Share Your Sparkle Hosted by Darline Berrios, Ed.D.

Season 2: Episode 5 - May the 4th Be With You

May 04, 2021 Darline Berrios, Ed.D. Season 2 Episode 5
Share Your Sparkle Hosted by Darline Berrios, Ed.D.
Season 2: Episode 5 - May the 4th Be With You
Show Notes Transcript

Thank you for tuning in. Today I share a story about being a crazy dog mom, things that happened in history on May 4th and a chapter from Discover the Power Within You by Eric Buttterworth. Episodes typically released on Tuesdays or Friday.

Unknown:

Hey, everyone, welcome to Share Your Sparkle. And I'm your host, Dr. Darline Berrios. This is season two. May the fourth be with you? Yes, I am a super dork. I'm not necessarily a Star Wars dork, whatever, I don't even know what you want to call it. But I wasn't gonna reporting thing when it's out of date that this would be released on because I really fun Tuesdays and Fridays and I was like I have to send some message today. So I'm going to tell you a funny story slash. Maybe it's funny to me share some things that happened today on May 4, and also read a chapter from a book that I feel like might be interesting to you. Okay, so funny story. But it didn't start off so funny. Last week, yeah, about a week ago, being so been is my five month old black lab, who weighs 47 pounds. He's a chunkster. I love him so much. Actually was Sunday night into Monday, didn't sleep, was puking every couple hours had to take him out to the bathroom with diarrhea. This poor kid woke up in the morning he didn't even get out of bed to eat usually gets out of bed like jumps all over the place like on my mom. And it's like he, he's just psycho. He finally ate a little bit and threw up again. And I was like freaking out because I had to put my other dog to sleep a little over a year ago. So anything I just went from like, you know, zero to 100 in a matter of like less than a second in terms of like his health like he's dying. And so I called the emergency Animal Hospital. And I was like a four hour wait, and then I wouldn't be able to go in with him such a forget that. I waited till eight when his vet was open. And I literally just was there at eight in the parking lot and calls from the parking lot and said, Can you please see been and they were gracious enough to take us in without an appointment and see us right away. So the vet said, Let's he didn't have a fever, which I guess it's good, right? Let's treat the symptoms and then go from there. So they were going to hydrate him and give him some meds for the diarrhea and the vomiting. So first of all, I've never in like the 20 plus years that I've had dogs ever had to have a dog get fluids. And I didn't realize that that I don't really know how they do it. But they inject them. And then they come back with like this huge lump, like the fluids are you can see it and I said whoa, what is that? Like when he came back? And they're like, Oh, no, no, no, that's normal, the body will absorb it. So if that ever happens to you, I guess it's normal. And even when I was leaving the lady who was like, you know, I was paying, she said, Don't be scared to if you see the lump move throughout his body, because that's possible as well. And it should go down within the next, you know, 12 to 24 hours. So that was kind of freaky to see. But when you know how, like when you go, Okay, so if you've never been to a vet, typically you go into a room, you go in through like the lobby waiting area. And then there's another door on the other side where they take them in the back sometimes for whatever they need to do, right, put an IV in, I don't know, go do their stuff, get their medicine. And they had to take been to give them the fluids. So when they took him obviously he was hesitant. He didn't want to go with people and wasn't feeling well. So I had to like walk into the little back area and finally coax them into going back with the vet system and they're really super nice. And then I'm just waiting in the vet room like where the exam area where they see him a minute or two passes, and I hear yelping and, like crying from a dog like they were dying. I busted out of the chair through the door like the I'm not supposed to go through and I was like you can laugh because I'm ridiculous. And the people back there there were two individuals like at a computer kind of just like doing their thing. Like they didn't hear me the first time like crazy The lady that I am, so that's why I repeated myself. And then the vet comes over and she's like, Oh, no, don't worry, like, being in the back. He's fine. That's just another dog and I, yes, I am a crazy dog, Mom, but I'm gonna embrace that I did what you all probably want to do when you hear something and you think it's your dog or what we all should do. Anyway, laugh at me. It's funny. Now it's funny. And my family and I decided if there's a situation where we're being psycho, we just say is that. So that's my bean story. It's about a week later, I hope he's out of the woods, we're still I'm still keeping an eye on him and trying to wean him off one of the medicines, but so send him some good energy. And his, he probably got something who