wPractical Truth
Let's take a practical look at some ancient truths and some contemporary discoveries and examine the relationships. This is my CyberSpace Ministry. You are welcome to pause, consider, grow, and give thanks.


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wSunday, February 01, 2004


“LETTER FROM THE EDGE”

Dear friends,

I have a confession to make. I have not been devoting the amount of time and effort that I feel is necessary to my presence in CyberSpace. There’s not a real excuse. It’s just that time and circumstances somehow take their toll in turning our heads away from that which we would prefer to have as the focus of our lives and our actions. As I stated at the outset of my Internet presence a half dozen years ago, I see the web as a marvelous way of connecting with untold numbers of fellow beings worldwide and to share in perspectives which could alter individual consciousness, and, in turn, the consciousness of the entire planet. So once again I am redoubling my commitment to continuing with that action.

I formally became a minister seven and a half years ago because I had been ministering to people in various ways all of my life and it was time that I laid claim to the title. I started out entertaining people as a small child because my father was a freelance entertainer. So I sang on radio and television and in stage shows. My goal as a child was to “be a star of stage, screen, radio and television.” I loved what music could do to brighten the lives of others, and because my father entertained in a lot of nightclubs I was aware of the pain that many people feel in their lives and the lengths that they will go to in an effort to ease that pain, if only for a little while. My father ministered to those needs through his music.

By my preteens, my mother was already moving into the process to make formal ministry her profession. My involvement in the church, in a connection that began when I was a wee bit of a lad, continued to play an increasing role in my life. By 14 I was involved in the church teen group known as Youth of Unity (Y.O.U.) and continued growing in my commitment to that involvement, resulting in my election as President of the International Y.O.U. and my moving to Unity School of Christianity at Unity Village, Missouri to work at age 19.

When the draft crept up on me the following year, I enlisted in the Navy for four years, although at the end of the third year I requested a discharge as a Conscientious Objector. The Navy officially declared me to be a CO and I completed my four-year enlistment in non-combatant duty. My release was followed by several months of depression over not knowing what to do with my life before I found an avenue out of my depressive morass through writing for what was, in those days, known as an underground newspaper called the “Razzberry Radicle.” I eventually became the publisher of the paper while still keeping occasionally, though frequently, active in the church by speaking, teaching, counseling, performing funerals, and doing various administrative and maintenance jobs.

Looking for more growth, I eventually moved out into the “real world” by getting a “job” at a division of General Motors, where I became involved in working with computers, a field that has been a pleasure for over a quarter of a century. Now, however, almost 30 years and countless “jobs” later (I quit counting after 50), I have tired of that endeavor. Actually, I tired of it a long time ago, but have had difficulty finding a way out of the financial aspects of what’s sometimes called the “rat race.”

Over the years I have developed a growing, evolving view of the social, financial, spiritual, and cultural reality that we human beings have created and, at times, I have been outspoken in my beliefs. This, I learned, did not bode well with some people. A few folks resented what I had to say, misinterpreting it to mean that I was looking for a “free ride.” But I assure you that there has been nothing free about this ride. Although I may pay in different terms than many others, the payments are, nevertheless, often severe. In fact, I’m in a sort of double jeopardy since I also still have to “pay,” like everyone else, the price of the so-called “normal” world out there.

All of this wealth of experience has created the foundation for the book that I am presently writing entitled, “Millennium Paradigm” (http://millenniumparadigm.blogspot.com/). And although the intentioned content of that book is quite vast in its ramifications, it should not be considered as representing “all that I am about.” Actually, “MP” is but another expression of my ministry, although more secular. I cannot escape the obvious reality that spiritual realization and scientific awareness are involved in an increasingly harmonious dance together that is rapidly sweeping us into a future of largely heretofore-unimagined possibilities.

I feel that what I have to share is often uniquely original and profound, and have had that belief reinforced by the response of others countless times over the past several decades. However, as time goes on, I find that I appear to have less and less time to do what I feel is more and more important. The work that I have done while working nights at UPS during the past year is often very grueling, though, as a result, I’m in better physical shape now than I have been in for a long time. However, it is taking a toll on my ability to find the time to complete what I feel to be more important tasks. I believe that if you take the time to listen to, or to read, what I have to share, you’ll agree that it, and its continued growth and unfoldment, are more than worthy of support.

A few years ago I began following the online exploits of Christopher Locke, AKA RageBoy (be careful if you decide to check out his blog for it sometimes contains nudity and content that some people find offensive; personally I just ignore what might be offensive. Chris refers regularly to sexuality in many different forms and expressions, and if you don’t think you can or want to deal with that, then do yourself a favor and Keep Out! You have been forewarned!). I was amazed when, periodically, Chris would become abusive toward his readers in his eletters and website articles and people would respond to him by sending him money. Apparently, at times, they would even send large sums of money. The guy is a self-proclaimed narcissist and substance juggler with an occasionally bent perspective (especially since he got dumped by his girlfriend a year or so ago), and he can generate more money on the web than I do spouting my sensible perspectives upon both outrageous and mundane topics. It just seems to me that something is wrong with that picture. I’m going to write more about the reasons for his reader response at a later date. But this is not the approach that I wish to take, though the reported results are tempting.

A year ago I wrote an eletter to the original 600 people on my email list (now over 1,000) expressing the need for more financial support for what I am doing in my ministry and other endeavors in CyberSpace. The total response left a lot to be desired. Some people might not like people "asking for money" and other forms of support on the Internet, but in the rest of our reality we are so inundated by people's attempts to get us to "buy" whatever it is that they are selling, tangible or otherwise, that we have become conditioned to respond only when asked, or otherwise cajoled, to do so. Therefore, let me help you look at this idea of giving support to Practical Truth Ministry in a number of different ways.

First, the religious way. Most of us grew up in an associated way with some sort of religious beliefs. Living here in the southern United States, I am constantly astounded at the huge edifices that have been erected in the name of religion. I hear that there’s even a church here in Atlanta that has a food court and another one that has an in-house mini-mall of stores and boutiques. Millions and millions of dollars are given every year in this city alone for the brick and mortar for temples to a God and to the man who represented that God in a ministry 2,000 years ago, and yet these temples are in direct contradiction to the teachings of the man from Galilee. Next to these huge religious buildings and the distorted message that many of them teach in the name of Jesus, what I ask financially seems such a pittance. And I’m teaching the true temple that is within, rather than a temple made of stone. Please understand: I’m not opposed to people coming together and pooling their resources to create a place for that coming together; I merely object to the fact that often the place becomes more important than the reason for the place.

Churches often organize their financial support through use of techniques and programs inducing fear, shame, and a manufactured sense of obligation. Marketing is key to their financial soundness as sure as it is to the other business ventures in our society. One need only view the marketing behind Mel Gibson’s latest film “The Passion of Christ” to see what I am talking about. I recently brought the importance of increased marketing to the attention of a group of fellow ministers and several of them acted offended that I should even suggest such a thing. For whatever reasons, marketing is not that desirable a means of soliciting support, even though it’s almost necessary in light of the conditioning that our society and culture has placed upon us. We all do our own bit of marketing every day. It’s just that the concept has left a bitter taste in the mouth due to the way than many in our society have distorted the process through product advertising.

Marketing is something that I have had to work at developing over the years. I would much prefer to just do what I do and rely upon those who are the recipients of my services to render financial support in response to these efforts, but that doesn’t work very well. If you doubt that, just look in your checkbook and see when the last time is that you wrote a check to help support this work.

Several years ago my wife and I attended a seminar here in town where we participated in something called “The Money Game.” Each attendee was given a sum of play money and then we were to “sell” products and services that we could actually provide in real life to the other players. The game went on for hours, with all kinds of changes in the rules and I’ll write more about that at some other time. My point, my aha, here is that early on in the game I stepped outside the box by giving all of my money to my “business partner” in the game. During the last 15 minutes of play, however, I began going around to the other players and hitting them up for a “tithe.” I was amazed how easy it was to get money that way; how conditioned people were to give to the calling of the “church”. Given another 15 minutes I might well have “won” the game (the winner of “The Money Game” was, obviously, the one with the most money). People were so conditioned to believing that they had to give to “the church” that I, as an ordained representative of “church,” was easily able to generate large amounts of money very quickly by tapping into that conditioning.

So now I’m appealing to you. In Unity I learned that we should give to the source(s) of our good, spiritual and otherwise. If you are enlightened, encouraged, challenged, or inspired by what I have to share, please help to complete the circle of the flow of universal energy by lending your support to Practical Truth Ministries. A check to “Rev. Charles DeTurk” or an offering through Paypal to revdeturk@earthlink.net will be appreciated.

Second, the addictive way. Addiction is doing the same thing over and over again without a sense of control over the action. This is not to imply that our “sense” is totally responsible for our addictive behavior. Having previously been a smoker for a quarter of a century, I personally understand the physical origins and aspects of addiction. However, by definition, addiction goes beyond just the habitual use of various substances to include habitual actions themselves. If memory serves me well, I once wrote an article for the “Razzberry Radicle” entitled “An Addict In The Promised Land.” Well, anyway, because we’re all “creatures of habit” we can stretch that out to imply that we are all, therefore, in one respect or another, addicts. So we could be shoppers or gamblers or compulsive eaters or any variety of habitual consumers, but the bottom line is that we all have our “addictions” and quite often those addictions encompass the use of money.

So, if our appeal to your “religious” conditioning didn’t inspire you, then try this approach. The chief requirement for breaking the addictive cycle is to change the pattern. We can do that the hard way by trying to change the “actions” of addiction, but that’s like fighting our way upstream on a fast moving river. We have pointed out before that the universe flows from being to doing to having. So if we go along with the “flow of the universe,” then we begin with changing who we are. We begin by changing our attitudes, our perspectives, our beliefs, our expectations, and our sense of who we are. And that’s what I am here for, to help facilitate that change in people all over the world through sharing new ideas and perspectives. See, habit and addiction are thinking and feeling and doing the same thing over and over. But that cycle can be broken if we think, feel, or do something different. That’s the beginning. And it’s really that simple. Each day we start over by thinking, feeling, and doing something outside of the habitual cycle.

One of the things that we can “do” to begin cracking the addictive cycles is to redirect some of the money that's involved in supporting the addictive cycle. Instead of buying that next pack of cigarettes, or that next drink, or that next dish of ice cream, or that pair of shoes, or that extra lottery ticket (you only need one to win, not 10), or whatever gobbles up your bucks, take that money and send it to us to encourage us to continue encouraging you and others to bring about the changes we all desire in our lives. You can do it right now. Send that check (made out to Rev. Charles DeTurk) right now or go to Paypal and send money to revdeturk@earthlink.net right now. The sooner you do, the less money you’ll have to feed the addictive cycle.

