” for myself , or for the person you love who is passing.

Death is a part of life, it is simply a different state. We, of course, still have to go through our own adjustment time to the loss of a loved one.  When my father died, I knew he was  safe and free.  He had lived a long life and had not been sick when he passed on.  However, I still felt his loss and remember thinking at the time, I would have liked to wear black so as not to have to appear “normal”  while I was in mourning.  My mourning time was characterized by feeling that the colors, the food, the music,  and all the emotions around me were slightly muted, not exactly normal.  One day after a few months, that mourning time lifted and I felt my own energy take up its place within me, once again.  Whatever our response to death is, we need to give ourselves time and space to grieve, to remember, to honor and to let it go.

Joel Goldsmith, a twentieth century American mystic and spiritual teacher, speaks of death this way.  He says that as long as we see ourselves separated from the One Power, the One Source, we fear death.  He suggests that we awake every morning affirming that there is One Power, One Source, One Wholeness, One Divine Oneness and claim that we are wholly part of that One Power.  There is no other power, of any kind.  However to get our minds to grasp this, we must practice such affirmations, frequently because we are all so deeply affected by the mass energy which fears death.  Joel says, “…death itself is not a power, … death cannot separate you from the life of God, the soul of God, the consciousness of God.  …. Take the fear of death out of disease and disease would have no sting; it would have no power whatsoever. ” (The Art of Spiritual Living, 1976)

If reading this pricks unpleasantness, pain, strong rejection energy or anything upsetting at all, take it as a sign that more work is needed. It is likely that more release of blocked energy around issues of death, people who have died, or  those who are dying, or for yourself is still needed.  These steps may be helpful to you in your exploration.

  • Enter into Silence with All That Is with the intention to lighten your energy around issues of death.
  • Ask what you need to release.   Listen to the stillness.  That may be enough.
  • If more is needed,  search your feelings about a specific situation or aspect of dying as a place to begin.
  • Name the emotion or emotions you are feeling.
  • Ask yourself what is the fear behind these feelings I am carrying??
  • Call the Sacred Flame from within yourself  ( a form of Divine Presence)  to release the blocked spiritual energy manifesting as the fear or fears you have identified.
  • Give thanks.

You may wonder if this process works or why it works?  It works because the fears we hold about death have no power as Joel Goldsmith and many other mystics have asserted.  If we release them, they are gone.  They have no life other than the life we are giving them in our own energy field and mind.  We can affect that by rooting them out.   These fears are all of our own creation and therefore, we can command them out so that we will be lighter and more peaceful.  This work is the intentional expansion of consciousness, coming to a greater and greater awareness of the One Power, the One Source of All That Is.

Peace to all who may be nearing death,  who are accompanying one who is dying or mourning one who has passed.  May the Infinite Presence of the Great I AM, be known to you in the most perfect of ways as you walk with death.  May you know the One Power which is always with us, always constant, all knowing and all powerful.  Peace to you in all states of your being.  Receive now the Blessings of the Light.

Death is simply another state of being (1/2)

Death is simply another state of being. It is one we know little about.  We therefore tend to focus on the fears and experiences surrounding death and mix that up with the state of death itself.  Many of us have unhealed sadness and grief about losses in our past.  We may also have fear about our own passing or the passing of a dear loved one.  Death is part of every single person’s life.  Traditionally, in Western societies, we fear death.  That shared mass perception about death comes from unexamined fears we hold and from the habit of giving power to death, from our minds.

There is only One Power, One Source, One God. Death has no power of its own apart from Divine Grace and Presence.  Death is a transition to another calling for our soul’s continued growth, however painful that loss may be for those of us remaining in this life.  However, if we give death power from our minds, it is as if there is indeed something to fear.

For those of us carrying imbalances with death and dying, take a look at those.  Releasing the blocked energy causing these imbalances can bring us more peace.  Ignoring the issues we have with death only allows those feelings to remain in our energy field, festering away.  We may not be aware of how those unexamined feelings are affecting us but without a doubt, they are dragging on our energy.   It may feel scary and unpleasant to dip into death especially on a sunny, blue sky day but that is exactly what I would recommend.

Abbey House Gardens - Upper Lawn by jmenard48
Abbey House Gardens – Upper Lawn by jmenard48

A Universal Truth for all beings regardless of our beliefs is that we are eternal. I suspected this for a long time before I knew this to be true.  In working with individuals passing over from life to spirit form, the energy of the person is fully present on the other side.  There is no body as we know it but their personal energy remains in tact.  I have not traveled with others beyond transition time as they first pass over but I figure if they are present during transition time, that is good enough for me.  I know their being continues on to where they are supposed to be because some of them have left in a blaze of Light.  Also, individual  stays in transition state are usually short,  a week or less.  As they pass on,  I imagine other forms of  “body” are assumed.

In working with those who have taken their own lives, it is clear that when they are in transition state, the same issues they were trying to escape from here, are still with them.  Such issues reside in our psyche or spiritual energy which remains in tact so the taking of our own body does not release us from the issues we carry in our souls.  However, we get all the chances we need. We have all the time we need.  We will be given opportunity after opportunity to learn to love ourselves and to respond to the challenging circumstances in which we find ourselves.  Some persons have been here, in body, many, many times and have worked through such challenges and difficulties.  Other souls are newer and have a number of issues to resolve in the physical plane.

This is a spiritual truth for all of us.  We take our spiritual knowing with us when we pass over. We do not magically get cleanly wiped slates as we exit life.  We take our relationship with All That Is into the next dimension of our being and continue right where we left off.  Therefore, it is highly useful to do deep clearing work on this side because all the issues we release here which are not of the Light, will not convey with us.  Actually, we will never have to deal with them again for ourselves,  in this dimension.   As we come into  Right Relationship with death or any other issue here, we will remain in that Right Relationship for all time. ( to be continued)

Read Part 2
Death is simply another state of being (2/2)