Spiritual Living Podcast Archive

Guest speaker Neil Williams describes how fulfilling it is to think about what would be most meaningful as a remembrance of our lives---how a gift from our estate can support our individual values and passions. Our conscious participation in all our giving lifts our spirits, feeds our souls, and makes us happier and healthier people. When we leave a charitable gift in our will, we leave an expression of our spiritual nature, a natural extension of our place in our community. "Life is an eternal givingness, the offering of the cosmic self to the joy of its own fulfillment. We are a part of this joy and we find fulfillment only as this joy passes through us to others... Everything moves in circles. We short-circuit our own good when we refuse to pass it on." -- Ernest Holmes

We are always being guided. Even when it doesn't feel like it. The world is our classroom and other people are our assignments. When we recognize our problem, condition, or error-belief, we can give it a name. This is the spiritual practice of labelling or noting. It can distance us from the experience. It can release it from being part of our false identity. It gives the mind something to do. It helps us to recognize our patterns. Eventually the experience being noted disappears. If we look at the thing we are afraid of until we really understand it, it will no longer have any element of fear for us. -- Dr. Ernest Holmes Feel the feelings that live beneath the old pain. Call on compassion to clear the path. The way to get rid of fear is through the cultivation of faith---a faith founded on the thought that God is all there is. -- Dr. Ernest Holmes

We are responsible for what we see, because perspective is everything. Things are not what they are; they are what we think they are. We are not responsible for what our eyes are seeing. We are responsible for how we perceive what they are seeing. The circumstances of our lives have less to do with our happiness than the sense of control we feel over our lives. How we frame the circumstances of our lives is so important. It is the simple, small things that can change everything. To have a radical shift in perception, it can be as simple as perceiving our job with more gratitude. More gratitude, more love. A small change can change us forever. Divine Abundance is forever manifesting in our affairs. Today, we expect every good thing to come to us. For we know that Divine Abundance is forever manifesting Itself in our affairs. We are keeping our whole mind and thought and expectation open to new experiences, to happier events, to a more complete self-expression. Everything that belongs to Spirit we accept. Everything that partakes of the nature of Divine Reality we claim as our own. We identify with success, and we prosper in everything we do. We can ask for guidance. What is ours to know here? Insist on the quality of the guidance that is available to us. We can insist on the highest alignment with the greatest good for the best possible outcome. The Holy Instant is that moment when we surrender our fear to the care of the Universe and accept Its perspective of love. It is an act of faith, that we are not alone. We are not alone. We are Sons and Daughters of the Universe.

Knowledge is power and self-knowledge is self-empowerment. But as Dr. Joe Dispenza says, "If we use our brain to change our brain, it will only make our brain worse." We must open ourselves to pure consciousness to let go of resistance and make a profound change to our lives. Make time to connect to the Divine, to surrender to the Great Unknown, and to foster the feeling-tone of gratitude. Pentatonix video of "Imagine".

In today's talk, lifestyle meditation teacher Mandy Trapp seeks to answer the question, "Who are we?" Drawing from the teachings of Adi Shankara, an 8th Century teacher in India, Mandy presents his "Layers of Life" as a way of knowing ourselves in a different way. The Layers of Life represent us as three bodies, each composed of three parts. The three bodies are the Physical Body, the Subtle Body, and the Causal Body. The Physical Body (environment, body, energy) The Subtle Body (mind, intellect, ego) The Causal Body (personal soul, collective soul, universal) Why did we come here? Why did our soul choose to come as us? We came to re-member---to create and have experiences, and to remember Who we belong to. Ultimately, we only have two desires at the soul level: to be happy and to be free.

We tend to look at prayer as an isolated activity---a tool, a quick fix, or an emergency manoeuvre. We think it's something we do one time and it's done. But that's not how life works. Whether we realize it or not, we are praying continually. Every thought is a prayer, and our thoughts are shaped by our beliefs. We all have beliefs, and what we believe about our lives is what keeps showing up. Our beliefs can add to our life, or limit it. They narrow, guide, expand, limit, and eliminate the happiness in our lives. When we use affirmative prayer, we want to pray using words that the Universe can say a resounding YES to! Ernest Holmes said, "Feel the prayer. What does conviction about what you are praying for feel like? Faith has a feeling tone. Abundance has a feeling tone. Love has a feeling tone. Feel your prayer. Keep feeling it after the prayer is spoken. Be your prayer. Feel it."

