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Jun 04 2009

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.

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.

May 27 2009

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.

May 12 2009

Unpacking Anger

Anger has a life of its own. How does that happen? We might be having a very fine day and then that old argument about making plans for the weekend comes up or age old wounds about spending money to celebrate a special occasion appear and suddenly, real nastiness sets in. We can be in the car and make a seemingly mild comment about going another way to the store and every other issue ever discussed about driving comes crashing into the car between you and your companion. Suddenly Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde are present in full regalia. Who are those folks erupting into yelling, posturing, accusing and defending?

Anger is like temporary insanity. The emotions take on such presence that we begin to feel they are real, powerful and overwhelming.

They aren’t actually any of those things. Anger is neither real, powerful nor overwhelming though our reaction to it can well be overwhelming especially when we are in the thick of the interaction. Anger is not real in the sense that it is a passing emotion, not eternal and it is certainly not powerful as it is not of the Great Oneness. Erupting and repeating anger is a repeatedly debilitating experience which most of us would love to be free of. How do we unpack anger from our energy field, especially when we are, of course, right?

The very first step to unpacking anger is to want it unpacked, more than you want to be right. If you are really ready to stop giving your power to anger, you have to put it first on your list before all other feelings as the one you are going to get rid of. It takes a great deal of determination and commitment but it can be done. It takes honesty with oneself and before Divine Presence.

The next step to unpacking anger is to pick one recent anger encounter and take it into meditation and reflection with Divine Presence. Here is a story of how one partner worked on her anger until it dissipated.

Kevin and Mary repeat versions of anger every time they begin to plan Thanksgiving for their family gathering.

Everyone take their seat... or any seat, please by OldOnliner — Everyone take their seat… or any seat, please by OldOnliner

Kevin comes from a formal family and Mary from an informal family and therefore their approach to entertaining is very different. Though the specific incidents differ each year, the anger and angst for each of them by self-report, feel exactly the same. Mary began to be more and more determined to clear her anger response to Kevin because she was increasingly bothered by having those arguments taint the entire family gathering.

Mary began to work on smaller issues around entertaining in an effort to clear the air leading up to family gatherings. She found that she got angry when she felt that the menu, buying of the food and getting the house ready was all ending up on her plate. Every time it seemed that this was happening, she would get defensive and anger would erupt. She recognized and named the fear as “it is all up to me to make the event successful”. As this fear “ran her” in most conversations about entertaining, she would begin early to keep herself from making any commitments which could pile up and result in her feeling “it is all up to me”. This would drive Kevin crazy because he simply wanted the responsibilities clear. Mary would steadfastly not participate in clarifying the responsibilities so that she would not have it “end up being all on her” . Needless to say, entertaining was stressful.

After Mary specifically named her fear, she began to see this fear morphing and showing up in many other areas of her life, including at work and with her friends as well. Though she remained determined to release this fear, it simply did not seem to be able to go. She took this into Silence and got a clear sense that there was a deeper more gripping fear that she had not even known was there. Mary realized that she really feared “that she would make a major effort and fail or be embarrassed”. This felt solid and intensely honest as it had been with her for many years.

Mary said this was exactly how she felt performing as a young dancer. She would practice for months at a time and had been really embarrassed numerous times about her performances.

This fear was still in her energy field though it had morphed into issues of entertaining in her home. By focusing on one specific situation, she began to be able to let it go and unpack part of her wall of anger. As long as the anger seemed to be one overwhelming, huge, repeating network of arguments, she was unable to do anything but protect herself with all her might against the possibility of impending failure.

This may sound like a psychological assessment of the situation Mary faced but all her insight and clarity came as a result of taking this into Silence and reflecting on these issues through her journaling. Here are the steps she took to come to this clarity herself and to release the core fear running her efforts around entertaining with her husband.

Open a sacred healing space in whatever way you feel comfortable. ( Call in your Highest I Am Energy, Divine Presence and Angelic Energy, for example.
Focus on one specific argument in the recent past.
Ask, “What am I afraid of, What is the fear which is fueling this repeating argument?”
What am I getting from holding onto this argument? What is this argument costing me?
Ask yourself, “Where else is this fear working in my life?
Take all these situations into Silence and ask, “What is the core, root fear behind all this behavior?”
Name the core fear.
Call forth the Sacred Flame from within yourself and command the fear be completely consumed by this Divine Energy. (Even if you feel you don’t know how this works, do it, it does work. )

Apr 18 2009

Questions and Answers – Spiritual Health – 2

How can we pray for others who are sick, afraid or in pain?

