How do I get to Carnegie Hall?
Unity Basic Principle #5
Rev. Don Jennings - Past Minister
For several weeks we have been talking about the basic principles of Unity.
Today we are going to bring this series of lessons to a close by reviewing the ones
that have come before, and talking about the fifth and final principle. First I want to talk about these
principles in general. Last week I was asked if Unity had a doctrine, and if these principles constituted
this doctrine.
The best answer I can give to that is: Unity does not set down rules: Unity offers tools.
I like to think of our approach as being one of filling your tool box with tools you can use to build your
own free-form life, not a set of rules that show you how to build a life that looks like what someone else
thinks a life should look like. This is just the opposite of most denominations.
So I do not think that Unity has a doctrine, rather I believe that Unity has developed
out of a way of life that helps people find their own spirituality, and in that way, a good, productive life
on their own terms.
God is beyond our human comprehension, and so we tend to create God
in an image we can understand. Everyone does this, even Unity.
Also, I was asked last week if Unity believes that Jesus is the son of God, and is
our savior. The answer to both of those questions is yes. However, we give a different explanation of
what those two things mean.
Jesus is the son of God in two ways, one is the same as every other person: we
are all children of God, and Jesus was not either the oldest son and therefore heir, or the best son,
in that God gave him something we don't have. Second, Jesus was the son of God in a very special
way, he knew who he was, and acted like it!
Is Jesus our savior? We say Yes, but not in the traditional understanding that
God created Jesus to die on the cross because we are all sinners. Rather, Jesus lived, died, and
lived again, and during that entire time was teaching us that we are all sons and daughters of
God and would learn that we too are controlled not by the human experience, but by our own
understanding. If that is not salvation, nothing I know, is!
Back to our five basic principles
First: about God. God is beyond our human comprehension, and so we tend
to create God in an image we can understand. Everyone does this, even Unity. In Unity we see
God as an ever-present power, knowledge, and source that is not separate from us, rather
within which we all live. God is not somewhere to be found. God is not an arbitrator. God is
neither good nor bad, in the sense of opposites. God is all good, and therefore everything in
God's world is good. We choose to name things good and bad, as we should. That is part of
our job.
Second: About us: we are the created of God, and God does not make anything
bad, or of shoddy workmanship, or something that easily falls into disrepair. The Christ (which
could be called the blueprint for perfection in human life) that Jesus so perfectly showed us in
his life is the same Christ that is the potential perfection of our lives: all we have to do is believe it,
act like it, and become the Christed of God, just as Jesus said we must do.
Third: About Mind/Heart: We co-create with God our world through the activity of thought.
"As we Thinketh in our hearts, (holding with mind and emotion) so we become." Life is
the product of our direction of thought: we create a heaven through affirmation of our divinity, or a
hell, through our own "stinking thinking".
Fourth: About Prayer: Prayer is our way of making conscious our connection with God.
One analogy for this is God is the great mainframe computer storing all we ever need for a perfect life,
and we are a hardwired terminal, always connected. But unless we access that mainframe, we might just
as well be an old typewriter sitting in the basement on a shelf, filled with dust. Prayer is our conscious
access of the resources for all good for life.
Finally, we come to the fifth and most important tool in our box of tools for life:
Principle Five, or the most versatile tool in the box, and it is this: Practice makes perfect! It is so simple:
Whatever we practice, we get better at, so doesn't it make sense to practice the presence of God in your life?
You have all heard the story of the young musician who was in New York to audition for a
place in the orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Being in the big city for the first time, and feeling thoroughly lost,
the musician, violin in hand, asked a cop sitting high upon a horse at a street corner how to get to Carnegie Hall.
The officer, looking down at the young musician and the violin case, paused for a moment, and then pointed
straight at the instrument and boomed: "Practice, practice, practice!!!"
Some of us, like Carolyn and I, have been practicing this stuff for 50+ years without even
really realizing it. We are the product of living a Unity life since childhood, and never really knowing anything
else.
