The Awakened and the rest of us

What are the differences between us and awakened individuals?
Most of us identify ourselves with our bodies. We think that we are the body but the self-realized know that we have a body, just as we have a car, or a house or any other material object.

Most of us believe that we are our emotions. Awakened individuals know that these emotions just rise inside us, like the wind or storm.

We sometimes believe that we are the roles that we play in society: like mother, father, teacher, manager, writer, doctor, sister or brother. Awakened individuals know that we have roles like actors who play their parts but are quite different from the roles that they play.

Most of us believe that we are our thoughts. Awakened individuals know that we have thoughts and we are separate from our thoughts.

Most of us believe that we are our stories. For example, those who have suffered trauma are often attached to the experience and believe that they are the story.

Awakened individuals know that their stories are separate from who they truly are.
Most of us think of ourselves as if we are separate from others. Awakened individuals know that we are one with everyone and the whole universe.

Most of us often think of the past and the future as real. Awakened individuals know that the past and future are convenient labels but are not real. There is only the eternal now.

Most of us depend on material things to define our identity. Awakened individuals have little or no attachment to material things.

Enlightenment roadmap: Unfolding the consciousness of sunlight on a cloudless summer's day

Enlightenment means many things to many people. To me it is the state of awareness in which we merge with the Great Unknown and our identification with the self fall away.

The process of awakening takes many paths but here is the general roadmap.

First, you must be aware of the need for something greater than your personal consciousness. You ask questions such as: "Who am I? Where did I come from, where am I going? What is the meaning of life?" When these questions persist, it indicates that you are ready to go on the path that culminates in the answer to these questions. In other words, these questions show that you are thirsty for the water of life. Enlightenment quenches that thirst.

This thirst is insatiable. It can be filled only with the Ocean of Divine Love. Nothing else does it. Not fame. Not wealth. Not power. Not sex. Only union with the divine beloved.

A major step in this process occurs with a triggering event.

The event may be a crisis, illness or an encounter. The event may be external to you or within you or both. For example, an external event will be meeting someone who has experienced the awakening. You will not become awake immediately. But you could. Nothing is impossible. However, in general, it takes a lot of adjusting to peel off the traps of the ego, the false programming in which we identify with the body, our emotions, our thoughts rather than the pure consciousness that we truly are.

The external trigger forces you to go within to discover who you truly are. That is the role of pain and suffering in the world. Once you return to the source within, you learn to connect with the Inner Teacher.

The Inner Teacher guides you and shortens the journey by bringing you the necessary events and circumstances that will assist you in the unfolding. For example, instead of making "ten mistakes" before you understand a spiritual truth, with the Inner Guide, you will not have to make those "mistakes." Well, there are really no mistakes. There are only experiences.

Remember the movie Groundhog Day? The Inner Guide helps us to not go through the same pattern over and over and over again.

Working and trusting this Inner Guide is one of the most important landmarks in our evolutionary consciousness. The Inner Guide can lead you to new people, new resources, and offer insight into puzzles in your life.

Once you develop this internal tracking system, the next step is a gradual letting go of the patterns that cover the Sun of consciousness like dark clouds. When the clouds are gone we become "Enlightened," we become awake.
This awakening is a continuum. In other words, just as there are various levels of sleep and wakefulness, there are different levels of spiritual awakening.

The reason for this is that we peel off in gradual stages the structures of the wrong programming of the self like onion layers until we reach the center. Many religious doctrines, dogma and concepts are not true. When we believe them, they limit our spiritual growth because they conflict with the direct experience the Inner Guide is teaching us. The conflict between dogma and the Inner Knowing can cause confusion until we learn to trust the truthfulness of the Knowing from within.

The Inner Knowing must be tested. In other words, you must develop a process where the Inner Knowing is put to the test so that you are not misled by tricks of the ego. Some authorities call this testing process discernment. If there is any warning to be heeded on the path, this is it. Put your Inner Guides to test before you trust them.

In summary, the awakening or enlightenment begins with an insatiable desire to understand the mysteries of life. This desire is intensified at times by pain, suffering or an encounter with a divine soul. The divine soul or Spiritual Master, through entrainment –
a process which resembles harmonic resonance – can activate the seed of spiritual unfoldment or the enlightenment can happen immediately. Or you can develop a deeper relationship with your Inner Guide. You learn to work with your Inner Guide through discernment, cutting short the sleep-walking stage most people are in at the moment.

Enlightenment is the consciousness of the Sun shinning at noon on a cloudless summer's day. Waking up to the Sun consciousness is what life on earth is all about

More reflections on SICKO

I imagine that unless you are a beneficiary of the current healthcare system, it's impossible to remain unmoved after watching Michael Moore's SICKO. The main thrust of the movie is that America as the world's most prosperous nation has failed to provide a healthy environment where everyone can continue to produce and benefit the society.

The movie shows that in America, life is OK when you are healthy and greater when you are wealthy and can afford to dole out the thousands of dollars to pay for surgeries and medical emergencies yourself. What SICKO is calling our attention to is that the way the current healthcare system is set up isn't working well for most Americans.

Since the healthcare industry is such a big part of the American economy, and because of its powerful interest groups, it's going to be a daunting task to get beneficiaries of the current system to let go of their stranglehold. "It can't happen in America," I've heard many people say after hearing about or watching SICKO.

I believe that it can happen here in America. Despite the enormous challenge and opposition we must anticipate let's not despair. Let's have hope.