Third, the guilt way. Although guilt is often a powerful part of the addictive process and is often instilled through religious conditioning, it also deserves a niche of its own. We all feel some guilt about something; some sense that we have not done as much as we could have, a feeling that we haven’t measured up, often to someone else’s expectations. With that sense of guilt we find ourselves looking for ways to “pay back” what we feel we owe that is the source of our feelings of guilt. So, if you’re into buying your way out of some of your feelings of guilt, send some money our way, let us know that it’s to assuage some of your guilt and we’ll respond with a personal email in which we’ll help to relieve some of those feelings of guilt. So, get a sense of relief from your burden of not feeling “good enough” by doing a good deed that will help to bless countless people all over the world. Send that check (made out to Rev. Charles DeTurk) today or go to Paypal and send money to revdeturk@earthlink.net .

Fourth, the commitment way. We are fully cognizant that the society in which we live in this new millennium is one in which millions and millions of people are so strapped financially that they are just doing whatever they can to make ends meet, to merely keep their heads above water. Although when we are conducting a yard sale we relish taking a person’s last penny, this is no yard sale that we are doing here. If you just can see no way that you can help to financially support us in your current situation, there are still a couple of things that you can do. One is to make a commitment to do something when you can at some future time. It’s amazing how merely openly committing to something can help to plant the seed to bringing it to fruition. Send us an email to practicaltruth@yahoo.com and commit to lending support in the future. Be specific about what you intend to do. While you are at it, let us know what you like about what we are doing. You can even offer criticism if that is your thing, though if it is not constructive criticism, realize that we have a “delete” key and we will use it without a second thought. We really don’t have time to waste with people who merely wish to criticize (sometime we’ll do a more detailed posting on that topic). If that’s your thing, so be it; but it does nothing for us, so we refuse to waste our time by even responding. There are people whom I have seen out there on the net who declare their “right” to say whatever they choose, whenever they choose, and wherever they choose. We, in turn, declare our right to ignore them.

A fifth way is networking. One of the tremendously incredible powers of the Internet is how it allows us to rapidly create networks with people all over this spaceship called Earth. We contribute to that through our weblog Welcome To Web World and through our website Surf City containing thousands of links to places all over the Net. We also do it by keeping an eye open for email addresses of people who might be interested in what we are doing here in CyberSpace. You can assist us in that endeavor. Turn your friends and acquaintances on to what we are doing. Share our website and weblog addresses and email addresses with them freely. To get an up-to-date listing of our URL addresses, go to our 2/1/4 entry at our “Still after all these years …..” weblog. Either direct them to it or cut and paste it into your email. Hey, come on folks; let’s get excited out there. We’ve got plenty of stuff out there to keep people real busy until we do our next postings.

A sixth way is the six degrees concept. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the “six degrees of separation.” If this is new to you, the basic idea is that everyone knows someone who knows someone, etc. so that we’re all just six “know someones” away from everyone else in the world. There are just six levels, or relationships, or connections, or degrees of separation between each of us and anyone else anywhere on the entire planet. Think about it. Who all do you know? And who all do they know? How often do things happen in our lives because of who we know or who who we know knows (that was a mouthful; say it fast six times).

We have many people that we would love to have on our email list. Here are a few of them:

Peter Allen
Bono
Kevin Costner
Delai Lama
Bob Dylan
Jane Fonda
Steve Forbes
Bill Gates
Melinda Gates
Bob Geldof
William Gibson
Elton John
Gladys Knight
Nelson Mandella
Willie Nelson
Paul Newman
Jack Nicholson
Robert Redford
Carlos Santana
George Soros
Bruce Sterling
Sting
Barbra Streisand
Elizabeth Taylor
John Templeton
Ted Turner
Dionne Warwick
Oprah Winfrey
Stevie Wonder
Neil Young
to name a few.

Come on folks; help put out the word. Share what you know with others. Tell them about us. Don’t prejudge whether or not they’ll be interested. You don’t really know how a single one of those friends and acquaintances of yours will respond to what we’re doing. Some of them will surprise you. But they can only surprise you if given the chance.

A seventh way to lend support is through donating items other than cash. Specifically for those in the northern Georgia (USA) area, we are looking for a set of reliable wheels and the reasonable financing to accompany it. We are looking for a truck or van for $1,000 or less to allow us to pick up items from friends periodically and sell them in a yard sale. We’re also interested in an automobile with payments @ $200/mo or less. Because we supplement what we are doing with occasional yard sales, we also accept furniture and other donated items that we can turn around and sell of often needy folks at a steal of a deal.

An eighth way for those in the greater Atlanta area to lend support would be through part-time work, preferably in the morning. I have been promoted to part-time supervisor at UPS and have shifted my hours to 4-9 pm. I’ve done painting, yard work, computer consulting (I’m very good at introducing people to the internet and how to more easily access this incredible tool), administrative support, and much more. Call and present your offer. I’m open and I’m honest. If I don’t believe that I could or should do it, I’ll tell you. Just keep in mind that I’m interested in working to make money, not to donate my time for token cash. I already do enough of that through these web endeavors.

A ninth way of supporting this ministry is by referring us to your family or friends for services. We do beautiful weddings, funerals, unions, and other ceremonies. Just have them call us at 700-432-8791 or drop us an email at revdeturk@yahoo.com and we’ll be glad to work with them.

And, finally, a tenth way to render support for this ministry is to help book us to speak to your church or group. I do Sunday Worship Services, Workshops, and Classes. Financially our terms are expenses and your usual compensation. Again, drop us an email. CyberSpace is nice but we love the one-on-one, also. If you wonder about what I teach, just check out the Practical Truth blog or our new Sunday Morning Talk blog.

Bucky Fuller once told me that every event has a minimum of six viewpoints. Here, I’ve presented 10 viewpoints on how to lend support for this ministry. In reality there are a minimum of 12 viewpoints, or perspectives, for the six Bucky mentioned are just the physical. However those six are mirrored by an additional 6 metaphysical viewpoints. So we’ve left things open here with a few perspectives that you can discover for yourself, if you choose. I can think of a couple immediately to round out the minimum 12, but I’ll keep those to myself and leave the challenge with you.

A final note here: we are also looking long-term for some big, heavy hitter, contributors. We have a project that we would like to initiate that will require about $55 million. I know that figure will cause some of you to gasp out there. But hang in there with us. We learned how to change our own expectations and perspectives and we can help you and others to do the same. In fact, that’s one of the things that this “Millennium Paradigm Project” is about. So, spread the word. Do it now. Do it today. Do it while it’s fresh. Do it while you can. Do it again and again.

Whatever you think, say, or do, you have our sincerest blessings, for we behold that God-created and ordained perfection that is your potential, your direction, and your ultimate destination. Now go out and share hugs and smiles with your fellow beings. This life that we are living is truly marvelous and wonderful if we will just open our eyes, minds, and hearts and let the universe flow through our consciousness.

I love you all and am grateful for whatever you can do to help support this ministry.

--Rev. Charles

posted by Charles DeTurk at 12:01 AM


wThursday, January 01, 2004


HOW TO FIND ME ON THE WEB

Here’s a rundown on my presence on the web (CAPS are important with AOL):

WEBLOGS:

Practical Truth: http://practicaltruth.blogspot.com/
This, of course, is my ministry. The notes for a series of classes that I taught entitled, “What We Believe That Makes Us Different” are here.

Still … After All These Years: http://zmajordomo.blogspot.com/
Here we have MajorDomo’s latest inputs on Metaphysics and Quantum Physics and whatever else is of interest to me.

Welcome To Web World: http://welcomewebworld.blogspot.com/
This is an extension of Surf City in that I highlight, with personal comments, various other sites of interest on the Net.

Millennium Paradigm: http://millenniumparadigm.blogspot.com/

This is the ongoing text of one of 3 books that I’m currently involved in writing. Of the three, this is the one that is most challenging, and the one, therefore, that I’m most excited about. I’m posting the content to this weblog as I create it.

Explorations In The Dynamics Of Consciousness: http://expdyncon.blogspot.com/

Fifteen years ago I began putting together a 24-hour seminar entitled “Explorations In The Dynamics Of Consciousness.” The original intention was that this would be a combination seminar and performance. This is that beginning.

What I Want To Know Is …..: http://whatiwanttoknowis.blogspot.com/

With thanks, apologies and baskets of kudus to Max Headroom and Edison Carter, this is where we share some of the things that we are curious about.

Sunday Morning Talk: http://sundaymorningtalk.blogspot.com/

This is a continuation of my previous weekly eletters where I shared a weekly 20-30 minute talk. This time, however, it will be posted on the Net rather than sent as an email. That places the responsibility for reading it on the reader and cuts out a tremendous amount of email

Various email addresses are found throughout these sites, though the primo ways to reach me are at: charlesdeturk@yahoo.com or revdeturk@yahoo.com (Note: I only check AOL, Earthlink, & Hotmail about once every 2 to 4 weeks).

posted by Charles DeTurk at 12:00 AM


wThursday, February 06, 2003


Dear friends -

I began writing these thoughts while out of town in Detroit at the first of the year. I know you haven't heard from me for a while. There are a number of reasons for that, and they can all be found in a file labeled "Life." I've been working, on and off, at finding the structure and processes that feel right for resuming our regular communication on a new and more sustainable and practical mode for sharing ideas. Now, as often happens, circumstances evolve their own priorities and planning is superceded by the action of the universe. That's a highfalutin' way of saying that I got a good self-butt kicking, so here I am again.

I'm also writing today to solicit financial support for what we are doing at Practical Truth Ministry. If that bothers you, we apologize, but it is a fact of our current human experience that most people have to be prompted to share what they have with others. We appear to be brought up in an advertising culture in which people are conditioned to act only when prompted, solicited, cajoled, enticed, or otherwise encouraged to participate. When one thinks about it, the fact that many charlatans and false prophets can generate millions of dollars in support of their spiritually bankrupt endeavors through extensive advertising and television broadcasts, while what we are doing here receives a trickle of financial support, is puzzling, to say the least. One of the basic differences between some of those who receive $millions and us is that we don't invest as much time and money in hammering people to give. We would like to think that it is not necessary to do that. We would like to think that people consciously just give regularly out of the goodness of their own hearts. Unfortunately, experience indicates that our thinking is out of touch with the reality of far too many people (we'll be talking about the reasons for that in the near future on the Web). So Please Stop Now And Seriously Consider How You Can Help To Financially Support This Ministry.

