Dualism or Monism?

My favorite slide from class this week showed the similarities and differences of dualism and monism.  Here is a quick review:

Dualism
Subject-Object
Mind-Body
God & Creation
Good & Evil
God power & other power (s)
You are not God
Supplication:  Prayer to God
God is within you
Give thanks

Monism
One Consciousness
Mind only (or physical only)
All is God (or energy, etc.)
Good & evil = a continuum
Only God Power
You are God
Affirmation: Prayer as God
You are within God
Realize all is well

I really like this brief snapshot of a relationship with God.  And I wondered at first why I was so attracted to it.  The Unity message seems to be in both of these categories and at different times of my life, I think I have switched sides.  Right now I seem to resonate more with the monism list....and I finally figured out why.  The "You are within God" statement sends a few goosebumps up and down my body.  Yes, that certainly feels right.  This is what I am experiencing in meditation!  In the last year, my meditation practice has increased to one hour at night.  I also use this awesome Holoysync mediation CD that takes my brain into a theta pattern.  I know that I am creating new brain pathways and with those pathways....a greater connection to God.  It feels like I am now within God!  Goosebumps again!  I knew there was a reason why I liked the Holosync system so much.  Now I know!

Divine Order & Predestination

My prayer chaplain at church honored me with a phone call this weekend.  With all of our conversation in class about Divine Order, I thought that to be a wonderful prayer request.  While I truly loved the prayer and inspiration, I really had to remain centered in my own interpretation of Divine Order and not hers.  It sounded like her definition of Divine Order had some aspects of Predestination thrown in.  In Van Harvey's A Handbook of Theological Terms, Harvey defines Predestination as "the idea that before the creation of the world, God determined all that would come to pass in it....God's will...respecting the destiny of intelligent creatures."  I think a great number of people in Unity think that is what Divine Order means.  Well, it doesn't.

Based on the works of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, the founders of Unity, Divine Order really refers to the the Divine Order of Mind, Idea, and Expression.  Our Mind creates Divine Ideas, and those Ideas, in turn, express in the world as Spirit.  The Divine Idea is Unity's version of Heaven.  From that thought seed of creation, all new things are formed!

So when I was asking for a prayer on Divine Order, I think I was really blessing this creative process within me that brings new God seed ideas to the table of life.  And then, it is up to me to serve them to the world!  While this may seem to be a little variance from Predestination, there really is a huge theological difference here.  With Predestination, the power seems to be coming from another predetermined force outside myself.  From the view point of Unity's Divine Order, the power is current and all within!  Love that!!!



 

The Great Mystery

I've always thought my experience of God was something of a mystery!  How exciting to hear in class this week that our oldest ancestors thought so too.  When Dr. Tom mentioned that the Greek Word "mysterion" was miss-translated into a Latin term "sacramentum", I have to admit, I got a few goose bumps on my arms.  The word sacramentum has overtones of duty or allegiance.  That is not what the Greeks intended!  Mysterion honors the mysterious, luminous experience of God.  Now, that is the God I know!

I think Unity knows how to embrace mysterion in ceremony.  Perhaps that is why I was initially attracted to Unity in the first place.  In my early days at church, I remember crying over the Christening ceremonies.  How incredibly beautiful to honor the perfection of each child....instead of affirming their inherent defects.

I love this Unity definition of Sacrament..."any place at which God's normally mysterious, unknowable Presence breaks through and makes itself known to seeking persons."  For years I've been experiencing this through candle lightings, music, meditation, communion, white stone ceremonies, burning bowl ceremonies, and even a funeral or two.  How stunning for me to realize that this was all about Sacrament!  For some strange reason, this makes me feel closer to the millions of practicing Christians throughout the world...and not just Unity...everyone!

How strange to be moved by the discovery of a new word...mysterion.  Is this new understanding I now have a sacrament too?