If you are far from community and looking for a way to engage with others, Please join us for our Sunday evening discussions. They are every Sunday evening at 4:30 PT, 7:30 ET on ZOOM. The log on details are at www.spirit-edu.com.
We look forward to having you visit with us. ~rev jim
Join Spirit Education’s Science of Mind Sunday at 7:30pm ET this week for meditation with Suzanne Squires, RScP.
Zoom info at http://www.spirit-edu.com No sign up necessary.
http://tinyurl.com/okfsxz8 for the info.
SOM Sunday is now,
Peace at the Center Meditation & Prayer!
It has morphed over the years from a Sunday talk and prayer into what it is today, meditation & prayer.
Go to https://spirit-edu.com/day-1-mp/ for Zoom information to join us or find new info below.
It is held on Sundays evenings at 7:30 pm ET and 4:30 PT. We use ZOOM as our medium and meeting place for our Day 1 Meditation meetings, the same technology we use for our classes.
The login info is:
The Meeting: Day One Meditation & Prayer
Time: This is a weekly recurring meeting on Sunday evenings at 7:30 pm ET
Length: 30 minutes
Join: from PC, Mac, iOs or Android: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/399957262?pwd=cXdOTUVvd2I1V1BBRVhQcGxRa3BuUT09
Meeting ID: 399 957 262 Password: peace4u
Or join by phone:+1 408 638 0968 (US Toll) or +1 646 558 8656 (US Toll)
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/zoomconference
To convert to other Time Zones [CLICK HERE]
If you would like us to consider additional times, please email me at heyrevjim@gmail.com and let me know a time and day that works for a group in your area and indicate your location and if the time request is based on Eastern USA time or your location.
There is no charge, although your donations are gratefully accepted and fully tax deductible as Spirit Education is a 501c3, non-profit corporation.
~rev jim
“While everybody is nodding off, I find those moments where I see sunsets and sunrises and all the times in between that are fascinating and so beautiful and it’s almost like [being] free.”
~ Julian Lennon, Science of Mind Magazine, Feb. 2014
It’s funny. When I found this quote, I saw the brackets around the “being” implying that the person who added the word, did so for clarity, and maybe he did, and that was Julian’s intent. The quote is obviously out of context, but that doesn’t make it any less powerful either way.
And either way, the meaning is the same. That unconscious place where most people spend most of their lives is just the fine line between sleep and freedom.
Most people never notice the sunrises and sunset and enjoy the incomparable beauty that is there in that moment, let alone see the beauty and the expression of life in the rest of the day. Most people walk through life asleep, and without a conscious thought of the constant change around them. They see their lives as static and uninteresting, a drudgery they endure, but seldom enjoy.
When was the last time you took a moment in a simple take like washing dishes and noticed the way the water flowed over your hand or the way the bubbles have an iridescent property. Or, took a walk and noticed the sound of rustling leaves or, in colder weather, the steam rising from the drains. Have you ever listened to the music that some trees make or flag pole wires, or, in the city, the music the hi-rise buildings make? I often just sit on my back porch in St. Augustine, close my eyes and listen to the wild sounds of nature. I can imagine myself somewhere else, a jungle maybe, listening to the “gronks” of the herons, mixed with the finches, mockingbirds, laughing gulls, and myriad other birds, mixed with the deafening sound of cicadas, crickets, and other critters of the undergrowth amidst the background music of the wind whistling through the longleaf pines, live oaks and cedars.
It is amazing how much life we miss with our headphones or our music cranked up.
~rev jim starke
Hey everyone,
Science of Mind SUNDAYS is ON!
We are shortening it to a one hour book discussion, meditation, interview, workshop, spiritual practice or whatever we happen to be doing in a given week, but it’s all about the Science of Mind!
The start date is September 13th. Figured no one wo
uld show up on Labor Day weekend.
It will be on Sundays at 7:30 pm and we will list the month’s events the month before. We will be using ZOOM as our medium and meeting place for our Science of Mind Sunday meetings, the same technology we use for our classes.
You can check our schedule here.
If you would like to stay informed of new classes and the goings on at Spirit Education, please subscribe our blog. You can do that on any page of www.spirit-edu.com from the Subscribe block in the left hand column.
There is no charge to join us, although your donations are gratefully accepted and fully tax deductible as Spirit Education is a 501c3, non-profit corporation.
There is an inner insistence toward wholeness and it is this that the moment, the experience of quiet, announces.
~Howard Thurmon, Meditations of the Heart
This I know. In the silence is the peace of the Heart. That Peace is God. That peace is my peace. In the quiet I find my self. The purity of spirit is the essence which God in me. This is my wholeness. As I move into that place, I know that I am more, because I AM. In everything I do, I AM. In the I AM I am whole. I can be no less than that which I AM.
As I know this for me, I know that this is not only my truth, but the truth of all sentient beings. I know that there is no thing that has power greater than I AM, and in that place of unity, there is no other than I AM. Father, Mother, brother, daughter, all are One, and all are Whole.
In gratitude, I give in and allow my good to surround me, envelop me, and take me to my place of bliss and perfection. From here I just sit in silence. Knowing the work is done. I am complete.
and so it is.
