Based on the Sunday message from January 28: Healed Part 1 – Mental & Emotional Well-being
Spirit Group Discussion Questions
Question 1:
Jung shared the concept of the Persona. If you have certain “masks” you put on in various situations (such as the side of yourself you present at work, or to family), that is a persona. The Persona can be seen as the “public relations” part of the ego, the part that allows us to interact socially in a variety of situations with relative ease. The persona usually grows from the parts of people that wished once to please teachers, parents, and other authority figures, and as such it leans heavily toward embodying only one’s best qualities, leaving those negative traits which contradict the Persona to form the “Shadow.”
The Shadow – The traits that we dislike, or would rather ignore, come together to form what Jung called the Shadow, the part of the psyche which is also influenced heavily by the collective unconscious.
Share about the “masks” you wear and find acceptable, and then share some of those aspects, feelings, etc. you don’t want to reveal and place into
your shadow.
Question 2:
When we are “triggered” or upset by something happening in our world, it is an opportunity for healing. What has caused you to be upset in the past week and what is it hoping to heal in you?
Question 3:
Jesus said in Philippians 2:5 (NRSV), “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” What do you think the Mind of Christ was like?
Question 4:
Please read this during your meeting and discuss the question below.
Jesus said in John 14:1-14:
1 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And you know the way to the place where I am going. 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.
What does this teaching tell us about Jesus’ Mind and God-Mind, and what is in store for us?
Weekly Affirmations
- The Truth of the universe is oneness—whole, complete, undivided.
- This oneness is Consciousness.
- Consciousness is Purity itself, unblemished and unaffected by anything in the relative world.
- My conscious awareness is at one with this Purity; I am pure.
- There is only oneness. I now fully awaken to this Truth.
Sunday Message
Guided Mini-Meditation
Additional Optional Reading:
The Law of Divine Compensation – by Marianne Williamson
The universe is programmed to manifest, through you, the highest possibilities for your creativity and joy. And that never, ever changes. In God’s Mind you are never too old; in God’s Mind you are never inadequate; in God’s Mind you are not your resume or your failures. In God’s Mind, there is no mistake that you are not given the opportunity to correct, nor anything anyone did to you that cannot be compensated for when you forgive and move on.
Nothing about your material circumstances has the power to stop the engine of cosmic intention that you be blessed. And you are blessed “eternally,” which means moment after moment after moment. In any instant, regardless of what has happened in the past, the universe has arranged and is continuing to arrange infinite possibilities for you to prosper. If you cannot see this now–if despair and anxiety hang like a veil before your eyes, preventing you from mustering any faith in God at all—then in this moment lean on mine. One mind joined with another, regardless of their position in time or space, can remove whatever chains would bind us and deliver us to that sweet, sweet realm where things come full circle and there is always a chance to begin again.
The Purity of Consciousness – by Jeff Kober, jkober@mac.com
The Truth of the universe is oneness. Whole, complete, undivided. This oneness is consciousness. Consciousness is purity itself, unblemished and untouched by anything in the relative world.
I am this oneness. I am this purity. If there is only oneness, this must be true.
We may see this purity as light, as if everything is of the light, everything is the light, and where there appears to be darkness is only a place where our perception is shadowed. Or we may see it as love—that love is the flow of life, love is the only truth of life, and where there appears to be something other than love is only a place where our perception has not yet grown full enough to experience the love that is there. Because again, the Truth of the universe is oneness. If love exists, it must be of the oneness, and the oneness must be of it. And if light exists, it must be everything, and if it is everything then there is no place where it is not.
So if today I seem to see in myself darkness and lack of the flow of love, I have a choice: to build a case for why I deserve this to be my truth, or to recognize it as merely a mistake in my ability to see.
I can believe in light, or I can believe in darkness. I can’t believe in both.
There is only oneness. This oneness is pure light, pure love, pure Truth. I am of this oneness, sharing every quality this oneness holds. I am pure light. I am pure love. I am pure Truth.
Today I will choose to believe in the light, and if I have trouble allowing this belief to guide me, I will call upon the belief held by those who have gone before me to lift me up, the better to see.
