There are moments in human history where quantum leaps in consciousness happen and we awaken together in ways that can have permanent effects. How will we respond to this great expansion?
[00:00:00] The following talk was given at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado. Please visit our website at MileHiChurch.org. I'm so happy to be on this stage with Reverend Simon Shadowlight and Reverend Masando Hiraoka,
[00:00:37] and we are going to have a conversation about gifts and talking about this challenging time more in and taking a look at some of the things that might be seen as gifts that are emerging out of this time.
[00:00:55] And so let's begin with you, Reverend Simon. What gifts do you see happening here? Well, you know, whenever I find myself in an opportunity for growth, right, a challenge, something that gets me going or whatever,
[00:01:11] it's really first I allow myself to be human and just be present with whatever comes up sometimes it's anger, sadness, self-pity, but then really approaching it of saying, so what is the opportunity for me here? Once I've allowed myself to be fully human, it's what's the opportunity.
[00:01:33] And recently this has been a great opportunity to really take stock of things. What are the things that are important to me? What are the things that, oh my God, myself, just a bitually involved in that was perhaps a waste of time or whatever?
[00:01:51] So in particular this pandemic has really been an opportunity for reflection contemplation taking stock. Beautiful, thank you. What about you, Reverend Masando? Well, I got an actual gift kind of from my parents. I don't know if I've mentioned this before,
[00:02:11] but when this quarantine started, my parents kind of loaned me their dog. They had just gotten a new puppy, so the dog was kind of stressed out from that new puppy already. And so took her home and a pattern for about seven or eight weeks now.
[00:02:26] But I think, like one of the gifts that this little dog reminds me of is that, you know, she doesn't know that there's a pandemic going on. Obviously the dogs are probably pretty stoked that they get so much time with their humans these days.
[00:02:42] But I think one of the gifts that I'm just seeing so many people in the world doing is just making the best, like just finding joy. I've been tuning into the good news network a little bit more.
[00:02:58] I need to balance out all of the crazy news with just some things that are happening that are uplifting and inspiring as well. And when you read about some of the innovations that are happening, when you read about ways that people are coming together in the community,
[00:03:18] you know, one of the things I've been worried about is the fact that, okay, we have this ability to sanitize really well, to we have access to clean water and be able to wash your hands and folks that are experiencing homelessness largely don't, right?
[00:03:34] And so there's these initiatives that have been seeing of just putting public hand washing stations around a different cities actually just saw one in our vada at the light rail station.
[00:03:44] And it's just amazing, right? Like I think one of the gifts is we're just, we have this consciousness of the whole in this really interesting way right now.
[00:03:52] Like I find ourselves, it's an interesting time that we are all literally experiencing the same thing together throughout the entire world at the same time. I mean how many moments in history are there where that's happening, where we have a consciousness of the whole.
[00:04:10] And so I mean, I'm just very inspired and in the midst of all the things that are scary and uncertain.
[00:04:17] I'm just finding myself being really inspired of the people that are creating the gifts, like literally giving of themselves and finding ways to support more people through this pandemic. That's wonderful. I think I feel somewhat of a combination of what you're both talking about here.
[00:04:36] I think even with all that's happening, what I assert is that they're still far more good going on in the world than there is bad.
[00:04:47] I know that we're in a whole lot of what appears to be really bad right now, but the good news can show you what's going on in the world. And then I know for me, I feel very blessed and that I live a pretty safe life.
[00:05:04] I have a home, I have a wonderful husband, I have computer, I can sit on my Zoom and talk to anybody, I want to talk to pretty much. I have food, I have everything that I could need to survive and I have pretty good health.
[00:05:19] So I feel pretty confident and secure in my life. And I've noticed that this is giving me an opportunity to deepen my heartful caring of people.
[00:05:30] People who are in the same state as me, but people who also are suffering who are scared, who are nervous, who are unsure that it's helping me to just love them more and care about them more.