knows, I actually don't even know still what it is. Maybe he ate some poop in the woods that he's not supposed to. Because he's crazy and puts everything in his mouth that he's not supposed to like somebody's gone, or somebody's hair tie, or literally anything. So that's that. Um, that's my funny in quotes being story. May 4, I watched the Star Wars series recently, I think I mentioned that and another one of my episodes, if you haven't already, I invite you to watch all the movies. It's a really interesting story. And obviously, the main theme throughout, is, you know, the fight between good and evil, you know, and in the force. That's with certain individuals, like the Jedi dies, trying to ward off the evil powers. And that is revisited over and over again. So I actually didn't hear of this. May 4 day until I had twins. Well, they weren't twins. I had one of the twins in my class, like, maybe 10 years ago. Her sister was in the other fifth grade class. And their birthday is today so wherever they are in the world if you or if it's your birthday today Happy birthday. And they were like, yeah, birthdays on May 4. me. The fourth may 4 be with you. May the fourth be with you. And I was like, Oh, that's so funny. It's kind of cute. So Wow. I had them when they were like 10 years old. I but they're in either high school or college by now. No. 10 years. Yeah, they're probably in college by now. I'm here. I'm assuming they went to college. I don't know where they're. But wherever they are in the world. I hope they're doing well. So I was looking at I was looking at some things that happened on May 4 in history. It's always fun to take a look at history and what happened today a little fun fact. Today on May 4 in 1776, little Rody Rhode Island declares independence from Great Britain. No clue. I had no clue that happened today. Hundreds of years ago. Obviously, a lot of other things happened but Willie Mays, I believe broke the homerun record today. In what year was that? I'm not sure what year but some baseball Fun fact there. What else on I mean in 17 sorry, 1970 for the 100th Kentucky Derby, a Puerto Rican jockey on held core Darrow Jr. Winds aboard candidate for first, for the first of three Derby victories? I wonder how many Puerto Rican jockeys there are. 1979 Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman to be elected Prime Minister of the UK at the time. And but else it's fine. One more. May 4. Fun Fact or something that happened? In 2013, Harper Lee files a suit against a literary agent over the copyright of To Kill a Mockingbird. If I'm not mistaken, and please tell me if I'm wrong. I think her friends pulled some money together so that she could take time like a year off to write that book. I'm not sure if it's her or a different author. But imagine if like your friends were just like yeah, take a year off and go be you in the world and be that Creative, awesome self that you are, we'll find you. And then out of that, like Came To Kill a Mockingbird. If you haven't read it, it's a great, great novel about justice, injustice, discrimination. And yeah, you should check it out. But that's almost positive it was with this novel that that happened. If I'm wrong, please let me know. But on that note, though, that's those are some things that happened on May 4. And the last thing I want to do is I want to read to you, I think I've said this before, sometimes I miss reading, and I used to do it a lot when I was in the classroom when the younger grades. This book is called discover the power within you a guide to the unexplored depths within by Eric Butterworth. It was reprint and it was it first came out in 1968. Then it was reprint reprinted again 40 years later, I came across it. I would say maybe February of 2020. So that's an interesting time to come across it. I don't know if it was in one of a yamas No, no, no. I don't think it was I think it was like a super soul Sunday episode that I watched. And it was either Oprah or another individual who mentioned this book. It might have been a Yama. But yeah, I started reading this right before things went crazy in the world. Well, things were already crazy in the world in terms of like the lockdown and everything. I'm going to read to you chapter three, the great decision. And here we go. Discover the power within you a guide to the unexplored depths within by Eric Butterworth. The great decision and this is straight to the quote, no, this Oh man. So root of sin in the is not to know thine own divinity. Author unknown. Recently, while driving on a winding mountain road, I came to a crude sign painted on the mountainside. Its message was simply repent, the end is near. The sign was well placed if the purpose was to motivate the traveler to turn to God out of the fear of the treacherous hairpin turns and 1000 foot drop in bank mint. Were they in Puerto Rico? I'm always a little sad. And at this form of Christian evangelism, I have a feeling that it turns more people from, quote the way and then toward it. It is an evidence of how far man has strayed from the simple open sky and hillside teachings of Jesus. What did Jesus really teach? The answer is