Peter | Unity of Walnut Creek Podcasts

March 29, 2015 – Being Completely Connected

11/01/201503/29/2015 by Peter

03/29/15 Rita Marie Johnson
Being Completely Connected

I was exhausted from overwork and desperate for peace. One night I remembered “coherence” and that it was how to move into peace. I fell asleep and dreamt that the phone rang. I picked it up, “Hello”? “This is God.” “Okayyy…” “You’ve been trying to do too much. Just work on you Rasur Foundation and everything will be all right.” So I resigned from the University and other work. I see now it lead straight to the success of the Foundation and all the way to my new book that I am releasing here today!

I usually didn’t pray until I got desperate about something. I wasn’t connected. My inner phone was off the hook. I led a life of connect—disconnect. Connect—disconnect. You see, my feelings had been taking me away from being connected. But I learned to open, to go under my feelings and find my needs which produced the feelings, and it was coherence that would get me to insight and answers.

And then I got a shock—lymphoma! It was now really time for me to learn to pray. I turned to Myrtle Fillmore’s story. She would take a picture of Jesus as her point of focus. She would talk out loud. She probably told Him she was stuck, that she was discouraged and confused. “I don’t know what I’m doing to block divine healing.” So I did what I imagine Myrtle had done, and I also used the three steps of non-violent communication as prayer. First you name your feelings. There is scientific evidence that this reduces the amygdala’s reactions. Then name your needs. This activates our empathy and we become more compassionate. Thirdly, move into coherence in your heart. The positive aspects, or “good mood” of coherence then enable insight to come to you. My insight was “Look among your virtues.” That didn’t make sense. A virtue blocking me? Oh, I realized, I always thought it was a virtue to keep my feelings to myself. So I won’t swallow them anymore. That’s what is making me sick.

Myrtle had applied it every day and she was healed. So I’d do it every day, not just when I needed it the most. For the first time I had a rich rewarding prayer life. For example, with my lymphoma, I couldn’t fund raise for Rasur. So I named my feelings and needs. That takes the “charge” off. (I have them; they don’t have me.) This time I got “Stand in the glory of the gift you have to give.” What? Oh..if I embody what I teach (to pray every day) then my finances and needs will be met. And they were!

I’d been focused on all that stuff “out there”. We must have a rich prayer life to have any changes in the world. This is the first time I have shared my prayer life. We are divinely designed to become completely connected. Say, I am completely connected through prayer. I am completely connected through prayer. I am completely connected through prayer.

March 22, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 2: Embracing the Pain

11/01/201503/22/2015 by Peter

03/22/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty & the Beast, Part 2: Healing the Pain

Our assignment last week was to heal our pain from past relationships. A change of perception will move us to the wholeness that we are. “Beauty & the Beast” talks of this spiritual awakening. It pictures the Kingdom of Heaven where divine love is caring for and supporting us in every moment. We can see the gifts (but not the giver). We can enter into our heart, into the feeling of goodness, the divine presence, by breathing the feeling of ease. But to grasp spiritual awareness is to forfeit life as we have known it.

Beauty (our feeling side) consciously enters the presence of the ugly fearsome Beast. How do we move into the conscious presence of “ugly” (the pain we carry from past experiences)? We must accept and be aware of it consciously. Breathe ease and hold the feelings in the heart. If we are in our head we go into the blame circle. But in the heart the spiritual energy holds it without judgment. It just is.

Beauty’s perception of the Beast begins to change. She still sees ugly, but also sees nobility, caring, and wisdom. Simply holding the ugly in our heart we begin to see more. Our perception changes. Beauty asks for some time to return to her family and what she misses. The Beast won’t refuse her anything, but warns “if you don’t return I will die.” If we don’t return to healing, the opportunity to heal changes. So Beauty returns to her family and soon forgets her promise to go back to the castle. She dreams one night she is in the castle and the Beast has died. So the next day she hurries back to the castle with intention, searching out of care for what had previously been frightening and ugly to her. She has grown.

Drafted to serve in Viet Nam, Arthur’s love for his wife Marina carried him through the ugliness he found there. Unfortunately, she found another and broke his heart. He used meaningless relationships, drugs and alcohol to cope, until he realized he had to change. He found a new relationship and happily remarried. Then Marina arrived to make amends. His terrible heartache returned. He had moved on but had not healed. The purpose of forgiveness is not to develop excellent coping mechanisms, but to heal the pain and find freedom from it. He went to his heart, where he had compassion for his pain that was real. He healed, and now says, “whenever I recall those days, I can do it with a smile…I can experience that goodness because it is here.”