Michael Beckwith said, "We are on the planet to be and express the Divine Love of God, that is alive in every fibre of our being, waiting to be released through us onto our world; living as love is a way of life that brings heaven on Earth." A Victorious Attitude: To recognize the unlimited power of God brings victory to the soul. All problems begin and end with our own consciousness. We are as miserable or as creative and free as we decide to be. We begin to solve our problems at the point of origin when we are awake in our consciousness. The Soul's True Nature is Love Awakening: We must welcome our soul to have more love and truth in our lives. We can delay our soul's evolution and emergence but we will never escape its call. Every mind is on a soul's journey. The Proof is in the Doing: When we apply the principles in our lives---adding in moments of meditation throughout our day, adding mindfulness---we know we are really making a difference and change is possible.

This week, Dr. Patrick introduces Martin Luther King's idea of the Beloved Community, and what that means. "Jesus had finished the greatest experiment with life that any man ever made. There were no longer any doubts or questions, no longer any 'ifs', 'ands', or 'buts'. He implied, 'This is the way it is, now go and prove it.' We are on an adventure of self-discovery through faith. The Infinite Intelligence can only respond to what we give It. And we are learning the greatest lesson in life, that man and woman do not live by bread alone, but by a Subtle Power which flows through everything, a Divine Presence which encompasses everything." -- Dr. Ernest Holmes. Our goal is to create a beloved community, and this will require a qualitative change in our souls and a quantitative change in our lives. Our opportunity is to clear away the obstructions that keep us from living in unity. The first step in the quantitative change is self-acceptance. It is knowing that we are enough, that we are loved beyond measure.

The soul is like a wild animal. It is very shy. It is not called into our life or our experience with loud noise. It is typically found in the quiet, in the depth of the forest where it lives. All it needs is a welcome, an invitation. We have fallen asleep in the world of materialism. Without the soul's participation, we continue to want more and more. "The world is beginning to realize it has learned all it can and should through suffering and pain," says Dr. Ernest Holmes. "We are the drop of God in the ocean of God." Self-love is so important---it helps us work from the higher realm. We deserve to be our own friend! Let us take a little time to love and appreciate ourselves. "Love is within us. It cannot be destroyed. It can be ignored. To the extent that we abandon love we will feel it has abandoned us. Denying love is our only problem and embracing it is the only answer. Through the power of love we can let go of past history and begin again. Love heals, forgives, and makes whole." -- Dr. Ernest Holmes

Resolutions are the sign that we are ready to live our lives in a new way. The world commonly believes that thinking, planning, and doing are very important. And they certainly are important for getting things done in a linear way. But a better idea for connecting with ourselves and our joy is stopping, being, and listening. This leads to insight, clarity, and inspiration. The first law of Love is to listen. If we ever go to that place of stillness, out of it everything comes. The uncreated creativity, the creative possibility of the individual out of the uncreated, the voice that is not spoken yet is ready to articulate. We are given a new name written on a white stone. A new name. A new nature. We are free. Nothing is holding us back from our good. As we receive this new name, we may ask ourselves these questions: What is ours to do? What have we come here, at this point in time, to be? What is the quality we are here to express more of?

Our planet is now moving from mysticism to the higher wisdom of practical mysticism. We choose to be on the path of resiliency. We can shape and direct our thoughts, our feelings, and our lives. We are not stuck. There is an Unseen Force with which we can develop a closer relationship. We take responsibility because we have created the place where we are right now. We can re-create and do something new, to create something that brings us to life. Life is not predetermined.