We don't know how it will happen, but if America needs a miracle, let that miracle happen now that Michael Moore has set the ball rolling by generating enormous public awareness about a national malaise. This awareness needs nurturing with hope in our hearts sustained by wisdom of the ages that what we can conceive individually and nationally we can achieve.

Once Americans set their mind on something and decide to solve a problem nothing stands in their way. When this miracle is all done, the healthcare system in America will be one of the top seven in the world, which is America's natural position in international affairs. This is exciting.

Most Americans believe that there's a Higher Power that intervenes in human affairs. This is the time to call upon that Higher Power to bring the positive changes in the healthcare system for the benefit of all concerned under grace in perfect ways.

I don't know how this miracle will occur. What I know is that I’ve peace and the most wonderful feeling in my heart as I dream that every child, man and woman in this great country lives without fear of having to go to see a doctor, and that the healthcare available for every American is as secure as it is in Canada, Britain and France, and better than in poor Cuba.

Religious education, music and summer services

Today, I share two presentations of Rev Dr Ed Brock’s ministry. Faith development of youth and children is one of the cornerstones of Unitarian Universalism. In his seven years' ministry at the Edmonds Unitarian Universalist Church, Rev. Dr. Ed Brock emphasized "helping children make meaning of their experiences." Cathy Liu Scott presents Rev Dr Ed Brock's impact on Religious Education at EUUC.

In the second presentation, Nancy Gladow’s highlights Rev Ed Brock’s contribution to a robust music program and his introduction of summer services.


Helping children make
meaning of their experiences
Cathy Liu Scott

Ed, two years into your ministry here at EUUC, our religious education program entered into a difficult time. The end result of this period of difficulty was that a Director of Religious Education who had been here for several years, and who was well liked by many, decided to leave.


During this time, you provided stability, support and encouragement for our religious education program as we were trying to find our way.


You saw how essential a robust Religious Education program is to the life and future of our congregation. You understood the importance of finding a seasoned professional to help set the tone and stage for a permanent DRE.

Toward that end you sought the highest caliber leadership in the role of interim DRE.

In that first year of search for the right person, you spend much time and effort recruiting Lena Breen, who was both a UU minister and a DRE with a national reputation. In the succeeding year, you spent much time and effort recruiting Lynn Bacon, a DRE with a national reputation, and a wealth of experience, as for years she had led the largest UU religious education program in the country.

Under the guidance of these two women, the quality, tenor, and size of religious education programs grew. The teen program was strengthened, a new Coming of Age program was launched, teacher recruitment was strengthened, and the quality of the entire program increased and broadened in different ways. You encouraged both Lena and Lynn to become an integral part of our worship services.

In these and other ways you have helped us see the role and potential of DREs in new ways. And this has led to results. Laura McNaughton has carried forward the new standard of excellence. And now, for the first time in the history of this church, we have begun a search for a new full time DRE.

Ed, thank you for playing your part in the development of the religious education program of EUUC, both what has been and what is yet to be.




Music, summer services and
empowering members
Nancy Gladow

I will begin by reflecting on two quite different ways Ed has influenced our congregation’s life.


Recognizing how important music is to worship, Ed worked with the Music Committee and the board over a period of several years to create a position of music director, a broader position than choir director; and to give the role both more hours, and a much broader scope. As a consequence we have had a music program that, as you see this morning, has grown in depth, breadth, and quality over the years. Some of the changes have been adding a children’s choir, opportunities for youth group members to perform, bringing in special guest musicians, and of course the pleasure of hearing our regular choir perform, regardless of what service we choose to attend.

Recognizing the need that some members of the congregation have to get together in the summer, Ed got us started having summer services for the first time in the history of the church. In the first and second year of their development Ed planned the services and John Park carried them out. Many members now look forward to the summer services as a chance to consider a broad range of topics in an informal atmosphere that provides ample room for discussion. This addition to our congregation’s life, has greatly enriched our community.

While today’s reflections will focus on how Ed has affected our congregation, it is important to remember that anything that happens needs many hands. Although Ed helped birth many programs and activities, he was also very good at finding people within the amazing pool of talent within the membership of EUUC with just the right skills to take them over. It is only through a partnering of a minister with members of the congregation that positive changes are sustained. Now, although Ed is leaving for other endeavors, these programs live on.

Thank you, Ed.

Waking Up Together With Pachamama Alliance

"He who goes to the river alone, gets eaten," says an African proverb. In The Fire from Within don Juan tells Carlos Castenada about the cost to an individual whose dreambody gazes alone at the Eagle's emanations, the fluid in eternal motion behind all that is.

"Seers who gazed at the Eagle's emanations without their dreambodies died, and those who gazed at them with their dreaming bodies burned with the fire within. The new seers solved the problem by seeing in teams. While one seer gazed at the emanations, others stood by ready to end the seeing."

There's much talk today about global awakening. New Age groups and religious organizations are talking about waking up from our sleep. Scientists are uncovering greater mysteries of matter. One such discoveries is non-locality, the concept that at the subatomic level time and distance as we know them are inexistent. Ready or not events are calling us to challenge our assumptions and to wake up to new paradigms of reality.

Waking up involves a lot of dedication, understanding, and compassion for ourselves. But it also involves working in a group with others.

This Saturday, June 9, in Seattle, WA., Mill Valley, CA. and Arlington, VA., the Pachamama Alliance will be organizing a symposium called Awakening the Dreamer. This will be a great opportunity to meet and work with others who are also waking up from their dreams.

Visit the Pachamama Alliance http://www.pachamama.org/
For additional information about the symposium in Seattle visit: http://www.forthegrandchildren.org.