Some time ago I discovered Weblogs. For the uninitiated, these are essentially websites, or web addresses, where one can do a sort of online journaling. And that's what many hundreds of thousands of people all over the world use the concept for. An additional number of people, however, go beyond just journaling thoughts about their personal lives, instead creating commentary upon every topic one can possibly imagine, and designing ways, both textual and graphic, for expressing themselves in the realm of cyberspace. For many, this is a very regular process.

I quickly realized that I could convert our cyber expressions from the near 5,000 word eLetters which I used to post weekly, to regular journaling, and use email merely to periodically bring you up to date upon the latest highlights of my weblogging and where to find the output. This "great idea" didn't manifest immediately because the "fortunes of the business world," and the vagaries of life in general, once again intervened to temp me into not finding and applying the time necessary to underwrite this weblogging effort. I'm certain that many, if not all, of you can relate to the way we get sidetracked from what we desire to do. I remember Bucky Fuller telling me that once one no longer had to "work for a living, to work in order to justify one's existence," that they find themselves one day asking themselves the question, "what was I thinking about before I got interrupted." I have had exactly that experience upon more than one occasion. And it is those experiences that help us to get back on track with what we really want to do, and therefore what we should be doing with our lives.

Anyway, I've been legally unemployed for almost two and a half years now. To meet financial obligations, I have done a plethora of things to create a steady flow of financial income in order to "keep afloat." That's why I was in Detroit the first of the year, generating additional income by driving one of two 27' trucks and helping someone to move. And that's also why I began this past month as a part time Revenue Auditor on the midnight shift at UPS. Part of the price of "odd jobs" has been the amount of time such ventures have consumed and the difficulty that it creates for finding the sufficient, consistent time to "do what I really want to do, which is to share ideas and turn people on to possibilities, and thereby perhaps influence beneficial changes in people's lives, and through them (you), to positively influence the rest of the world." Now, with the end of the holiday season, I was suddenly notified, while in Detroit, that both my wife and I had been terminated from work that we had been doing for the past couple of years: she working full time, and me working part time. So, financially, we were once again standing upon the proverbial precipice which waits patiently just ahead of everyone's best laid plans.

My friend, John Crockford, recently forwarded a quote from Bucky Fuller stating that "the universe always provides," but with an additional "always" of "just in the nick of time." It's the "nick of time" that I am tiring of. The "nick of time" is totally incompatible with our current "economic system." But it's what we have to deal with.

Well, I'm taking all of this as another wakeup call. My dear friends, I need some cash and I need it now. If you have found benefit from the ideas and concepts that I have shared in the past, some financial remuneration would go a long way toward contributing to the continuation and expansion of those ideas and their proliferation throughout the world. If everyone on this list gave just $10 a month, I would not be working for someone else, but would, instead, be devoting my full time to expanding this ministry and what we have to share. Just $10 a week and we would be touching thousands of lives regularly instead of hundreds of lives occasionally.

I'm doing my part on this end, honestly seeking and accepting whatever work I can find while working on expanding my world of possibilities by initiating new ventures. And I regularly (daily) practice what I teach, which is why my attitude and expectations are still very positive and the universe continues to manifest in our lives here in miraculous ways, "just in the nick of time." But I throw a reminder in here by quoting Paul in his 1st letter to the Corinthians when he said (9:11), "Now if we have sown among you spiritual things, is it too much that we should reap material things from you?" Seems that this situational relationship has existed from the beginning.

Now, a look at what I offer on the net, just to bring you all up to date. My original websites are still on AOL. They haven't been touched in a couple of years because I maxed out the storage allotment (5 MB), but they are still very relevant. Please NOTE if you type the addresss that with AOL, upper case characters are apparently important in the URL address. In other words, if you have to type in the address yourself, be sure to pay attention to the capital letters (i.e. "SurfCity" rather than "surfcity"). To access a website, highlight the whole address (http://?.) by clicking and holding the left button on the mouse while identifying all of the text you wish to highlight, copy it (you can use the "Edit" dropdown menu in the top left corner of the screen or hold the "Ctrl" key down while pressing "C") and then paste it into your browser's address location bar on the upper part of the browser screen (again use either the Edit dropdown menu in the top left corner of the screen or hold the "Ctrl" key down while pressing "V") and then press "Enter" (be sure to first delete any "address" that may already be in the address location bar). I point out the foregoing because it has been my experience that many people who use the Internet for email nevertheless have little clue about where to go from there. And I don't know about you, but I've never liked having to admit to others that I have no idea what it is that I'm doing (personally, it doesn't keep me from admitting it, but I still find it uncomfortable at times). If you're already Net savvy, don't let the foregoing details bother you. The Net's there for everyone, old and new.

Our master website can be found at http://members.aol.com/ZTANSTAAFL . That site is known as TANSTAAFL City, CyberSpace, and it is a focal point for entering several different parts of our web sites, each part of which, incidentally, is directly accessible, as I'll explain. There are presently five components to TANSTAAFL City. The first is information about TANSTAAFL City itself. This is where you will find the story of why we decided to get involved in the Internet. There's also some background information about me, along with a resume. You might want to start by checking out "Current Highlights" and "What's New in TANSTAAFL City." Although what's new is old, it'll be new for most of you.

The second area in TANSTAAFL City is Practical Truth Ministry, accessed directly at http://members.aol.com/RevDeTurk . This is my ministry taken to the World Wide Web. As an ordained Unity Minister, I am using the Practical Truth Ministry site to make available that which I teach. I've always believed that the heart of a ministry is in sharing and practicing practical truth principles rather than in erecting large buildings with huge budgets and lots of politics. (For those who do buildings, I admire you and am grateful to you for your interest and expertise, for it provides locations in which people like me can teach; and we, in turn, can thereby help to draw new people to the ongoing work that you do.) Being nondenominational we can share these principles with anyone, anywhere, and they can then practice the principles that work for them wherever they choose to be, whether in another church or anywhere else in God's kingdom here on earth. A look at the "Sunday Services" area of Practical Truth Ministry will reveal new and helpful approaches to the truths that underlie our existence. There is also a section on tapes of various talks and classes we have presented in the past.

The next location in TANSTAAFL City is Major Domo's World, accessible directly through http://members.aol.com/ZMajorDomo . This is a very exciting part of our web site, for it is where the more secular Major Domo part of our consciousness is sharing new ideas, new concepts, and new perspectives that many people have never considered before. This is cutting edge. Be certain to check out "New Perspectives" while visiting Major Domo's World. It is guaranteed to excite or incite many of you out there. The world is changing dramatically at an increasing pace and Major Domo has his finger on the pulse of those changes and is very adept at explaining them.

Next is a site that is still being developed and is tentatively called "Beading Adventures". Directly accessible at http://members.aol.com/SherriSite , Beading Adventures is a site for my wife to do her thing. She designs exquisite beaded jewelry and has become quite knowledgeable in the world of decorative adornments. As we find time and more storage, this site will begin to take shape and develop its own slant.

Finally, there is a site called "Surf City". This is where we have provided links to other websites on the Net that we find pertinent. You can access it at http://members.aol.com/ZTANSTAAFL/SurfCity.html . Surf City contains over 7,000 links to websites that we think are interesting. Check out the site map. AOL and Yahoo and others have their own lists of what they feel are pertinent links. We've done the same, but hopefully from a different slant that will make Surf City a must for bookmarking (favorites). As time and space allow, this site will see more additions of new, efficient, quality links. We literally have thousands of new links that we have compiled over the years. Many of these links are literally quite astounding. I'd give you some examples here but once I got started it would be hard to stop.

So much for the work that we did in the past. Now let's get more current. Last year we created several weblogs, otherwise known as "blogs." For those interested in getting involved in blogging themselves, we recommend going to Blogger.com at http://www.blogger.com . Just be careful; blogging has been known to be somewhat addicting. That's not necessarily bad; it just means that one can develop an habitual interest in it. But that's just a part of our human nature. We all have habits that we've developed. Habits, in and of themselves, are not good or bad. The key word to always remember is "moderation."

Our first weblog is Practical Truth, located at http://practicaltruth.blogspot.com . On August 26, 2002, we logged the text for our series of classes that we teach entitled, "What We Believe That Makes Us Different." These are an update of the text which we had posted at our AOL RevDeTurk website under Sunday Services. In the future, we will be posting thoughts relevant to our ministry on this site. Of course, these will regularly share insight into better understanding the Bible by considering translations directly from Aramaic into English with an emphasis upon understanding ancient Aramaic culture, customs, and idioms. Our latest blog is the text for a basic introductory talk that we give entitled "The Quantum Physics of Spirituality."

Our second weblog is "Still . . . . . after all these years." You will find this located at http://zmajordomo.blogspot.com . On August 18, 2002, we posted our article, "In A Little Grain Of Sand," from our AOL ZMajorDomo website. In the future, this blog will be a continuation of what we had begun with "New Perspectives" before we ran out of space at AOL. This is where we will be examining the latest in scientific discoveries, free energy, quantum physics, the technological singularity, UFO's, the new economics, and much more. We will soon be posting an updated version of our paper, "Money And You." It will appear under the new title, "In God We Trust: The Truth Behind Money And You."

Finally, our third weblog is "Welcome To World Of The Web," which is located at http://welcomewebworld.blogspot.com . This is a continuation of sorts of what we were doing at Surf City. Here, however, we will be turning you on to Net Links, one-at-a-time with some explanatory commentary. In other words, instead of merely saying, "check out this link," we'll share the link with you in the way that we would if we were talking with you face to face. Just as a teaser, the next few links we will be blogging will have to do with the Global Consciousness Project, the entire California coastline in high quality photographs, and an audio and text transcription of a 42-hour seminar videotaped by R. Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller in 1975 entitled, "Everything I Know."

We are already aware that these three weblogs are going to occasionally bleed over onto one another, and that just means that you'll have to check them all regularly to keep up with what we're sharing. Our part of the bargain is to keep them updated regularly. Now, we hope that you'll excuse us if we sound a bit self-promoting, but if you read all of the information that we have mentioned above, we guarantee that you will discover ideas and perceptions that you've never known or considered before. We believe that we were all created for the purpose of growing in our knowledge and awareness, and so we attempt to stay out there on the cutting edge, hanging ten, and sharing what we find with you.