The first thing to remember is that All That Is, is already here. God is Constant, One Source, One Power. So asking for the healing of another is frequently not helpful to the other person, though it is not harmful either. All that is needed is already here. We are all made in the image of God and therefore we have all that is needed already. The fact that someone is manifesting illness means they are simply not demonstrating their full power at this time. Their Divine spark , if you will, is somehow diminished by the person giving his or her power to something other than Divine Knowing.

The most powerful prayers we can offer are those which call forth the Divine Oneness within others for their own healing and re-balancing. When we know of that power within a person, our calling it forth is one very powerful prayer for that person. Divine Power resides within every person but often it is not fully actualized because it is covered over with old emotions, thoughts, memories or a sense of separateness from God. When others recognize this in us and call it forth, it allows us to connected with our own sense of spiritual consciousness , power and knowing. The calling forth of Divine Presence in another is similar to Namaste. The God/Christ/Light in me recognizes The God/Christ/Light in you and the response is wholeness and healing vibration. See also: Praying with Power.

What would you recommend if I am repeatedly having unsuccessful relationships with guys I am dating? How can this type of issue be helped spiritually?

Begin by settling into Sacred Space and Stillness. The question you might ask yourself is, what patterns are your repeating in each relationship? What experiences are you having over and over again? Pick one, such as repeatedly going along with a guy, getting more and more serious and then realizing he is not into making a lasting commitment. Take this repeating pattern into Silence. Ask Divine Presence/ God/ The Oneness, what you need to learn from these relationships. Ask to be shown where you are separated from Divine Wholeness in these repeating patterns in your relationships. Then wait knowing you will learn what you need to know. Wait in the Silence and wait out of the Silence, knowing you will be shown in many ways, in the fullness of time, all that you have not seen until now. This will come in a time frame that is perfect for you, though it may not necessarily be within the time frame you have in your mind.

Your part is to bring the pattern into Sacred Silence and ask to be shown where you are separated from Divine Wholeness around this issue. The waiting upon the answer is also your part. Simply remain open and attentive to input and it will begin flowing towards you. The more you obsess over the issue, the harder it will be to receive guidance about it. Simply wait in attentive expectation. It is possible that the answers may be difficult to hear. You may be attracting these relationships because of some fear, mistrust, doubt or concerns you are carrying about being in a committed relationship yourself. In other words, the insights almost always lead us to the identification of our own fears and blocked energy. When you have a sense of what that looks like and feels like, simply command the release of this fear, mistrust, or doubt from your own energy field. Imagine this dark, heavy energy leaving your energy field and give thanks. http://robbinshopkins.com/2009/02/full-partners-with-the-divine-healing-service-excerpt/

Questions and Answers is a new feature of this blog. If you have a questions you would like answered, send them along in the comments section below. Some of the questions asked will appear in upcoming posts. I encourage you to take my answers to questions with you into meditative Silence and discern for yourself what your own answers are for the various questions presented here. Happy seeking.

Apr 02 2009

Entering Silence

There are infinite ways to enter Silence. Success with intentional Silence is accessible to all human beings, with practice. Silence is the space beyond conscious thought. It is the space beyond lists, questions, concerns and fears. It is the space of Infinite Possibility. When first exploring time in Silence, many of us think we will find some direction, get clarity on an issue or feel safe and supported. These things can and do occur in Silence but usually meditators have to overcome feelings of discomfort, insufficiency and sometimes even boredom when first entering intentional Silence. Early experiences with Silence can be filled with self-doubt, fears of what we will find in Silence, and even a sense of unworthiness about communicating with The Great I AM. Others feel afraid of the unknown or of dark spirits which may be “out there”. Additionally, because we come from a culture with a healthy focus on doing and accomplishing things in the outer world, we can feel guilty, disconnected from “real life” and antsy to have something concrete take place in the Silence. The key is to keep at it, repeat the process over and over again. It is worth any discomfort, frustration or angst you may encounter in the process.

