one power

Jun 10 2009

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,

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.

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 21 2009

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)

Apr 30 2009

One Power Focus

There is One Power, One Source, One Divine Presence. This Oneness is All Powerful, All Knowing and Everywhere Present. What would our lives be like if we really, deeply knew this to be true? What would we let go of , what would we welcome into our lives and what would we rejoice in knowing?

We typically move through our lives giving our power to all sort of things which are not the One Power. We give our power to worries, to fears, to the argument between our brothers, to what should have happened last month, to what may happen next week, to the demands of our job and perhaps even to the voice in our heads to “go ahead and buy it, you deserve it”. This has the effect of diluting the full presence of the One Power in our life.

It is our choice as to how we spend our time and what we put our attention upon even though at times we see ourselves as sacrificial beings to others. We have free will to give our attention and concern to anything we choose to, anytime we choose to do so.

As long as we choose to give our power to material things, problems, making money, pleasing others at the expense of ourselves, we have a “dim” and somewhat disconnected view of the Power of the Divine Presence. Focusing our power, energy and attention completely on the outside world dulls us to the intensity and magnificence of All That Is. What we have focused on and attended to, grows and grows.

What does giving our power to the material world look like?

Joe lives in Vienna, VA. He is an insurance executive with two children. He goes into work 6 days a week though Saturdays are not required. He has Sundays off and spends times with his kids and wife that day when possible.

In talking with him about his life he said, my life is pretty routinized. I put on my suit every day, drive to my parking spot and then begin going through all the tasks for the day. Sometimes I look up and 3 hours have simply passed me by. I am never bored as there is always more to do. I miss seeing the kids more, though. They are often headed for bed by the time I get home and eat. I know that Kate is doing a great job with them. I am simply not around much, not as much as I would like to be, anyway.

DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES? No, not really. I’d love to have the energy for something like that. I am usually beat when I get home though. I try to catch a ball game on TV or perhaps watch a show.

Riveting meeting by Mark Hillary — Riveting meeting by markhillary

I sometimes try to get some things done around the house on Saturday afternoon if I can get away from the office a bit early. Seems like my life is just passing on by while I give it all I’ve got.

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE AT THE MOMENT? Not really, that is pretty rare. The insurance business has really clear mandates about serving people and making money while doing that. So, that is what I work with every day.

Joe came in saying he was tired all the time and had very low energy especially on Sundays.

In contrast to this scenario, Dan works in an advertising company in McLean, Va. He is the strategic adviser in the financial section of the company. He works 5 days a week and sometimes has work deadlines over certain weekends. He is married and has three kids.

In talking about his life, he said, I made a decision a few years ago to be in my kid’s lives. I try to get to their games and special presentations at school. If there is an issue about this at work, I take leave. Usually nowadays there is no issue with my taking the time to see their activities. I did not want to be absent while they grew up without me.

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER ACTIVITIES OR HOBBIES? I play basketball one evening a week and serve on the board of a hospital near our neighborhood. I love to garden and most times I can wrangle one of the kids into playing with me in the dirt. I also love to cook but we have had to make some adjustments so the kids can eat early enough. I cook on the weekends now mostly.

ARE YOU EXCITED ABOUT ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE AT THE MOMENT? Yes. We have recently found a super young woman from Italy to live with us and help with the housework and the children after school so Terry can pursue her passion in therapeutic dance.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR LIFE NOW? Well, it is like one endless surprise. Every day is different. I try not to get too concerned by any one thing that comes up. Things usually work out though sometimes in really crazy ways.

Dan came in to discuss meditation and how it might help him be more present and centered.

Which life description most closely fits how you see your life at present? When we make choices for the expansion of love of self and others, we attract experiences and energy in the world which reflect these choices we have made, including the actual jobs we are currently doing. If we are making choices while attending to the One Power, love and balance manifest. If we are making choices which leave us feeling down, depressed and exhausted, we are not making choices for Love in our lives or the lives of others. This does not mean that we don’t love ourselves or our families. It does mean that we GIVE OUR POWER, time and attention to problems, concerns and demands in the outside world rather than to issues of the heart.

If you are feeling stuck, you might ask, what am I letting run me? What am I doing which separates me from things which bring me joy, balance and connectedness?

Invite the One Power, One Source, into your life. Ask and you will receive even if you don’t know how any changes might be possible. Simply call in this One Power out loud into your daily life and watch what happens. Then write in the comment box and let us all hear about it!!

[Editor’s Note] Click on the title of any post to go to it’s individual web page to leave a comment. Use the comment box below if you are reading the actual web page or click here http://robbinshopkins.com/2009/04/one-power-focus/ to leave a comment for this post.

one power

Opening Prayer

Sermon

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