“We do not will things to be done, things are brought into being, not by will but by the power of the self-assertive truth.

I love this quote by Ernest Holmes. We can try as much as we want to make something happened; however, will power doesn’t get us very far. A self-assertive truth has power of its own. It is the strength of a strong intention sent out with enough passion that it has to take form. It gathers its own strength and attracts everything like it. I liken it to a snowball rushing down the hill, gathering speed and more snow. However, an intention backed by hatred and anger cannot succeed in the long run, for love is greater than fear, and eventually anger and hatred will implode upon itself.

My favorite time of day is the early morning before the sun rises. Because we have cats that clamor to be fed, it is usually when I am up – around 4:30 to 5am. On this particular morning, in the midst of all the turmoil of the week of January 6, I was in great need of some kind of peaceful feeling. I had become caught up in the news and awaiting outcomes that would bring peace. As I know, one can never find peace from the outside. Peace like all the attributes of Divinity is an inside job.

Our bedroom is all windows. As I looked out the window from our bed, there seemed to be more stars in the sky than on previous mornings. It moved me to walk outside. I stood looking up at the clear velvet sky, as my little cat came to weave his body in and out of my legs and beg to be petted. I appeased his persistence, but I kept looking up in the sky and I was deeply struck by how immense and infinite it was. I was struck by the idea of how undisturbed it was by anything that was happening in the world. And, I contemplated the idea that the stars remain constant amidst the daylight. When the sun rises and the day begins, those stars won’t go away. They simply fade to the greater light – the Sun. They will still be there shining through whatever occurs in the day unfolding.

I felt more peaceful in that moment, more aware that beyond everything we see, there is more. I felt more connected to the Power that is greater than the world of conditions. I was ready for my day. Now I have a mantra today if I fall into the trap of getting caught in the conditional world. “Remember the stars.”

How do I take this mantra now, and apply it to Truth, so self-assertive that it moves with its power into manifestation? It seems quite simple. My intention is to live my life in a more expansive way, to use more of the Infinite Power that is all of ours to use to bring Good forth amidst the chaos. The reminder that there is a constant behind everything temporal allows me to feel secure, safe and willing to experiment. It informs me that behind the transient world is the Changeless on which I can rely.

This past Sunday at our Center we’ve titled our talk, “Work It!” The titled was inspired by the 2^nd Chapter in the Introduction of the Science of Mind, “How It Works.” In this chapter, Ernest Holmes wrote, “There is one Life aback of everything that lives. There is one Energy back of all that is energized. This Energy is in everything. There is One Spirit back of all expression. This Power works by working through us and can only be to us what we conceive it to be. It is constant and cannot be expanded. We set Its limit in the conditional world.

But how does It work through us? Ernest Holmes continues, “The sum total of all our thought, will, purpose and belief, creates a tendency in this Law that causes It to react to us according to the sum total of that belief.” In other words, our self-assertive truth causes experiences to magnetize and reflect back to us to the degree of belief.

As I think of all the trials and tribulation, all the horrors of this last week, I am contemplating this idea of how it works. How did that horrid occurrence gather enough power of its own to manifest? It’s easy enough to answer this question and to realize that when something is fueled by hatred that it can never truly be successful. The January 6 uprising was not successful, and as far as I am concerned was a turning point and the true beginning of the healing of our country.

I often treat that truth be revealed. Truth was revealed on January 6 for the whole world to see. I call it as Donna Michaels once called it “The last gasp of a dying fear.” We are ready to move into healing, but we must begin at the individual level. We cannot wait for the whole world to agree with us.

Ernest Holmes writes, “We now know that this (Source/God) is what we are – because we could not be anything else – but we do not know how much of this we are. When we see It as It is, then we shall see ourselves as we are. We can only see It by looking at It thorough our own eyes. Hence, we shall find a better God when we shall have arrived a higher standard for humanity. If God is to interpret Itself to humanity, It must interpret Itself through humanity.”

I have a higher standard for humanity than what I witnessed on January 6 and I believe that more and more of us do. If we were willing to truly look, we saw the actions of a humanity at its lowest of the low in its expression. But, don’t forget the stars. Behind that expression, the Changeless was and is still there, waiting to reveal itself. Are we willing to stay vigilant in holding this higher standard in regards to everyone in our field of experience, no matter how they are expressing?

I want to step back for a moment to the idea of being a world that is experiencing grief. We are grieving an old way of life. I was just listening to a lecture by Gregg Braden where he reiterated the grief cycle, as stated by Kubler Ross –

This explains a lot of what is going on. We are all in a state of grief. What we see on the outside world is how we are responding to that grief and we are all at different stages in the cycle.

Some of us are still in Denial, which causes us to avoid what’s happening and leaves us in a state of confusion. Some of us are very angry like those insurgents who expressed themselves on January 6. Some of us are depressed, we’ve lost hope. This is evident by the increase in suicide. There are those of us who are in the bargaining stage. We seek to find meaning in it all and question why it is happening on a deeper level. Then there is Acceptance. We have finally accepted that we are entering something different, something we’ve never experienced before and we are looking for options, making new plans, learning how to move on.

I think it is good to reflect on where we stand in this cycle of grief, to allow ourselves to grieve. Also, for me, it gives me compassion for everyone. This doesn’t mean I condone bad behavior; but, I can have more understanding and therefore not meet hate with hate.

It is my opinion, that the insurgents of January 6 do not know truly who they are, for whatever reason. They see themselves as needing to get their power from the outside by bullying their cause or getting attention through violent behavior. That doesn’t mean that God is outside of them. They are still using the same power, only using it incorrectly, which is anytime we use the Power against someone else.

Dr. Holmes continues to write,

“In our ignorance of the truth we have misused the highest power we possess. And so great this power so complete is our freedom in it, so absolute the domain of law through it – that the misuse of this power has brought upon us the very conditions from which we suffer. We are bound because we are first free…”

We are free. We shall always be free. It is the only way that our evolution can progress. At one time, we progressed automatically. We didn’t know we could think. But, as soon as that frontal lobe kicked in and the neocortex was born, we began thinking and choosing and evolving through our choices. So, if we want to look at the way things are, look at the choices we make that are based on what we conceive ourselves to be and how we expect others to show up.

“We experience good and evil because we perceive a presence of duality rather than unity. …The time must come when we shall have left the apparent evil behind, when it shall be rolled up like a scroll and numbered with the things which were once thought to be.”

What is evil? It is the misuse of the greatest Power, the Power of choice moving through Law into form What is the misuse of this Power? Any time we use it against another. Anytime we seek to control through hatred and anger. Anytime we focus hatred toward ourselves, which is where it all begins. Basically, anytime we do not remember who we truly are – LOVE.

It is important during this time to learn how to control your inner world. Self-exploration, Self-nurturing, and lots of Faith in the Principle of Life will move us through these challenges. “Remember the Stars.” They burn bright and constant within each of us. We are built for these times.

Love and Aloha,

Rev. Rita Andriello-Feren, Co-Spiritual Director, CSL Kaua`i