After his miraculous self-healing, Dr. Joe Dispenza travelled the world to learn the common traits and beliefs of people who have had remarkable results. They all: Develop a deep relationship with the unseen force for good. Take responsibility for their lives. They understand that their mismanagement of their lives created the situation. Realize that the best way to move from the old self to the new is to be creative. Ask open-ended questions. Believe that life is not predetermined. Einstein said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift." In order to make a change in our lives, we must put down some of the rational mind and surrender to the field of the unknown. J. Krishnamurti says in his book As One Is: To Free the Mind From All Conditioning, "The mind can only be free when it is completely still.... It cannot find anything new with the burden of the past, with the burden of knowledge." "Everyone has an urge to live, to sing, to dance, to accomplish something, to love something, to give something, and the moment we stop the loving and the giving, we are forlorn. We are unhappy." -- William Shakespeare The world---and this Infinite Divine Intelligence---is awaiting our next thought.

Our founder Dr. Holmes said, "We need not be superstitious to be spiritually minded. Spiritual mindedness is a persistent and consistent attempt to feel the Divine everywhere, and in all things, and it is the capacity not only to believe in but also to perceive, to feel, and to react to a Unitary Wholeness, in essence an Infinite Personalness, a Beauty, a Love, and I also believe, a Laughter which exists in the universe. The Ultimate Reality, spirituality is normal, natural, spontaneous, effervescent, never difficult, and never withholding." God is the Thing Itself. Chiropractor and author Joe Dispenza met It when he was injured in a bicycle race and shattered several vertebrae. Rather than undergo the recommended but immobilizing surgery, Joe developed a relationship with the Infinite and healed himself through the power of his mind. He visualized healthy vertebrae, and through God, his body healed itself. Note: The thumping noise heard in the recording is two large staffs, like Gandalf the Wizard uses in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.

What a great way to start off a new year! Be inspired to bring your uniqueness, awesomeness, and special presence everywhere you go. Learn steps and practical tools to having the life you want, thriving, loving, and creating something new. It's the opposite of "I'll believe it when I see it"---Dr. Patrick helps us find a way to believe it first and then we will see it become our reality. Our brain is not simply a record of our past; we can use it to become a map for our future. Through diligent attention to our thoughts, we can learn to change the way we think and feel; this is how we become a magnet for the experience we are seeking.

Luke's telling of the Christmas story is a message of hope. Drawing from the work of Alexander Shaia's interpretation of this gospel, we hear Luke's voice saying, "When you think there is no turnaround, keep going." When Mary is told she is going to have a child, she is the picture of grace and acceptance. She is receptive and open to the experience. She doesn't worry or question the angel---she knows. When we share in Mary's sense of knowing---which is stronger than faith or belief---we can keep going even when we are cast out or going through difficulties. We are all pregnant with the Christ.

Invoked or not, God is present. We are about moving into leadership in a way that is powerful, that is spiritual. We are here, taking a stand, making a declaration to create a new reality, to move from resignation to new possibility. We need to learn to internalize our capacity for moving from resignation to new possibility. This is the soul experience. It is spiritual because it has to do with the human heart. Our soul connects us at depth. It is a deep experience of oneness. We must observe the soul. To watch it, to keep an eye on it, to observe it as a spiritual advent. The soul always looks like our latest addiction, our latest obsession. But what is driving the problem? Let us take interest in our soul. Let us invite it. Our soul craves expression. What is here for us today? What is ours to do? What is ours to put down?

Most of us have learned from society that there is something wrong with us. We can easily become caught up in a hundred fears which constrict us and our energy. When we are consumed by our fears, we forget the universal principle of more. We are seeking to increase our capacity for responsiveness, for aliveness, for connection---we just forget how. Do not blame yourself for chaos---anything that feels imperfect---in your life. Simply ask, "What is there for me to know in this?" There is always something to know in every situation. We have the opportunity to uncover the true beauty of our being, long buried under false ideas of who we are. In times of conflict, we can ask ourselves, "What is my role in this conflict?" This helps us learn more about ourselves, from a loving perspective. Gratitude is so important. Imagine if everyone knew and recognized their own wholeness---we would love, accept, honour, and respect each other, knowing that no circumstance diminishes who we are.

