This is the day
we take to the streets
to dance
and sing into the world
the happiness of who we are,
of you with me,
and me with you,
and all of us together celebrating
the end of agony
and the beginning of ecstasy and exultation
reborn through us now.
So bust open the doors,
fly through the streets
to greet the new life being born.
Smile at your brother
and laugh at your sister,
make them wonder
what has made you so high,
knowing that it is simply
the magic potion called joy.
Bells are sounding,
trombones are playing,
drums are pounding,
every heart resounding.
What is old has died.
A new nation, a new people, a new world,
is here.
So take to the streets.
Dance!
And sing the happiness of who you are
into the world.
There are many reasons why people follow some kind of spiritual or religious path. Often, they seek something individual. There could be a lot of names for what people are looking for—some kind of redemption perhaps, self-improvement, a relief from what they have been experiencing, or maybe inspiration.
There are a lot of reasons from a human standpoint why a person may pursue spiritual things. And yet the opportunity that is present in what we call spirituality is beyond what the person may be thinking about when they engage in it. There is a benefit that is far larger than what the person may be thinking of. That benefit may contain an answer they seek, but perhaps not in the place that they were looking.
From our perspective, what are we interested in? I want to use a short word with a big meaning that could be different for different people. The word is truth. We are here to know truth.
What do we mean by that? Truth is often presented as a belief or a philosophy—a way of thinking about things. And I suppose when I use the word, it includes that. But it is far larger. It is the pattern of Reality in which we live that has left the awareness of most people. It is the pattern of how we are made that is intrinsic to each of us individually, and to us collectively. In that sense, truth is not just individual. It involves all of humanity, and all the Earth. It involves every level of Creation.
Reality isn’t just the outer physical things that we can measure or observe physically. It is how we are made on the inside and how we are connected on the inside. It is the source of our life, the source of our intelligence and knowledge. It is the pattern of our Being, the pattern of how we are together on the inside that is so largely forgotten for humankind.
We live in a world that has forgotten our interconnectedness and how we are part of one Reality of Being, at the same time plural and diverse. So, when we use the word truth, we are talking about entering an awareness of something that has been lost largely to the consciousness of human beings.
What I know is that whatever is happening on the outside, on the inside we are part of one Reality. On the inside, there is a line of connection between you and me and, in fact, between you and every other human being on the face of the Earth. There is a constellation of Being that is connected, that is one.
There is one throne, meaning that there is one authority of Being that we share together, that we are meant to hold together as humanity in the world, understanding that is not what is happening now. And yet, the spiritual path we are on is about remembering these things and bringing an awareness of them into the world. It is about decrying the loss of understanding and the loss of an awareness that there is one throne, one authority, and one body of humanity on the inside. There is one Family of Souls. We are part of that one body. We are part of that constellation of light—a star in that constellation. We are here to bring a remembering of that.
Remembering is one of those words that has dual meanings. It means to recall. But remembering is also about the members of one body coming back together—re-membering.
As I was saying, there are many reasons why people follow a spiritual path, often quite individual. But there is something collective to happen that starts with the individual. But it is impossible for us to know fulfillment as an individual without respect to others. There is something to happen for us together. Our individual fulfillment is known as a part of that collective phenomenon.
I was recently listening to two biblical verses that speak of the same thing. The first is from the story of the Seven Days of Creation in Genesis, the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. On the third day, the waters are gathered together in one place, and dry land appears.
In the world in which we live, everybody wants the dry land. Everybody wants something to manifest. Hey, let’s have whatever it is—some kind of wealth, prosperity, and all the things we want in our life.
People want that individually. We want it collectively. Politicians promise to bring it. But there is a a formula presented here that tells how Creation happens, and it is relevant to our experience as human beings.
The first thing that happens is the waters come into one place. What are the waters? What are our waters? They are the waters of consciousness—the waters of the heart, the waters of the mind, the spiritual substance that we each carry. It has to be gathered together into one place.
We have begun this process at Sunrise Ranch and online too. We come into one place together physically and in virtual space. That alone does not guarantee that the waters of consciousness—the waters of heart, mind and spirit—will gather together. And yet it is happening. Do you feel it with all that we have engaged in? Do you feel the waters of our heart and mind and spirit coming together into one place, experiencing one thing together, for people at Sunrise Ranch and all over the world?
