Serenity's Weekly Spiritual Quote: Insight into choice

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CL 12, which was published in Volume 9 of The Living Light Dialogue. This quote is part of a response to a question from the congregation regarding what Mr. Goodwin said about a soul making choices.

 

"The power that is, is what we understand to be truth. We also understand that soul is not spirit, but it is the covering of spirit. And that that is covering is form and therefore it must respond to the laws of form, which are duality or choice. We understand that God—call it what you will—Infinite Intelligence does not choose. That it just is. That it always has been. That it always will be. That choice exists in what we understand to be form. For God is one, not two, and, therefore, is beyond choice. Choice exists in soul. Choice exists in body. Choice exists in creation, for choice is the Law of Creation. It has been often stated that God’s manifestation is variety, and look at nature. And indeed it is.

So in reference to your question, Did we choose soul? I can only say that that which is beyond soul, known as Spirit, is not choice. It just is. Our soul chooses, in a sense, its incarnation. It chooses it like we choose anything. We make a decision, which is a choice, but once having made that decision, we cannot escape the laws governing the decision that we have made.

There is not, to my understanding, a haphazard choosing of incarnation on the evolutionary scale. It is a matter of moment-to-moment choosing. And once making that choice, we are guaranteed, our soul, to incarnate into certain bodies, certain circumstances, at certain times. But man is never left without his choice. He must fulfill what he chose yesterday, but he has this moment of eternity to set into motion new choices, new sets of circumstances, new laws. But he is ever governed by the laws that he set into motion yesterday and the day before."

 

 

The winners of the drawing have been selected and notified. As it was with the previous years, this year the winners were located throughout the world.  One was in Tibet. Another was in California. And a couple of books were mailed to South Africa. It is quite a thing to see these beautiful teachings being appreciated throughout the world. If your name wasn't drawn, be sure to try next year's drawing.

For those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.

 

If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request.

I am happy to report that the issues around the Google mail accounts have been resolved and that those who have those accounts are again receiving Serenity's weekly emails. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam.

 

Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website www.livinglight.org

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Russell Fitzgerald

Vice President

Serenity Association

P.O. Box 4187

San Rafael, California  94913

 

 

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Serenity's Weekly Spiritual Quote: Insight into self-discipline

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CQA 11, which was published in Volume 10 of The Living Light Dialogue. The CQA series of classes were given as part of the Serenity Spiritualist Church devotional services, which were attended by both the students of this philosophy and members of the general public.

 

"We have a statement in this philosophy that says, “O suffer senses not in vain for freedom of thy soul is gain.” Now, when we hear the word suffer and suffering, I don’t know of anyone who smiles and appears to be pleased at what it brings up in their mind. What does suffering mean to our mind? To most of us, if not all of us, it means deprivation, pain, doing without the things we desire—doing without the things we desire. That’s what it means to our mind. What does it reveal to us? If in the experience of not having the things we desire in the moment we desire them, that causes us suffering, then it reveals to us that we have lost control of our mind. We alone have lost control.

We look at a child and the child has a desire. Perhaps it wants a new fire engine. And any mother, any parent knows when the child has the desire, you have to do something, because if you don’t, the child will certainly do something to you. Because you alone allow it. Now we look at children and we justify, “Well, they’re only a little child. They’re just a child.” They have a desire. They want it fulfilled this minute, the moment they experience the desire. Not next month and, God forbid, not next year. Right now. It doesn’t matter whether or not you have the money to purchase the item to fulfill their desire; that means nothing to the child’s mind. It doesn’t matter that you can’t get the money right away, that you’ll have to work for several months to earn it; that matters nothing to the child’s mind. The child only knows that it, number one, has a desire; number two: that something inside of its mind demands that the desire be fulfilled; and number three: the demand is now. Right now. So we justify and we excuse the children. For we say to our self, “Well, they’re only little children. They haven’t had the experiences of life as we have had.”

But then we look around the world and we see these little, wild children in great, big, adult bodies, and we wonder what has happened. [Many in the congregation laugh.] Where did the growing stop? Was it at the second year? Or the fifth? Or the seventh? At what point did these people stop growing mentally, emotionally? When did they stop? We must ask our self that question. For the same experience, the demand for the fulfillment of the desire right now, without the slightest interest in how it shall be fulfilled is still taking place 40, 50, 60, 70 years later, because the effort to become aware of the mechanics of our own mind has not been made.

