Oasis Rising Center Audio and more... Weekly  Lesson  Talks Guided  Meditations Prayers and more ...

Come Celebrate Life with us!

Come Celebrate With Us every Sunday:

Meditation 10:45 am
Celebration at 11am

Join us:

Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89125

Enjoy another wonderful text by Rev. Phil Smedsted, minister Emeritus of Oasis Rising Center

Come and enjoy talks at our Sunday Services or get a midweek pickup on Wednesday at 6mp

 

Phil Smedstad's texts are one of the ways Oasis Rising Center supports members.

A Positive Path for Spiritual Living

Oasis Rising Center Spiritual Center
Oasis Rising Center 8125 West Sahara Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89125
(702) 804-8189
_______________________________________________

“Raising Your Upper Limits”

  By Rev. Phillip Smedstad

In an earlier day, there was a saying in AA circles:  “People have to hit rock bottom before they can be helped.”  Then, several years ago, at the Hazelden Institute in Minnesota, people began to question this idea.

These counselors said to each other, “What if we found a way to show an alcoholic what effect he or she is having on his/her family, business associates, friends, etc.?”  Thus was born the concept of the “Intervention” (where all the closest people to the alcoholic meet with him/her to do just that – show the alcoholic what effect his/her drinking and behavior is having on their lives).

In this situation, the alcoholic’s life would no longer have to continue to keep going down hill.  He or she could have a new and higher “bottom.”
As I thought about this, it occurred to me to ask, “What if the same concept could apply to us all?  What if we all could raise the “bottom point” of what we want to tolerate in life?

Prior to my own transformation, I had a high tolerance for suffering (which the mystics have been telling us throughout the ages is our number one addiction), and a pretty low tolerance for love and joy.  I had a low “upper limit” on how much good I could tolerate.

My “go to” way to keep love away was to have judgments, or critical thoughts, of other people.  I didn’t consciously know I was doing this, but instead of letting someone get close enough to love me, I would find something “wrong” with him or her – something to judge.

Without knowing it, I was living a life based on fear and protection.  I have since learned that the way for life to be all it can be is for us to lay down our shields.

In A Course In Miracles there is a big focus on releasing our fear of love.  There is also a big focus on releasing our fear of being “all we came here to be.”

As you probably know, the number one fear of people in our country is public speaking.  It certainly was mine at one point.  On my way to become a student at Unity’s ministerial school, I actually hoped they offered a course of study in which I would never have to take speech classes.
Am I ever glad they didn’t have such a course of study!  For the past 40 years, I have enjoyed public speaking immensely.  My fear of public speaking was actually “fun in disguise.”

Through the years, I’ve discovered the same thing is true about a lot of our fears:

• Our fear of intimacy is fun in disguise.
• Our fear of love is fun in disguise.
• Our fear of commitment is fun in disguise.
• Our fear of self-expression is fun in disguise, and especially,
• Our fear of God is fun in disguise.

We all have a choice.  We can either live a life of protection and defense, or we can live a life of love, creativity, and self-expression.

The philosopher Tacitus once said, “The desire for safety stands against every great enterprise.”  And it was Ralph Waldo Emerson who first said, “Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain.”

People who live a life with all the love, aliveness, and self-expression they can aren’t fearless.  They just don’t believe that their fears are real.  They feel the fear, take a breath, and go ahead anyway.

A Course In Miracles tells us that none of our fears are real, because we aren’t bodies which contain a mind.  We are “spirit beings” who are having a “body experience” for a few years.

This means that living a life of protection is a wasted opportunity.  There’s a song with a line which says, “Ships are safer in the harbor, but is that what ships are for?”  Of course, the answer to that is no.  Both for ships and for us.

Two of the biggest symptoms of living a fear-based life (along with being as judgmental as I was) are trying to be in control and constantly finding reasons not to commit.

These symptoms are products of living from a false sense of self.  Our true, divine selves know that fear isn’t real.  They have no need of shields, protection, or defenses.  Our real selves simply want to fully experience life.  They want to live, to love, and to be loved.

A Course In Miracles says two more powerful things on this subject.  It says, “If I defend myself I am attacked.”  This is because when we defend ourselves we can only be in our ego mind.  When we’re in our ego mind, we attack others, and we always reap what we sow.

It also says, “In my defenselessness my safety lies.”  This is because when we’re defenseless, we can only be in our right mind.  When we’re in our right mind, we extend love, and we always reap what we sow.

What makes it possible to release our defenses is practicing a couple of Unity’s basic principles:

•  There really is just one Presence and one Power in the universe.  This means that there can be nothing and no one against us.
• Nothing happens to us unless we ask for it in some way.  And, with each creation, there is always a gift we want to receive from it.

Allen Cohen, in one of his books, said, “Life will get as good as you can stand it.”  So, this week, If you find yourself believing you need to either protect or defend yourself, remind yourself that this fear isn’t real – because you are an eternal spirit being.

As the famous book title says, “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway.”  You deserve for life to be all it can be for you.