not easy to formulate simply because we have been so conditioned by the religion about Jesus. For the religion of Jesus, we can only turn to the four gospels of the New Testament and read the words as they have been recorded. Jesus did not come to found a new religion. He said, quote, Think not that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I came not to destroy but to fulfill Matthew 517. He saw only to upgrade the teachings of the prophets to interpret the ancient truths in the light of contemporary experience. He formulated no Creed's, he created no ritual. He developed no theology, the Alpha and Omega of his teaching was the divinity of man. And woman, he said to the people, is it not written in the law? I said, Your gods, john 1034. He was a vitalizing religion of the Spirit leading men and women to a direct, personal, intimate relation with the Father, with an element of immediacy is primal and not through the intermediary of some other person or agency. Occasionally, we hear someone say that he has, quote, gotten, unquote, religion. What does that What does this mean? Does it mean that he has developed a new feeling toward life or that he has simply subscribed to a new set of custom made convictions? Can a person's religion be defined by the church he attends, or the creed he accepts? Or is Christopher Morley right when he says that you have, that you have to guess added by how you find yourself acting? Christianity is not an end in itself. You cannot complete the work of salvation or end To the kingdom of heaven merely by joining a church or professing a creed, what is called, quote, conversion and quote is not the end of the road maybe it is simply finding a road on which to travel. to Jesus religion was not simply a way of believing or worshipping. It was a way of living. A traveler in ancient Greece had lost his way and seeking to find it ask directions of a man by the roadside, who turned out to be Socrates, how can I reach Mount Olympus as the traveler? to this Socrates is said to have gravely replied, just make every step you take go in that direction. It is probably true that every man intuitively knows that there is a highway of right living and that he is never completely satisfied with himself or his world until he finds the road to his own, Mount Olympus, and aim and it may be that this dissatisfaction leads to the indefinable yearning and hunger and thirst that causes the excesses that plagued mankind. He fought he feels the inner urge, but he usually moves in the wrong direction to fulfill it. Jesus said, enter ye in by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and many are they that enter in thereby, for narrow is the gate and straight in the way that leadeth unto unto life and few are they that find it Matthew 713 14 This has been a familiar theme of fundamental Christianity, the straight and narrow path has been presented in a manner that has left the individual straight laced and narrow minded. Today there is an open rebellion from that kind of religion consider the extent to which the word quote broad has become popular. It is a glittering adjective to many people, it means freedom from crippling confinements. The best thing you can call a man today is broad minded. And the worst thing you can call him is narrow minded. I have heard people rejoice in the fact that they have found a religion that is broad minded, by which they mean a religion that will take them as they are and make no effort to change them a religion that gives them freedom, the freedom to do as they please but religion that does not promote transformation is no religion at all. You might as well say I found an engineering school that is broad minded, that will make no effort to change me. If there were such a school, it would be a waste of time and money to enroll in it. There is only one way under the sun by which man achieves his Mount Olympus, that is to say, achieve the realization and the unfoldment of his own innate divinity, salvation in the truest sense of the word. And that is by bringing about a radical and permanent change for the better in his own consciousness. There is no other way. Through the Ages, man has been trying every other conceivable way to attain happiness and security. An infinite variety of schemes have been designed to bring about happiness by making changes in external conditions, while leaving the inner man unchanged. Always the result has been the same, complete and total failure. Now we know that the nature of our being is such that it is only by a change in consciousness, that outer conditions can really be altered. And this change in consciousness is the quote neuro, neuro gait and quote, and straight into way that Jesus speaks of, and as he says, the number of those who find it is small. Why is this because of the pull of the way of the world about us. Paul says, be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12 to hear in just 16 words, Paul reveals both the greatest problem facing mankind today and also the key to man's salvation. Why do we not turn back even if we sense that the quote end is near and quote, because we are conformed to quote this