Those who cannot change their thoughts cannot change anything. -- George Bernard Shaw The ones who think they are crazy enough to change the world are the ones that do. -- Steve Jobs We are crazy enough to believe in the unitive field of oneness. We are crazy enough to believe that we are all connected. We shift consciousness by not engaging in the language and behaviour of separateness or fear. Matt Damon said, "Please find what you can do to make a difference." Learn something, and then share it with someone else. Zig Ziglar said this, "We are what we are and we are where we are because of what has gone into our mind. And the way we change who we are and where we are is by what goes into our mind." Act as if. Act as if it already is. In other words, we fake it till we make it. When we act as if we have the power, the Universe will take us at our word. Every great dream starts with a dreamer. And every great dreamer has spent time sitting still. It is the practice of anchoring ourselves in ourselves wherever we are. When we are grounded in the truth of our being, we create a field of possibility. There is One Mind common to all people. This Mind is perfect. And we have access to this Mind. The Science with which we are to practice is based on the theory that there is a Universal Mind and an Eternal Spirit from which all things spring. The Spirit is the creator and the sustainer of all that is. We have immediate access to this Divine Mind, this Universal Principle, this Creative Power. Humanity has access to the Great Whole and draws as much power from this source as we are capable of intelligently using. -- Ernest Holmes

Today's talk centres around untying the knots that limit our magnificence and abundance. We are enough, just as we are: There is a perfection that lives within each and every person. We don't obtain it---we reveal it. Ernest Holmes put it this way, "I am guided by the same intelligence and inspired by the same imagination which scattered the moonbeams across the waves and holds the force of nature in its grasp." We are a community of possibility thinkers. We are powerful beyond measure, and there is nothing that we cannot become. It is our opportunity to take a stand for love---We stand for transformation. We showed up on this planet to demonstrate love. Gratitude releases the flow of life and unleashes its power. We are surrounded and immersed in an Infinite Good. How much of It may we experience? As much as we can use this day.

If we want to do a thing that is really worth doing, we must mentally grow until we are that thing which we want to see made flesh. This may take time, but we should be glad to use all of the time necessary to reach the desired outcome. -- Ernest Holmes Inspired by the book Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler, Dr. Patrick speaks about the power of abundance. Abundance is our future. We will invent, innovate, and create ways to solve challenges that loom over us. Our news sources, unfortunately, sell us primarily negative stories. We often fall into their trap of negativity. But we have the ability to knock down our problems. In fact, we are living in the most peaceful time ever in human history. Abundance is not about creating a world of luxury---it is about creating a world of possibility. We can take that which is scarce and make it abundant. We must increase our ability to express our love for one another, openly and freely. We can learn to socially engage as clear ambassadors of unconditional love. And we need to adopt an abundance mindset. We must think, "All our needs are met. Tomorrow all our needs will be met also." We can give our money to causes, we can give our money to people, but we can also give our money to magic. This gets us in the flow. It activates the law of cause and effect and the abundance that It knows.

Abundance is not just about finances, but about the fullness of life. Jean Houston wrote, "We have no choice but to democratize greatness and utilize the whole continuum of human and Divine potential. The Science of Mind says this is not only possible, it is what is expected of us." Prosperity is the out-picturing of substance in our affairs. Everything in the Universe is for us. Nothing is against us. Life is ever-giving of itself. We must receive, utilize, and extend the gift. Success and prosperity are spiritual attributes belonging to all people, but not necessarily used by all people. -- Ernest Holmes The power of integrity is the practice of trusting ourselves. It expands our capacity to allow and to receive. Trusting ourselves is the only way to trust others. The power of alignment is the practice of connecting to our Source. Other people don't create our reality---they are not our Source. Seek to make diversity your friend. See life as a big buffet of many choices. Then we can become a more pure, more deliberate chooser of our thoughts. We determine our state of being. We have the ability to shift and sort and focus. It is both our right and our opportunity. A powerful antidote to despair is activity. What activities lift us out of despair? Bless all of humanity. Stand in the peace and the passion and work toward a better world. The fastest way to alignment with Spirit is through the heart. The power of choice is the practice of finding a way to be happy in the state before manifestation. We empower ourselves by appreciating something. The Infinite doesn't care about the words so much---it cares about the feeling-tone. The Universe does not hear our words, it feels our vibration. So why not learn to play in it? The gift of choice is twofold. First, we have the freewill to choose whatever we want to choose. Second, we have the choice to step into alignment with the Infinite. This second part helps us to "find a place to land" with our souls. In alignment, we can ask, "What is seeking to be revealed here?"

