A CONSCIOUSNESS OF
HEALING FOR OUR TIMES
By Rev. Dr. Arthur Chang
I lift up my eyes to the
mountains—
where does my help come
from?
My help comes from
the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and
earth.
Our objective reality of
the corona virus will not destroy us. If there is to be a great
destruction, it will come from the storm of anxiety and fear we will allow to
run rampant in our inner life—our consciousness.
Modern people seem to
show little regard for the value of spiritual life, perhaps because religious
groups tend to be restrictive. Yet, today’s people readily take fragments of
Spirituality, such as love and delight, with as little responsibility as they
can. We are capable of having a single-minded focus on pleasure as is the case with
drug addicts. Although pleasure is a perfectly normal aspect of our human
experience, it does have a tendency to cause us to lose our sense of boundaries
and the balance of our well-being. An old but poetic way of describing
this syndrome is, “Selling our souls to the devil.” In the same way we can give
our onus of control over to pleasure, we can do it with fear. Fear is not an
enemy, as it is a necessary survival function, but can get out of control. The
truth seems to be that any one of our feelings can be destructive when we lose our balance.
Our current challenge is
how to align our feelings of faith to strengthen our consciousness of healing.
Faith is our healing consciousness, which often suggests that healing is to be
instantaneous. It is almost never instantaneous, as it is processive. Is it any
less faith when healing is processive?
Often, healing begins,
not with faith, but with peace and hope.
Faith is a state of consciousness that must be acquired. The soil in which
faith grows best is that of peace and hope. This we always have but must claim.
First, we must calm down by breathing deeply and saying:
Right now, I breathe in peace.
Right now, I breathe out fear and anxiety.
Right now, I breathe in hope.
Right now, I breathe out hopelessness.
(Say this calmly while breathing in slowly. Repeat several times
if your feelings are anxious or fearful, until those feelings dissipate and you feel a
deep stillness. Then continue with the rest of the prayer below.)
I am calm, positive, optimistic,
And I am fully accepting of my healing.
Now as my mind is settled and still,
I affirm my faith in the One Power and Healing Presence.
As this Presence is calm, powerful and healing
Throughout the universe,
So is It in me and my loved ones,
The perfect healing action.
This Power guides and protects me,
To hear and respond to right knowledge,
To ignore all thought and action contrary to my health.
I openly, with great faith, accept right results
And I am grateful for my well-being, now,
And so it is.
In the face of a crisis,
everyone wants to have immediate results from her spoken word. After all, we
may argue, that was what Moses, Elisha and Jesus experienced. Bible miracles
are far more about the miracles within the mind, of consciousness, than they
are about the objective world. By becoming literal about these stories, we will
never see how to get through to the other side of any challenge. We must form a
symbolic mental equivalent to that which we desire. For example, Moses crossing the Red Sea and Elisha
taking the small vial of oil and filling the large jars, turning a seeming lack
of options into abundance for a better life for the whole community. We learn
to see the symbolic meaning of Jesus telling the storm “Be still” and inviting Peter
to walk on water. This is our invitation to walk on water.
Blessing:
May you know with great
challenges come opportunities to call forth your greatness.
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