world and quote, a French painter by the name of Dominion was once criticized by his friends because talented though he was he had obviously resigned himself to doing the kind of work that would sell. He defended his potboiler work with the remark, one must be of one's time. But a good friend also a notable painter stunned him with the question. What if one's time is wrong? This is a challenging question for all people. Today there is a higher standard of excellence and a right than that of contemporary fashion again, and again. The apology for one's conduct for questionable ethics, or for indolence, and mark is in effect the same statement. After all, one must be of one's time a businessman confided to me. There are certain things about my business practice that I that I greatly dislike. I do not analyze them too closely in the way I do what I know in my heart to be right or I would not sleep at night. But what can I do? In the business world you are forced to meet competition. If you would survive, the times declare that it must be dog eat dog. I don't like it, but I can't do anything about it. It's just the way things are today. Much of what we might think of as the sordid aspect of life originates in conforming to what is being done, how many young people fall into habits of smoking and drinking and other excess simply because everyone is doing it? And how many parents passively accept these things in their children's lives with the rationalization? What can you do? It is just the way things are today. I'm going to add in this is not in the book, it's the way we've always done it, oh, my God help us with that one. There are a few persons and back into that now, there are a few persons who are not in some way swept into conformity within with the times how many of us are coming to the subtle appeal of the advertisers and thus invest needless money in cars, houses, lawnmowers, and all kinds of gadgets that are far more than our simple needs require simply because, quote, one is not socially acceptable unless he lives graciously. In essence, we're saying one must be a one time, but what if one's time is wrong, what really counts in the individual life and the life of society is not the passing fancy, but the ultimate level toward which we are moving. The important the important consideration should not be what is being done this season, but rather, what should be done toward the unfoldment of the individual and collective divine potential. I like them to be there all the time. The important consideration should not be what is being done this season, but rather, what should be done toward to the unfoldment of the individual and collective divine potential. It has been said by a number of contemporary thinkers that the age in which we are living is an age without standards. Now mind you this was this first came out in 1968. And age without philosophy in age in which man is much more concerned with the means than the end. we're more concerned with the tools than with the ultimate goal, more concerned with materialism than with spiritual things. Jesus said, What shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Matthew 1626. In the hour of personal decision, there are times when each of us must ask himself the question, shall I conform to the human standard of what is being done? Even if the standard does not keep in keeping with the divine standard as I have intuitively sensitive, we are not simply referring to religious ethics and moral standards important as these things are. The great problem today lies in getting religion into business and into human relations, but in getting life and light into our personal religion. One one's religion consists chiefly of a packaged philosophy to which one has given a perfunctory ascent it is comparatively easy to handle without getting too involved. Religion in this form can be conveniently set aside when it might be awkward or embarrassing, or it can be conspicuously worn as a badge of conventional respectability, where it might lend us prestige. A Sinclair Lewis character sums up his religion by saying that it is respectable and beneficial to one's business to be seen going to services. Robert Shelton's classic novel in his steps tells the story of a community of people who resolve to meet all life's experience by asking the question, What would Jesus do in this situation? This is a laudable practice. But Jesus did not set the Christ standard. He simply followed. The Christ standard is not a series of hard and fast rules for behavior, not simply an analysis of what Jesus did for mantasy. It is instead a principle that Jesus revealed through his discovery of the divinity of man. His teachings are the revelation of certain fundamental principles pertaining to the individual along with illustrations as to how these principles can be best applied in practice. We also come to at times to the temptation to condone our mistakes and weaknesses with the thought, Well, after all, I'm only human, the divine standard is too lofty, it is more than I can attain. Besides, why should I lose any sleep over everyone makes mistakes. But the greatest mistake is in believing