With this article, we conclude our month long series exploring the principles of spiritual truth. If you have been reading along, then you know that the first 2-part article titled “The Principles of Principle” described five fundamental characteristics that must be present in order for a principle to be predictably reliable and worthy of being elevated to the status of spiritual truth. That article stated that a principle must be: universal, unchanging, unbiased, unlimited and unerring.
Part I of this article, “Spiritual Principles Are Principled Too,” tested the first two Unity principles against the first two principles of principle. The article concluded they were universal and unchanging statements of truth principle. In Part II, we complete the test by looking at Unity Principles 3, 4 and 5 to see if they are unbiased, unlimited and unerring.
Confused yet? Well, there really is no need to be. It is not as complex as it may first appear. However, if this is the first of these articles you have read, it might be helpful to read “The Principles of Principle” (Part I & Part II), as well as “Spiritual Principles Are Principled Too (Part I), before you read this article. If you have been reading along, let’s get right to it.
Unity Principle #3 Is Unbiased
We create our life experiences through our thoughts and feelings.
Principle is unbiased. To be unbiased, is to be fundamentally neutral, to operate without prejudice. Truth principles, which must be quintessentially unbiased, must apply to everyone universally, regardless of circumstances. Unity Principle #3 is true for everyone. We do create our life experiences through the dominant thoughts and feelings we allow into our consciousness. We have a thought about something, then, we have a feeling about the thought. If we observe closely, we will find that very quickly we are also having another thought about the feeling we had about the first thought. If we do not consciously attend to this activity, in short order, we may find ourselves down a rabbit hole believing that life is happening to us, rather than for us.
In metaphysical terms, Unity teaches that there are three phases in the creation process: Mind, Idea and Expression. If we think of Mind as representing the total potentiality of experiences possible in our consciousness, then it is easy to see that when an Idea emerges from the Mind, there is an instant in time where we decide to follow the Idea, park it or ignore it altogether. In such instances, we are choosing which Ideas will dominate in our consciousness and which will hold no sway. This process literally occurs tens of thousands of times each and every day of our lives. Everyone does it and has been doing it forever.
In the doing, we are deciding what these thoughts, or Ideas, mean to us and to our lives. This is how we “create our life experiences.” We are not always in control of what happens to us, but we are always in charge of how we react or respond to it. Whether it is our unconscious reaction or our conscious response, both are the Expression of our thoughts and feelings about the underlying Idea. Once again, we all do it. In this sense, Unity Principle #3 is unbiased.
Unity Principle #4 Is Unlimited
There is Divine Power in meditation and affirmative prayer, which increases our awareness of our oneness with God.
Principle is unlimited. The inherent creative power of principle cannot be depleted. Principle is inexhaustible in its capacity for expression. If we think of principles as Divine Ideas, then we know they can be used over and over to create a potentially unlimited number of expressions. For example, think of a chair. Hold this idea of a chair in your mind. Consider the underlying idea of the chair. What is its function, its purpose? What are the characteristics a chair must embody in order to be a chair? Now, think about how many different forms of the Divine Idea of chair you have seen expressed in your own lifetime. How many different chairs have you seen or sat in, maybe even slept in? How many more variations of chair can you imagine beyond those of which you have first hand experience? It’s potentially unlimited, isn’t it?
Unity Principle #4 states that there is “Divine Power” available to us, that we find this power in “mediation and affirmative prayer” by expanding our “awareness of our oneness with God”. The idea of “Divine Power” implies unlimited power, a power incalculably more powerful than the perceived limitations of mere human power. However, Unity Principle #4 tells us we have access to this unlimited “Divine Power,” which means that as we “increase our awareness of our oneness with God,” we also become aware of the potentially unlimited power available to us, each and every one of us. Not only is this power unlimited, it is also universal, unbiased and unchanging.
Unity Principle #5 Is Unerring
Knowing and understanding these Spiritual Principles, also called Truth, is not enough. We must live them.
Principle is unerring. Regardless of how a principle is applied, it yields precise effects. This does not mean that all outcomes are the same. Like all principles, they can be used correctly or misused terribly. We can understand them, misunderstand them or be altogether ignorant of them. In any case, principles will create specific effects or consequences depending on how they are applied. It’s like the law of cause and effect, which is a primary metaphysical and scientific truth principle. We are free to choose, or even to choose not to choose. However, whichever we do choose, we accordingly set into motion precise effects and consequences.
Unity Principle #5 reminds us that all the knowledge, intelligence, wisdom and understanding available to us is pointless, if we do not live in accordance with the truth they embody. Knowing that we are divine children of God, created in the image and likeness of God, fundamentally connected in oneness with God and capable of creative expression beyond all perceived limits of our imaginations is a completely moot point, if we do not choose to live our lives from that awareness.
We can live from the awareness of our fundamental union with God, or we can live with an awareness that we are separated from God and need to get back to God. Either awareness informs how we live our lives, how we express and demonstrate the level of our mastery over spiritual truth principles. The choice is and always has been ours. Either way, we will create and experience the unerring and “precise effects” of spiritual principle accordingly. We are free to choose whatever we may wish, but we are not free to escape the precise consequences and effects of the choices we put into motion. If you are experiencing error in your life, it is not the result of spiritual principle, which is unerring. But rather, the error is the consequence of the misuse or misunderstanding of the spiritual principles involved. As A Course In Miracles makes plain time and again, if we are not happy with the outcomes of our choices, choose again.
