NEW THOUGHT -- ANCIENT WISDOM

 New Thought has been around since the beginning of the 20th Century and is really Ancient Wisdom.  In a nut shell, all the great masters have told us to look within for God, or Power, or Love, or anything we need.  Teachings in the New Thought-Ancient Wisdom tradition know that there is nothing to pray to, or ask, outside of ourselves, for we are actually the living flesh of Great Spirit.  We are all made of the stuff of stars.  It runs throughout all creation, both in form and without form.

                                     This is not a belief. 

Beliefs are opinions based on thoughts from the past or hope for the future.  We are all full of thoughts, 99% of the time.  Have you ever tried to stop thoughts from forming?  Impossible!  But wait--if you bring yourself present with whatever is present with you, such as in meditation, or communing with a tree, you are free of thought.  Only awareness exists in the present moment.  The thinking mind, or ego, cannot join you in presence.

When was the last time you caught yourself thinking about something that was not present?  Just a few minutes ago, no doubt, you could have been deciding what to wear, regretting a past event, or who knows what.  You were not present.  You had gone away into the thinking mind, completely leaving your body. If you are unable to stop thinking whenever you wish, you are allowing your mind control you, not the other way around.  A very full awareness expands to include breath, feet on the floor, flowers in the room, clouds in the sky, whatever is present. 

We are alive in a silent Presence, in a breathing body. We can only experience Truth in the present moment; never in a future which never arrives, nor in a past that has already disappeared.  Anxiety, anger, and hurt vanish completely in the present moment. Ego has stepped aside, allowing us to experience Peace, Love, Truth, and Oneness, the only reality. 

           Ego is that which runs my life when I am not present. 

Think about it.  The purpose of ego is to keep us separated from All There Is, and it does a great job of that, daily and continually. Letting go of the thinking mind does not mean you cannot use thought creatively and consciously, any time you choose. 

During daily events, if ever we forget this Oneness of All There Is and are totally gone away some place in mind, we have only to remember, then return to whatever is present in the moment.  Existence is always present as trees, flowers, clouds and you and me.  Just look around you at how Love is expressing right now. Existence is reality in form.

                           The Experience of Enlightenment

Truth only happens in the present moment. We may be so focused in an exciting activity, like skiing, hang gliding, racing, or dare devil events; we have no thought at all in mind, only experience.  This enlightenment feels good, so we continue to put ourselves in situations where we receive the thrill of the moment, of God.  The truth is, we don’t have to find the most hair-raising events; we have only to be fully present wherever we are.   The present moment, void of unconscious thinking, never goes away.  All of existence is waiting for us to remember to come home.  That's the only place peace is.  

  Rev. Eleanor Richard