[00:05:45] And so I'm doing little things that really mean something to me to show people that I care even strangers as well as the people in my circle of life. And I guess I have an optimistic hope that more people will lean into caring.
[00:06:00] I feel like you Simon, that sometimes that gut-wrenching, this being human is hard at times.
[00:06:07] This being human and facing this is hard, but what helps me to step through it a little more is to take the opportunity to say, okay it's hard for other people it's hard for me to watch. Let me do something, let me care in some way.
[00:06:21] Well, and what I love, and it's really, I think it's a big part of our teaching is, I mean being human is just being human. Whether it's hard or joyful or wonderful, I mean we have so much input. We have the say in that.
[00:06:36] I mean what's going on is what's going on and there's always been things going on. And I think it's really thought a lot about homes is statement. It's turning from conditions. You know often we get sort of almost chastised by those who are maybe outside of this teaching,
[00:06:53] like oh you're just talking about denial and ignoring things. I'm like no no no no. I don't have to be ruled by the things going on around me.
[00:07:03] I always have that choice of what am I creating, how am I responding to and what am I creating, regardless of the circumstances. And I love that because you know this time does give us the gift of really putting that to the test.
[00:07:21] Yeah, I love how faith is being deepened right now. At least I found that within myself that I have to lean in a little bit more during this time, into my faith life, into my spiritual life, and into this act of giving and receiving.
[00:07:39] Because I also have to lean into other folks and I have to be continually of service to others.
[00:07:46] I think one of the greatest gifts I've received during this time is the one on work I've been doing with some folks that have been reaching out for practitioner sessions, spiritual counseling, right? Because every prayer that we do for another, any time,
[00:08:01] respecting time with another, that prayer that we do for another is also activating within ourselves. Also impacting our own minds and our own consciousness and our own hearts.
[00:08:12] And I find that like I've had a couple days where like you don't just woke up kind of in a foul mood. Like you know that feeling of dread or whatever when you're like wake up in your eyes the world that we're living in.
[00:08:24] And like okay here we go again. But then I'll do a couple sessions that day and my day will be completely transformed. And I just act of connecting with another human, the act of being in a prayerful space, totally changes.
[00:08:42] And I recognize like oh wow there's something about just being in service in small ways. They can completely just turn everything around in a moment. And there's something special and magical about that.
[00:08:58] When you recognize that our connections to each other are part of our spiritual life, part of our deepening, part of the ways that we can come into a deeper relationship with the divine. Absolutely. Yeah.
[00:09:10] Well thank you very much. You two are beautiful and amazing men. I love you and appreciate you and so happy to be with you. And last night I watched a movie that I'd seen before collateral beauty.
[00:09:22] And so what I would say today to us all is as this woman's child is dying, this other woman says to her don't miss the collateral beauty. And so that's one of the gifts of a time like this.
[00:09:35] Man it's so good to see the choir and watch the choir performances together for those of you watching there on the choir.
[00:09:43] You got some good dance moves. I think that was the closest thing I've gotten to have a dance party since this whole thing. Again, I was definitely moving with you all as I was watching on the screen.
[00:09:54] In fact, you know what? If you're a choir member that's watching right now, we just type represent into the chat just so we know that you're here and that you're representing the choir.
[00:10:06] And if you're not a part of the choir and you want to sense and love, we just type in the chat just thank you, Maui, Choir, tell them that you love them and send your love.
[00:10:17] I wish we could all be celebrating here together but I know that we are celebrating you all online in this incredible virtual space that we're all sharing together.
[00:10:28] And that choir is no joke. They are practicing throughout the year. I know they get a little break over the summer but while all of us are spending time with our families over Christmas this past Christmas.
[00:10:41] The choir is here, volunteering their time for seven services on Christmas Eve and Christmas Eve Eve. They just give so much of their heart and love to this place. So really just celebrating them tonight. So make sure you show your love to them.
[00:10:58] So those that are tuning in can feel that. Thank you also much for all that you bring. So yeah, it's amazing to hear music. It was felt so good to be upon the stage and be dancing a little bit.