that we are only human. Our humanity is but the degree to which we have given expression to our divinity. We are human expression, but divine in creation, and limitless and potential reality. Then I read the last two sentences again, our humanity is but the degree to which we have given expression to our divinity. We are human in expression, but divine in creation, and limitless and potential reality. The Christ standard is not a restraint, it is an inherent potential it is the law of man's higher self. It is the ascending urge within man that keeps him unsatisfied with what he is and does and drives him on to higher bowls of living and being true fulfillment. The goal toward which all men begin their efforts and shape their struggles can only be achieved through opening out away once the imprisoned splendor may escape in every experience in life. To quote, repent, quote, in turn back does not mean to forsake all hope, of abundant living, living in resign oneself to sackcloth and ashes. It means to turn from the Broadway of worldly pursuits that feed the hungers of the human man but starve the soul. It means to realize that life is lived from within, out and to determine to cleanse first the inside of the cup, and of the platter that the outside there have may become clean also, Matthew 2326 perhaps we have been living superfish officially pursuing artificial goals living under false standards. conforming to acceptable patterns in the world around us to repent means to open the eyes of spiritual perception and see life in a new dimension. To see hidden realities behind every appearance, to resolve to face toward our Mount Olympus, and make every step we take go in that direction. Jesus said, You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free john 832. What is this freedom. It is not licensed to live without restraints, but the inward motivation to tame the raw spiritual power that is within us to harness our divine potential and to move in that direction of our highest good. I'm going to repeat that again. What is this freedom. It is not licensed to live without restraints, but the inward motivation to tame the raw spiritual power that is within us to harness our divine potential, and to move in the direction of our highest good. Schiller holds that freedom is not doing as we like but becoming what we should. This is a meaning of the word that should be broadcast widely today. Occasionally, the student of truth with a Christian orientational become hung up on the concept of accepting Jesus as his personal Savior, he may ask, Is there any way that I can follow the Christian path without making a decision for Christ? I must simply I'm must reply. No, there's no possibility that we can either understand or demonstrate what Jesus is teaching unless we make the great decision. However, let us be mighty sure of our terms. What is meant by a decision for Christ? What is meant by that? Is it possible that many who hear the inven jealous the evangelists so exhort his listeners to convert confess the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, thinking of a picture of a man, Jesus and emotionally prostrating themselves before him? yet Jesus said, Why call us? thou me good? There is none good, but one that is God. Matthew 1917 Emily, Katie helps us to bring the idea of Christ into the context of our own experience. We almost recognize that it was the Christ, within which made Jesus what he was, in our power now to help ourselves and to help others lives in our comprehending the truth for it is a truth whether we realize it or not, that this same Christ lives within us that lived in Jesus. It is the part of himself which God has put within us, which ever lives there. Within inexpressible love and desire to spring to our circumference of our being, or to our consciousness, as our sufficiency in all things. The Christ is you at the point of God. It is your hope of glory, for It is your true route. In divine mind. However, you must become conscious of this route of your being you must make the decision to act as though you are a spiritual being in potential. In a way, making the, quote decision for Christ is as fundamental as turning on the light. You must be interested in the electrical energy in the circuits, you may have a conviction that it can glow in the bulb and make light in the room. But in the end, you can have light only if you only if and when you make the decision to turn the switch. On with all the studies of Jesus view, have caught the real significance of his life and teaching he was man on the quest man making the great discovery of his divinity man breaking through the psychological barrier between man and God, man proving the Christ in man and his inherent potential for overcoming for eternal life. We have been misled by the focus on his divinity, we have overlooked the fact that he focused on our divinity. He said in effect, you can do what I do, if you have faith, if you make the decision, the decision for Christ. But this is simply a decision to accept the Christ in yourself to follow Jesus's guidance and make the same discovery of the unity in yourself that he had found in