But most folks find Unity later in life, after they have spent a lifetime practicing attitudes,
religious beliefs, and thought patterns that have taken them away from a real, personal relationship with
their spiritual self. And equally importantly, have taught them how to think negatively about themselves and
their world, as a regular way of life, believing that they are a sinner, are the product of original sin, and have
to fear hell as a result.
If you fall into this category, you don't have to despair that it is too late. There is hope, and
you can change the old patterns to new. I have seem people in their 80's and 90's take on a whole new lease
on life, so age and or previous belief systems have nothing to do with it.
It's about choice
It is about choice. Sometimes we have to get to a place where we, like a teenager stretching
their wings, say to their parents, I want to leave home, I want to try something new and different. The "parent"
we may need to rebel against, could be the training we have had in the past. Lets look at our New York musician
for a moment.
She learned to play somewhere, and likely it was at the tutelage of a teacher of music, and
probably a good one, if she is auditioning at Carnegie Hall! My point is this: if she made mistakes in her
practice, do you think the teacher said, "Its okay, just keep doing the same thing, you will get better!"?
I doubt it. Rather, the teacher would say "Go back to the basics, practice each part until
it is perfect, then put them together, and practice that."
This is also the formula for metaphysical spiritual success in this life. You don't have to wait
to die and see if you made it into heaven. You create your heaven right here, by practicing the simple truth.
And what is the simple truth?
Unity boils it down to five basic principles: yet each principle has a hundred parts, that's why
there are so many excellent books written about those simple principles. So don't try to practice all the principles
without first getting a handle on the parts! Choose one simple truth, like "Thoughts have power". We
all know that at some level, so why not put it to work for us by practicing thoughts that are positive, healing,
and prospering?
And, Yes, if you have lived a life of using thoughts in a "different way", you will fall
back into the old way easily at first. But choosing to be conscious rather than unconscious of our thoughts will
help this immensely. One thing I have found over a lifetime of using these ideas is this:
If I will choose to change "negative thinking" every time I catch it, and...
If I will choose to "be conscious of my thoughts" so I do catch it often, and...
If I will "refuse to get angry with myself, but just stop, and change the thought"
as soon as I recognize it…
If I will do these three things, before long I am no longer thinking that negative thought.
Why? Because our minds are designed to be efficient. That is called Habitual behavior. Those things we can
relegate to habit- we do because it is efficient. So, your mind will, automatically relegate any thought to habit
it is asked to think regularly. Tell it to change negative to positive as often as you are aware, and your mind
will soon take over and do it for you automatically.
However, it is only automatic to the extent you teach your mind that it is what you want,
in other words, you have to practice, practice, practice!
The hundredth monkey
Apply this to simple things, one thought or one attitude, or one teaching at a time, and
pretty soon the hundredth monkey effect begins to come into play. This scientific fact is based upon
observation of monkeys eating sweet potatoes thrown on the sandy beach. One monkey picked a potato
out of the water, and liked the fact that it was not sandy, it had been washed off.
Soon, that one monkey was washing every potato, and others followed suit. But an
interesting thing happened: after a while monkeys on other desert islands far from the original were
washing their food too.
There is a connection in the universe we cannot see or touch or taste or feel, but it is
real. The same effect is available to you. The more positive effects you create in your life, the more they
come unbidden, the more you respond in areas you have never practiced at all, coming naturally, because
this is what you have set as the intent of your life.
Wholeness, prosperity, loving relationships, clarity of thinking, stability of emotion, all are
affected in positive ways. Life doesn't necessarily get easier, but you get a lot better at it. There is one thing
I will warn you about though… Once the mind has developed a habit at your bidding, it is loathe to release it.
So persistence is the key, and that is why small bites are called for here.
Your mother told you take small bites, chew your food thoroughly. Good advice when it comes
to metaphysics too. Don't be in a hurry. Relax, enjoy the process. I remember as a child having to practice an
instrument, and struggling against it. Yet, when I got into it, and stopped struggling against "having to",
I loved the creativity of the practice, the gift of being able to make beautiful music, even though it was with one
little song.
The instrument is your mind/heart: the song is your life. The music is already there, and Jesus
said you would play first chair too.
But it takes Practice, Practice, Practice!
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