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Sunday
Message Panorama.
Perspective. Perception. July 4th was a perfect California day, so I took advantage of the gorgeous weather and went for a long walk through my neighborhood. As I strolled around, I noticed some brand new buildings almost nearing completion. Large construction projects take forever to be approved in my community, but once permits are issued, buildings go up very quickly, almost over night. One large development caught my attention because it completely blocked the hills in the background. It struck me that I was witnessing a changing scene that was mostly outside of my personal control. The height, the design, the magnitude of the project was decided by City Hall and by the investors. It doesn't take much for me to go metaphysical and to seek some metaphors in my experiences. So, as I strolled, I reflected that the view, the panorama of all the outer things that I was beholding, included a large constituency that was determined and put there without my active participation. I contrasted those collective external factors with the things in my own external life that I can change--like the state of the inside of my apartment, the color of the walls, the furniture, the clutter on my desk, the clothes I wear. I recognized that whereas the outer panorama is mostly constructed through a collective agreement, there are also some areas that are amenable to my personal influence. Knowing which is which is the challenge. It reminded me of the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." As I continued walking and looking around, I realized that when I am driving through town, I mostly look at the road ahead of me not to the side. From the habitual driver's seat vantage point, I had not noticed the changing panorama all around me: New window displays, new stores, new buildings. But on foot, walking around the neighborhood, my perspective had shifted. I continued to reflect on the panorama, feeling serene and joyful in the moment. I celebrated that at that moment, on a wonderful walk on a perfect day, my perspective was completely up to me. So I whimsically changed from one side of the street to another, zigzagging through the neighborhood to look at the flower gardens. I continued to stroll and changed my physical position and directed my perspective from place to place. But perspective is not just the physical placement from which we view life, like I did by shifting from the driver's seat to the sidewalk. My perspective also included the feelings and attitudes about the changing scene and my relationship to everything I was observing. I suddenly found myself on a wonder-walk! I slowed down to look at men's clothing in the department store windows, and rejoiced that black was in for the Fall, and that I was already onboard the fashion train without knowing it. I smiled at passersby...and they smiled back. I turned a corner and nearly did a dance when I found a patch of full-grown dahlias just like the baby ones in front of our church. The gave me a view of coming attractions for CCU. Abraham-Hicks teaches: "We are all one Energy Stream, but what distinguishes our differences is perspective. You are a unique and individual perspective." I continued reflecting on the two words: Panorama and Perspective. The Panorama is the outside--the world I am in. Perspective is an inner, personal vantage point in each situation in which I find myself. Perspective is the angle from where I am viewing my world and my place in it. Unlike the external panorama, 100% of that perspective is subject to change by deliberate choice. It's not too complicated. I can view the changing world from a place of wonder and celebration of new growth and progress. Or I can behold what is around me from a place of lamentation and resistance, looking at what's wrong in the picture. So I deliberately focused on the perfect temperature and the joy of being in that bright environment on that wonderful day. A few blocks later...on my continuing meditative walk...another word came into my thoughts: Perception. Three P's are: Panorama: the world of contrast in which we find ourselves, here at the leading edge. It is the changing world out there around us, some of it within our influence, but most of it not within our control. Perspective is our focus of attention, how we see ourselves in the world, our personal micro viewpoint. This place within us is mutable and changeable. And Perception is consciousness which includes the panorama and the perspective, but is not limited by either. Perception is the sum of awareness, the totality of insight, or knowledge at any given moment. And more! Perception is discernment and understanding that unifies all the factors in a vast, expansive, unitive awareness that is more than the sum of its parts. So there I had it: The subject for a Sunday lesson: The Three P's: Panorama, Perspective and Perception. Once I got home, I happily continued pondering on the three words, seeking to extract further insights. Panorama, Perspective and Perception. I saw that like myself, most people spend a lot of energy focused on the external realm, reacting to the demands issued from the panorama of our existence. The outer panorama is comprised of more than just buildings and objects. It also includes the people in our life and the situations they create for themselves and thereby share with us. The reactive state leads to resistance, or to futile efforts to change or control things that are often outside of our grasp, or beyond the range of our personal power. It's good to remember the Serenity Prayer: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." Abraham-Hicks says: "When you take the problems of the world on your shoulders, your body doesn't feel good. It's just that simple. Leave the problems of the world to the individual problem-makers of the world, and you be the joy-seeker that you are. Your choices of action may be limited --but your choices of thought are not. There are those things you are in absolute harmony with, and there are those things that you are in absolute disharmony with--and there is some of everything in between. You have not come forth to destroy or contain that which you do not agree with, for that is a continually changing thing. You have come forth to identify, moment by moment, what it is you want, and to use the power of your thought to allow the power of the Law of Attraction to draw that unto you. Let your alignment with Well-Being be first and foremost, and let everything else be secondary." Perception of the Source is alignment with the Source...in the Source. Perception of Source is expanding energy of joy and peace beyond all measure. As consciousness expands, we willingly and continually amplify our personal perspective, instead of trying to force change in the outer panorama. If we have become reactive, this shift might at first feel like a dangerous proposition, a dereliction of responsibility --a failure if we surrender and yield, rather than continue to resist. We forget that surrender is joining the winning team! In Matt: 5:39 Jesus teaches: Do not resist evil. Agree and come to terms quickly with your adversary. Abraham says: "Resistance is about believing that you are vulnerable or susceptible to something not wanted and holding a stance of protection, which only holds you in a place of not letting in the Well-being that would be there otherwise". A shift in perspective--from reactive to proactive--changes your outlook on the panorama of the external world. You begin practicing the art of allowing yourself to see things from a different vantage point, learning to deliberately set your emotional guidance system and focus more and more on feeling good. This perspective on life changes your point of attraction as an adjustment of your thought process and an adjustment of your emotional vibration. Simultaneously, this also creates an expansion of perception, which includes both how you see your world and also how you experience yourself in the world...and much, much more. Expanded perception of Source Energy connects you to your non-local Self. Wherever you are in the panorama of life, and whoever you perceive yourself to be, and whatever your personal perspective, a shift in perception can be experienced as growing consciousness of always being in Source Energy right now: right where you are, just as you are. Source understands you are valuable; you are worthy; you are blessed. Source understands that you never get it done and you cannot get it wrong. Source knows that even when you stand in a place that currently feels wrong, that, ultimately, you will return to what feels right. You can return to what feels right with an adjustment of your thought process and an adjustment of your vibration letting in the Well-being that is flowing to you always. Each of us gets to have our own perspective from which we desire or prefer in response to the contrast we experience on earth. It here that we launch rockets of desire. Source Energy answers every single one of us. We can expand our perception, awaken the consciousness of the Infinite Source--ever-present in the universe. There's no shortage of Source; there's no shortage of answers; there's no shortage of substance. There's no shortage of all of the stuff or non-stuff that any of us wants--there's no shortage of it. As we practice allowing this transformation, we will see the Panorama continues to reorganize itself. Most of it without your effort. We get a perspective of life flowing with the current of well-being, and see ourselves joyfully launching powerful rockets of desire. Thus does perception expand to reveal more of the joy and mastery of a deliberate creator. To
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