By Rev. Glenn Neil Stocking
Expecting others to read your mind is certain to bring disappointment.
It is hard being perfect and others not recognizing it. You are always right and others disagree. It waste so much time. You have to argue to get them on your side or worse do it their way and have to fix it later. Everyone should think the way you do. We are after all of One Mind are we not? Well — not so much.
It seems although there is only One Mind, we, sentient beings that we are, are blessed with the freedom of choice. It is this freedom that separates us on our human level. Each of us has been influenced by our very own nurturing environment, one that defines us as unique individuals. We inform our choices through these influences and through our choices develop a library of experiences that inform future choices.
We seek out and bond with others who share our beliefs. The mutual area where we overlap with others may be large or small but it is unlikely to be total. Those areas outside the mutual space influence what transpires within the mutual space fueling a continual evolution. This evolution is the purpose of our being here.
Remember we are expressions of Spirit, God, the One Mind, or Universal Intelligence if you prefer. Our freedom is the vehicle through which Spirit gains experiences. All wisdom is within Spirit. Every idea is within Spirit, but even the intelligence that is Spirit cannot generate the experiences we enjoy without our thoughts, our heartfelt beliefs putting the Law (God’s quick reaction force) into motion.
The seemingly random, often illogical choices of human kind set into motion the creative forces of the Law in ways un-stimulated Spirit could never produce. Would not because the Law cannot act independently. It is, to be blunt, dumb as a post. It can create whatever we believe, but it cannot generate an original thought. It cannot screen out our “bad” ideas, nor steer us toward more Spiritual choices. It receives our directives and produces an effect. Like a computer executing an inaccurate command string, it does exactly what we tell it to do, whether we want it to or not.
Imagine our existence without evolution. Forget the whole monkey to man argument, think about this morning. Without the basic force of evolution you would not have gotten out of bed. That is evolving from being in bed to being out of bed. Take another step back and realize just waking up is an evolution from sleeping. With just those two examples we can see existence as we know it completely unravels without evolution.
Where then is the logic in expecting anyone to think exactly as we do? Our very existence depends on our eternal evolution. That evolution is fueled by the uncommon beliefs carried by those with whom we share common beliefs. Expecting anyone, even someone emotionally close to know what we are thinking at any given moment is doing a disservice to yourself, the other person and the very essence of Spirit. It is a sin, a mistaken idea.
Honor and recognize the differences that unite us. We are blessed with an advanced capacity for communication. Use it to express clearly and notice how others act or react to determine whether they are understanding. This requires paying attention, listening, watching, and using our inner sense of judgment to insure we are clearly understood. This can be simple and natural or may involve a complete retraining of our people skills.
We are part of the problem when others not reading our minds upsets us. We have the power to make ourselves understood, and we do share the Spiritual One Mind. If our interpretation of events is upsetting, we owe it to ourselves to allow for the revelation of additional information until our interpretation is in alignment with Spiritual Principles. Peace, harmony and love are our natural state. Anything not, invites reexamination.
We are indeed perfect but apparently incomplete. We are a paradox, perfect by the very nature of our incompleteness. We are cast out, to borrow a Biblical phrase, into this human existence as the means to generate unique experiences.
Our mistakes or unprofitable evolutions, inform our future choices. Our time is never wasted, it is invested in our education. Our planet has a few more decades of resources to fuel our economy as we know it. We evolve and prosper or perish defending the status quo. Our sun has a few billion good years left in its life. We evolve and learn to live on other worlds or evolve beyond physical bodies, but we do evolve beyond the status quo, as they say at closing time, “You do not have to go home, but you can’t stay here!”
We honor Spirit when we recognize the value of different opinions. Each has evolved through unique circumstances and each embodies some element of Truth. Like the various chemical elements of our physical world these Truths complement each other joining to form new compounds and reacting to destroy others. It is a process of growth dependent on destruction.
Thankfully, each of us is perfect and thus able to see and understand the process. Our challenge is that not everyone does understand the process, and ignorance, like a single drop of dye in clear water, distorts our collective experience.
Although life would be somewhat boring, it would seem much easier if everyone understood it the same way. If we reach a point where we do read each other’s minds, we will understand each other and the evolutionary process will cease for lack of new ideas. Now that would be disappointing.
Learn more about Spirit, Spiritual Mind, the One Mind, Spiritual Law, Universal Intelligence, The Science of Mind and the power within you at a Center For Spiritual Living near you or online starting at CSL.org or CSLFTL.org.