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[Male] From Unity Church of Christianity in Houston, Texas,
this is The Awakened Life with Reverend Howard Caesar.
Unity is a non-denominational Christian church providing a
positive, practical, and progressive approach to Christianity.
Let's join the service in progress with the Reverend Howard Caesar.
[Reverend Howard Caesar] Today I want to begin with a, sort of, an exercise,
and what I'd like for you to do is kind of consider whether or not you can define space.
In other words, where does space begin, and where does it end?
Right now we are sharing the same space—the same general space—here in the sanctuary.
And we know this space we've been in this space before.
It's familiar to us, and we know this is a building.
And it has walls and ceilings and glass and windows and seats
and all of those kinds of things, and we know what happens in this space pretty much.
We know that there is music, and there is singing, and there is praying.
There is meditating, and there is speaking and sharing
and experiencing the energies of God and hearing the truths of God and these kinds of things.
So we can define the space here and what it is that goes on in it, right?
And we're not threatened by that because we know it.
It is known to us.
And I guess in this field of space in which we live, really,
there are other pockets of space that we know about and are familiar with.
There are the pockets of space like our home; we are very familiar with that. There is our place of work.
It might be school, if we are going to school.
It might be the city itself, if we know our way around the city and that space that we live in.
And we've all traveled to some degree, some more than others,
but we've expanded our experience of space and the space we've been given to live in
by seeing other places and moving beyond our usual boundaries.
So we've experienced life and people and settings and cultures and how things looked and how things happen and I could go on in various other places.
And then we've expanded that even to where we have had men on the moon.
they brought back pictures and we kind of know what's going on on the moon, in that space.
We even have had an instrument that has landed on Mars,
and it's now sending back images of the landscape on Mars as it looks in various directions.
So the reach of humanity's eye is going further and further and further out into space.
And it's space that we all occupy; we're all in this space.
We need to go back to the original question, though. How do you define space?
Where does it begin, and where does it end? Can it be measured?
Is there a width and a length and a height and a depth to this great expanse of space?
Science tells us, basically, that the further out we go in space, we find all kinds of things.
There are trillions and trillions of stars.
There are solar systems and galaxies and planets and the Milky Way, and the universe just extends beyond our ability to measure.
And I suppose that there is a limit to space,
or maybe we could suppose that there is, and imagine that at some point it basically runs out. It stops.
Sort of like Columbus before he proved the difference;
; where we thought the earth was flat and people thought you would come to an end, and you would just drop off.
There was a perspective that went on like that not that long ago on this planet.
There were those who knew better, and they proved different; that that was not so.
And so for us, no matter how far out our thought may want to place the end of space,
our reason, our intuition basically tells us that there must still be something beyond it.
So on and on and on it goes into infinity. Infinity.
And we sort of know that space goes way beyond our current ability to see
and experience what is out there, but we know it's space that's out there, that exists.
We can't see it. We can't necessarily experience it. It's there. It has to be sort of a mystery.
We say that space is infinite.
There's no beginning and there's no end and there's unknown dimension
beyond our ability to see and experience.
We all know that God is commonly referred to as the Infinite. The Infinite.
We cannot define where God begins and where God leaves off.
Or where God began and how far God's reach extends.
But we know that God is creator of it all. That God fills all that space. All space. An amazing expanse.
Our minds can't even comprehend the expanse of the space that we live in.
We're not using it all, but we live in it.
We know that masters and mystics, they've spoken about some of the other dimensions and other worlds.
They talk about us living at least in two worlds.
They talk about an outer and an inner world: the world of form and the world of formlessness.
The world of what is visible and what is invisible. And there is a great expanse to one's inner world, they tell us.
Once one begins to go within, go beyond simply the material outer world, the familiar,
we touch those things that are lasting and permanent and immortal and eternal that we take with us. Because they are beyond form.
They become a part of us.
So while we remain attached and identified, often times,
to a material world and the world of form to the exclusion of an inner world.
We then begin to experience dimensions of limitation
because we cling to what is changing and what is not eternal and permanent.
In other worlds, if we live in loyalty to materialism alone, thinking that we are our outer things,
then we begin to live a life that says, I have to see it to believe it.
I have to see it to believe it. And that's not the spiritual world.
That's not the way the spiritual world works. We have to believe it in order to see it.
We have to actually move beyond certain dimensions;
move out of our little boxes and believe that there is something outside the box before we are going to begin to experience it.