At last count we had over 600 people on this mailing list. That will probably change soon. We plan on moving our emailing efforts to a listserv, in which case everyone on the list will have to reply with a response agreeing to remain on the list. We are already aware that a large percentage of you will not do this, if for no other reason than that you just never get around to doing things like that (check out the end of our blog on "Quantum Physics and Spirituality"). We didn't want to make this change, however, until we had our weblogging in gear and had notified "all" of you of such. Now that that is done, we can continue with moving the list.

It is our intention that our emailing in the future will be roughly a monthly affair, bringing you briefly up-to-date on the latest of what we have posted on the web. But we will use our weblogs for the bulk of what we share. That way, you will be saved the large weekly emails of the past and can then keep your email box open and available for all of the spam that you receive on a daily basis. Also, what we have to share will always be available to everyone, everywhere, all of the time by being on the Web. We just hope that you will check out what we're doing before you decide to let yourself slip out of our loop.

You are always in our thoughts, our prayers, and our plans. We do what we do because we love sharing with others. Decades ago we realized that we all learn from experience. Actually, that's not exactly true. We actually "learn" from "new experience." When we discovered this fact, we determined that we would attempt to be, or to create, new experiences for people in the hopes that they would then continue to grow in whatever ways were most beneficial to their own individual development. In other words, we're not here to try to get you to think or to be any particular way, but rather to assist you in the eternal growth that is a part of your own divine nature. The only ideas we promote for everyone is healthy moderation, inclusiveness, and non-interference. We'll expand upon those three guidelines sometime in the future.

In synopsis, the following are the many ways in which you may access what we are doing:

Websites:

TANSTAAFL City, CyberSpace - http://members.aol.com/ZTANSTAAFL

Major Domo's World - http://members.aol.com/ZMajorDomo

Practical Truth Ministry - http://members.aol.com/RevDeTurk

Surf City - http://members.aol.com/ZTANSTAAFL/SurfCity.html

Beading Adventures - http://members.aol.com/SherriSite

Weblogs:

Practical Truth - http://practicaltruth.blogspot.com

Still . . . . . after all these years - http://zmajordomo.blogspot.com

Welcome to World of the Web - http://welcomewebworld.blogspot.com

Email:

revdeturk@yahoo.com

zmajordomo@yahoo.com

practicaltruth@yahoo.com

Snailmail:

3519 Westbrook Drive SE
Smyrna, GA 30082

Paypal:

https://www.paypal.com

We can now accept donations via PayPal. If you haven't been to PayPal, it's very easy to connect and make payments or otherwise transfer money with a credit card or with a bank account withdrawal. You have to create an account with them, however it is relatively simple and costs nothing for you or for us. If you wonder "how can they do this for free" then you will be most interested in my upcoming posting at our blog, "Still ?.. after all these years", entitled "In God We Trust."

Our nom de plume at PayPal is revdeturk@earthlink.net . We will soon have links to PayPal on our Blogs and the PTM Website. If you choose instead to mail a check, please make it payable to Rev. Charles DeTurk, as that is how our accounts are presently set up. Again, whether any of us like it or not, money is a major lubricant in our society that improves the ease and speed with which many things work. We are asking you, right now, for more financial support. Check out what we're doing and give generously today. You have no idea how many people your gift will touch.

Finally, I want to express my sincere gratitude to those who have been faithfully (regularly) supporting this work that we are doing. Your active faith in us goes a long way in inspiring us to continue with what we love to do. You are truly blessed and we thank God for your interest and support every day.

Again, as always, you are all in our prayers and have our blessings. We enjoy your feedback. Keep in touch. And we're glad to be able to say "hello" once again.

-- Charles

posted by Charles DeTurk at 5:57 PM


wMonday, August 26, 2002


"WHAT WE BELIEVE THAT MAKES US DIFFERENT"
(10) OUR PURPOSE IS TO BE

Thought I'd start by bringing us up to date. We've had a lot of newcomers since this was originally posted.

For the past ten sessions, we've been looking at "What We Believe That Makes Us Different." That title came about as a result of a lifetime of being questioned and confronted by people whose alleged desire to understand what I believe where spiritual matters are concerned masked an effort to undermine those beliefs and supplant them with their own views. It's like they were trying to religionize my spirit. I would look at books which claimed that Unity is a cult and I would read the quotes that they would use from Unity writings and then scratch my head, wondering why anyone would find reason to disagree with Unity's viewpoint.

I eventually came to understand that this New Thought Movement, which evolved over 100 years ago as an attempt to shed the excessive baggage of doctrine, dogma, form, and ritual which had come to obscure, like plaque on teeth, the basic teachings of Jesus and other master teachers, was still having to coexist in a world where outmoded doctrines had so infiltrated the culture that one often felt like an outsider for being able to see beyond the doctrinal obscurity. (Whew, that was a mouthful.) Following one particularly pointed attempt at undermining my beliefs, I realized that I was reacting to my inquisitor more than I wished. Examining my response, and looking for a reason why this situation agitated me as much as it did, I realized that I was still uncomfortable not only with knowing what I believed, but also with being able to discern how it differed from the beliefs of the more fundamentalist people in our society. It was obviously time to get grounded once again. So I asked myself, "What is it that we believe that makes us so different?" The result has become this 11-session series on ten orderly statements.

Last time we talked about our true nature. We are, at our core, spiritual beings. At present we are spiritual beings expressing through physical bodies. When those bodies are discarded as no longer useful, we will still be spiritual beings. We always have been spiritual beings and we always will be spiritual beings. Because we are spiritual beings in a matrix of unlimited, infinite possibilities, redundancy is unnecessary. Each of us, therefore, is absolutely, totally unique: a singularity, so to speak. The singularity that you are is the way in which you allow the Christ, spirit consciousness, to express through you.

Once we understand that perspective about our true nature, we must then revisit the question which has intrigued humanity throughout its history, "What's our purpose for being?" Thus, our tenth and final statement in this series is: "Our purpose is expressed through apprehending and comprehending the beauty of the singularity and striving to consciously participate with it at every level of our being."

In a nutshell, our purpose for being is to be. Don't make the mistake here of thinking that "just being" means "just surviving." If we look around at this infinite universe of unlimited possibilities in which we are experiencing, although mere survival might appear at first blush to be a way of life or an end in and of itself, if we step back and observe the larger picture, we see that life is a process of constant change, resulting in continuous growth. Although that growth may go through seasonal changes, the still larger picture reveals that the growth continues expansively, regardless of the temporary appearances. That's why chaos theory ultimately results in exquisitely unpredictable order.

Albert North Whitehead said, "Every major breakthrough in civilization all but destroys the society from which it springs." We sometimes hear people talk of the "fall of the Roman Empire" and use the images of the ancient Roman collapse to condemn contemporary events. But, although the Roman Empire did come to an end, as such, it was succeeded by empires more grand than the Romans ever could have imagined.

We see this kind of change taking place in our world today. Many of us find the change uncomfortable. We long for the security of the past as we remember it. But, as Thomas Wolfe said, "you can't go home again." And the reason is that the past no longer exists. The only thing that exists for us is the present and it is speeding towards the future. Tomorrow, today will be the past. And while we can make it a memorable past, we can also choose to make of it a past which looks to the future, rather than being self-absorbed.

In order for this to happen, two things are absolutely necessary. First, we must be aware of who we are. And secondly, we must act upon that awareness. And that's precisely what God created us to do: to become self-aware and to act from that self awareness. We must discover and comprehend the truth of our being. Step beyond the limited belief in mere appearance and discover your source, that wellspring from which flows unlimited potential and possibility.

What we have shared here in the past several entries is an orderly process of awareness in which we start with the premise that God is all there is and finally arrive at the realization that our purpose for being is to allow God to express more fully through our lives. It is imperative that a diligent effort be made to achieve this awareness and experience. We are living in a time and at a place where we are being bombarded thousands of times each day by temptations to put the full realization of who and what we are aside and to concentrate on channeling our interest, energy, and efforts into supporting someone else's appearance-driven construct. Our sense of value of our own self-worth is often eroded. If it returns at all, it usually does with a frustrating sense of too little, too late.

I could weave a very convincing and depressing scenario detailing how our present society has negatively impacted the quality of our lives and seduced millions of people into a lifetime in which they, themselves, are no longer in control. But instead I'll merely summarize with an example of how wrapped up we are in the race of the rat.

Some friends have just retired. A couple, both retiring from jobs at relatively the same time. They were recently over for dinner and I asked them both, "do you find yourself wondering where you ever found the time to have a job?" They both concurred, wholeheartedly.

Personally, I have experienced both extremes. I had a period in my life when I applied for 600 jobs over a 13 month period before I finally got a job offer and was hired. At the other extreme, I've had a time in my life when I was sufficiently well-off financially that I could do what I wished, when I wished, with whom I wished, and in the way that I wished. And I've had a multitude of experiences between those two opposite lifestyles. As a result, based upon personal experience, I know what it is like to live in this society across the economic spectrum. Why do I look at things in terms of economics? Because that's the driving force of the society which we have created. That's right. The society which "we" have created. It revolves around the bottom line, the return on investment, the latest market quotes. Hail, Caesar.

But I also know that there are other realities out there, with millions of participants, which forego the entrapments which our society sets for us. I saw some Ram Dass audio files on Napster one night. In the titles, one said something like, "materialism is a trap." But the very next title said, "anti-materialism is a trap." And that's absolutely true. As long as we support it or fight it, we give it life and prolong it. What we want to do is to surpass it, to transcend it. As the Sufi poet Rumi said, "Out beyond right-doing and wrong-doing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." We're striving to meet in that field.

At your very core, as Deepak Chopra says, you are a field of all possibilities. Every single day, when you awake, you begin "again" to choose how you will allow that field to express in and through your life. Many people think that God's reality is somehow devoid of that "again," but that's where the core of excitement lies. Again. Every day is a new beginning. Like they used to say several decades ago, "today is the first day of the rest of your life." Although it may have gotten to where it sounded trite, nevertheless, that is our reality here and now. I would modify it to say that each and every moment is a new beginning. Each and every choice is a new beginning. Will the next one be a choice leading to a new beginning that is in line with the truth of our nature and the core of our deeper image of ourselves, or will the next moment be a choice leading to more of the same. Well, it doesn't really matter. That moment has already passed into the past. Next!

Our prayer for you is that your passion for the singularity which you are gets fanned into a flame of new beginnings that allow for a greatly enhanced life in which you discover and experience your deeper purpose for being. You have our most profound blessings.


posted by Charles DeTurk at 11:46 PM


w


"WHAT WE BELIEVE THAT MAKES US DIFFERENT"
(9) YOU ARE THE CHRIST

Last time we talked about how we never left the Garden of Eden except in our ability to see it all around us. This time we want to return to an idea we first presented several entries ago. We want to talk about the Christ and our relationship to that reality.

Our statement this time is: "Our purpose, therefore, is to reveal the 'mystery hidden for ages:' that each of us is the Christ, the singularity, the totality of God in expression; that revelation comes through every choice we make, conscious or unconscious; all that we think, say, do, and feel is of God and is God."

The original notes for this topic are at the end of this session.

They are quite extensive. Most of the information is quotes from Charles Fillmore's "Metaphysical Bible Dictionary" examining the words, "Christ," "Jehovah," "Messiah," and "I AM." And I'm going to let that stand on its own. I highly recommend this material. For those who know little or nothing about Charles Fillmore, or who are curious what this talk of "metaphysics" is all about, these quotes from Fillmore's magnum opus provide an excellent window of insight into both subjects. But what I want to do here is to expand upon the contemporary practicality of what Fillmore shares with us.

It is difficult for many people to comprehend, much less to accept, the divinity of each and every one of us. This is due largely to our conditioning. We live in a society which functions in contradiction to the truth of our being. But, I don't want you to take my word for it. Allow me to explain, through an example, what I mean by that statement about society.

In the United States, we have one phrase which appears on every single piece of coin and currency. It's a four word phrase. The phrase "e pluribus unum," which is Latin for "from many, one," appears on all the coins. "United States of America" appears on every coin, but the word "The" is tacked on the front end when the name of the country is printed on the currency. The unique four-word phrase which appears on every single coin and every single denomination of currency is "In God We Trust."

I think that at this point I can rest my case. I believe that most people know that by and large this is not true. In fact, the term I hear most often bandied about recently to describe this country is that it is a country governed by the rule of law. But when this country has more people per capita in jail than any other country on the planet, I wonder if we're talking about God's laws or we're talking about man's laws.

In God We Trust. Well, I question whether institutions trust in God. As for the individual human being, that's another matter. After all, before this was a "country of the rule of law," it was a country "of the people, by the people, and for the people." I think that it is only people who can recognize the reality of a supreme being, a universal consciousness, a God in whom we can trust. I don't think that an institution can do that. After all, an institution, in and of itself, can not think or feel. It has no soul. There's probably no evidence that it's consciousness is anymore developed than that of a newt, if that.

Don't get me wrong here. I love this country. For whatever faults it may have, it has so much to recommend it that it is a beacon to millions of people all over the world who desire to experience more in their lives.

But looking at institutions, themselves, the bottom line is that an institution can not knowingly and realistically make the following claim: I am! And so, institutions, whether they be corporations, or governments, or churches, or whatever other type of humanly invented "organization," not one of them can say, "I am!" And, when you think about it, if one cannot say, "I am," then neither can one make the claim, "in God we trust." It is people, not institutions, that can trust in God.

The "I am" that you are, and the "I am" that I am, is the embodiment of the "I am" that God is. For as far back as I can remember, I have been intrigued by that line from Exodus when Moses asked God, "who shall I say has sent me." "I am that I am" was the reply in the standard King James vernacular. Thirty years ago, in an effort to better understand perhaps some of the deeper aspects of that name, that claim, that term, "I am that I am," I examined the sound itself.

Vrle Minto, a friend of mine, had turned me on to considering the possible vibrational potential in "I am" by claiming that it was a powerful tool if used properly. He recommended taking a positive statement like, "I am love," and turning it around, placing the "I am" at the end of the statement, instead of at the beginning. Therefore, you get, "love, I am." And when one says that aloud, and allows the sound, the vibration, of the "I am" to resonate as it slowly dissipates, it does feel very special. Peace, I am. Joy, I am. Power, I am. Prosperity, I am. Healthy, I am.

I am. What are those sounds? I find that all five of the vowels of the English language are inherent in that phrase, "I am." The "I" is "I-E" and the "am" is "A-O-U" and "M". Bucky Fuller once wrote a book entitled, "I Seem To Be A Verb." His contention was that a verb denotes action, whereas a noun is static. We are therefore verbs, rather than nouns. As an extension of that idea, I think of vowels as the verbs of the alphabet. Why? Because they have a flow, an ongoingness to them. Aaaaaaaaaa. Eeeeeeee. Iiiiiiiiiii. Oooooooo. Uuuuuuuu. Say those aloud and feel what I mean.

Consonants, on the other hand, by and large, feel shorter, often clipped. Vowel sounds can by made just by opening one's mouth. It doesn't require tongue or lips. AEIOU. The consonants, on the other hand, all require the use of the tongue and/or the lips. And, they, too, all require the mouth to be open. That is, all except one. The sound of the letter "M" can be made with the mouth closed and without any extra effort on the part of the lips or tongue. Try it. See for yourself. What's more, the "M" has a resonance of its own. I think of it as a body resonance since it can be expressed without even opening the mouth, so the sound remains in the body. Mmmmmmm.

So we have the five vowels, the five action letters of the alphabet, all leading up to the body resonating, unique consonant, "M." How did that happen? God didn't speak English to Moses. How did we come to have "God's name," God's identifying moniker, passed down to us into English as those particular vibratory sounds?

What's more, if you haven't already figured it out by now, there is a word in English which derives from Eastern languages that is comprised of exactly those same sounds. Now, some people might want to argue this point with me, but I'm not concerned. It's all a matter of semantics. In this case, it's vibrational semantics and pronunciation. But I find it intriguing, nonetheless. Oh, and the word? Taking the "I am" sounds "A-E-I-O-U and M" and stringing them together in precisely that order we get the vibration in "Om" or "Aum."

Wayne Dyer has produced a very effective CD working on similar ideas, using the vibrational sounds of Om and the "ah" of God's various nom de plumes, in morning and evening meditations. Powerful stuff.

If "I am" is who sent Moses to the people with the law, and we are created in that image and after that likeness, then that "I am" is the active, creative presence of God expressing through us. And it expresses in whatever way we choose, for we have been given the freedom of choice. Free will. I am … what? I am tired? I am happy? I am lonely? I am healthy? We think the thought. We speak the word. Reality manifests.

New Thought teaches the power in the declaration of denials and affirmations. In other words, the thought or spoken thought, or word. And the most powerful of the words, the most creative of all the words, the most dynamic of all thoughts are those that are driven by the vibration of "I am."

In many Christian churches it is taught that we are not to take the Lord's name in vain. And that is interpreted to mean statements like, "God damn," or "Jesus H Christ." But if God told Moses that it is "I am who sends you," and that "I am" is "I am that I am," then I think we should be a lot more concerned about the words which we use in conjunction with "I am." In fact, I think that, once knowing what I've just shared, we'd be down right stupid if we attached any negative, limiting thoughts or words to our use of the powerful "I am."

Now, what does all of this have to do with today's statement? Well, that "I am" that God is, expressing in a multitude of ways as the "I am" that I am, and the "I am" that you are, and the infinity of God's creation being "I am," is the activity which we call the Christ. And, in our infinite uniqueness, it is the singularity which each of us is. I feel here like shouting like the old time preacher, "Glory, hallelujah!"

The mystery which Paul talks about in Colossians owes its mystery to the lack of our realization of our I amness, and what that means. I say that you are divine I am, and there are Christian preachers who will cry, "blasphemer." The same charge made against Jesus in his day by the Pharisees, those who believed in the strict letter of the law. People today professing to be doing the work of Jesus still accuse those who practice his teachings. They are condemned and accused of being in opposition to the very teachings which they believe and practice. But friends, it doesn't matter what anyone else says. It doesn't matter what credentials they may have. What is that to thee? You are a child of God. Ask God, right here, right now, what is right. Within yourself, in your gut, you know, right this very moment, that I speak the truth. "The mystery hidden for ages …. Christ in you, your hope of glory." In you. Right now. Your hope. Your experience of glory.

Every one of us, no matter what path we trod, is on the path to ultimately discovering who and what we are at the deepest levels of our being. And it may take a little while or it may take a long time for one to realize the truth about themselves, and that's all right. You know, when one looks at the Deep Field pictures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, what we see is the light from events which took place billions of years ago. It took that long for the light which registered that picture to get to the Hubble. The Hubble Deep Field pictures are pictures of billions of years of history. When we look at it on that scale, it can make what seems "important" to us appear to be pretty puny. And yet. And yet. As James Michener put it so aptly in his novel, "Space," what little we have done "has gotten us to where we are, and that's not insignificant." In fact it is very profound.

When we take the time to "stop and smell the roses," as they used to say, it all can become extremely profound. Right here. Right now. This is not a promise of some future date. God's promises are right here, right now, just waiting for us to awake from the sleep of judging merely by appearances. I feel sometimes like screaming as Jim Morrison did in the beginning of the "Celebration of the Lizard," "Wake up!" You know, Jesus said it. "Awake, thou that sleepest." We have eyes, yet we do not see. We have ears, yet we do not hear. "Wake up!"

Recently, while downloading some songs from Napster, I got into a place where I discovered that there are a lot of versions of the song, "Amazing Grace." I began downloading them. I've been listening to that song as I prepare much of this session. Amazing Grace. I now have over 300 different versions of that song on my computer. Amazing Grace. How sweet the sound that touched a soul like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found. Was blind, but now I see. If you know the story of how that song came to be written, think about it again. It was written by the captain of a slave ship who had a profound realization which caused him to turn his ship around, mid-ocean, and set off in a new direction with his life. It's a song of hope, not for the future, but for right now. Anyone can turn around, any time. And now is the best time there is, because now is the only time we have.

On a recent Sunday, John Strickland, the Minister at Atlanta Unity, talked about the story of Jacob and how he was a liar and a deceiver, and how his life was filled with the lies and deceit of others. But finally one day he decided to stop running, to turn around, to find himself, to confront himself, and to be himself, without trying any longer to deceive others. And he wrestled all night, but he refused to give up until he received a blessing. And he prevailed. He confronted his past. And the way was made clear. And that very day he became Israel, the prince of God.

Today can be your day. Any day can be your day to turn from what you have been to what you can be. When I heard what John Strickland said, I decided, once again, like Jacob, to turn over a new leaf and begin again. This is the ongoing power of the I am that we are. We can reinvent ourselves anytime we choose.

Today I am love. I am life. I am health. I am abundance. I am peace. I am joy. I am strength. I am prosperity. I am wisdom. I am enthusiasm. I am happy. I am good judgment. I am understanding. I am power. I am will. I am. I am spirit, and I am grateful.