And so we see many adults filling the psychiatric couches in the world because of what is known as frustration. In this philosophy it’s called the frustration years of the forties, for that’s when, usually, man takes a look and says, “Look at all the desires I have and have had that are not yet fulfilled. I’ve got to go back to when I was twenty. Somehow I’ve got to get back there to make up for all that lost time. To experience the fulfillment of all these desires that I’ve had to be great.” My good friends, there’s something within all of us that’s already great. What is there in the chasing of being great? That’s the illusion. Our mind doesn’t know what that greatness is, but that greatness is there. It’s greater than anything in the universe, for it is a part of the Infinite.

And so, the one thing I’m sure we’ll all agree on, we all need, badly need what is called discipline, so we don’t have to suffer. Discipline, self-discipline. For without it, there’s no self-control. And without self-control, there is no freedom, there is no fulfillment. So if you want to stop the suffering that you experience in life, start the self-discipline and the suffering you’ll no longer experience.”

 

For those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.

 

If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request.

I am happy to report that the issues around the Google mail accounts have been resolved and that those who have those accounts are again receiving Serenity's weekly emails. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam.

 

Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website www.livinglight.org

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Russell Fitzgerald

Vice President

Serenity Association

P.O. Box 4187

San Rafael, California  94913

 

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Serenity's Weekly Spiritual Quote: All of life is an effect

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class CC 187, which was published in Volume 7 of The Living Light Dialogue.

 

"As new students to the philosophy, you must remember that all of life is an effect. It’s an effect of our attitude. It’s an effect of our thought. And so when we begin our study along the spiritual path, if we will first accept the living demonstration that we, and we alone, are responsible for all experience in our life, that qualifies us in that moment to make whatever changes are necessary in order that we may grow and expand in this universal consciousness.

If we refuse to accept that demonstrable truth—that life is reacting to our own thought patterns—then we are stunted in our growth, but remember, my friends, not forever. Because evolution is inevitable. And evolution is only made possible through the Law of Change. So we understand that through repetition, the Law of Change is made possible. And therefore, do not be discouraged if the lessons that you are given are repeated in your lives over and over and over again, because that is what is necessary for you in order to grow and, in time, be free. Remember, no one and no thing outside can give you freedom. You cannot be given what you already have. No one and no thing can give you truth, for you cannot be given what you already have. You already have freedom. You already have truth. It is simply a matter of, once again, finding it inside of yourself, because that’s the only place that it exists.

As we go through our daily experiences in life, we are frequently tempted to put the blame of the experience, the credit, upon another’s shoulders. But in so doing, we must ever be aware that by doing that we are giving our freedom and our truth into the control of another human being. Whenever we blame outside, we establish the very law that puts us into bondage and we are controlled by that level of consciousness. That, I personally believe, is man’s greatest struggle: giving away his eternal freedom, giving away his eternal truth by placing responsibility for his life outside of his own universe. We are so frequently tempted to do that because it seems that, to our mind, it’s easier to do that than to face those patterns of our mind that must be changed, that will, in time, be changed."

 

For those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.

 

If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request.

I am happy to report that the issues around the Google mail accounts have been resolved and that those who have those accounts are again receiving Serenity's weekly emails. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam.

 

Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website www.livinglight.org

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Russell Fitzgerald

Vice President

Serenity Association

P.O. Box 4187

San Rafael, California  94913

 

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Serenity's Weekly Spiritual Quote: Insight into getting upset

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class A/V Special Seminar, which will be published in Volume 12 of The Living Light Dialogue. The annual drawing is now closed and winners will soon be notified. I would like to thank all those who entered and for the many who expressed appreciation for these teachings.

 

"You see, change, we find to be difficult for us because when we go to make a change in our life and a change in our thinking, we have a battle with all of the patterns of mind, with all of the forms that we have directed so much energy to over a lifetime. If you take a person that, for example, is used to getting up at a certain time every morning, is used to having a toothbrush to brush their teeth, and you put them over on an island and they have to wake up at a different time every morning and they don’t get to brush their teeth every morning, you get to have a reaction, you see. The person doesn’t feel right and they get upset, in anything. What is it that’s upset? They’re not upset. Their identification, through belief, that they are the form—all of those patterns, all those forms they have created, that’s who is upset, and you are experiencing that. That’s all. That’s the only thing that’s upset."

For those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.

 

If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request.

I am happy to report that the issues around the Google mail accounts have been resolved and that those who have those accounts are again receiving Serenity's weekly emails. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam.

 

 

Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website www.livinglight.org

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Russell Fitzgerald

Vice President

Serenity Association

P.O. Box 4187

San Rafael, California  94913

 

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Serenity's Weekly Spiritual Quote: How we start to gain control and the drawing

 

 

Dear Friends,

 

This week's quote is from spiritual awareness class A/V Special Seminar, which will be published in Volume 12 of The Living Light Dialogue. Also, the annual drawing is open and I invite everyone to enter, and for information on that, please see below.