And so we have to believe it.
Or it may be a dimension of God which is not designed to be seen, but it is just to be experienced.
We can't see love. Can any of you see love?
Oh, we can see the effects of love, the results of love expressed, but it's not a material thing.
It's not something that we can see or we can hold in our hand or we can pour into a jar and put on a shelf; it's not like that.
And so just as we are not at a place in humanity's evolution whereby we can see the infinite of space or comprehend it.
We have to accept that where we are in the evolution of consciousness,
we are not able to comprehend the all of God. We're just not there yet.
We must accept that there are things that are, and remain,
a mystery to us until we evolve to where we are able to begin to experience and comprehend and begin to apply and give meaning.
That's why the spiritual masters and mystics come to know and experience things that are currently beyond us in unfoldment.
They even call us to that. They try to define it as best they can in words.
They try and tell us what it's about and call us to it.
And certainly that was the work of Jesus and other prophets as well.
And if we remain as small thinkers, we'll basically
never open up to this greater expanse of the infinite.
We have to be willing to stretch ourselves and go beyond.
We know that there are levels of experience that are otherworldly and that are beyond description.
That there are no words to describe the magnitude of certain experiences.
We know that there are millions of people who have had near-death experiences that are documented,
and they all say that there is a light that appeared to them, and it was the light,
as they describe it, of a thousand suns, only you could look into it.
And it emitted to you a love that words could not describe. Pretty powerful.
These people, in no way, have any fear of death because they felt such love so strong.
There are words that are not in the English language to describe.
That came into their space. Our space.
That exists in our space in which we live, these kinds of experiences.
We have to come to understand that there are things that transcend the intelligence of the
most intelligent people that we can find on the planet.
There are things that our language can't define, and
we're just limited in our ability to really know what it is for sure, describe it, and comprehend it.
In the Gospel of John we find Jesus saying to us, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now." Wow.
I'd like to know what those many things were that he held back on.
He said we weren't ready. He can't mess with you if you haven't progressed to where you're ready.
You can't teach algebra to a person who hasn't yet learned to apply the simple principles of simple math.
And if one is in school and they haven't really learned math
and they're now thrown into algebra, it's a frightening experience.
We don't want any part of it—those equations and formulas.
We can't give them meaning. We don't know how they're applied.
They seem out of context. We reject them. It's like that.
So what often happens in the field of science, and often religion,
is when a new phenomenon of some sort arises that does not fit the scope of any known science
or known doctrine, or simply can't be explained, it's often judged.
And it's often labeled in some negative way, because it doesn't fit the preconceived ideas of what is the known.
Now Jesus was rejected because he didn't fit the preconceived ideas of what a savior was supposed to look like.
And the teachings that he shared were not what they were anticipating.
And Jesus said to us, "My kingdom is not of this world."
He says, "I'm trying to bring another world and its consciousness into your world. I'm not of this world."
Well, what world is he of? Oftentimes Christianity has said there are only two worlds.
There is here, and there is Heaven and there is hell. I guess there are three.
My simple math is waning. [laughter]
Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world." So he's saying there is another world, beyond this one, in consciousness.
Also we should not throw out that he was saying, "There are other worlds," plural.
He just said "I'm not of this world."
I may be of this one, or this one, or this one, or this one, but I'm not of this one.
We don't know. We shouldn't assume anything.
Are you aware that in 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul talks about a mystical
experience that he had in which a highly-evolved being appears to him?
And he talks about it, and he says in that passage
that he couldn't tell if it was in the body or out of the body.
And he says, "I do not know, and only God knows."
And then he described the person as "one caught up in the third Heaven."
And, "caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words.
He heard words coming from this being that were beyond comprehension. He couldn't explain.
They were inexpressible; I can't convey them to you in this experience. What is the third Heaven?
There is stuff in the scriptures that we kind of skirt, that we never address.
The reference to a third Heaven could be referring to the idea that our life that we live here,
it's not a "one and done," but it's a continuation.
There's a third Heaven. There must be a first and a second, right?
So you are an evolving being.
What you haven't learned in this life you are going to be required to learn as you continue on this pathway and this journey.
You just don't hit a breakpoint and drop off the ocean.
You don't hit a space and it's over.
There is a continuum, and it all makes sense, and there's order to the universe
because there is a Divine Intelligence that masterminded it all.
