"Enlightenment Chapel, Inc.", Encouragement Poetry at Phila. Front Page News

"Enlightenment Chapel, Inc.", Encouragement Poetry at Phila. Front Page News

If a man would succeed in his search after truth, he must, in the
first place, shut his eyes to all the traditional superstitions of
the past.

The Jews have traditional superstitions, the Buddhists and the
Zoroastrians are not free from them, neither are the Christians! All
religions have gradually become bound by tradition and dogma.

All consider themselves, respectively, the only guardians of the
truth, and that every other religion is composed of errors. They
themselves are right, all others are wrong! The Jews believe that
they are the only possessors of the truth and condemn all other
religions. The Christians affirm that their religion is the only true
one, that all others are false. Likewise the Buddhists and
Muhammadans; all limit themselves. If all condemn one another, where
shall we search for truth?

All contradicting one another, all cannot be true. If each believes
his particular religion to be the only true one, he blinds his eyes
to the truth in the others. If, for instance, a Jew is bound by the
external practice of the religion of Israel, he does not permit
himself to perceive that truth can exist in any other religion; it
must be all contained in his own!

We should, therefore, detach ourselves from the external forms and
practices of religion. We must realize that these forms and
practices, however beautiful, are but garments clothing the warm
heart and the living limbs of Divine truth. We must abandon the
prejudices of tradition if we would succeed in finding the truth at
the core of all religions. If a Zoroastrian believes that the Sun is
God, how can he be united to other religions? While idolaters believe
in their various idols, how can they understand the oneness of God?

It is, therefore, clear that in order to make any progress in the
search after truth we must relinquish superstition. If all seekers
would follow this principle they would obtain a clear vision of the
truth.

If five people meet together to seek for truth, they must begin by
cutting themselves free from all their own special conditions and
renouncing all preconceived ideas. In order to find truth we must
give up our prejudices, our own small trivial notions; an open
receptive mind is essential. If our chalice is full of self, there is
no room in it for the water of life. The fact that we imagine
ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all
obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we
would reach truth, for truth is one.

Therefore it is imperative that we should renounce our own particular
prejudices and superstitions if we earnestly desire to seek the
truth. Unless we make a distinction in our minds between dogma,
superstition and prejudice on the one hand, and truth on the other,
we cannot succeed. When we are in earnest in our search for anything
we look for it everywhere. This principle we must carry out in our
search for truth.

Science must be accepted. No one truth can contradict another truth.
Light is good in whatsoever lamp it is burning! A rose is beautiful
in whatsoever garden it may bloom! A star has the same radiance if it
shines from the East or from the West. Be free from prejudice, so
will you love the Sun of Truth from whatsoever point in the horizon
it may arise! You will realize that if the Divine light of truth
shone in Jesus Christ it also shone in Moses and in Buddha. The
earnest seeker will arrive at this truth. This is what is meant by
the 'Search after Truth'.

It means, also, that we must be willing to clear away all that we
have previously learned, all that would clog our steps on the way to
truth; we must not shrink if necessary from beginning our education
all over again. We must not allow our love for any one religion or
any one personality to so blind our eyes that we become fettered by
superstition! When we are freed from all these bonds, seeking with
liberated minds, then shall we be able to arrive at our goal.

The 5 Principles of Truth

These principles are taken from a book entitled Pocket Unity, by Paul
John Roach

The First Principle:

There is One Presence and One Power in the universe and in my life -
God the Good. There is one Power: God. Unity believes that God is
omnipresent and omnipotent so there cannot be an opposing power in
the universe. There is only the Presence of God, and God is Good.

God is Spirit and can be described in a multitude of ways eg.,
Father, Mother, Mind, Love, Truth, Health, Power, Energy, Principle,
Source, Creator, Sustainer, Intelligence, Life, Light, Substance,
Joy. Each of these names corresponds to a divine idea or attribute
enshrined in the essence or nature of God. As children of God it is
our birthright to inherit these powerful divine ideas and to express
them in our everyday lives.

The Second Principle:

God is individualized in us as the Christ Spirit, Christ within or
indwelling Christ. As children of God, made in the image and likeness
of God, our true nature is perfect and complete. This inner divinity
is called by many names e.g., the True Self, the Witness, the Spirit
of Truth.

The Christ is not a name for Jesus only, but refers to the essential
divinity in all people. Jesus, the illumined soul, became the Christ
(in other words he realized his divinity) and his promise is that we
can realize it also. Then we can say in truth, as he did, "The Father
and I are one."

The fact that each of us has this divine or spiritual dimension means
we are always connected to God and always worthy to receive God's
good.

The Third Principle:

God operates in the universe according to the law of mind action.

The Law of Mind Action states that, "Thoughts held in mind, produce
after their kind." It is the fundamental law by which the universe
operates. This law has been expressed in a variety of ways through
the ages.

The Fourth Principle:

The tools by which we work the law are denial and affirmation.

Myrtle Fillmore, the cofounder of Unity, described denial and
affirmation as the two angels that guard the door of our
consciousness. We deny the power and ultimate reality of appearances
and the limits they seem to place on us and we affirm the Truth of
ourselves as unlimited spiritual beings. Denial is not pretending
that something doesn't exist. Denial releases us from attachment to
appearance and allows us to focus on the Truth through affirmations.

We deny that there is a force of evil and we deny the appearance of
evil as a power in and of itself. By withdrawing our energy and
belief in this way, we can then focus our energies and attention on
the Presence and Power of God and God's divine ideas working in our
lives. We also deny that there is any true separation between God and
man and man and creation.

Denials create a vacuum in consciousness which needs to be filled
with positive thoughts and feelings. It is important therefore that
we follow up a denial with an affirmation.

The Fifth Principle:

The best way to practice the Principles is through prayer and
meditation and then in every thought, word and action.

Affirmative prayer is the alignment of our consciousness with the
perfection of God's consciousness. This is a daily activity. It is in
the secret place of our hearts that we connect and commune with God.
This place is often referred to as The Silence.

We enter the Silence in formal times of prayer and meditation but we
also pray every time we remember our true nature. We carry this
prayer consciousness with us in everything we say and do.

'Seek the truth, the truth shall make you free.' So shall we see the
truth in all religions, for truth is in all and truth is one!