[00:11:12] I feel like I've been leaning into music a little bit more during this time. I find myself kind of going to the old staples that 90s hip hop and R&B. I find that it makes actually really good cleaning music for doing chores around the house.
[00:11:29] And so I've kind of been going back and forth between that music that I find to be comforting during this time. And also going back to this church music that is really inspiring and uplifting. You know, I can't have a gangster rap in my head all the time.
[00:11:46] I need to. It's nice to wake up with some inspiring words every so often as well. So grateful for the music team here and grateful for Stacey and the choir and being able to have some uplifting music in my head when I wake up tomorrow morning.
[00:12:04] The inspiration for this series actually for this week and next week. I'll be joining you all for these ones in that lives.
[00:12:14] Actually came from a movie that really is an ode to music. The title of the series is it's all happening and it comes from the movie almost famous, which was starring Philipsy Moore Hoffman and Kate Hudson and was written by Cameron Crow and directed by him as well.
[00:12:42] I love about this movie is it really just talks about how music comforts us, how it affects us, how it can speak to us and even speak for us when we can't find the right words to talk about what might be going on.
[00:13:01] I find that it also helps me access, you know, some emotions that may be going on underneath the surface.
[00:13:09] Music has this ability to take me beyond just my headi intellect and take me to a place where my emotional life and my spiritual life and psychological life where they can all intertwine and meet.
[00:13:26] In the main character, one of the main characters in that movie played by Kate Hudson. She is the one that said that phrase it's all happening and came towards the end of the movie when she had just had her heart broken. She plays what they call herself a band aid that you know just tours with all of these bands that are going around and she's with this particular band and.
[00:13:54] Towards that in the movie after the tour is over when the band member that she had been hanging out with you know goes back to his normal life and back to his wife.
[00:14:04] She decides and the midst of that heartbreak to go on another adventure move to Morocco and as she's walking away she just says it's all happening.
[00:14:20] When I just love her spirit, I love her character. I love her ability to approach life from the sense that every moment is an adventure. Everything that we are experiencing has this ability to really wake us up to how amazing life really is.
[00:14:42] And so it's all happening like we are so deeply in an adventure right now. Think about adventures too right. It's all often in this context of uncertainty and it's all often in the context of our of the main characters lives being disrupted or uprooted in some way.
[00:15:08] It's all under this auspice of the fact that you know like Reverend Simon talked about this past Sunday like we never really have control like the world is kind of messy all the time.
[00:15:25] Maybe we don't have to change it. Maybe we just have to wake up to the adventure and allow the adventure to take us deeper into our own life.
[00:15:36] You know right now that story is the story of all of us right and we're all getting to be the main characters in this adventure.
[00:15:48] And so we're all about movies that are really sort of in that adventure genre or that fantasy genre if you're kind of geeky like me is that the main characters often are uprooted this rupted.
[00:16:03] And thrown into this situation where they have no idea what's going to happen right. The process they find things within themselves that maybe they could have never discovered had they not been thrust into this adventure right finding a deeper sense of courage and resilience.
[00:16:23] Maybe finding ways that their gifts are actually valuable and needed for whatever adventure they're on.
[00:16:33] Or finding ways that this thing called life that we are all a part of that we can enter into it in a way that that wakes us up to who we really are and who we are being called to be.
[00:16:52] That to me is what we're all experiencing right now or like our lives have been disrupted undeniably right now.
[00:17:04] And in the midst of things beginning to open back up there's still so much mystery and still so much uncertainty the awaits us right like we've been on this adventure for a while and you know what we have a few more chapters.
[00:17:21] To go through this but what I know is that in the midst of it all happening there are things that we are discovering. And so this first week the title of this particular piece is it's all happening consciousness is expanding and it's kind of.
[00:17:46] That word consciousness and what that even means you know it's hard to understand our founder Ernest Holmes he talks about it however and this is how he puts in bring this up as we grow in life.