"A mind that has been stretched to a new idea will never go back to its old condition." -- Oliver Wendell Holmes In studying The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price, we realize the power of ideas as seeds in our lives. We must honour our ideas and then set a clear intention and a clear ask. We then move into living our true nature; we are only scratching the surface of what we are capable of. Alignment and resonance go hand in hand with abundance. It is not about forcing anything---it is about allowing.

When we are living from our heart, the tone of the room changes. Charles Holt, in sharing his story, speaks about the compelling pull of the hero's journey. We start life by acquiescing to others' wishes for us. But we seek to find our own life and to start living it. We begin finding the place where we can say, "I'm home!" The promise is given to us. The journey turns from inward to outward. The performance art transforms into a healing art. We learn we are here to be an inspiration, to be a healing tone for someone and for ourselves. What are we here to give? Something is calling us all, in our communities, to be greater, to have more courage, to step into that which we know nothing about. We have to step, to leap, because it's time to swim. What are we being called to now?

Prayer grounds us. It connects us to something larger than ourselves. Whatever we believe, our prayer should bring energy into our lives. The whole purpose of prayer is to open us up to a Divine Energy. Prayer connects us to faith. We find that prayer is essential to happiness. For righteous prayer sets the Law of Spirit in motion for our good. Prayer is essential to the conscious well-being of our souls. We welcome the Divine Mother into our lives through tenderness and respect. We look after our souls through sacred practice. We look after our minds through constant inspiration. We look after our hearts through deep shadow work. We look after our bodies through diet, exercise, and sufficient rest. Prayer will strengthen us, because prayer aligns us with the strength of God and certainty of the Divine Presence. Prayer creates patience. Prayer can be a channel of Divine Grace.

"Without constant Divine help, grace, illumination, and strength, no one can be a sacred activist." -- Andrew Harvey Both Andrew Harvey and our founder, Ernest Holmes, emphasize the importance of turning to the One---God, Source---before starting any sacred activism. Our true nature is perfect, but we must partner with God to remove our imperfect cloak of limiting ideas. Once we have had our transcendent experience, where we mirror the face of God back to God, it is our opportunity to become empty conduits of grace and power that can transform the world---to reflect the face of God into the world.

"Each time a person stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice, he or she sends out a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centres of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." -- Robert Kennedy We start to learn how to create those ripples by studying Andrew Harvey's book The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism. As with affirmative prayer, we must practice turning away from present conditions and learn to embody a calm, expectant manner. We must not fall into a stance of anger or we inadvertently create more of the situation we are trying to change. We can create hope and then change the world because the Divine is in us. "It is our very fear of the future that distorts the now that could lead to a different future if we dared to be whole in the present." -- Marion Woodman

Sometimes we have to look at a thing long enough to realize that it no longer has power over us. What we are praying for is already happening. Whatever we desire and hope for is already within us. To be accepting of it is to allow it to move through us. It is the nature of the Creative Power to take form, and it is the nature of man to use it. It is the use of our minds in a calm, expectant manner, with a deep inner conviction of its reality, without any fear or any sense that the human mind must make it effective. The work is effective because the Law is always operating. Our approach to affirmative prayer is not so much a technique as a way of being. It should bring about actual health, happiness, and abundance, which is our normal and divine inheritance. The trick is to turn entirely away from the condition, for as long as we look upon it, we cannot overcome it. By thinking upon a condition we tend to animate it with the life of our thought, and thereby it is perpetuated and magnified. We must bring a new awareness to it. This has come into our lives for a reason. We will plant a crop of happiness, health, and abundance. Spiritual mind treatment is the science of inducing within Mind concepts, acceptances, and realizations of peace, poise, power, plenty, health, happiness, and success.