 

"Now, for example, you have a desire. You’ve got to have it fulfilled. You go through that experience and you get all frustrated and it’s not fulfilled yet. What happens within your consciousness? This form, this desire based upon past experiences, runs you all over the universe to fill it. And if you still don’t get it filled, it tells you in your mind, “You either do that or else!” And the next step you have is a compulsion to do it. Then, after the compulsion, the very next step is an absolute possession. Either you fill that desire or you become a total nervous wreck.

Now tell me something, is that you? Why, of course, that’s not you! No intelligent person would tell themselves, after the desire is filled, that that was them. In fact, they would say the experience never met the expectation at all. How could it possibly? There’s no way you could put that much energy, which has been directed to frustration and running all over the universe to fill the desire, into one short moment. There’s no way possible. It’d be like the nuclear bomb. You’d blow yourself up. No, no, no.

So let us think about these things for what they really are, not what we believe they are. Number one: they are not us. But they are things that we have created. We’re responsible to them. We have the intelligence to say, “No, no. I choose not to do that. If you bother me again, I’ll let you have it. Don’t tell me who’s having what!”

You see, it’s just like smoking or any habit. For years and years I’ve tried to teach my students and to demonstrate when you want something really bad, when it’s just about causing you to have an epileptic attack, say, “No. Five minutes. And if you bother me in that five minutes, I’ll give you another five minutes.” That’s when you start to gain control.

The Living Light Philosophy does not teach nor does it demonstrate that you must do without the goodness of life. If you in your evolution have decided, based upon your experience, that you enjoy a cup of coffee or that you enjoy a cigarette or that you enjoy these various things of creation, there’s nothing wrong with that if you are awake, aware, and alert. Because you must face the truth that, “This feeling of goodness that I am experiencing, that’s God. I have, however, limited this goodness or God to doing this particular thing.” Now if you have the intelligent awakening of that truth, you’ll have no problem. You decide. “All right. I wish to experience this goodness, this feeling, through this avenue of expression. However, my God, my God is not such a small God that that’s the only way that he may enter my universe. Oh, no! I can do that if I choose or I don’t have to because I will still experience the goodness, the God, that is my divine right, that is within me.” Now if you look at all of these things that way, intelligently, then you’re not going to be trapped, frustrated, dependent upon, and the victim of these forms of creation. Because, you see, then you may experience God in that way or that way or that way, but you will never be left without experiencing the goodness of life, the joy of living. For, you see, creation is everywhere. It is not limited—God is not limited to any particular avenue for you to experience the goodness of life."

 

   

 

I am pleased to announce the annual drawing to commemorate the birth and the passing on of the founder of Serenity, Mr. Richard Goodwin is open. The prizes for the drawing are 5 copies of Volume 1 of The Living Light Dialogue.  That is, there will be 5 winners and each winner will be mailed a copy of Volume 1. The drawing will close on February 28, 2019. All are welcomed to enter---just respond to any of the weekly emails saying that you would like to enter. There is no cost to enter. The expense associated with purchasing and mailing the volumes is covered by donations from the members and friends of Serenity. In order to be fair, only one entry per email address will be allowed. In the first week of March, the winners will be drawn. The winners will then be notified by email and asked to provide a mailing address so that their copy of Volume 1 can be mailed to him or her.  If a winner does not provide a mailing address in a timely manner, a new name will be drawn. If the winner of the drawing already has Volume 1, then he or she may choose any other published volume. As soon as all copies have been mailed to the winners, their names and countries of residence will be announced in this weekly email. This drawing is being sponsored in order to make these beautiful teachings more available to those who are seeking. And I think this is a beautiful way to honor and commemorate Mr. Goodwin.

  

For those who are new to Serenity, you will find recent quotes on Serenity's Facebook Fanpage and that is also where you can join students of the Living Light from around the world to ask questions and share your understanding. I hope you will join the conversation.

 

If you have any topics you would like addressed in these weekly emails, please feel free to email your request.

Recently Serenity has received quite a number of returned or bounced email messages, indicating that some people did not receive our weekly emails. This is particularly true for gmail accounts. Steps are being taken to authenticate our emails so that gmail account holders may again receive our emails. To ensure that you consistently receive Serenity's weekly emails, be sure to add Serenity's email address to your contacts and your white list. This will help ensure that the emails are not treated as spam.

 

 

Additional information on these teachings is available on Serenity's website www.livinglight.org

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

Russell Fitzgerald

Vice President

Serenity Association

P.O. Box 4187

San Rafael, California  94913

 

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