My question today is, “do you believe that you create your life by the thoughts you have? Can you, knowing that there is strife in the world, that there is killing in the world, really believe that you exist in a world of your own creation?
Thinking about that for a moment, are you responsible for that killing or that strife? Heady thoughts, aren’t they? Chances are each of us may be to some degree by our thinking the general lower thoughts of humanity that says, “they deserved that” or “they are bad people not good like me” and other things of the same ilk.
Does that make us bad people? No, not really, it just means we’re human beings with human frailties and judgments. We have thoughts that are historically human thoughts based on our geography, ethnicity, spiritual or religious upbringing, and many other factors that cause us “unknowingly to act the way we do. It can be difficult to know that we are being unjustified in our thoughts and actions sometimes as we float through life, because we do “feel” fully justified in our actions.
Sometimes we get involved in situations that we don’t even realize may be callous or hurtful to a group or section of the population that has, in truth, done nothing to deserve it. One example of this is or was military veterans returning from the war in Vietnam. During this time of political upheaval in our country our boys were returning from the war ill prepared for the horrendous greetings they had to endure at the hands of the young idealistic protestors of that unwanted conflict.
They, in essence, were treated as the enemy, when, in fact, most were conscripts of a war that nobody wanted outside of the government and corporations. Sadly, they were the easiest and most visible group for protestors to attack and get press. So, these men who spent most of their time just trying to survive in an untenable situation were smeared by the protestors and became a focus of the press, while the “directors and suppliers” of the war continued with business as usual.
So, did we contribute to that? Many of us did. I was guilty of it by protesting the war on campus in college, and even though I never called anyone a baby killer or threw red paint at anyone, I was still responsible for that general condition. And it wasn’t until I was drafted in my senior year of college that got to know the people who were the cannon fodder of the war, and realize that damage that we did to another human being in our idealistic unknowing.
And’ this is not an isolated incident. It has been going on since the beginning of time. Imagine if we didn’t consider our way of doing things better than anyone else’s way. Imagine what the world might be like if there was universal respect for everybody as individuals without regard for religious beliefs, ethnic heritage, sexual proclivity, or geography. Imagine if we wanted the highest and the best for each and everyone. Imagine the world without labels, without judgment.
If we as individuals can begin to see the good in each other and let this good by our guiding theme in our life, we can indeed begin to see the world as a safe place, as a place where our children are safe, where we are safe. This is how we can begin to live stress free in this world of our own creation. We don’t have to change the entire world ourselves. We need only change the way we see the world and the way we see ourselves within this world. The future is as bright or and dim as our thoughts. It is heaven or hell right now. We sentence ourselves to prison or paradise.
Where do you choose to reside? How do you choose to see your life?
Affirmation: I choose to live my life in complete and awe inspiring love and joy!
in Love & Peace,
rev jim
Spirit Education
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.
Howard Thurman
In the quiet of your thoughts, have you ever noticed that there’s a certain knowing the comes to you, that a certain idea is brought forward in your mind, when you allow all things to just refresh themselves and you just release those things which no longer serve you.
It’s the same thing as when I have a problem I can’t solve and I just walk away from it, forget about it, then come back to it from a different perspective, from a different idea, or from different way of thinking and all of a sudden the answer appears from outside the confusion which was there in the beginning which was nonproductive and now there is the answer. It was so easy. I did not see it in the beginning and it suddenly appeared to me because I had a change of mind, a change of thought. I created a void, a place which allowed for the new thought to come into my life. I changed my despair to hope, my fear that there wasn’t an answer into the answer.
And at the same time I know that it wasn’t me the answer came from. It came through me from God, I cleared the way in my mind for the answer to be revealed to me. It was always there because God is always with us and as soon as I cleared the way it was revealed to me.
Next time something in your life seems to be troubling you, let go of it, walk away from it, forget about it, release it from your thoughts, release the idea and just find something else to do, then come back to it with a new mind, with a clear mind, and with a clear thought that the answer is there already and you’ll be surprised. It will be there.
Mystics as Mentors is our first online course offering at Spirit Education!
Rev. Mary Altalo, PhD, RScP, who was a Marine Biologist and college professor in a former life, has developed a series of courses called “Mystics as Mentors: Journeys into Unitive Consciousness.” The first in the series is based on the work of the 1st century Mystics, Jesus, Thomas, Mary Magdalene, John and Paul.
Drawing on Ken Wilber’s integral theory and readings from Richard Rohr to illustrate how to see as the mystics saw, not from duality but from oneness. And that’s just in the first week.
There is so much here, I encourage you to go to the website, for more detail about this consciousness-raising course.
The course begins May 13, 2015, is 3 hours a week for 6 weeks, runs from 7pm to 10pm ET, and qualifies for 18 CEUs for Practitioners with your Senior Minister’s approval. (What are CEUs?)
But wait! There’s more! If you use the coupon code “EB-MM-01” at checkout, you get $30 off the price of the course through May 5th. It’s going to be a great class. I hope you can join us. Please tell your ministers, Practitioners, and congregation.
