"It's not what happens that determines your life's future, it's what you do with what happens. We are all in the same sailboat. It's not the blowing of the wind that determines your direction, it's the set of the sail. The same wind blows on us all. The wind of misfortune, the wind of change, the wind of opportunity, the wind of success, the wind when it's favorable or unfavorable. The difference of where you arrive is determined by the set of your sail."

The set of your sail? In the last several weeks, we have been looking at the Map of Consciousness developed by Dr. David Hawkins. Dr. Hawkins is a spiritual author and lecturer who now serves on the Advisory Board of Unity Institute, the ministerial school, and who will be giving a retreat at Unity Village in May on his Map of Consciousness. He has done 30 years of research into spirituality, seeing if spiritual principles can be proven scientifically. In his first book on this subject, Power vs. Force, he introduced his Map of Consciousness, which shows the evolution of consciousness throughout time.

Each of level of consciousness represents a way of seeing life, an attitude toward life, a field of energy. All of life is energy vibrating at different levels. God is the ultimate level of vibration. Each level of consciousness exists at a particular level of energy.

So what sets our level of consciousness? Dr. Hawkins says we set our level of consciousness through our Spiritual Will - our Intention. He says that Spiritual Will & Intention are the same thing. Spiritual Will is very powerful. When we become Willing to be Love, we can move right up the chart.

We then reinforce that with devotion, humility, and selfless service. But these are the doings that come out of the Being - the Intention - the space in which we have chosen to live. In this way, Intention is different than goals, for goals tend to be something outside of us - something we strive to achieve. Intention is something we access inside of us, something we bring forth and live inside of.

Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

Seeing this style really made Bob curious, so one day he went up to Michael and asked him, "I don't get it? You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, "You have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or…you can choose to be in a bad mood."

"I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or….I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right. It's not that easy," Bob protested.

"Yes it is," Michael said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."

Bob reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, he left the company to start my own business. They lost touch, but Bob often thought about Michael when he made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, Bob heard that Michael was involved in a serious accident, falling some 70 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

He saw Michael about six months after the accident. When he asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" Bob declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter. Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or…I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared?" Bob asked.

"The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?"

"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Michael. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."

Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude…

Bob said, "I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything."

Michael set his Intention to live in the positive now, and nothing - not even falling 70 feet from a tower - deterred him from that Intention. Each day, his choices were made out of that Intention.

Goethe, a philosopher from the early 20th Century, said, "In the moment of commitment, the universe conspires to assist you."

A Course in Miracles says, "With one purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think."

When asked what was the most important commandment, Jesus replied, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."

One purpose, One Intention - one point of focus. Our way of Being in the world.

Dr. Hawkins said that to be spiritual simply means an Intention. He says to choose one spiritual practice, such as Love, Kindness, Unconditional Forgiveness, Selfless Service, Acceptance, Compassion…and be that to all of life in all its expressions, under every circumstance, without exception, including oneself.

Being that - practicing that - under every circumstance - to all of life.

The Americans & the Russians at the height of the arms race realized that if they continued in the usual manner they were going to blow up the whole world. One day they sat down and decided to settle the whole dispute with one dog fight. They would have 5 years to breed the best fighting dog in the world and whichever side's dog won would be entitled to dominate the world.

The Russians found the biggest, meanest Doberman and Rottweiler female dogs in the world and bred them with the biggest, meanest Siberian wolves. They selected only the biggest and strongest puppy from each litter, and removed his siblings which gave him all the milk. After 5 years, they came up with the biggest, meanest dog the world had ever seen.

Its cage needed steel bars that were 5 inches thick and nobody could get near it.

When the day came for dog fight, the Americans showed up with a stranger animal. It was a 9-foot long Dachshund. Everyone felt sorry for the Americans because they knew there was no way that this dog could possibly last 10 seconds with the Russian dog.

When the cages were opened up, the Dachshund came out of its cage and slowly waddled over towards the Russian dog. The Russian dog snarled and leaped out of its cage & charged the dachshund. But when it got close enough to bite the Dachshund's neck, the Dachshund opened its mouth and consumed the Russian dog in one bite.

There was nothing left of the Russian dog.

The Russians came up to the Americans shaking their heads in disbelief. "We don't understand how this could have happened. We had our best people working for 5 years with the meanest Doberman & Rottweiler dogs in the world and the biggest meanest Siberian wolves."

"That's nothing," an American replied. "We had our best plastic surgeons working for 5 years to make an alligator look like a Dachshund."