[00:18:07] Here is where our consciousness has attached itself to a greater possibility must not limit what may happen by what has happened.
[00:18:16] That time track is passed something new and dynamic is being born right now the law or the universe is acting through our consciousness is bringing new situations new people new ideas and new activities it cannot fail to operate at the level of our consciousness.
[00:18:38] As our consciousness is expanding as our consciousness is growing what that means is that there are greater possibilities that we are tying ourselves to. That what has come before does not limit what can be right.
[00:18:57] We're just seeing this all over the place like here my high church view it told me that you know in 2020 we would be doing a completely virtual church.
[00:19:07] And that through that we could reach even more people out there and that we would be finding ways to stay connected finding ways to grow but not having to rely upon a building to do that recognizing that this spiritual community is about the people.
[00:19:25] More than anything else and that we would be successful in that I would said that's crazy that's impossible. But here we are and refining this happening all over the world where what has seemed to be impossible is now possible.
[00:19:47] Consciousness is expanding right I think one of the like most star visuals of this that I've seen is I don't know if you all have seen pictures of new Delhi and India it's one of the most beautiful and polluted cities in the world I got to visit there when I spent some time in India and there was these skies that I remember.
[00:20:16] That we're like this particular color of orange that had never seen that had its own beauty to it but then I realized that like that color was because of the pollution and all of the particulates that were in the air.
[00:20:31] And now just after you know a couple months of this shut down people who were born in that city who have never seen the blue sky or the Himalayas from that from from that city are now able to see it.
[00:20:49] And I remember when I was there I was like gosh and when we're looking at this. How each one of us can feel so small in the midst of something that's so large such as climate change and pollution.
[00:21:08] It doesn't matter what I do like our single lives don't matter but you see that you see that how in such a short period of time those skies have opened up.
[00:21:23] And it creates this mental image, this new mental equivalent, this idea that what seemed impossible is now possible and that's really.
[00:21:36] The sense of where we're all going here together that there are so many different elements of what's happening in the world that is bringing us to a greater realm of possibility.
[00:21:50] Often because of necessity. This past week there's been some interesting news around a vaccine right when you do research around vaccines most vaccines take years sometimes decades to develop.
[00:22:05] Now there's still so much work to do and there are hundreds of teams that are working on developing vaccines all around the world.
[00:22:14] And we don't know exactly when this vaccine is going to come out and be able to be distributed but what they are discovering and where they're moving more towards is that it's going to be the fastest ever.
[00:22:32] Big part of that is because people individuals are stepping up to help make it happen.
[00:22:41] Often what happens with the vaccine is after you're given the vaccine, people volunteered to be a human trial they have to just go out and wait till they get it right to see if it actually works.
[00:22:55] But they're finding now is there's thousands of young people that are volunteering for what they call a human challenge trial where they're volunteering to get the vaccine and then to be exposed to the disease right away.
[00:23:12] And that shortens the period of time in which we can find a vaccine. I'm going to take a care for all of this.
[00:23:22] And I know like millennials sometimes get a bad rap and being entitled and selfish but there's these thousands of millennials that are taking a real risk for the greater good and there. And this is the decision to do that.
[00:23:40] That one sacrifice is helping us grow and find a possibility that felt impossible. And so this time right. We're all in this adventure together. Let us just to consider what has felt impossible in your life. Maybe it's going back to school and starting out in a career.
[00:24:14] Maybe it's finding new solutions for something that's going on in your current job. Maybe it's connecting with others in a way that you haven't been before. Maybe it's just being more authentically and unapologetically. You maybe it's finally finding the relationship of your dreams. Our superpower right now, right?