So how can one intentionally enter into Silence and have a positive experience? Begin by asking Divine Source for help in entering Silence in a way that will be good for you. Call to yourself a positive meditation experience and wait until you get a sense of how to proceed. In other words, prepare for success.

Or if that is not your style, jump right in one day and see what happens. You will learn a great deal from that experience of Silence for yourself. If you do go this route, you might first consider why you want to enter into Silence. Then let that all go as you actually begin to enter Silence. Leave all the thoughts, fears, judgments and uncertainties at the doorway to Silence. Zip off the roles, the responsibilities, the shoulds, the demands, the worries and enter as freely as you are able. “Become as a child, to enter the kingdom of God”.

There are many reasons to enter Silence. I work with those interested in seeking a deeper, personal relationship with All That Is. All That Is or Divine Presence is within our own being, so we end up coming to a deeper knowing of our own True Power, Creativity, and Knowing along the way. This is the full course menu for entering Silence. There are a number of other menus available as well. Knowing why you are seeking Silence is a really good place to begin.

Steps I take when entering Silence

1. I prepare for quiet time by turning off the phone, telling family members I am not available and retreating to a place where I will not be disturbed. I select some material to read and possibly something to listen to, in my space. I set aside a specific amount of time for being in Silence.

2. I open the space I am in to the Highest Divine Energy of the Universe. I invite my Highest Self, Ascended Masters, The Angelic Host, Divine Nature Spirits, Highest Divine Cosmic Light Beings and any other forms of Divine Light who can help me hold the space of Silence that day. Alternatively, you can call in the Holy Spirit or Spirit of the Living God.

I do this because my intention is to connect specifically with Divine Energy rather than with all the other energies in Silent space. I also like the idea of being in the presence of Evolved Spirits who know how to navigate the Silence. Their conscious knowing of All That Is helps me find my own source of Knowing within. I like the idea of inviting knowledgeable company to join me in this process.

3. I call for the Divine Presence of the Great I AM to lead me into the experience of Silence.

4. I can sometimes settle right into a place of stillness and quiet. If this is the case, I sit with my back upright, legs crossed beneath me and breathe in and out, focusing on my breath until I drift into a place beyond thinking.

5. Sometimes I can’t be still. Then I most frequently read a spiritual passage until I feel settled enough to be still. If that does not work, I may sing, chant, om, recite a psalm, listen to a beautiful piece of music or recite an affirmation to calm my mind. If that is the sum of my meditation time that day, I have simply connected with All That Is in a different way, from entering Silence. We have still connected.

6. In using affirmations, I select one and repeat it over and over again from my heart, until I drift into stillness. Some of the affirmations I use are:

I AM God’s Beloved Child.

I AM One with All That Is.

I AM lovable and capable.

Upon Me God’s favor rests.

All is well and that’s the truth.

I AM safe and at peace.

I AM God breathed.

7. When I end, I give thanks for the experience, regardless of how my judging self might be seeing the experience I have just had.

Entering Silence is like learning to play the piano. In the beginning, even the simplest learned pieces bring us pleasure. However in learning the piano pieces, we may have struggles with ourselves over setting aside time, breaking down the piece to learn it, and mastering it to our satisfaction. This can be exactly what we face with beginning to meditate. We are learning something which we do not know how to do. We are entering into unknown territory, that of Silence. So, patience and seeking is called for. However, the greatest counselor of all is the Great I AM, Infinite Knowing and Boundless Love. If you continue to seek in meditation, in the Silence, all that is needed is provided. The pathway for each person will be revealed in just perfect ways. Our part in this is to keep seeking and trying things until we have the success we envision.

If you are trying to meditate, go deeper in your meditation or have slacked off for a while and would like to start again, send along any questions you may have and the responses can be shared on-line for the reading community. If you have a personal suggestion of what is working for you, please share those as well.

how to

Opening Prayer

Sermon

How can we pray for others who are sick, afraid or in pain?

What would you recommend if I am repeatedly having unsuccessful relationships with guys I am dating? How can this type of issue be helped spiritually?

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