How we long for that simple trust in life which children have. In their minds there are no doubts. They have not yet been told they are sinners, that they are destitute of divine guidance and spiritual life. The life of the child is lived in natural goodness, and God's nature is Natural Goodness. Always be inquisitive about life. Learn early that there is truly nothing to fear. Know that you are the individualized expression of the One God. Life is infinite energy coupled with limitless creative imagination. It is the invisible essence and substance of every visible form. Its nature is goodness, truth, wisdom, and beauty. Our highest satisfaction comes from a sense of conscious union with this Invisible Life. All human endeavour is an attempt to get back to First Principles, to find such an inward wholeness that all sense of fear, doubt, and uncertainty vanishes. There is One Mind that is available to each of us at all times. It only requires our cooperation, our invitation, and our awareness. We must return the way we came, as little children who know that life is good and to be trusted. -- Ernest Holmes

This experience of life is a gift to learn, to grow, and to evolve. In this realm of cause and effect, we are gifted with the opportunity to bring the unseen from the fourth dimension into form, to dance with the Divine, to partner with God. This gives us the choice to come to the Divine dressed for dancing in faith. In life, we have one big fear---that God will not answer our prayers. In grasping the vision, there are certain energies that we are directing. Letting go and clearing the past is important for moving forward. At the intellectual level, the heart is not opened yet. When we begin to open to the presence of God, we are connecting to something bigger than our finite humanness. There will never be an end to truth, love, or beauty. So we begin to look for possibility. We lean into our feelings, and partner with the Divine. All feeling---really felt---leads to the experience of God. We can experience the leap into the Deep, the Universal Oneness of God, of all of life. We begin to contemplate the consciousness of those that are not afraid that their prayers will be answered. All is ours, and we are welcome.

There are three major influences on our brains: adversity, meditation, and the mind. In our brains, all information gathers in the hippocampus. New skills and learning generate here. Old ideas come into competition with the new ideas being formed. In the magic of meditation, the brain starts to be able to focus more. Further, the mind is the brain's master. We direct the brain with our own minds. The conscious mind can direct and plant seeds in the subconscious mind. The journey is heading in one direction---and that's home. The mind is everything. What we think we become. -- The Buddha

In an atypical talk about "recovery", special guest Ester Nicholson speaks about recovering that "real something" about us that may have gotten buried deep beneath the dust and grit of a challenging life journey. That something which is infinite, which is whole, which is complete, which is amazing. Recovery is about rediscovering our core essence, remembering that we are one with God, and then walking this world with a sexy swagger. Begin with the affirmation: "I don't know crap!" Then we must decide to turn our life over to God. It is time to become homesick for our real self!

We are experts at wrong. The internal feeling of being right is not foolproof. Often, when we're feeling sure of ourselves, we're actually wrong. So the feeling of being wrong is what it feels like when we're feeling right. Wrong is central to lifelong learning. Being wrong doesn't make us wrong---New technology, new ideas, and new insights come from being wrong. Wrong is bad when you think you're wrong. It's only bad if you think it's bad. To accept our own fallibility is to entertain the possibility of another having a better idea that we can use.

Why do we assume that life is going to be difficult? Expect things to be easy. If we choose magic, we will approach every goal with the belief that its accomplishment will be effortless. There is magic to be found in every situation. There is a blessing in everything. Our soul is creating the very situation that we are resisting in order that some greater freedom and joy can evolve from it. Look for the magic in every experience. This allows the fear to dissolve. When we realize that whatever is happening right now is the perfect thing to be happening right now, then we are aligned with the field of potential, which means that the power of the Universe is available to us at this moment. Any resistance is us throwing our power out away from us.

We are all in relationship with the Infinite. But when we enter into relationship with the Infinite consciously, we are then not as in charge of our own lives anymore. The three days that Jonah spends in the belly of the whale represents the darkness and the mystery that our own lives plunge into sometimes. This tension between spirit and self exists, and it can grow so great as to cause us to abandon the spiritual path. But we can live in the tension, in the paradox. We can allow the tension to occupy the central place in our lives. As such, the choices we thought we had to make become part of a larger truth---larger than we ever imagined.

