Hallelujah, Amen. I am Hooked

So, I hauled my sore and tired ass out of my comfy and blissful bed this morning to take a second crack at the ole’ church whip. And you know what? It totally rocked. Man, it totally. rocked.

Now before you go all freaking out on my ass, let me just say that the Centre for Positive Living is not like any church I’ve ever been to. It is very New Age, and the term ‘church’ is used for lack of a better word. The ‘reverend’ is a more of a motivational speaker and the sermon is really more of a conversation. The ‘congregation’ is her audience and the gospels are rock songs. And instead of saying “Lord, hear my prayer", the audience says “and so it is.”

And though I realize that it's all just semantics, it is the environment and the message that I feel comfortable in, so call it what you want, in the end, that's what matters most.

Other things that rocked:

It is a community where all faiths, cultures, and lifestyles are accepted. Yes, even the gays. In fact, I even think there was a transvestite in the audience today.

It is touted as an alternate to traditional worship. (yay!)

They sing kick ass songs, such as ‘Let the Sunshine In’ and ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ (albeit not the Tori Amos version) and the Beatles ‘Let it Be.’

During the sermon, the speaker read a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem.

The speaker is realistic, down-to-Earth and HILARIOUS. She cracked two sex jokes today. Any place where they sing the Beatles and crack jokes about sex and read beautiful poems is the place for me. The only thing that would have made it better would have been if she'd thrown a few swears in there for good measure.

All that aside, the message itself was so inspiring. It was simple and unfettered by dogma or jargon. God gets nary a mention and the Bible is nowhere to be found. We DO NOT need to save ourselves, or give our lives over to the Lord. Nope, all we have to do is love. Love ourselves, love one another. Period.

She spent a lot of time talking about finding out what turns us on and lights us up and then activating and following that bliss. She spoke of choosing happiness. If we are happy, the world is happy. Happy people don’t start wars or propagate hate.

We were also prompted to ask ourselves the question: Are you really working on yourself, or is this the best we can expect from you?

Even better, she spoke of listening to our inner voice, the voice of higher potential. She talked about meditation and Global Thinking. She talked about thinking beyond our limitations (yes!) and accepting our whole and perfect selves. This is a tough one for me. I have spent my whole life in a cycle of self-hatred and loathing, being critical and needy and hating of myself and others. I have lived in scarcity and hung on so tightly to what little I have had, that I have ended up with less and less. So opening up and trusting and coming from love and abundance has awakened in me so much safety and relief and astonishment that I feel grateful and astonished. Overwhelmed and dazed that it really is that simple. Accept my whole self. Warts and all. Accept that I am perfect, even in my imperfection. That’s a gigantic horse pill to swallow for me. Loving myself is a FULL-TIME JOB. Accepting myself is time-and-a-half. So to go to a place where they say, “Hey, man. Love yourself and the rest will follow” is core shaking.

And so it is.

Other great things she said, which made me bawl the whole way through the sermon: “The true nature of you and me is BLISS. That’s our starting point and when we don’t feel it, we are unhappy.”

The journey is not “out there,” it is within us all.

The aim of spirituality is self-expression and self-acceptance.

And my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE, the one thing she said that absolutely hooked me:
“The goal of the spiritual self is not to know God, it is to know ourselves.”

Now You’re Talking.