The Big Picture
Rev. June C. Miller
Many people believe that, on some level, we create our experience of reality with our thoughts and beliefs. That is one of the teachings of Unity and it’s the best current knowledge of many in today’s new scientific community. But we can’t take ANY teaching in isolation. If we are to believe that we create our experience, there is a question we need to ask. Do we create ALL of our experiences? Are we fully responsible for everything that happens to us? Does God create in a separate way from human beings? We also have to realize that we’re talking about creating our EXPERIENCES of reality and not REALITY itself.
The universe is vast and awesome. My mind can only take in a tiny perspective. But the picture I see is this. Think of all the stars and all the galaxies – think of the sun and the moon and their influence on our small planet – think of all the plants and animals on our planet. Think of all the plants and animals that have ever been on our planet.
Think of the weather patterns and geological changes that have occurred on our planet. Remember that the sun and the moon and other planets and galaxies have influenced everything that has ever happened on Planet Earth.
Think of all the people who have ever lived on our planet. Each person, their experiences, their perceptions, their beliefs, their actions and thoughts and emotions have affected everyone. They have affected, not just those around them, but those at a great distance. They have affected everyone both directly and indirectly. And they have affected those in the future. They have affected you.
Think of Spirit – the underlying force and power – that is both within us, within everything, and in the space between us. Think of Spirit, before there was any THING or any form. There was consciousness beyond our imagination before there any form.
Think of Spirit, within that Great Bang. It was not outside of it, but as part of it. There was once nothing but God or Consciousness or SPIRIT – whatever you choose to call it – before there was any THING. Was there purpose in that explosion into form? I personally believe so. But that is a matter of opinion.
Everything that has ever been has affected everything else. Everything that IS now has been affected by everything that has been. Everyone affects everyone else. Yes, we create our own reality or our own experience of reality. But it’s much larger and more complex than that.
The big picture can appear chaotic, depending on your point of view. Or it can appear orderly and more in harmony than our imagination can conceive.
It can appear to be going nowhere or round and round – perhaps slowing down and ready to die. Or it can appear to be building and building toward an evolutionary goal beyond our current understanding.
If you can grasp the whole of it, all parts moving together, all parts needed and all parts fitting in and all parts affecting all the other parts –like an enormous orchestra– whose echoes of past sound are still resonating – and the concerto growing and growing – it might help. You can’t listen to one note or even one moment with all the notes of all the instruments and hear music. You must hear the whole, together, in time.
The whole of creation – including the outer and inner dimensions, past, present and future dimensions, heights and depths of it – are perfectly moving and perfectly organized. We are in it. We are of it. We are part of it. We are it. God is in it and of it. God is it. And the whole of it is moving together with a harmony that is beyond comprehension.
There is no outside of it. You can’t stand outside and look in at it.
This is a RESPONDING UNIVERSE. The form of the universe is malleable. Nothing is solid. Every THING is made up of moving bits of energy. The energy can take any form. It responds to consciousness to take its form.
We are the life form of the original consciousness and are each like drops of water in a great ocean or each like parts of the harmony of a great orchestra. Everything we do affects the whole. Even just looking at something affects it. Each awareness we have affects the one who is aware and what it is aware OF.
Our thoughts, feelings, attitudes, deep inclinations, hopes and dreams all comes to play. Each aspect of us elicits a response from the whole. And each aspect of us affects the whole.
The whole universe, or the consciousness at the heart of it all, responds to every part. The physical universe can change, according to the consciousness that is affecting it. It, the universe, responds to us – to our beliefs, to our consciousness as well as to our needs. If we have a need and we open, there is a response. We, also, respond. The whole universal life is a giving and receiving and flowing. What we are open to, we receive. And what we give, we receive.
From deep within us, we emit, we give forth of who we are. We are constantly creating. Each of us has a creative force that is unique. We give out from where we are in consciousness, where we are in awareness, and where we are in our hearts and that is reflected back to us from the world. So we could say that our experience of reality is a mirror, as well as a creation. We create. But until we recognize how we create, we usually continue to hold the same beliefs and get upset about what we see in our world.
Where is God? God is centered in every part of the whole. God is the deep underlying power and source of all. God is the origin and God is the goal and God is the responder. We are a part of God, inseparable, and often unaware of our relationship. God is the eternal truth under, as well as in, all the movement. God is the very breath we take.
We are the art and the artist. God is not creating in a separate way from us. We are God’s very substance.
There are those who awaken to how they create. When they discover the relationship of their beliefs to what they are experiencing in the world, they often begin to make changes in their beliefs.