The waters of consciousness are gathering into one place, and then something is manifesting. It is manifesting in our collective endeavors and in our individual lives. Then what manifests assists the process by which the waters of consciousness gather together.
The other biblical verse I want to refer to is from the story of the Day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts. As the story goes, 120 people have gone with the disciples into an upper room. Mother Mary is among them. It is said that they gathered together in one place with one accord. Sound like a gathering together of the waters? In one place with one accord.
They were in one physical place, just like we are at Sunrise Ranch. And in virtual space, we are in one place with people around the world. But this story is speaking about something more. And the something more reveals itself in the rest of the story of the Day of Pentecost. All kinds of magical things begin to happen. That doesn’t usually occur just because people are in the same physical place.
There was a sound as of a rushing wind. There was something that looked like flames of fire. There were all kinds of magic happening, all because they gathered together in one place with one accord.
Now we know that there is not magic every time people gather together in one place physically. That’s not enough. There has to be a gathering together of the waters, a gathering together in one place in consciousness. How does that happen?
It takes someone or ones who invite people to come together in one place. It takes someone who knows what it means to be on the throne, knowing that one place of consciousness that has the authority of Being—the authority of one’s own Being. But it is not just an individual thing. This is the authority of all Being, the authority of all of us together, of what we hold and know in common on the inside.
It takes someone to say, Gather here. We have a movable feast for our services at Sunrise Ranch. Every week we are busy about telling people where the services are going to be held. We don’t want them over in the Green Ridge Room when we are holding service in Mountain View Room.
But we are not just gathering in a physical place. The place where we are gathering is the crossover point between the invisible and the visible. It is a spiritual place. It is a place in consciousness where the authority of your Being, the authority of all Being, sits on the throne.
The time that we gather is important. Sometimes people arrive an hour late when we shift to daylight savings time, so they miss the service. More importantly, the time we gather is now. If a person’s consciousness is distracted—distressed about the past, or worrying about future—they are incapable of gathering together in one place with one accord. That one place is here and now.
In this place, the waters of consciousness can be gathered together. Our mental, emotional, and spiritual flesh can be gathered together in one place.
Many years ago, someone produced a puzzle that was a global map. On one side was the world. On the other side was the figure of person. It was far easier to put the person together than to try to put together the map of the world. But when the person was together, so was the world. And so it is in real life. Trying to put the world together is like trying to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. But the world comes together easily when humanity knows itself as one.
People are very busy about wanting the dry land to appear—wanting things in form to come together. Do they? So often, that’s not the experience in the world in which we live. And why? Because on the inside, the substance of who we are is not together. Our waters have not become gathered unto one place. They are sloshing all over the place. The waters of human consciousness will never gather together until there are those of us who can, with authority, invite people to arrive fully here and now.
We can dwell here in a state of consciousness where we are together already. We are invoking that inner knowing. I’m invoking it now. I am invoking the knowing that we have of who we are together—who we are on the inside, and how we are made—the pattern of our Being on the inside. And with that, I am invoking the lines of connection between each and every one of us and the opportunity we each have to sit on the throne.
Yes, there’s an individual aspect to this, but ultimately it is one throne. If we don’t see and know that one throne, life is a power grab. And so, we have separate thrones in the world—people demanding their place, their authority, and all they assume goes with it.
There is only one true place, one true authority, and one Family of Souls of which we are a member. And it is available to be known here and now. That one true body of Being comes to focus on the inside. There is a focus of Love that brings us all together on the inside. We are already together there. Apparently, the trick is to remember that and know it on the outside, and then to bring the Central Flame of who we are together. Then we are capable of bringing the Central Flame into the world. Only so can we say, with authority, Be here. Join me here. Join me now.
That does not have any meaning if a person is not having that experience themselves. But as we do, we speak with the authority that comes with this knowing. We invite people to the place where we are meant to be. It is a place of remembrance, a place of love, and a place of creative power. It is the one place—when known by us together—that allows the world to come together. This is the truth of who we are. Living here and now, we let the dry land appear.
What is old has died.
A new nation, a new people, a new world,
is here.