Beauty finds the Beast near death. Compassion washes over her. You too can embrace the ugly within and feel the compassion in your heart. The tears of compassion break the ugliness and there is only healing, beauty, love, wholeness, freedom. I embrace my pain with compassion. I am free. I embrace my pain with compassion. I am free. I embrace my pain with compassion. I am free. That beautiful power and light that flows through us is no longer blocked and flows to those around us and creates that state of consciousness known as “happily ever after”!

March 22, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 2: Embracing the Pain

11/01/201503/22/2015 by Peter

03/22/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty & the Beast, Part 2: Healing the Pain

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March 15, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 1: Healing Relationship Pain

11/01/201503/15/2015 by Peter

03/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast 1 – Healing Relationship Pain

When we carry past relationship hurt within, our mind wants to protect us with words like “me”, “them”, and “righteous indignation”. Such words of separation cause pain and express fear. This can be healthy at one level, but we use such words to escape our assignment (which is to heal the inner). The outer will change. Jesus said, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? …You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Sometimes I hate that, but on this assignment I also heard wise words of responsibility, caring, healing, connecting.

A story with very helpful images on this path to wholeness is “Beauty and the Beast”. A merchant, lost in a deep dark wood in a storm, finds a wonderful sunlit castle. There all his needs are met—food, a bed, even breakfast. For his daughter, Beauty, he plucks a rose. Immediately an ugly, terrifying beast confronts him. “Your life is forfeit!” The horrified merchant strikes a deal. If Beauty came to live in the castle with the Beast, all would be provided her, but each evening she had to sit down and dine with the Beast. Pretty clear spiritual symbolism isn’t it? There is no lasting satisfaction in pursuing material goods. The brightly lit castle in the midst of the dark forest is obviously the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are aware that Divine Love provides all our needs. But we pluck the rose (spiritual understanding) for the feelings of the growing soul. Once you take it, life as you know it is over. To embrace and enter into spiritual understanding, you must sit down with your Beast.

It’s the ugly we see inside ourselves. Deal with that pain. That’s your journey, your assignment. Enter the heart (the castle grounds). Breathe the feeling of Ease (that everything is provided by God). Give permission to yourself to feel the pain. The head will enter into blame/control. But breathe Ease, and just hold the pain in your heart. Your brain does not have to protect you from something that’s not there. There’s no need to fix, blame, or judge. Breathe Ease and hold the pain in your heart. Invite the power of your spiritual heart to flow in and start the healing. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. I breathe Ease and Hold It in My Heart. It is important to fulfill our assignment to heal the past relationship pain, the hurt, we carry. Then we can move into that place we know as “Happily Ever After”!

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March 15, 2015 – Beauty & the Beast, Part 1: Healing Relationship Pain

11/01/201503/15/2015 by Peter

03/15/15 Rev. David McArthur
Beauty and the Beast 1 – Healing Relationship Pain

March 8, 2015 – Tithing — A Four-Letter Word…Love

11/01/201503/08/2015 by Peter

03/08/15 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Tithing – A Four-Letter Word…Love

My friend, Dot, joyfully told of the card and money she had prepared for her grandson Langston’s birthday. I could tell the card was filled with love. She was so excited. When you select a gift with such care you imagine how great the loved one will feel when they open it. Give like that when you tithe to wherever you receive your spiritual instruction, support, and enlightenment, your spiritual good. Give by joy. The energy of connection with the universe, when giving from joy, goes out into the universe and the universe is inspired to return it. When giving in joy you are also giving to yourself.
If 10% is fearful for you, you can start small and graduate to 10%. Why 10? 10 is the number of perfect balance, of the balance of masculine and feminine, of resplendent love. It is the divine number, and reduces to 1—indicating our oneness with the universe, that when we are aligned with the universe we are connected and there is no difference between us and God.

When I lost half my income I stopped tithing. Then I started losing track of money; I just couldn’t find it. My paying engagements started drying up. Then I fell and broke my wrist. What was going on? Then I remembered I had quit tithing. So I immediately wrote a check. In fear I had stopped tithing, but then when I did give I gave in love. To give only because you get is not in alignment with the law of giving and receiving. In a month or 6 weeks I was clearly in a better situation.

You can tithe not only money, but your time or service. Give somewhere, somehow, to someone. Are you giving in love to your family? To you community? To your job? Our goal is to give in love across the board, giving in love to our world. Seek to live a life of giving love. The steps are listed in the attached outline.

This week look at every place you go, and give in love. Be aware of how you are giving to our world. Even how you speak is giving. Find a way to give love even if it’s just a little bit, because love changes everything.

I give you love; I give you peace; I give you joy. May you find this every day in your life and relationships.