Happiness expert Elizabeth Manuel talks on the awesome nature of God. Why talk about happiness? We all have a happiness set point. It starts at birth and is evident in infancy. Fifty percent of how we feel can be lifted through our prayer and practices. This is the rewiring of our brains. Nature is another key to happiness. We feel nurtured and safe in Nature. The ocean is healing. The sky is inspiring. The mountains are grounding, as are the trees.

It is not only moving that creates new starting points---Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective. -- Kristin Armstrong Our perspectives are like a prism through which we filter the relationships and experiences of our lives. Be grateful for everything that comes your way. Know that things don't happen to us, they just happen. Wait to worry. Live your truth. Laugh often. Embrace change and be prepared for discomfort. Happiness is a choice we make ahead of time. Touch your dreams. It's already there. Take time to smell the roses.

Between 600 and 500 B.C., the prophet Isaiah wrote, "The wolf and the lamb shall lie down together..." The lion and the lamb... We all have an inner lion and inner lamb. We cannot operate from one or the other all the time. True spiritual living is making a place for both the lion and the lamb to reside. The lamb is vulnerability, kindness, nurturing, but too much can put us into victimhood. The lion is the driven, hard-working side. The lamb reminds us that it is okay to ask for affection, to ask for love. But we need the lion to get things done. We seek to live in freedom, the lion and the lamb. We seek to live consciously. We are preparing to face the "Big One". "Yesterday is forever past. We cannot relive it. No matter how much we may regret yesterday, it is impossible to live it over again, but too often in our imagination we do live it over and over again." -- Ernest Holmes This is the power of the imagination. We remember the past and the kinesthetic feeling gets triggered in us. Art Buchwald wrote, "We seem to be going through a period of nostalgia where everyone thinks yesterday was better than today. I don't think it was! And I would advise you not to wait ten years to admit that today was great. Pretend today was yesterday and just go out and have one hell of a time."

There is an integrity to your soul, such as you will find nowhere else in the universe. -- Ernest Holmes There are two ways to tell our story: we can tell our story with anxiety and fear, or we can tell our story in the recognition that every decision we make takes us here to where we are now. We must face the challenge. What matters most is how we see ourselves. "Freedom is acting from the truth of our nature." -- Rudolf Steiner We must keep returning to the road of freedom. We are free when we are in alignment with our true nature. Faith is standing in what we believe.

The world is beginning to realize that it has learned all it can through suffering and pain. -- Ernest Holmes Today's talk revolves around the series of Norman Rockwell paintings known as "The Four Freedoms", which was inspired by the State of the Union address made by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941. The four freedoms are: Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship Freedom from Want Freedom from Fear Ignorance and fear surround us. If we feel trampled on, then we ought to love harder. We are here to love bigger. Let us start with ourselves.

Freedom is part of who we are. Why do we know freedom is for us? We all have self-imposed limitations, however, when there are limitations there is opportunity. "Find your own light." -- Buddha "You are the light of the world." -- Jesus The opportunity is ours to learn and to know in this moment so that we can move through the next threshold of beingness.

What story are we keeping alive about worry and doubt? Expansion requires limitation. We are moved by the Divine Discontent. There is something more to know and to do, something greater yet to be revealed and to be experienced. And it asks what we must become to give birth to that something greater. Ernest Holmes said, "Mind is consciousness which has put on limitation." We court the Presence and apply the Principle. We all need practice, and spiritual practice reminds us and wakes us up. We never notice the beauty because we're too busy trying to create it. It has been said, if we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. We can do this through the power of reverence. Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours. -- Richard Bach Argue for your possibilities and sure enough they're yours. -- Richard Bach

Lack is about not having or not being enough. Lack represents a separation from the Source of Life. Behind the phenomenon of the human condition, there is One Mind common to all people, that Mind is perfect, and we all have access to that One Mind. It is better to grow our income than to cut our expenses. It is better to grow our spirit than to cut our dreams.

