Spiritual awakening through creation-based spirituality and Original Blessings

I was asked to speak at the Mornington Spiritualist Church on Easter Sunday and because of the meaning of the day my guides began chatting about what the day represented. Here is what I wrote for the day.

The world today is built on the idea of Original Sin, or rather the original error. First written about by St Augustine of Hippo, the concept is drawn from christian theology that we are inherently evil or have the tendency to evil. Our sinfulness was inherited from Adam and Eve during the Fall from grace, where the first

man and women transitioned from innocence obedience of God to a state of guilty disobedience.

Quite the guilt trip.

The idea of Original Sin accepts that sin is real and fully justified.

But what if it isn’t true? What if we weren’t born of Original Sin and instead born of Joy and Creativity? As co-creators of the Universe, this would certainly make for a better fit.

What if, as Matthew Fox states in his book 'Original Blessings', we were born of Original Blessings and inherently and fundamentally good? How would the world be different?

So many questions but we enter a time when critical thinking is needed and good quality questions must be asked.

If we were born of the Original Blessing then as a co-creator with the Universe we are born with an inherent goodness and connection with the Divine, and as we grow as Spiritual beings we learn to appreciate Awe, Wonder and Gratitude not shame or guilt.

This calls for a Spiritual Reframing of who we think we are. This new idea calls us to:

1. Appreciate Nature and the cosmos we live in - not use it up or change it to suit ourselves
2. There would be a deeper understanding of mysticism … that is, seeking direct, personal experiences of something beyond ordinary reality, often a divine or spiritual connection
3. There would be more social justice in the world, because we would recognise our Spiritual reflection in everyone we meet, transforming relationships and connections
4. We would live in a more creative world because our access the divine would allow creation to flow easily into every experience.

This is why Easter is such an important time to explore more than the quality of chocolate and the historical storytelling.

I like the way ACIM speaks about Easter. The Course treats the idea of Easter as a deeply symbolic spiritual message about resurrection, forgiveness and the nature of human kind and eternal life.

The resurrection is the core element of Easter, not the suffering nor the crucifixion. In fact it is said that Jesus didn’t suffer during the many indignities that he suffered during the trial - the beatings, the crown of thorns.

Jesus did not call out, instead he endured. This is spoken about as him “suffering for our sins”, in fact it was said that

“But many were amazed when they saw Him. His face was so disfigured He seemed hardly human, and from His appearance, one would scarcely know He was a man.”

Isaiah 52:14

But it is also written that despite his tortured appearance he had a serenity about him, a peacefulness that calmed the crowd as he carried the cross up the stairs.

Seen as him suffering for us, instead the ACIM writes that Jesus, in these moments remembered the truth of his Original Blessing and received the Atonement - the correction of perception, that we are indeed children of God, and in that moment he

⁴Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. ⁵Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. (ACIM T-19.IV-D.16:4-5)

As a child of God, we are perfect, eternal, unchanging, and our sinlessness is guaranteed by God. In our making God extended his love shaped by his mind and will to create us. We are perfect reflections of Gods perfection … how can such a thing be changed by a world created within the mind of man, an illusion projected out of the idea of Sin and Guilt, shadows that beat without effect upon the earth.

³For Easter is the sign of peace, not pain. ⁴A slain Christ has no meaning. ⁵But a risen Christ becomes the symbol of the Son of God’s forgiveness on himself; the sign he looks upon himself as healed and whole. (ACIM T-20.I.1:3-5)

When resurrected Jesus did not appear as a ghost, transparent and luminous in the sky, he stood as a man appearing to his disciples for 40 days, teaching and ministering to them, before ascending to heaven.

During this time, he instructed them to spread his teachings and taught them about atonement and true forgiveness. He helped them to understand  difference between becoming immortal and inheriting eternal life - that we are all eternal children of God.

As part of the preparation my talk I was also given a translation of The Aramaic Prayer of Jesus (“The Lord's Prayer”). I thought I would leave you with these final words.

These were the actual words spoken and I found them quite beautiful and wanted to share. With the process of translation and the "sanitising" of the words it has changed greatly and sounds very different to the modern version of the Lords Prayer.

First, this is the traditional prayer …

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done;

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

the power and the glory,

for ever and ever.

Amen.

This is the translated version of the words spoken by Jesus when he gave the prayer …

O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos/ you create all that moves in light.

Focus your light within us--make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.

Create your reign of unity now--through our firey hearts and willing hands.

Your one desire then acts with ours, as in all light, so in all forms.

Grant what we need each day in bread and insight:

subsistence for the call of growing life.

Loose the cords of mistakes binding us, as we release the strands we hold of others' guilt.

Don't let us enter forgetfulness

But free us from unripeness

From you is born all ruling will, the power and the life to do, the song that beautifies all, from age to age it renews.

Truly--power to these statements--

may they be the source from which all my actions grow.

Sealed in trust & faith. Amen.