We will be required to learn and to continue to learn and
grow on a journey towards our own purity and perfection of consciousness.
I've been a Unity minister for thirty-seven years, and I love God,
and I love Jesus Christ, and I love the truth that we teach.
I'm devoted to understanding and living the truth of God and of Jesus Christ, his teachings.
I've always felt that God was a universal God.
And I know that you have too, many and most of you, and that the teachings of Jesus were universal
principles that include the ideas of oneness and inclusivity rather than any kind of separation or exclusivity.
And so on that basis, I have given myself permission to branch out.
To not be afraid to go outside the box.
To see what's going on in other spaces in the world; other spaces in this grand expanse.
So I have had the good fortune of being able to spend time with His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.
I've been to his headquarters on my first time to India, and Dharamsala some years back,
and spent 5 days with him at the Norbalinka Center there and was in the Synthesis Dialogs,
which were facilitated by the Association for Global New Thought, which I was a founder of.
I had lunch with him 2 times, not myself alone, but 6 or 8 people, very intimate.
I had his brother sitting next to me for one of those lunches.
I've been really blessed to experience these individuals.
And he's a beautiful soul, and his life is really a mission of God,
in teaching and demonstrating love and compassion and forgiveness.
Now, he may not accept the God of the West, but he accepts that there is a Spirit in all of us.
And one could never stand in judgment of a person like that, His Holiness the Dalai Lama,
and accuse him of not being close to God because he's not Christian.
Yet there are those who would differ with me.
I've gone to India and I have studied at the Oneness University and had experiences of deepening spiritually.
I've been initiated into a phenomenon that is called Diksha, or a Oneness Blessing.
It's a transmission of spiritual energy.
This phenomenon was ushered in by a man and woman whose names are Amma and Bhagavan who are considered avatars.
These individuals express that they have no desire whatsoever to create another religion.
Their mission on Earth is to lift consciousness into oneness.
They are exposing people to the use of this energy in a particular way.
Whatever a person's existing religion may be, they want you to go deeper with it, in your personal god.
So if you follow Krishna, go deeper in your relationship with Krishna.
If you follow Buddha, go deeper into your relationship with Buddha. I met with Bhagavan personally.
I had the wonderful experience of that, and he told me, specifically, to go deeper with my relationship with Jesus Christ.
It's not trying to pull away. If you have no one, yes. He will be your personal avatar.
But so often we're unfamiliar with things, and we may want to just push away from it.
Many of you know I have returned from Brazil, visiting John of God, a group of people there.
First time I ever went, I went as a skeptic and wanted to experience it. I found it incredibly credible.
Amazing things happening there.
So I felt I could take others after that and have done so.
But it's the healing work of John of God, the medium Joao, as he's known.
This man, for over fifty years, has been a channel for God by allowing highly-evolved spirits
from the invisible to move through him and work through him, like angels would, and do healing.
Phenomenal things take place there.
There are famous people who have gone.
Oprah Winfrey was just there for a couple days to check it out and was very impressed with it all.
Dr. Wayne Dyer, the author, has been healed of leukemia as a result of their work.
A colleague of mine who has spoken here on this podium, Reverend Edwene Gaines,
a couple years back was diagnosed with inoperable brain aneurysm, and was told she had six months to live.
She heard about John of God and went down there and was healed.
It wasn't any incision; it was energetic surgery, which you and I don't understand.
And there have been physicians and scientists who I've stood by,
who've been there and they're brought up on stage, even, to experience things that are happening.
They know something is happening. They can't explain it.
There is no anesthetic. There is just a hand put on the forehead, and the person just goes, is able to still stand, can be operated on.
Now, 99% of it is done energetically, but every once in a while he comes out on stage and does a
physical operation for those who wouldn't believe that something is happening.
They have to see it. . And so he'll come out and get a scalpel.
And he'll slice open and remove a growth from a woman's breast, sew it up, and the woman is just there, not flinching or anything.
No infections ever happen. They felt nothing. How does that happen?
Can't explain it. Must be terrible, stay away from that! [laughter]
It is spiritual. Spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
There are things beyond our range of being able to explain.
We should not be afraid if in the end we know something good is happening.
They promote spiritual teachings that are about lifting in consciousness and getting close to Jesus Christ.
They say, "This is the work of God. Do you love God?" This is where they start.
It's out of the love of God that you open doors to amazing things that can happen.