A vacation is what we take when we can no longer take what we've been taking. We are here to live a life free from fear. There's nothing to fear. Fear cripples us. In fact, fear is the most boring thing about us. Listen to others less. Be yourself more. Fear less. Live more. Dwell less. Create more.

Discord or disharmony can ruin our experience of joy, happiness, and fulfillment. But it also can ruin our productivity. We find that the better we feel, the better we do. To feel good, is really to feel God. When we feel good, grounded, happy, and connected to people, we tend to feel more spiritual and connected to everything. When we feel heard, listened to, and validated, then everything relaxes. So always seek to validate the other person.

We are created in substance, formed by substance, and unceasingly supported by substance. There is an all-ness in every illness and an all-sufficiency with every experience of lack to fully express, to fully expand, to allow the opulent universe to fill our heart. No greater good can come to us than to know that the power within us is the power to live, to strive, and the power to create. -- Ernest Holmes Aligning. When the soul wishes to experience something, she throws an image of the experience before her and enters into her own image. -- Meister Eckhart An abundance mentality springs from internal security, not from external rankings, comparisons, opinions, possessions, or associations. -- Stephen Covey It is Self-assured knowing. Relaxed being.

In this week's talk, Dr. Patrick speaks about the willingness to expand, greatness, and moving from the impossible to the possible. Are we willing to expand? As the Universe brings us choices and experiences, it is a call to expand in our skills, compassion, and awareness. We were born to win. But to be a winner, we must plan to win, prepare to win, and expect to win! -- Zig Ziglar We may minimize fear, limitation, self-loathing, and hatred, and then let love abound. Greatness is for us. Each one of us can find greatness.

It's all about thinking, feeling, and acting. Are we bringing in what we long to experience or are we repelling it? Money traces us according to how we are feeling. Debt leads to more debt. It is spinning in our patterns of thinking. Not enough. Hard to get. Suffering. An image of ourselves as not enough leads to an experience in our lives as "not enough", in particular with money and finances. In other words, the Universe says "yes" to our sense of worthiness. "Whatever you feel and spiritually comprehend you may objectively experience. For the God within is not limited by any one experience. It is the creator of all experiences. When you feel something deeply, the Universe accelerates it. What causes prosperity---abundance---is your feeling about life. Whatever God you believe in---provided you believe this God is already within you---must respond to you at the level of your belief." -- Ernest Holmes Watch the thought and its ways with care, born out of love for all beings.

Our hearts long for the sacred. Mother's Day is about giving birth. What are we giving birth to this day? Cicero taught the six habits of thinking that keep us prisoners of ever-shrinking living. We get attached to our stories and it creates the life we have. The first illusion is that personal gain is made up of crushing others, which arises out of a fear of scarcity and death. But what is unlimited is compassion, worth, and acceptance. The second illusion is the tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected. This reflects a lack of faith in the stream of life and leads to a negative self-centredness. Meditation and prayer is a hammock that can hold us in the present moment. In his essay "Prayer and Prosper", Ernest Holmes wrote the following about prayer. "Not much speaking but deep feeling. It is not because of much speaking that we are heard, but rather because of deep earnest and prayerful acceptance. In this divine communion, we should not try to think out beforehand what words we are going to use. No, our words should be the outcome of a deep inner conviction which goes beyond words but which, at the same time, gives birth to them. Instead of listening to what we are saying we should say what we are listening to."

God is not interested in what we believe. God does not require our belief---God is interested in what we experience. Religion is the sign post to God. Religion is the path, but not the main point. Stepping into the flow requires our consent. Connected is an organizational principle of the universe. So we already belong in the sacred circle. The only thing keeping us out is our own self.

This week, guest speaker Dr. Pat Campbell talks on Thriving Through Metamorphosis. Organizations such as ours commonly have vision and mission statements. To have a personal vision statement is to have a mental equivalent of how we want our life to look and how we want our life to work. To grow. This is the simple vision and mission of the entire Universe. The Universe's vision and mission is to grow. So for us, Nature will not let us stay in one place too long. Nature demands the change in order that we may advance.