Discover the Power Within You PDF by Eric Butterworth

Brian Johnson’s PhilosophersNotes TM More Wisdom in Less Time THE BIG IDEAS Discover the Power Within You Where’s the Divine? A...

Brian Johnson’s PhilosophersNotes TM More Wisdom in Less Time THE BIG IDEAS Discover the Power Within You Where’s the Divine? A Guide to the Unexplored Depths Within Hint: Look within. BY ERIC BUTTERWORTH · HARPERONE © 2008 · 256 PAGES The Great Decision Let there be light! True Meaning of “Meek” Niagara Falls, discipline and you. “This book will ask the question, ‘What did Jesus really teach?’ It will cut through theologies and dogma and ritual, and show how Jesus of Nazareth, two thousand Go the Second Mile And beyond. years ago, grappled with the problem that beset men and found some profound yet Heaven + Hell simple answers. We will not preach in a tone that suggests that Christianity alone Deeper meaning. Now’s the time! can save the world. Yet we are confident that Jesus could make a vital contribution to our time, if He were only given an unbiased, nonsectarian hearing. The philosophy of Jesus is a workable philosophy, a way of life. Jesus taught the depth potential of man and of his spiritual unity with God. Perhaps He was ahead of His time. Only recently have scientists, philosophers, psychologists, and educators begun to catch the idea of an integrated whole as the guide for studying man or life or the Universe. This is the concept of spiritual unity that is found between the lines in all Jesus’s teachings. Strangely, religious groups have been the slowest of all to catch this vision. This is especially remarkable because the very word ‘religion,’ from its Greek root, has a strong connotation in unity.... So now, let me commend Discover the Power Within You to you. A religious book is usually church-centered, Jesus-centered, and dogma-centered. However, Jesus stressed a spiritual philosophy that is you-centered. You do not accomplish Jesus’s ideal simply by believing things about him. You must come to believe “The more we understand about yourself what Jesus believed about himself. So this book is not something the concepts of Jesus, the to believe... it is something to do. And judging by the testimonies of hundreds more we realize that the only of readers who have written to support the claim, I think it can be the means of time we can truthfully say, changing your life. ‘That’s just the way I am,’ is when we are referring to Commence your journey through the pages of Discover the Power Within You... the divinity within us. You and let something wonderful happen to you!” have a great potentiality, a ~ Eric Butterworth from Discover the Power Within You divine self within you that Eric Butterworth was a prolific author and Unity minister—one of the great spiritual teachers needs to be released. This is of the 20th century. We featured another one of his books called Spiritual Economics. That one what Jesus really taught.” transformed my consciousness around money/ambition/etc. (I *highly* recommend it.) ~ Eric Butterworth Butterworth was also Maya Angelou’s spiritual teacher. And, Oprah says that this book is one of her all-time favorites. Angelou wrote the foreword to the book. She says: “Butterworth was a twentieth-century Emerson. His mission was to help others realize their spiritual potential and to empower the world through spiritual growth.... He’s helped me to live more abundantly, and he can help you to live more abundantly, too... I hope one of [the things I will be remembered by] would be the encouragement to live the life you want to live. Live your life so that you will not leave too many things undone. Live the life you sing about. Live the life. That’s it.” 1 PhilosophersNotes | Discover the Power Within You  This could be its own Idea: “Live your life so that you will not leave too many things undone. “Potentially, man is stronger Live the life you sing about. Live the life. That’s it.” than his fears and greater than his weakness. The role Amen. Are you leaving anything undone? What would the life “you sing about” look like? Live of teachers and preachers that life. Now!! Helping us do that by taking a fresh, spiritual perspective on Jesus’s life and and philosophers is to help teaching is what this book is all about. (Get a copy here.) people, all people, to know Of course, it’s packed with Big Ideas. I’m excited to share a few of my favorites so let’s jump in! this basic fact of life.” ~ Eric Butterworth WHERE TO DISCOVER THE DIVINE (HINT: LOOK WITHIN!) “According to an old Hindu legend there was a time when all men were gods, but they so abused their divinity that Brahma, the chief god, decided to take it away from men and hide it where they would never again find it. Where to hide it became the big question. When the lesser gods were called in council to consider this question, they said, ‘We will bury man’s divinity deep in the earth.’ But Brahma said, ‘No, that will not do, for man will dig deep down in the earth and find it.’ Then they said, ‘Well, we will sink his divinity into the deepest ocean.’ But again Brahma replied, ‘No, not there, for man will learn to dive into the deepest waters, will search out the ocean bed, and will find it.’ Then the lesser gods said, ‘We will take it to the top of the highest mountain and there hide it.’ But again Brahma replied, ‘No, for man will eventually climb every high mountain on earth. He will be sure some day to find it and take it up again for himself.’ Then the lesser gods gave up and concluded, ‘We do not know where to hide it, for it seems there is no place on earth or in the sea that man will not eventually reach.’ Then Brahma said, ‘Here is what we will do with man’s divinity. We will hide it deep down in man himself, for he will never think to look for it there.’ Ever since then, the legend concludes, man has been going up and down the earth, climbing, digging, diving, exploring, searching for something that is already in himself. Two thousand years ago a man named Jesus found it and shared its secret; but in the movement that sprang up in His name, the Divinity in Man has been the best kept secret of the ages.” Those are the first words of the book. First, note how interesting it is that a Christian (Unity) minister kicks off a book about the teachings of Jesus with a Hindu parable. That’s after a discussion in the foreword to the 25th anniversary addition of the book in which Butterworth talks about how much he would enjoy watching Jesus hang out and chat with “a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Muslim, and a Shintoist—discussing ultimate Truth.” “But you must still make He says: “I just can’t believe that Jesus would have said, ‘You must forsake your beliefs and come follow me.’ I think he might have pointed out that the differences were chiefly a matter of that great decision to affirm semantics, and that there is an underlying principle similar to the Christ idea in every religion. your unity with the Infinite. I think he would have stressed the basic unity within the diversity of religions, pointing out that You must still believe that I the greatest need of all persons is to find that indwelling unity with God, which is found in the AM, and then work tirelessly principle of divine Sonship, that we call the Christ.” to act the part. You must claim your freedom, realizing And THAT is pretty much the whole point of the book. that it does not mean doing Butterworth tells us that what Jesus *really* taught is that we ALL have the Divine within. what you like, but becoming More than anything, he tells us, Jesus was a man who mastered himself and demonstrated what what you should.” we ALL can do when we “discover the power within”! ~ Eric Butterworth Let’s explore how to go about doing that... 2 PhilosophersNotes | Discover the Power Within You  “Ye are the light of the world. THE GREAT DECISION A city that is set on a hill “The Christ in you is you at the point of God. It is your ‘hope of glory’ for it is your root in Divine cannot be hid. Neither do Mind. However, you must become conscious of this root of your being, you must make the men light a candle and put decision to act as though you are a spiritual being in potential. In a way, making the ‘decision for it under a bushel, but on Christ’ is as fundamental as turning on the light. You may be interested in the electrical energy in a candlestick: and it giveth the circuits. You may have a conviction that it can glow in the bulb and make light in the room. light unto all that are in the But in the end you can have light only if and when you make the decision to turn on the switch. house. Let your light shine With all the studies of Jesus, few have caught the real significance of His life and teaching. He before men, that they may was man on the quest, man making the great discovery of His divinity, man breaking through see your good works, and the psychological barrier between man and God, man proving the Christ in man and his inherent glorify your father which is potential for overcoming, for eternal life. in heaven.” We have been misled to focus on His divinity. We have overlooked the fact that He focused ~ Matt. 5:14-16 on our divinity. He said, in effect, ‘You can do what I do, if you have faith’—if you make the decision, the decision for Christ. But this is simply a decision to accept the Christ in yourself, to follow Jesus’ guidance and make the same discovery of the unity in yourself that He had found in Himself.” That’s from a chapter called “The Great Decision.” Butterworth tells us that the most frequently used metaphor to capture the power of God/the Divine/etc. is light—which reminds me of Joseph Campbell’s wisdom from The Power of Myth. Pop quiz! Campbell asks: “What am I? Am I the bulb that carries the light, or am I the light of which the bulb is a vehicle?” Hmmm... Am I the bulb... or the light? Answer: Yes. :) Most importantly, for our practical purposes: Want light? Flip the switch. When? Moment to moment to moment. All day. Every day. Repeat. Moment to moment to moment. All day. Every day. Repeat. (Have we mentioned that before? :) ACT AS IF you are a spiritual being in potential. Flip the switch. Allow the Divine to flow through and as you. “You may say, ‘But I am P.S. Another 20th century spiritual teacher, Ernest Holmes, puts it this way in The Art of Life: only human.’ This is the “You are using the Law of Life every time you think. No matter how long you may have been understatement of your life. using It wrongly in your ignorance, the very day, that hour, yes the very moment, you begin You are not only human—you to use this Power rightly, the effect of having used It wrongly will pass from your experience. are also divine in potential. Does it make any difference how long a room has been dark when you introduce a light; how The fulfillment of all your long the earth has been parched when refreshing rain come to bring new life, a new seed time goals and aspirations in life and a new harvest to the fields?” depends upon stirring up P.P.S. I’m also reminded of another brilliant 20th century spiritual teacher, Walter Russell. In and releasing more of that The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe he tells us that genius is self-bestowed while divine potential. And there is mediocrity is self-inflicted. really nothing difficult about letting this inner light shine. The Great Decision? “Early in life I found that to achieve greatness one had to go only one inch All we must do is correct beyond mediocrity, but that one inch is so hard to go that only those who become aware of God in them can make the grade, for no one can achieve that one inch alone.” the tendency to turn off our light when we face darkness.” Back to Butterworth for one more thought in this context: “When we know the Truth of this ~ Eric Butterworth great spiritual potential within us which Jesus called the Kingdom of God within, we are free to become our unlimited self, free to do unlimited things.” PhilosophersNotes | Discover the Power Within You 3  One more time: Flip the switch. Allow the Divine to flow through and as you. “Like the pattern in the seed, there is a plan for every P.P.P.S. Here’s another way to think about it: “Jesus had a unique conception of God. To Him, person in the Mind of the God was not an object of worship but a Presence dwelling in us, a force surrounding us, and a Infinite, which gives rise also Principle by which we live. It is not too much to say that anyone who catches the idea of Jesus’ to a ceaseless urge within concept will find himself caught up in a new consciousness that will change his whole life. He will never be the same again.” man toward fulfillment. This might be called God’s will. He continues by saying: “Ask the average individual if he believes in God and he will very How important it is that we probably say, ‘Why yes, of course I do!’ However, it is unlikely that he has ever asked himself understand this.” what he means by God. In a recent survey, some 90 per cent of the people who were asked the question, ‘Do you believe in God?’ answered, ‘Yes!’ But when asked further, ‘What is your ~ Eric Butterworth conception of God, and what do you think God has to do with your everyday life?’ only a few had any comment to make.” To which I ask: “Do you believe in God?” And... The most important question: “What is YOUR conception of God, and what do you think God has to do with your everyday life?” NIAGARA FALLS, DISCIPLINE AND YOUR EPIC POWER PLANTS “The Greek word, praeis, which we translate as ‘meek,’ has the connotation ‘tamed,’ from the standpoint of harnessing that which is wild and unrestrained. Niagara Falls is an example of raw and unrestrained power. Tremendous forces are involved as the Niagara River dashes madly over the Falls. This vast energy was wasted for millions of years until we built several large power plants to harness the power for electricity. Today the Falls have been ‘tamed’ as the water turns great turbines to generate electricity for many Eastern cities.... Meekness is a sensitiveness or surrender of consciousness to the influence of something. When Jesus says, ‘Blessed are the meek’ He doesn’t mean a surrender to people but to God. The best conductor of electricity is the substance that is least resistant to the flow of the electric current. Likewise, the best conductor of divine power is the person who is nonresistant to the flow of divine power. This attitude comes from a conviction that God is always the answer to human needs, and a willingness to submit wholeheartedly to the flow of the Spirit in and through us.” That’s from a chapter in which we start unpacking Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. I’m reminded of some parallel wisdom from Steve Chandler’s great book Fearless where he says: “Some feel that fear is okay as a lifestyle because they’ve heard that the meek shall inherit the earth. So they can go on with being meek as a way of life. They become soft-spoken and compliant, never standing for themselves; always resigned to being a fluffy doormat. But scholars now say that in the scriptural texts that were translated from the Greek, the word praos doesn’t exactly mean ‘meek’ as people have always thought. In fact, it is more accurate “What is an acorn? It is an to say it means ‘disciplined.’ A very big difference in those translations. It’s much more oak tree in the making. What encouraging to now realize that the disciplined shall inherit the earth.” is an egg? It is the first Isn’t that fascinating? stage of a performance that will lead to a bird. What is The Greek word we’ve translated as “meek” really means something closer to “disciplined” or man? A man is what he can “tamed.” We need to discipline/tame ourselves so we can create the Niagara Falls-like power be. And what is that? Only plants within our being that allow us to channel the ENORMOUS (!) latent Divine energy within. spiritual perception can tell.” Can you FEEL that? ~ Eric Butterworth See the Niagara River flowing over Niagara Falls. That’s a TON (!!) of energy. But it’s “wasted” until we build “several large power plants” to “tame” or channel the energy, eh? Well, guess what? SAME WITH US. We each have a TON (!!) of energy within. We just need to do the work to “tame” ourselves as we build the power plants so we can USE all that energy. 4 PhilosophersNotes | Discover the Power Within You  Btw: I also love the fact that the best conductor of electricity (and Divine power) is that which “Happiness in marriage is a has the least resistance. conquest and not a bequest. Our resistance to the Divine flow? Negative/disempowering thoughts of fear, anxiety, doubt, Marriage is the license by etc. And... Mundane stuff like sugar, flour, constant papercutting of our consciousness via our which two people, who have addiction to digital devices, etc. Each of those kyrptonites creates resistance. Let’s get rid of ‘em. seen the greater possibilities Let’s tame ourselves, remove the resistance and build our power plants. Harness all that latent in each other, may work power. How? Again: DISCIPLINE. “Meekly” submitting ourselves to God. together to bring forth those possibilities. It is GO THE SECOND MILE (AND BEYOND) a laboratory of individual “The admonition to go the second mile relates to the right of the Roman soldiers in Jesus’ time to unfoldment.” compel subject peoples to carry their burdens for one mile. It was the imposition of despotism, ~ Eric Butterworth but the subject people could do nothing about it. Jesus indicates an uncommon-sense way of doing something about it. They could break their bonds of enslavement by doing what was demanded of them as if they really enjoyed doing it. And that doesn’t make sense, does it?... When you go the second mile—give more to your work, are more thoughtful and kind to people, become a joyous giver and a gracious receiver—suddenly life takes on new meaning. On the second mile you find happiness, true friends, real satisfaction in living—and probably a larger pay check, too.” That’s from a chapter on “The Law of Nonresistance.” Roman soldier force you to carry his stuff for a mile? Go two. Why? -> “Jesus knew that when you do what is required of you and no more, you are a slave.”