In the beginning stages of this work, it can be very exciting. Some people discover that they can get a parking place, when they used to drive around looking for a very long time. Others find that they can get over a cold very quickly. And some find that they can have enough prosperity to pay their bills at the end of the month. This initial excitement can go on for years.
One question that is often not asked is, “how long would it take to get where we want to go – assuming you have some idea where you want to go – if we continued to work on each piece as it came to our attention?” There are other questions that are often not asked for many years. For instance, how many people affect us? How many beliefs do we have? How much history do we have?
Changing our lives belief by belief, thought by thought, can become overwhelming. For many people, this becomes a way of life. They simply live their lives. But when life becomes uncomfortable, they work on their beliefs concerning that particular discomfort. For some other people, there is a crisis of faith. They simply see that the work is impossible for them and they either doubt the underlying premise of being creative or they just give up. There are usually fewer who have the realization that changing their lives on their own is a process that they simply can’t do completely. But since they have realized that it’s possible, they continue to look for a way.
There is a way. And to really accept the way takes a realization about where we have been creating FROM. Most people have been creating their experience from the level of their being that is called the ego. The ego is also called the conditioned self or the false self. It is the aspect of the self that took on beliefs handed down to them from their parents and the culture in which they were raised.
But that aspect of the self is not the true person. There are depths to us that most of us have rarely touched. There are dimensions to this universe far beyond what we can know with our five senses.
There is a creative power within each one of us. This creative power is at the core of the universe, as well as at the core of each person. This creative force can re-form all that is. If we are open to it, it can re-create what we have created from the ego level. It can take us to our depths, to what is real, to what is our essential nature. At this essential level, our core, is the very creative force itself. This creative force at the core of everything is the true ground of our being. It is not our form, but is awareness itself. It is the eye through which we see and not that which is seen. What most people know as their lives is simply their experience of reality, which is a projection of what they believe. And what most people know as their lives is the ever changing thoughts that react to every experience, with story upon story about what it means to their sense of identity.
The deep creative power is the very core of everything that is. It can be touched at our own core. This power, often called God or Spirit, is everywhere present. It is in all things and is the connecting link of all life.
How do we get in touch with that power? How do we stop trying to re-create our lives piecemeal and let that deep part of us do the awesome creative work that is possible?
We ask and we open. This is a responding universe. Form is malleable. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive.” Asking is a form of being open. We can ask by saying, “May Thy will be done.” The deeper power responds. As we are open, the truth filters up through the levels of our consciousness.
This creative power at our core is not an outside power to which we’re giving our lives. It is our true home. This is your essential nature, the core of your being – which is part of the core of everything that is. And it responds.
If you want to know your true self and if you want what is really for your highest and your best, there are many portals or methods for entering that deepest self. But one of the most efficient ways is to turn the conditioned part of the mind over to the deepest mind and power. This power is often called God Mind, God, Spirit, The True Self, The All in All or your Christ Self.
When someone asked Jesus to be healed, he often said, “Your sins are forgiven.” A re-formation of the past creations was done and karma was reversed.
When we ask, “May thy will be done,” that is always for the highest and best for everyone and everything. It is always in harmony with the whole, even though we can’t always see it.
The next thing we need to do is be receptive. We need to ask and also be open. Sometimes that doesn’t need to be anything more than, “Yes, God.” This permission or receptivity is an acceptance, non-resistance and listening. It is a willingness to allow change. It is also a love of the love that permeates all.
In the meantime, the deepest level, God or Spirit is always at work, bringing us everything we need to help us open. It is doing this by synchronicity, by the law of what you do to others is what is done to you, the law of giving and receiving. It works through Karma, showing us that what we give is what we receive. This is an automatic correction system. It helps us become aware of what we are doing and what we are believing.
When we see these laws at work in our lives, there is often a tendency to judge ourselves. But any self condemnation keeps us locked in the same conditioned mind we are trying to escape. So if we look at the events of our lives with non-attachment and with acceptance, even while we are willing to have it change, we are truly open.
There is a deep power at work in us, in our lives and in the lives of all people everywhere. This power is the connecting link between everyone and all of life. It is part of us and it is more than us.
Everything in the universe is working together to bring each person to the fullness of love, which is the nature of God.
This may be too much to conceptually comprehend. But we really don’t have to understand it. All we really have to do is sincerely turn to the highest and the deepest we know and ask.
And from that deeper level we begin to know ourselves to actually be an overflowing cup. We know ourselves to be a channel of effortless supply. Actually, we already are those things, but have not realized it.
This is the North Penisula Unity Center in Kingston, Washington, where all are welcome. We would love to have you visit, and to have you call us your, “Your Spiritual Home.”