[00:24:38] To step into a consciousness that is expanding, asks us to tie ourselves more to possibility than impossibility. So I invite you to think about in your life right now. Something that may feel impossible. The lower your imagination, as you're feeling that,
[00:25:06] to bring you into a realm of possibility to wear maybe that thing could actually happen. In the way to do this if you want to continue to do this after this time, you realize the statement what if,
[00:25:23] Mindy Oddlin who's a Unity Minister, she has this ministry called What If Up. And it asks us to take any challenge that we're in right now, anything that we want to grow in, and ask the question what if. And let your mind go from a place of impossibility
[00:25:43] and all of the reasons why that impossibility is true to a place of what if. And know that from that place we go up from that place that we move forward and we move up out of that. And so it's all happening right now.
[00:26:02] But the same time, consciousness is expanding. Innovations are happening. What has seemed impossible is now possible for us collectively and for us individually. And so I invite you all to be in that place of what if this week.
[00:26:28] To really connect with the places within you that are seeking to come more into the world that this is a time for us to connect with ourselves so deeply, that we move forward in our life.
[00:26:42] And it feels like that pos button is broken in and out of this pos time. But really it's all still happening. Consciousness is expanding. And we have an opportunity to grow more deeply than who we are and to who we're meant to be.
[00:27:02] Right as we are, God is God the Divine, the Beloved. Not as some far off cosmic being looking down upon us, but right where we are, imminent, intimate and awareness of presence and intelligence, a consciousness and our relationship with the Beloved is one of unity.
[00:28:00] One of self-expression, God knowing God's self, God revealing God to God's self as all of creation. As each and every individual life expressing in this moment, God is. And so I do affirm that right where we are regardless of conditions, regardless of experiences and situations. We are supported.
[00:28:37] We are resource. We have access to an infinite intelligence and guidance in each and every moment. There is the possibility, the inevitability that God is revealed. And so I speak this word of abundance and prosperity on all levels.
[00:29:09] I invite all who hear this prayer to bring with into their awareness or to speak their name or the name of anyone they would like to bring into awareness, the awareness of this prayer. And affirm abundance and prosperity on all levels.
[00:29:31] The very act of speaking that name in this context is an alignment in consciousness, a saying yes to prosperity and abundance. Likewise, I speak this word for the realization of health and wellness, the perfect right functioning of the body temple, opening up to that infinite wisdom.
[00:30:04] That is in no way limited. And I invite all who hear this prayer to likewise speak their name or the name of any that they want to align with the consciousness of perfect right physical functioning, right order, wholeness, vitality, health, well-being.
[00:30:34] I speak this word of harmony and right relationship. And knowing that as the beloved expresses revealing itself to itself, that expression is done within our relationships. And so I know in each and every moment there is the possibility of simple, sweet, harmony.
[00:31:09] Right heartfelt communication, patience, understanding, empathy, compassion, right where we are. All of these gifts are available in all our relationships. So I invite all to speak their name or speak the name of a loved one or a distant one with whom we would claim. Right and harmonious relationship.
[00:31:46] And I speak this word for peace and guidance, knowing that each in every moment there is an intelligence, there is a wisdom, far greater than our mere human intellect. And we can open up to insight, revelation, deeper understanding, wisdom, guidance.
[00:32:05] We know, we know what to do, how to respond, how to be. I speak this word for all who hear this prayer, inviting each to speak the name, their own name or the name of any. They would like to align with this perfect guidance, peace of mind.
[00:32:26] And I speak this word definitely for all our leaders, all of the world's leaders, all of those who are guiding others, modeling for others, or serving others, knowing that we don't simply have to rely upon ourself, but on the greater self, the beloved.
[00:32:58] And so I speak this word in gratitude, gratitude for so many things, but gratitude to no, to claim, to affirm that this word is already fulfilled within the mind of God.
[00:33:10] And I know that this is the case because if it were not, I could not speak this word. The very act of my speaking this word means that it is in a higher and greater level fulfilled.
[00:33:25] And so I now simply allow the law to do what it does to bring it forth into experience. In exactly the right way and exactly the right time, I simply claim the what, the law, manages the how.
[00:33:46] Having spoken this word, having accepted this word, having claimed this is the truth, and affirmed that it is already done. There is nothing left for me to do. And so it is.