I declare for you that this is a blessed day and I rejoice with you as you let your Christ light shine. You are special. I recognize your uniqueness, and I truly love you.

Next time we'll examine what our purpose is for being who we are right now in this time and place. And we'll discover what we can do about transforming that purpose into action in our lives right now.

ORIGINAL NOTES:

Scripture:

Genesis 2:27
"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them."

Exodus 3:13-15
From the Lamsa translation:
"And Moses said to God, Behold, when I go to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers has sent me to you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say to them?

"And God said to Moses, I am AHIAH ASHAR HIGH (that is, "THE LIVING GOD); and he said, Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: AHIAH has sent me to you.

"And God said moreover to Moses, Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial to all generations."

From the Authorized King James Version, verse 14:
"And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."

Colossians 1:25-29

"For which I became a minister, according to the dispensation of God which has been given to me for you, fully to preach the word of God everywhere,

"Even the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now is revealed to his saints;

"To whom God wanted to make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of our glory.

"Him we preach and teach and make known to every man in all wisdom, that we may cause every man to become perfect through Jesus Christ;

"And to this end I labour and strive through the help of the power which is given to me."

Lesson: You Are The Christ

Last time we examined the reality of the Garden of Eden in which each of us now resides.

We have talked about what has transpired to cause us to lose sight of the reality of the Garden.

Whereas last time we talked about where we really are, this time we want to talk about who we really are, and what, therefore, is our purpose of being.

Our current statement for consideration is:

Ninth: Our purpose, therefore, is to reveal the "mystery hidden for ages:" that each of us is the Christ, the singularity, the totality of God in expression; that revelation comes through every choice we make, conscious or unconscious; all that we think, say, do, and feel is of God and is God

Charles Fillmore, shortly before his passing from this plane of existence, said that the greatest scripture in the entire Bible is Colossians 1:27, in which it says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

What is this Christ? Well, Charles Fillmore, in The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary, defines Christ:

"(From Greek) - anointed; the anointed; the Messiah.

"A name, or title, applied to Jesus of Nazareth (Matt 16:16; Acts 17:3). Jehovah of the Old Testament is the I AM or Christ of God invisible; the Messiah is the promise of the visible manifestation of that I AM or Christ, and Jesus Christ is the fulfillment in man of that original spiritual I AM, or Jehovah.

"Metaphysical: Christ is the divine-idea man. Jesus is the name that represents an individual expression of the Christ idea. Jesus Christ is the form of the name that is commonly applied to the man of Galilee who demonstrated perfection. Christ Jesus is the idea that is being expressed by men as the result of their faith in and understanding of Truth.

"Christ is the only begotten Son of God, or the one complete idea of perfect man in Divine Mind. He is the embodiment of all divine ideas, such as intelligence, life, love, substance, and strength. In the architect's mind there may be one masterpiece, but that masterpiece is the sum of all the beautiful ideas that have come to his mind. This Christ, or perfect-man idea existing eternally in Divine Mind, is the true, spiritual, higher self of every individual. Each of us has within him the Christ, just as Jesus had, and we must look within to recognize and realize our sonship, our divine origin and birth, even as He did. By continually unifying ourselves with the Highest by our thoughts and words, we too shall become sons of God, manifest.

"The cosmic man, or grand man of the universe, often referred to by religious mystics, is the Christ, and the Christ is the higher self of man. Thus a seemingly great mystery is reduced to simple numbers. We do not realize the nearness of this cosmic man, because we have not found our real selves. Jesus Christ educated His followers to discern the real man. He taught that there is a power in man that gives him authority over the things of the world. This principle is the higher self, the spiritual man, the Christ. If we would succeed we must bring forth the principle; it gives dominion and mastery.

"Spiritual perception reveals to us that we are not persons, but factors in the cosmic mind. Reveal yourself to yourself by affirming, "I am the Christ, son of the living God." Look at yourself not as flesh and blood, but as Spirit. Jesus Christ affirmed His true self and the Father acknowledged Him. The reason for the limited comprehension and power of the ordinary man is found in the fact that he sees the world about him as under material law, and agreeing with it he makes himself part of it.

"Christ is the cosmic man, the grand man of the universe, demonstrated, developed, brought out, in every man.

"The birth of Christ in man is the bringing to consciousness of the spiritual idea of man---the Christ of God---through the quickening power of the word of Truth. It is the beginning in the inner realms of consciousness of a higher set of faculties that, when grown to full stature, save the whole man from ignorance and sin. It is a growth in man as tangible to those who reach certain stages as is that of the child to the mother. In its beginnings it is a mere quickening flutter, under the stomach, accompanied often by unusual sensitiveness in the emotional nature. We do not in the first stages of this process understand it, and sometimes are moved to put it away from us. This is the spiritual significance of the statement that Joseph was merely "betrothed" to Mary, yet she was "great with child." The soul is heavily charged with divine life, and so full that it cannot express itself intelligently, because no union has yet taken place between it and the understanding (Joseph)."
Now, Charles has mentioned three other terms which are of importance in our understanding of this morning's topic. The first of those words is Jehovah:

"He-who-is---who was---who-will-be manifest; the self-existent One; Ipseity; He who is eternal. In 'I AM THAT I AM,' the absolute verb remains the same, but the prefix changes from manifestation to power, 'he' to 'I.' The word-for-word rendering of the original would be: 'I-am---I-was---I-will-be because I-am---I-was---I-will-be the power to be eternally I.'

"Jehovah is one of God's names as given in the Bible. In the authorized Version it is improperly translated 'the Lord.' In the American Standard Version the name Jehovah is given where Jah occurs in the Hebrew text (see Ex. 6:2,3 and Psalms 83:18).

"Metaphysical: Moses says in Exodus 3:14, 15 that Jehovah told him that his name means: 'I AM THAT I AM.' Hebrew students say that the original word is JHVH, which means the ever living male-and-female principle. Lee's Hebrew Lexicon identifies this name with Christ, as the manifestation of God that speaks to patriarchs and prophets. Jesus confirms this in Matthew 22:42-45, where He reveals that the Christ existed before David, whose son He was supposed to be. In the Old Testament the spiritual I AM is symbolically described as Jehovah; in the New Testament it is called Christ.

"Creation originates and exists in Divine Mind, God. In the creative process Divine Mind first ideates itself. In the Scripture this ideal is named Jehovah, meaning I Am the ever living---He who is eternal. The creation is carried forward through the activity of the Holy Spirit.

"The Hebrew Jehovah has been translated 'Lord.' Lord means an external ruler. Bible students say that Jehovah means the self-existent One. Then instead of reading 'Lord' we should read I AM. It makes a great difference whether we think that I AM, self-existence, is within, or Lord, master, without. All Scripture shows that Jehovah means just what God told Moses it meant, I AM. 'This is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.' So whenever you read the word Lord in Scripture say I AM instead and you will get a clearer understanding of what Jehovah is. Jehovah-jireh means I AM the provider. If we expect to demonstrate prosperity from without we find it a slow process; but if we know that I Am is the provider we have the key to the inexhaustible resource. God was also known to the Israelites as Jehovah-Shalom---'I AM peace.' We can demonstrate peace of mind by holding the words, 'I am peace,' with the understanding that the real I AM is Jehovah within us. But if we start any demonstration and try to apply the I AM to personality we fall short. This is frequently the cause of failure to get the desired results from the laws that all metaphysicians recognize as fundamentally true. The mind does not always comprehend I AM in its highest, neither does it discern that the all-knowing, omnipotent One is within man. This recognition must be cultivated, and every one should become conscious of the I AM presence. This consciousness will come through prayer and meditation on Truth. In Truth there is but one I AM---Jehovah, the omnipotent I AM. If you take the word Jehovah-shalom into your mind and hold it with the thought of a mighty peace, you will feel a harmonizing stillness that no man can understand. It must be felt, realized, and acknowledged by your I AM before the supreme I AM can pour out its power. After experiencing it you know that you have touched a divine something, but you cannot explain to another just what it is, because you have gone beyond the realm of words and have made union with the cause side of existence. It is the quickening of your divinity through the power of the Word. This divine nature is in us all, waiting to be brought into expression through our recognition of the power and might of I AM."

So Christ, a word which did not appear in the Old Testament, is actually a Greek word for the Jehovah of old.

Now let's take a look at the word, Messiah:

"Anointed; consecrated by unction; constituted; appointed; consecrated; dedicated.

"The Hebrew equivalent for the Greek Christos, and referring in John 1:41; 4:25,26 to Jesus Christ. The priests and kings of ancient Israel, and whoever and whatever were set apart for God's service, were anointed, under the old Jewish customs, and called the anointed of the Lord; but the word Messiah, anointed, has always referred especially to the advent of the Christ, that had been expected for ages. In Daniel 9:25,26, where 'the anointed one' is given in the American Standard Version, 'the Messiah' (25th verse) or 'Messiah' (26th verse) is given in the Authorized Version.

"Metaphysical: Set apart, consecrated, baptized of the Holy Spirit, illuminated, enlightened, endowed with a special mission."

Now, this finally brings us to the personal understanding of our relationship with this Christ, this Jehovah God creator. We look to Charles' definition of I AM:

"Metaphysical: I AM is God's name in man; it is Jehovah, the indwelling Christ, the true spiritual man whom God made in His image and likeness. The outer, manifest man is the offspring of the I AM, or inner spiritual man. By use of I AM we link ourselves with outer seemings---or we make conscious union with the Father, with Spirit, with abiding life, wisdom, love, peace, substance, strength, power, Truth, the kingdom of the heavens within us.

"The I AM always assures us that the preponderance of power is with the spiritual. Fear throws dust in our eyes and hides the mighty spiritual forces that are always with us. Blessed are those who deny ignorance and fear, and affirm the presence and power of the I AM. They behold the 'mountain' (exaltation) 'full of horses' (powerful forces) and 'chariots of fire' (life energies) round about 'Elisha' (spiritual I AM). (See II Kings 6:8-23.)

"The I AM can also be explained as the metaphysical name of the spiritual self, as distinguished from the sensate self. One is governed by God; the other, by self. Christ is the Scriptural name for spiritual I AM. Jesus called it the Father. It is the Father of the personal will and a conscious unity between the two must finally be made to preserve the oneness of creation. That is what is meant by the phrase, 'he that doeth the will of my Father.' We must do the very will of God in our will, which is virtually to surrender the whole man to God.

