Reverend David Old, MDiv.

Senior Minister

Minister's Letter Nov 4th 2021

Hi Everyone,

     My talk this coming Sunday is “The Power of Letting Go.”  This month we continue to delve into Charles Fillmore’s book, “The Twelve Powers of Man” and we will be exploring the Power of Release. 

     This week as I began to prepare my talk, I ran across a letter in Rupert Spira’s blog where he had written to one of his students.  Rupert is an Oxford-based spiritual teacher, speaker and published author that I only recently became aware of.  He has become one of my favorite spiritual writers, writing with a clarity that speaks directly to the heart.  One of his students, named Paul, wrote him with the short question, “How do I just let go and be?”  Rupert’s reply makes a wonderful meditation, and I would like to share it with you:

Dear Paul, 

Are you not present seeing these words? Whatever it is that is ‘present’ and ‘seeing’ is what we call ‘I’. Do you have to do anything special in order to be the one who is seeing or who is aware of these words? 

If the eyes close, these words disappear, but does the one who is aware of them cease to be? No, it remains present and aware, experiencing the next perception. You are simply this present awareness without having to do anything about it.

Have you ever been or could you ever be anything other than this present awareness? Could you do anything that would take you closer to or farther from this present awareness? 

Sometimes we pretend to be something other than present awareness by imagining our self to be a body or a mind, but even then there is something that is present and aware of this body-mind. That ‘something’ is what we are. 

The one that seems to be holding on and the one that wants to let go is the entity that we imagine our self to be. Who or what imagines this? Thought.

The entity doesn’t do the imagining. It is imagined. The one who is aware of this imaginative thought is the one that we are. That one is not an entity that is present. It is the presence itself in which all apparent entities appear. 

This present awareness allows all things, including the thought of being an entity, to appear and disappear within itself but holds on to nothing. 

Does the sky hold on to the clouds? No, it allows them to be exactly as they are. In fact, it is the substance of what they are. At the same time, the sky is completely unaffected by the clouds and stands to gain or lose nothing by their appearance or disappearance. 

Present awareness is like the sky. It is the substance of all seeming things but remains completely independent of all seeming things.

Just remain knowingly as that, which simply means to see clearly that you are always only that, and allow everything to take shape, evolve and disappear within you.

With love,
Rupert

Beholding the Christ in each of you.  Have a wonderful week everyone! Hope to see you Sunday.

Rich blessings and much love,

David