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March 8, 2015 – Tithing — A Four-Letter Word…Love

11/01/201503/08/2015 by Peter

03/08/15 Sheila Gautreaux, L.U.T.
Tithing – A Four-Letter Word…Love

If 10% is fearful for you, you can start small and graduate to 10%. Why 10? 10 is the number of perfect balance, of the balance of masculine and feminine, of resplendent love. It is the divine number, and reduces to 1—indicating our oneness with the universe, that when we are aligned with the universe we are connected and there is no difference between us and God.

I give you love; I give you peace; I give you joy. May you find this every day in your life and relationships.

March 1, 2015 – Learning Prayer – Sending Love

11/01/201503/01/2015 by Peter

03/01/15 Rev. David McArthur
Learning Prayer – Sending Love

As a child I really didn’t feel connection to anyone “up there”. As a young man I started meditating and my experience of the reality of prayer changed. Later, in the tragedy of losing my wife, I learned the power of prayer. I entered into forgiveness and found peace. Through the experience of prayer it was given to me.

I wanted to really know about prayer. Unity asked me to step into the spiritual being I already was, and to open and receive my good that was already there, not to ask someone else “outside” of me. This experience of prayer I still did not really understand. There’s a difference between knowledge and understanding.

Rev. Mary Wessel established the Unity ministries throughout Montana. I met her when she was 104 years old. She lived on the top floor of a home which overlooked a beautiful valley and mountains. When I stepped into the room Spirit opened my eyes and I saw vibrant ribbons of light flowing out through the window like highways and I knew what she was doing. She was in a ministry of prayer. And later, even with mountains between us, I knew those ribbons of light reached to me and many others. It is powerful and it makes a difference. It is the sacred experience of love supporting each other as we go through this Earth experience.

I invite you to bring someone into your awareness, into your heart, who needs support. Now send that love that you are feeling. Enfold that love over them. At this moment you know for that person they are loved. Tell them You are loved. You are loved. You are loved. Divine love through your heart enfolds them now. Feel that beautiful love. Know this transforming power creates, and that it enfolds them here, now.

I invite you to join us as a spiritual community to pray at noon (or whatever time; Spirit doesn’t get hung up on time) for every person that has asked for prayer support. Pause for a moment and let them know they are loved. What we discover then is that each of us is loved!

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March 1, 2015 – Learning Prayer — Sending Love

11/01/201503/01/2015 by Peter

03/01/15 Rev. David McArthur
Learning Prayer – Sending Love

February 22, 2015 – Pinocchio – Through Fear to God

11/01/201502/22/2015 by Peter

02/22/15 Rev. David McArthur
Pinocchio – Through Fear to God

Pinocchio begins with a glorious story of our creation myth. Geppetto (the Creator) makes Pinocchio. The Blue Fairy gives him life. A living puppet without strings, Pinocchio becomes famous, but ends up caged. (As we look to the outer for fulfillment, there are limitations.) To be free of the cage, Pinocchio had to quit lying to himself.

He went to Pleasure Island where there are no rules. Soon he and the other pleasure-seeking boys turn into donkeys, showing addiction to the Earth experience; it’s falling asleep into the density of the animal consciousness. It doesn’t work. But he listens to Jiminy Cricket, his consciousness, and gets off Pleasure Island by diving into the ocean (his consciousness).

He has to find Geppetto, his creator. (The focus is now on the divine.) Entering into his subconscious, the ocean, he finds Monstro the whale (the greatest fear). It isn’t easy for him to get into the whale. Here Jesus tells us how: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. “ (Matthew 7:7)

My own personal journey into the “whale” will perhaps encourage some to enter into their fear. It began when my wife was murdered. I felt if God is a lie I wanted to know. So I entered into my fear. When the murderer’s family was interviewed I got to be a part of it, and I got to see how their Pleasure Island was taken from them, how the pain took it all. I did not see evil anywhere. I saw how our choices affect others. I saw that Geppetto, the Divine Presence/Law, was a gift with no strings. A gift of power and choice. Goodness was there.

Pinocchio burns the boat inside the whale (fire is a symbol of transformation) so that the whale would spit them out. The whale (the fear) is gone. In my journey into my whale, I asked if the love was real. I went back through every moment—the act, the choices, the pain, what was said, what happened to the family. Everywhere I touched there was love. Love so powerful it brought something even greater—a love which allowed choices, consciousness, actions. There was not anything else. No second power. An amazing gift of love to every single person there. It’s not just that God is good. That’s not enough. God is love all the time. And All the time God is love. No more whale. I could see the reality we live in, the most amazing choices. I could see we can place our attention on anything we want. And when we put it on this powerful love we see that God Is All Love All The Time.

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