"Spiritual character is the rock foundation of being. Build yourself into God and you will find yourself in heaven right here on earth. Let go the little self and take hold of the big Self: 'Not my will, but thine, be done.' The I AM of each individual is the will in its highest aspect. The will may be said to be the man, because it is the directive power that decides the character formation---which makes what we call individuality."

So what this all means is that we are co-creators through the I AM because the I AM is at the core of our being. It is who we actually are. That voice which talked to Moses from the burning bush is the same voice that speaks through you and me as a multitude of ideas, feeling, actions, and perceptions.

Deepak Chopra tells us that we are a field of all possibilities. That is what I AM is, all possibilities existing in a field of potentiality. But what brings that potentiality into expression? It is the will of which Fillmore spoke. It is your will and mine.

All possibilities exist. The link from the field of possibility to the appearance of what we call reality is in the observer, the experiencer, the I am. The story of ongoing creation. 'I-am---I-was---I-will-be because I-am---I-was---I-will-be the power to be eternally I.'

All time is now. Am, was, and will be is all here and now. It's all a matter of different perspectives.

Reality is composed of an infinite number of parallel universes. We choose which of those infinite universes we live in from moment to moment by the thoughts we think, the feelings we have, the perceptions which we hold dear.
Reality is not linear; it's omnidirectional. All possibilities are available to each and every one of us. It is always up to us as to which we choose. And how do we do that? Well, that's why we're here, to discover who and what we are and how to go about making the best use of our capabilities.

The complete picture is beyond our understanding and our total communication. It must be that way because we must have the motivation and the drive to allow the I AM to manifest through us in eventual ultimate totality.

This, then, is what Jesus came to teach us and what Unity continues to teach, that we are children of God, created in God's image and after God's likeness, that we are therefore heirs to all good and the channels for God's substance to come into manifestation. We are the Christ.

Our purpose, therefore, as we will be detailing with our final statement next session is to reveal the "mystery hidden for ages:" that each of us is the Christ, the singularity, the totality of God in expression; that revelation comes through every choice we make, conscious or unconscious; all that we think, say, do, and feel is of God and is God.
I AM the Christ, child of the living God. I am not flesh and blood; I AM Spirit.


posted by Charles DeTurk at 11:45 PM


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"WHAT WE BELIEVE THAT MAKES US DIFFERENT"
(8) IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN

Last time we talked about how denying our own divinity opens up a Pandora's Box of self-created problems, giving rise to the appearance of evil and the work of the devil. This week we want to look at the effects that such actions have upon our lives and our reality.

During the day I used to work at a Fortune 100 company. In fact, globally it is in the top 150 publicly held companies. One day, security passed the word down through the "chain" that they were displeased with the fact that, out of 30,000 employees with access to the Internet, I was in the top 10 users. They thereupon asked that I curtail my activities on the net from their offices. Sadly, I agreed. The sadness, however, is not for me, but rather for them. For me, it's merely an inconvenience.

This is one of those cases of "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good," for I now proudly use that fact of my "excessive usage" to help people understand that I am truly Internet savvy. I'm not claiming here that I invented the Internet, just that I know my way around just a bit better than the average user, not from book larnin' but from hands on. I have visited tens of thousands of sites all over the world and am fascinated on a daily basis by what the web offers and the potential which is still developing. And I am disheartened that most companies are still trying to shield their employees from investigating the new world at their fingertips. But we'll leave Major Domo to expound upon that topic.

Speaking of Major Domo. He has a wealth of information to share. Probably some of the most revolutionary, yet clearly practical, ideas I've ever seen or heard. He could use some motivation to share what he knows more quickly. A kick in the pants, so to speak. Drop him a line and let him know that there's someone out there who would like him to get his perspective out there on the Net so others can share in his awareness. I guarantee he will turn you on to ideas like nothing you'll find anywhere else. Kick him for me: zmajordomo@earthlink.net

Anyway, I mention this to give a little perspective to the fact that when preparing my ideas for this session, I had a printed copy from my website of the notes for this topic. One of the engineers with whom I work saw some of the notes and said, "that's really deep." I hadn't yet gotten around to rereading the notes myself, but when I did, I had to concur. This is deep. The author of the book of John, and Charles Fillmore, and I also wrote some real deep stuff several years ago.

Now, I don't want that to frighten anyone off. I don't mean that this is deep in an overwhelming sense. What we're going to share here is easily comprehendible by anyone. But the ramifications are incredible, for what our current subject does is to give us a different perspective from which to view our world of reality. We'll keep it light here, but for those who choose to delve deeper, the original notes appear below.

Think for a minute about what life was like for you just 30 years ago. 1970, the breakup of the Beatles, Woodstock, walking on the moon, getting out of the Vietnam War, Watergate, bell bottoms, Elton John declared the entertainer of the decade at the "beginning" of the decade. No personal computers, no CD's, no DVD's, no Internet, no clones, no Space Shuttles, no cell phones, no cable TV, no genetically engineered food. Got the picture? Okay, now imagine that you lie down to go to sleep back in 1970 or 1971 and you don't wake up again until this morning.

Whoa! Things have changed. Some things have changed dramatically. The changes may seem very deep. But the grass still grows, the flowers still bloom, night and day still follow their usual cycles, people are born, live, fall in love, have babies, raise children, die. That, too, is deep. But the depth in all of it is a matter of perspective. And so it is with today's topic. It can appear deep, but that viewpoint of depth usually occurs if the subject is a radical departure from our usual way of perceiving reality. And although this may be a dramatic change for our frame of reference, I guarantee you that we have the ability to adapt to it and to grow from it.

With that in mind, let's dive right in. We were never kicked out of the Garden of Eden! I've told you that a few years ago Pope John Paul II announced at his weekly audiences that neither heaven nor hell are places, but rather that they are states of consciousness. For those who have to see it with their own eyes, I would give you the links to the text on the Vatican's website, but when I just now looked for it, it appears that the data has been removed. Seems a lot has been changing. Major shuffling. I wonder who holds the deck.

Anyway, Heaven and hell are states of consciousness, and the same is true for the Garden of Eden. It, too, is a state of consciousness. But that should be no big surprise. When we think about it, everything that is has its reality in a state of consciousness. That's where we get sayings like, "one man's feast is another man's famine." So, the Garden of Eden, like Heaven, and like Hell, and, yes, even like the Kingdom of God, are all states of consciousness.

So, in the stories of Genesis, where the early Hebrews record their take on the origin of "reality" as we know it, we have this story about a Garden. For some reason, in my youth I was under the impression that Adam and Eve just played in the Garden, but, in fact, if we read the story, we see that Adam is the gardener and Eve is his assistant. Here they are in the Garden of Eden and yet they have to work every day.

But we've all read the story, and we know that the serpent tempts Eve to eat the apple and when God finds out about it He curses them and drives them out of the jungle (oops, the garden). Now, if you've read your Bible and paid attention to what you read, you know that that is not the way it happened, though many ministers and many churches teach precisely that, with dire ramifications.

First, this is a story. It is not history. It is not the way things happened. It is not based upon actual events of actual people. It was never intended to be viewed in any of those ways other than as a story with underlying meanings. So what is the real story and what is its meaning?

Well adam-and-eve, not Adam and Eve, but adam&eve, are representative of each of us. They stand for the intellect and the feeling nature that is a part of you and me and every human who has ever passed this way. They are partners, and they tend to the garden in which they live and the garden provides them with all that they need. That's the way it is for each of us, even today. If we tend, take care of, the garden in which we live, it will provide for us.

All seems to be running smoothly until curiosity rears its head. We wonder if there could be more to reality than this garden in which we live. And isn't that the way life is? We can be in the middle of an incredible life and waste it away by dwelling on what we think is missing. Why do we do that? Well, one major reason is because we are like our creator and we need regular opportunities to express that creativity or else we implode.

As physical beings, we have a number of physical senses, or modes of perceiving reality. We're all familiar with sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. But after awhile, the combination of all that data which is received by our physical senses begins to seduce us into thinking that the appearance is the reality, when, in truth, the reality is in the source, not in the appearance. But we concentrate on the appearance, and we get so comfortable in our relationship to the appearance that we gradually forget about the source. And the ego begins to worship itself instead of worshipping God.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the ego is bad. And I know that there are a lot of people out there who will disagree with me and claim that the ego is something that needs to be overcome before it overcomes us. And there's some truth to that, but not in a combative "take no prisoners" sense. The ego serves certain good purposes. It is an integral part of who we are on this plane of existence. BUT, it is not all there is. It is not God, although it sometimes thinks that it is. It tries to protect us, but it also tries to protect itself. AND, as long as we refuse to assume responsibility for our lives, our attitudes, and our consciousness, the ego will continue to try to successfully deceive us into believing that it is the boss.

It is from the "knowledge of good and evil" that the ego has ascended to power. We've said before that the great lie is in the belief that we are separate and apart from God. Judging by appearances, seeing things in the context of good and evil, creates the false appearance of separation. The appearance seems so much more real than the invisible truth from which it all springs that we lose our conscious connection to the source.

And when we do that, we suddenly feel very naked. We feel as if we must hide ourselves, for there appear to be powers out there which can harm us, which can cause us embarrassment if the truth of appearance about us be known. And as we judge ourselves inferior we begin to doubt our right to continue to live in the garden. And so, by our attitudes and the ensuing actions, we banish ourselves from the garden … and then we blame it all on God through the Genesis story.

My dear friends, we never really left the garden. It has always been here. It's just that we have lost our ability to see it because we are so caught up in the appearances. The garden is God's creation. Remember the story of creation? Time and time again it says, "and God saw that it was good." Then, finally, on the sixth day, Genesis 1:31, it says "And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."

It doesn't say that some was good and some was better. For hundreds and thousands of years people have sought the original "Garden of Eden," never realizing that they were always in it. No wonder they can't find it. Voltaire knew where it was when he wrote "Candide." Al Jolson knew where it was when he sang, "Back In Your Own Backyard." Lately I've been telling people that I have a picture of the "Garden of Eden." Then I show them the photograph taken by the Hubble Space Telescope Deep Field Project in which they discovered over 2,000 galaxies in a speck of space the size of a grain of sand. You can read about it (August 18, 2002 entry) at: http://zmajordomo.blogspot.com

And you can see the results at: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/pr/1998/41/pr-photos.html

If you have high speed Internet access, you might be interested in the animations at:
http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/Anim.html

They visually display the depth of the Deep Field.