So what I have found in all these places is that there are some universal teachings that they all have in common
and are validating, really, of what we teach here in Unity.
For me it has been, so I just want to go through some of them rather quickly.
One of the teachings that they all have in common,
when I've gone to these various places, is they emphasize that there is one God of all—one God of all.
That we are all part of a family of God.
And just as our scriptures state that there is one God and Father of all who is above all and in all and through all and in you all.
I love that: in you all. You can look it up in the scripture. It's southern: in you all. Y'all.
And then what they all have in common is the teaching of the law of cause and effect.
Now these are things we know, but they're all emphasizing them,
and we should not lose track of them because we've heard them so many times.
But it's the law of cause and effect, whereby you are a co-creator with God in creating your experience.
You can either go it alone with God or you can go it in oneness with God,
but basically that choice is important.
You could either help or hinder your health, your prosperity, your relationships, and your happiness.
And as the scriptures state in Galatians, this very thing.
"Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap."
And so they all teach that God does not punish you.
God is love, and we basically punish ourselves out of our ignorance of these laws
and principles that we fall out of harmony with.
We don't know how to apply; we haven't learned basic math yet. So God does not punish. God is love.
They all teach that there is transformation available to everybody.
That you can return to the path of spirit if you have gone apart for a time.
You can totally change your life—You can shift the energies within you, moving through you from negative to positive, from hate to love,
from a sense of separation to oneness, from degrees of unhappiness into happiness and joy.
That is there for you. What we teach in scripture is there: "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
"Let this mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus."
"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and dust and rust will consume,
but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where moth and rust do not consume."
Which means that you, as a soul, will carry them with you.
They all teach and emphasize the idea of love and the power of love and how important and strong it is as a force in this universe.
But it also they teach, in every instance, that there is a process you must enter
into in which you must clear and purify that which stands in the way of the love that needs
to pour through you and that requires releasing, letting go, forgiveness, and various aspects of the clearing process.
They talk about service, and that we all are meant to be in service to each other; the importance of that loving service.
And that the greatest obstacle that every human faces is selfishness.
That the ego voice is the voice of selfishness in which it makes it all about oneself alone.
Again, the scriptures address it. Our scripture where Jesus says is the golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."
That's how you wish to be in service. Use that principle.
But in the Ephesians it spells it out even more: "Bear ye one another's burdens."
And "Let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.
And we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men."
And then the last point that I want to make: They all teach about the idea that there is no death.
That death is an illusion. That it is no more than the releasing of the body. That you are not your body.
And that's just the way it's said, everywhere you go. You are not your body.
Your body is the temple of who you really are for a period of time.
The spirit, the soul that houses it and that individual that you are, that distinguishes you from another, is what moves on.
That soul and that spirit are really joined; they're one, and that soul and spirit survives beyond the body.
And wherever you are in consciousness, when you pass on from this life,
the degree of evolution and purification that has taken place, the strides that you have achieved in love and forgiveness and
being of service and humility, that's who you are in the next world.
Because life is a continuum, and whatever ways we have not applied ourselves,
whatever we have not learned, we will be given the opportunity to continue to learn and grow.
Because we all have free will, and we all have choice. And as they say, there is no free lunch.
A soul has to earn its way into higher realms and higher levels of purifying consciousness.
After all, it is said by some that angels are no more than human beings who evolved
into the highest levels and orders of being, and serve in that capacity.
I want to leave you with a verse from Paul in Ephesians that basically says all of these things are reasons, and reasons I have just stated.
Paul says, "For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
for whom the whole family in Heaven and Earth is named.
That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.
That you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints
what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ
which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the allness and fullness of God."
The fullness of God is the great expanse. It's a space we all hang in. We're a part of it.
How much of this space are we going to experience and open ourselves to?
So may we always be open.
May we be slow to judge, and may we always be striving to be an instrument of love and oneness. God bless you all.
[Don't Miss These Coming Events!] [Unity of Houston]
[Don Miguel Ruiz Jr. Author of "The Five Levels of Attachment: Toltec of Wisdom for a Modern World."
[November 7th 7:30-9:30pm]
[Unity of Houston]
[For Tickets 713-782-4050] [www.UnityHouston.org]
[Male] Thank you for joining us for today's message.
We invite you to be with us again next Sunday.
At Unity, we believe that God's presence of love and goodness is everywhere.
And that life is meant to be good.
You can find out more about Unity and our teachings at UnityHouston.org.