himself. An English noble woman was for years in mental torment as to whether there was a God because of her uncertainty in the matter. She could find no peace of mind. On one occasion, leaving her home and many babbling guests. She went alone into the forest. There she cried aloud, Dear God, if there'll be a God revealed myself to me, and at once she seemed to hear a voice saying, quote, act as if I were, and now shall know that I am. And this changed her life, and she found great peace. This is an important key to understanding Jesus's teachings that have been so greatly confused. Jesus knew that he must realize his unity with God and that he must act the part of this unity actually act as if he were the only begotten Son of God. So we find him saying, I and the Father are One, I am the bread of life, I am the light of the world, I am the door of the sheep. I am the good shepherd, I am the resurrection and the life I am the way the truth and the life I am the true vine. And in a 24 we read except you believe that I am he he shall die in your sins, then shall ye know that I am he be here the word but hear the word he is not found in the original manuscript at all. The early translator were translators were puzzled by the absence of an object and thus they simply assume that a word was missing. They changed the statement, except he believed that I am to read, except he believed that I am he busted the translator. translators unwittingly seal off the true meaning making the Gospels infer that Jesus was a special dispensation of God. To the unknown element. It just didn't make sense. But Jesus knew that I am. Makes the only kind of sense. It is man's attempt to relate himself with the absolute to affirm his basic unity with the infinite. And Jesus made this basic affirmation over and over. Jesus did not affirm I am the resurrection and the life because he knew he was greater than death. He became victorious over death because he affirmed I am the resurrection and the life he was after all man becoming god man on the quest man in the process of overcoming, he was climbing the ladder of truth on the strength of his repeated declaration of unity. I am the truth. Jesus was saying, john 824 again, if you do not realize your basic unity with the infinite if you do not consciously identify yourself with the truth, through affirming I am, you will be relating yourself to all the material things and conditions of the world, which will bring a focus of confusion that will lead to deterioration. And if you declare, I am tired, I am fearful and afraid you will die in your sins, to make this great decision to relate yourself To the infinite and to act as if you were the only begotten Son requires a complete change in your way of thinking. As the sign says, You must repent, turn back and be transformed completely in consciousness. This is the theme of Jesus discourse found in john three one through 15 Jesus's discussion with Nicodemus, a strict versi and a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling body of the time of Jesus, the Kadima said, Rabbi, we know that you are an inspired teacher for no one can do the things you have done except God be with him. And Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be born a new he cannot see the kingdom of God than academia. Suppose the arguments of the integral intellectual man, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus is shocked that a man is so versed in the religion of the prophets would not understand this, that a man so versed in the religion of the prophets would not understand this principle of rebirth. Don't miss this important point in the Gospel teaching it is the foundation on which the whole religion of Jesus is built. Jesus later said, except you turn and become as little children, you shall in no one and no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18 three, he was preceded by john the practice Baptist who preached repent, he for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Matthew three two, and he was followed by Paul said, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Romans 12 to a careful study of word origin reveals an amazing similarity between the words born again, repent, turn and transform. conversion is a term usually used, but unfortunately, it means its meaning is normally limited to the simple cancelling of membership in one set and subscribing to a new set of custom made convictions. The essential unity of meaning and all these terms is in the context of change, thinking differently, or awakening. The essential unity of meaning and all these terms is in the context of change. thinking differently, or awakening, perhaps nothing expresses it quite as meaningfully as he must be born anew. It is not easy for me to contemplate something as abstract and non material as Jesus's kingdom of heaven we find ourselves thinking in terms of time and space, where is it When will it come? It is not easy for a man in human consciousness to conceive of himself as a spiritual being. He may well have been conditioned through his early years to accept Jesus as divine the Son of God, but to make the decision for Christ in himself to believe in his own divinity, to determine to think and act from the standpoint of his own innate spiritual unity with God. That is not easy. I just have two more pages. Maybe a little bit more. So Jesus said, You must be born anew. The physicist is eventually born a new into a world of atoms and particles. The medical researcher is born in New into a world of white. I don't know what that means and hemoglobin and DNA, and actors born anew into a world of theater of stage and lights and grease paint and make believe man must be born in New if he is going to achieve a meaningful realization of his own divinity and of the kingdom of God within him. Everyone who turns to religion is motivated by the deep seated are to let his divinity transcend his humanity to express more of what he is of what he errantly is, Jesus's role, if we see it in the context of this great idea of the divinity of man was to prove to me What man can be. And he says, Don't delude yourself. There's only one way that you can release your potential you must be changed, you must be born a new, what is the principle of this change? If this new life this new birth, could come to one person, that it must be possible to all and it is possible to all because all men are spiritual beings, whether they know it or not, and whether they act the part or not, man is born as a physical being but the physical is only the shell of the spiritual man which he is and always has been. Consider the lowly caterpillar. It is self evident that the caterpillar and the butterfly live in entirely different worlds and no one would ever say that a caterpillar is a butterfly with a Butterfly is a caterpillar and yet we know that the caterpillar and the butterfly are simply different levels of expression of one entity. The caterpillar can fly. I'm sorry. Yeah, the caterpillar can fly but not as a caterpillar only as a butterfly. He has the potential but something has to happen to him. You can do the things Jesus did, but not as the man you are now. Only when you are born a new into a higher state of consciousness. a caterpillar looked up and saw colorful butterfly flitting around, he shook his head ruefully and said, they'll never get me up in one of those contraptions and they never will either. The caterpillar just cannot get up and flight. Yet as the caterpillar changes, it's an embodiment. It enters into a new world. Suddenly, there's a whole new set of principles at work and he releases a whole new potential reality. In human consciousness, man is involved in all sorts of limitations, sin, disease, privation, I don't know what that means. And in the consciousness, all the things that Jesus did were absolutely miraculous. Look at as a lowly worm of the dust would see, just imagine turning water into wine, feeding 5000 hungry people with a few loaves and fishes, healing people, lame and blind since birth, impossible, or at least miraculous and beyond duplication. yet Jesus dealt continuously with the higher nature of man, he healed and helped to transform people by the power of their own higher nature, not by any special power of his own. Jesus knew that everyone had within him the divine level of being and that in the divinity of man is the limitless potential of healing. It is because of the Divine potential within you that it can be said regardless of any medical prognosis, you can be healed. Regardless of what evaluation we make of our lives from the human level. There is that in us that transcends the human. Now you can't make a butterfly out of a caterpillar and you can't make an egg spread its wings and flew easily over a canyon. More than this, you can't make a good man out of a bad man. This is logical on the human level of evaluation. But in a way beyond knowing the caterpillar becomes a cocoon and then breaks loose into a winged creature of the air and the actual breaks in the bird steps forth and the evil man suddenly sees a new potential in himself, and begins to act upon that potential. When we know the truth of this great spiritual potential within us, which Jesus called the kingdom of God within, we are free to become our unlimited self free to do unlimited things. We see things in different light, we react to a different set of principles, we draw upon a higher potential, a potential that has always been within us, which has always really been us. The road talks about this and one of his most lucid moments. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours, he will put something behind will pass an invisible boundary new universal, and more liberal laws will begin to establish themselves around and within him. Or the old laws be expanded and interpreted in his favor in a more liberal sense, and he will live with a license of a higher order of beings. The fourth be with you. That was in the book, but I felt like I should say, say her said it. I've said it. To return to the question must I make a decision for Christ? The answer is yes. But with a more deeply mystical meaning shown of the emotionalism which relates to the personality of Jesus most or many people find comfort and strength and inspiration, the emotional accepted acceptance of Jesus as their personal Savior. And this is good, there is much to be gained by a deeper inner feeling of fellowship with the master. For we do not want to infer here that the fundament mentalist or event evangelists Krishna is wrong. He is laying hold of Jesus at a very vital and helpful point. But our thesis here is that this is not the high level of consciousness that Jesus had in mind when he said, Follow me. We must begin to see Jesus as the great discoverer of the innate divinity of man, the Supreme revealer of the truth about man, the pioneer and the way show are in the quest for self realization and self unfoldment. We must see him turning to his fellow beings including you and me and saying, Come and sit with me for a while and let me help you to see as I see, to feel the depth of the Spirit in you as I have felt it within me. Let me show you the way the high road to your own Mount Olympus. Let me leave You into the wonderful world of the Christ within you where you will know and know that you that you know that you are a limitless expression of the infinite. And I can assure you that when you realize the truth as I have realized it, you will be able to do all the things I have done, and even greater things will you do. But you must still make that great decision to affirm your unity with the infinite you must still believe that I am and then work tirelessly, tirelessly to act the part you must claim your freedom realizing that it does not mean doing what you like. But becoming what you should try. That was good. I'm gonna go back. But you must still make that great decision to affirm your unity with the infinite you must still believe that I am and then work tirelessly to act the part, you must claim your freedom, realizing that it does not mean doing what you like, but becoming what you should. Emily, Katie says, oh, how in our ignorance we have mistaken and misunderstood God in consequence of which we are today, pygmies when he wanted to make us giants in love and health and power by manifesting more of himself through us, we would not let him because we have been afraid to say, have thy way in me, manifest thyself through me as thou as powerful. He wanted to make us giants in love and health in power by manifesting more of himself through us. We would not let him because we have been afraid to say, have they weigh in me, manifest myself through me as we may use a phrase like going like God, actually, this is little more than a platitude until we make a conscious decision to let God really take over in every area of our lives. We may be slow to make this decision because we do not realize that it is a decision. In other words, there's a lot more involved than simply saying to ourselves, maybe God can handle this better than I can, if he has any good ideas on the subject, but we'll be glad to consider them. It is a matter of earnest resolve to see ourselves in a new light, the light of the Christ and have our own unique unity with God. And then it is the determination to act as if I were and I shall know that I am. That is the great decision. That is the sacred Yes, I added that last sentence by the way. I am confident that there are non Christian students on the quest to maybe reading these lines to you may I say don't fight the words Jesus or Christ it is the idea the spiritual truth the divine relationship that counts, getting hold of the Christian dynamic even if you mentally substitute the words force, aha, genius potential or any concepts that are meaningful to you. startling as it may sound, a man may hug Jesus to his breast and emotional adoration and still miss the dynamic that Jesus came to reveal. While another man may deny that Jesus ever lived in still catch the essence of his great truth. As for me, fellowship with Jesus is invaluable in helping me to learn of him to know the truth as he knew it. But I am convinced that accepting Jesus is not indispensable to the question the student, to the student on the quest I'm sorry. The important goal for all is to find our unity with God. achieve that unity and we will be doing as he did, even if we do not believe in Jesus. Don't confuse the concept of affirming the Christ within you with the traditional acceptance of Jesus Christ Jesus is the man who became divine through discovery of the dynamic that is innate within all men, but Christ is the self livingness of God at the point of man. This is the unit of relationship between God and man. Jesus became so conscious of this Christ relationship, that eventually we cannot tell what one began and the other left off. Thus he became Jesus Christ, a legend, but more than this, a state of consciousness. You and I can enter that state of consciousness. In the end, we must do so perhaps through following the stream of conscious created by Jesus, perhaps through intuitively finding the way as he found the way but we must all make the decision to for the highest of declaim the Divinity within us. That was from discover the car with regard to the unexplored steps with key people. May the force be with you, except for your sparkle. Surrender to it to be so, Until then, keep shining