I think of these photos as the Garden of Eden for they demonstrate how God's creation is beyond our simple attempts at understanding it. We only discovered the existence of other galaxies about 100 years ago. Now we find over 2 trillion stars discovered down a 12 billion light year tunnel the size of a grain of sand.

At a recent Worship Service at Hillside Chapel & Truth Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Rocco Errico said that "the new Jerusalem is not a city, but rather is a community." He went on to say, however, that too many people would "rather have right doctrine than right action." "Truth," he said, "is not a doctrine. Truth is the right action, at the right time, at the right place."

When we relearn how to do what's right, at the time that is right, and in the place that is right, we will rediscover our abode in the garden. It's high time we all made a concerted effort to be what God created us to be. The time is right for us to come home and reassume our place in the garden of life.

With that in mind, next time we'll begin examining what it is that we are supposed to be doing. What is our purpose of being? How do we go about releasing our inner divinity? That's next time.

ORIGINAL NOTES:

Scripture:

John 8:30-59

"While he was speaking these words, a great many believed in him.

"Then Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, If you abide by my word, you are truly my disciples.

"And you will know the truth, and that very truth will make you free.

"They said to him, We are the offspring of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to any man; how do you say, You will be free people?

"Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is a servant of sin.

"And a servant does not remain in the house forever, but the son remains forever.

"If therefore, the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

"I know you are the descendants of Abraham; but still you want to kill me, because you have no room in you for my word.

"I speak what I have seen with my Father; and you do what you have seen with your father.

"They answered, saying to him, Our own father is Abraham. Jesus said to them, If you were the sons of Abraham, you would be doing the works of Abraham.

"But behold, now you want to kill me, even a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this Abraham did not do.

"But you do the works of your father. They said to him, We are not born of fornication; we have one Father, God.

"Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came from God; I did not come of my own accord, but he sent me.

"Why therefore do you not understand my word? Because you cannot obey my word?

"You are from the father of accusation, and you want to do the lusts of your father, he who is a murderer of men from the very beginning and who never stands by the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks he speaks his own lie, because he is a liar, and the father of lies.

"But because I speak the truth, you do not believe me.

"Which one of you can rebuke me because of sin? If I speak the truth, why do you not believe me?

"He who is of God, hears God's words; for this reason you do not hear, because you are not of God.

"The Jews answered, saying to him, Did we not say well, that you are a Samaritan and that you are crazy?

"Jesus said to them, I am not crazy; but I honor my Father, and you curse me.

"I do not seek my glory; there is one who seeks and judges.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever obeys my word shall never see death.

"The Jews said to him, Now we are sure that you are insane. Abraham and the prophets have died; and yet you say, Whoever obeys my word shall never taste death.

"What! are you greater than our father Abraham who died, and the prophets who died? Whom do you make yourself?

"Jesus said to them, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing; but it is my Father who honors me, the one of whom you say, He is our God.

"Yet you have not known him, but I know him; and if I should say, I do not know him, I would be a liar like yourselves; but I do know him, and I obey his word.

"Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; and he saw it and was glad.

"The Jews said to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and yet have you seen Abraham.

"Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you. Before Abraham was born, I was.

"So they took up stones, to stone him; and Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, and he passed through the midst of them and went away."

Lesson: "In The Garden Of Eden"

Today's lesson is on the eighth of our "What we believe" statements.

Eighth: Our belief in separation from God causes us to lose sight of the Garden of Eden in which we reside; the garden is the full and total infinite expression of God.

This is a follow-up to the previous statement concerning the denial of the truth. I want to reiterate again that our scripture tells us that Satan or the devil or the incarnation of evil is actually lies. It's all lies. It's the father of lies. Satan is a lie. The devil is a lie. Evil is a lie. Lack and limitation is a lie. Believing that we are separate from God is a lie. The belief that we reside anywhere other than in the Garden of Eden is a lie.

What is the Garden of Eden? Let's see what Charles Fillmore has to say about that in The Metaphysical Bible Dictionary.

"The Hebrew 'Gan-heden' commonly rendered Garden of Eden is a compound of surpassing greatness. The word Gan means any organized sphere of activity, a garden, a body, a world, a universe. The word Heden, Eden, means a time, a season, an age, an eternity, as well as beauty, pleasure, an ornament, a witness. Thus it can be seen that only the most limited and restricted material acceptation would bring this remarkable word down to a small, hedged-in inclosure, a small area somewhere in Asia where the human race first emerged from the dust of this planet.

"Metaphysical: A pleasant, harmonious, productive state of consciousness in which are all possibilities of growth. When man is expressing in harmony with Divine Mind, bringing forth the qualities of Being in divine order, he dwells in Eden, or in a state of bliss in a harmonious body.

"The 'garden' symbolizes the spiritual body in which man dwells when he brings forth his thoughts after the original divine ideas. This garden is the substance of God (Eden) or state of perfect relation of ideas to Being. The Garden of Eden is the divine consciousness. Having developed a consciousness apart from his divine nature, man must "till the ground from whence he was taken," that is, he must come into a realization of God as the source of his Being and must express ideas in harmony with Divine Mind. Wisdom and love are joined in God, and a perfect balance is struck in consciousness between knowing and feeling when man spiritualizes his thoughts."

So, what separates us from this state of Eden consciousness? Well, the scripture which I chose for this lesson brought into our conversation the alleged entity, Satan, or the devil.

Let's look at what Charles has to say about these two characters, the devil and Satan.

The devil is "the same as Satan, which see. The 'devil' signifies the mass of thoughts that have been built up in consciousness through many generations of earthly experiences and crystallized into what may be termed human personality, or carnal mind. Another name of the 'devil' is sense consciousness; all the thoughts in one that fight against and are adverse to Truth belong to the state of mind that is known to metaphysicians as the Devil."

Satan is defined as "the deceiving phase of mind in man that has fixed ideas in opposition to truth (adversary, lier in wait, accuser, opposer, hater, an enemy). Satan assumes various forms in man's consciousness, among which may be mentioned egotism, a puffing up of the personality; and the opposite of this, self-depreciation, which admits the 'accuser' into the consciousness. This 'accuser' makes man believe that he is inherently evil.

"Satan is the 'Devil,' a state of mind formed by man's personal ideas of his power and completeness and sufficiency apart from God. Besides at times puffing up the personality, this satanic thought often turns about and, after having tempted one to do evil, discourages the soul by accusing it of sin. Summed up, it is the state of mind in man that believes in its own sufficiency independent of its creative Source.

"Rebellion against God under hard experiences is another form of this 'hater.' The personality that disbelieves in God and acknowledges no law save that of man is satanic.

"When the seventy returned, saying, 'Lord, even the demons are subject unto us in thy name,' Jesus said, 'I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven" (Luke 10:17, 18).

"Heaven is conscious harmony. When this harmony is invaded by a thought adverse to the divine law, there is Satan, and 'war in heaven.' When the Christ declares the Truth, error thought falls away; that is, Satan falls from heaven as lightning.

"Lightning is a force that gathers and explodes and wastes its energy because it is not in harmony with the universal equilibrium. This well illustrates the mind that believes itself an independent and unrelated creation. When this kind of thought is allowed full sway in a man's consciousness, he becomes so egotistical and self-opinionated that he destroys himself. Thus error is its own destruction.

"The Greek word that is translated 'devil' in Luke 4:1-13 means accuser or the critical one. Personality describes the meaning more fully than any other word in the English language."

So here we have the major challenge of life: the battle between the true reality of who we are - creations of God, expressions of God, children of God - and our belief in our own separate self-importance.

It is when we believe ourselves separate and apart from God that we are ruled by our problems.

When we are aware of our oneness with God, then no problem can affect us. Though all around you the world may seem to be crumbling, yet you remain steadfast in the truth of your being and the comfort which that brings. This truly is residing in the Garden of Eden.

The Garden of Eden is a state of consciousness; it is not a place. As such, it is available to everyone at anytime. We can come and go, or we can stay. The choice has always been ours.

But the key to regaining entrance to that garden state of consciousness is to accept and acknowledge our oneness with God.

Several years ago I went to Italy with my mother. It's a long flight over a big ocean, and I found myself a little apprehensive about the trip. There was a part of me that detected death close around that visit to Italy, though I could never specifically identify that feeling with any part of the trip itself. But the uneasy feeling persisted. I thought several times about backing out.

Then something wonderful happened. I remembered how Larry, my brother who had died a year earlier, had always had $1,000 worth of tickets in his pocket. Tickets to the Symphony, and the Opera, and the Ballet, and plays, and the Hollywood Bowl. For as long as he was physically able to go to these events and enjoy them, he did. In fact, the last time I went to an event like those with him, he took massive amounts of pain killers before hand, knowing full well that he would spend the next two days in bed recovering from the ordeal. But he had a zest for life that refused to give in to the effects of the disease which wracked his body.

And I thought of mother, who was out traveling around the world enjoying her life here on this level of experience. Dozens of trips all over the world and she had no fear of flying.

And then I thought about why I was afraid, and I realized it was because I didn't feel like I had yet done what I wanted to do with this life experience. And I realized that if I was afraid to go to Italy, I would continue to be afraid to do anything which was important to me.

A sense of peace came over me. Suddenly I was no longer afraid of anything, not even dying. I realized that someone, anyone, maybe even myself, might still die on or around this trip to Italy, but that no longer disturbed me. The realization of the beauty of life and the excitement of living it overcame the fear of death.

In reality, five days after returning from Italy, mother died. Our last days together were some of the best we ever had, something which I would have missed if I had allowed my fear to rule my life.

That battle with fear is one which we fight over and over. But what are we truly afraid of? The fear, when we look at it rationally, has nothing to do with the truth of our being. The fear really has to do with our sense consciousness, the part of us which has developed the mistaken notion of its own self importance and therefore its separation from God.

And the difference in all of this is merely a thought, a perception. So just as quickly as we can change a thought we can change our reality.

My decision to change my mind about going to Italy and to release myself from the fear was just that quick (snap!). And I'm so grateful that I made that decision for it made things easier for me in dealing with mother's sudden death. That realization of life over death which I had for myself extended to include her, so that I could rejoice in her moving on in her ongoing journey instead of concentrating on my own feelings of loss.

The Garden of Eden is the full and total expression of God, and that is reality. That is all that there is. So we are all, at all times, living in the Garden of Eden, a garden of endless, unlimited possibilities.

Take time today to see and enjoy the garden in which you live. Give thanks for the weather, the people, the opportunities. Bless everything that you see and experience. Give your love and your blessings, and your life will be filled to overflowing.


posted by Charles DeTurk at 11:45 PM