message from Rev. T
Welcome to the Centre for Positive Living!
Dharma is the root cause of life, cosmic order or law. It is the doctrine of the religious and moral rights and duties of each individual, including the natural and moral principles that apply to all beings and things. Dutiful observance of this law is one's life, essential quality or character, as it is that of the cosmos. Science of Mind sees the Law, or dharma, at work in, through and as all things. Ernest Holmes would affirm that no one can escape the action and activity of the Law, or dharma, because one cannot step out of one's own nature. The noble eightfold path in Buddhism finds its Western counterpart in the teachings of the Science of Mind, a non dualist, panentheistic philosophy that recognizes Spiritual Principle personified as all things.
Human life and in fact, all life lives according to the eightfold path not through obligation but because it is the nature of all things. Freedom from suffering consists in living consciously according to ones nature. The Sunday lessons delivered weekly in a New Thought Learning Centre are much more akin to the Dharma Talks given by a spiritual master than sermons delivered by clergy in traditional worship. The focus of these "lessons" is to bring the student to greater awareness of dharma, that is to say how root cause is finding expression in the individual and whether one is in right relationship to one's own nature and thus deriving the most benefit from life and freedom from suffering. The right action inherent in the practice of the eightfold path is founded not in the idea of right vs wrong but rather in the right or true, as a wheel that is balanced and true to its nature so the "right" action, view, livelihood, etc. of the practice is not about doing or seeing things right as much as it is about seeing through the illusion of appearances to what is real.
The purpose of our "dharma talks" this Advent season is to understand how close our philosophy and practice is to Buddhism and then to deepen our own spiritual growth as we move into the New Year.
Blessings
Rev. Terry