You see, nature has Intention also. When an animal is intended to be an alligator, no matter what happens on the outside, he is still an alligator.

What about Unity in Green Valley? What is our Intention? Who are we to be? How are we to show up in the world? That's what we will be working on today and next Sunday after service. What is our Intention as a spiritual family?

I have to say, when I began the first class 2 years, ago, I was really not clear on my intention. I just knew it was something I was to do, so I let God be in charge. It did not start well, in terms of the world. After putting a notice in In Light Times, I received quite a few calls, so I went out and got a dozen folding chairs and set them up, hoping that would be enough. Well, 2 people showed up for class - Barry & a friend of mine. And Barry was there under duress.

But then, in time, Sherry showed up, then Ann, then Judy, and the energy grew. In the fall, we added A Course in Miracles. People began asking when services would begin, but, somehow, the vision for that had not yet appeared.

Then I came across something in Dr. Hawkins book, The Eye of the I which spoke to my heart. First, it talked about teachers, which we all are. It said, "Earmarks of true teachers are humility, simplicity, lovingness, compassion and peacefulness. There is no financial charge for conveying Truth as there is no interest in money, personal power, or gain. ( I asked him about this in a lecture, and he said it was certainly ok to receive the money you needed to live on, but not to seek money beyond that.)

It is irrelevant to a true teacher whether others become followers or join a spiritual group or organization. All are totally free to leave the spiritual group. There is the avoidance of the development of a personality cult. There is no desire by a true teacher to control others and, therefore, a true teacher has no interest in coercion or persuasion. Neither does the teacher attempt to appropriate knowledge or force it on others inasmuch as it was freely received. Therefore, the true teacher is gracious in manner and spirit. The student of a true teacher is the totality of all mankind.

In a truly spiritual group, there is nothing one has to join, do, or study. There are no rules, regulations, or requirements; there are no rituals or strange garb, and no odd breathing exercises or postures are necessary.

They lack authoritarian structure, own no buildings or edifices, have no officers, treasuries, goods or monies, and they avoid expressing any views and remain uninvolved with outside issues.

Intrinsically, spiritual organizations make no public statements and operate solely out of voluntary adherence to spiritual principles. Neither do they proselytize, and although they have no employees, they operate out of service. They have no debts, obligations, or investments, and thus, the truly spiritual can be said to be 'in the world, but not of it.' Spirituality seeks neither credit nor does it accept blame.

What spoke to me was the possibility of creating a truly spiritual group - a great experiment in Spirit! In the beginning, it was clear to Ann & me that the success of the experiment in spirit was not to judged by the world's standards, as did not depend on numbers - and we have had to remind ourselves of that often. For our true success is not defined in worldly terms - our success has to do with our adherence to spiritual principles, our devotion to God.

Then I found words for my Intention. It is one I learned at an Ashram Barry & I went to in Canada last year. It was a Yogi Ashram, with everyone required to do karma yoga - selfless service. We were not only paying to stay there, we were also making beds and scrubbing toilets. But the phrase they used always put everything into focus: "It is an honor to serve those who seek the Most High."

And that's when I understood what this was about for me - I had found my intention: "To serve those who seek the Most High."

Soon after, John, our musician showed up (we're still not sure if he found me or I found him), and then Ann & Sherry agreed to serve as co-spiritual leaders - then the space appeared……….the entire universe conspired to assist us!

As our responsibilities have grown, Ann & I found the need to bring others in to help us, so the Coordinating Committee was born. But we weren't sure exactly what their purpose was. After visioning, which we do at the beginning of every meeting, they decided that their purpose was not to lead or direct or control - it was to serve……serve God and serve the congregation. To be in selfless service.

Today, we as a congregation get to come together to see what Intention will put this in focus for all of us. To see what it is that Unity in Green Valley is to Be in the world, in what space we will live.

We are doing this through the Visioning process, which I believe truly gives us access to God's guidance. Rather than setting our course through the intellect, we sit in silence and ask for God's guidance. We have been doing this since last summer, and some amazing things have come out in our Visioning meetings. Many people have seen numbers of people showing up, so we don't have to worry about that. Ann has said many times in Visioning that what we are about is more powerful than we know

Today, we begin setting our Intention together.

For once we set our Intention, the entire universe will conspire to assist us. Everything we do, think, or say will be guided by our Intention.

"It's not the blowing of the wind that determines your direction. It's the set of the sail. The same wind blows on us all. The wind of misfortune, the wind of change, the wind of opportunity, the wind of success, the wind when it's favorable or unfavorable. The difference of where you arrive is determined by the set of your sail."