As Man Now Is . . . God Once Was

Deepak Chopra, in Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, states, “We are all Gods in embryo.” [The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, pg 98] This reminds me of a saying attributed to Lorenzo Snow, fifth President of the LDS Church, (1898-1901):  “As man now is, God once was.  As God now is, man may become.”

This morning I was listening to an essay on the 45th Verse of the Tao Te Ching by Wayne Dyer. A poem by Meister Eckhart was quoted on this “man-God” subject:  “Every object, every creature, every man, woman and child has a soul and it is the destiny of all, to see as God sees, to know as God knows, to feel as God feels, to Be as God Is.” (Change Your Thoughts Change Your Mind, pg 221).

Musing on this poem,  I was led to another piece of literature that I site in my book, Perfect Brightness of Hope, Appendix II, page  220 [Cedarfort, 2012 publication]. Though too lengthy to quote in this blog, Apostle Matthew Cowley, in one of his many speeches relating to AA and alcoholism,  references the Lorenzo Snow saying in conjunction with a man he heard testifying in an AA meeting.  (Yes, Apostle Cowley was a fan of, and occasionally present in AA Meetings.) Cowley describes the situation in the man’s own words: “Five years ago I was in the gutter, degenerate, demoralized, and had been drunk for ages. . . . wife and kids left me, lost my home and I was just turned loose and down in the gutter.” Then the man stated that AA had got a hold of him and that his life had changed dramatically.  He became active in his church, and eventually went to the LDS Temple and was sealed to his wife and children. Apostle Cowley quotes this man’s final words as he heard them in AA meeting that evening: “Fellows, from the gutter to the temple of God in six years. You are looking at a God. As God now is, many may become.”  [Matthew Cowley Speaks, 340-341]

For a few of Brother Cowley’s wonderful speeches given about AA and to “the AA” as he called it, refer to my appendices II, Understand the Less Fortunate, in Perfect Brightness of Hope, pages 219-228.

Progress is Impossible Without Change

As you may know, I routinely teach inmates at a county jail.  My course, “Living @5: A Spiritual Course in Thought and Time,” focuses on the key tenet that “our mind controls our body.” In the best-selling audio of all time, “The Strangest Secret,”  Earl Nightingale proposed a profound idea:   What we think about, we bring about.   Most of us are unaware of what we are thinking about in any given moment. But the law of creation does not cease because we are unaware.  We are creating in every second,  many of us without power or direction.  In two most wonderful books, the late Wayne Dyer teaches about power and direction:  Change Your Thoughts, Change Your Life, and There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem.  The preface to the first book has a short line by George Bernard Shaw which sums it ALL up:  “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” ( PS, Take an hour  for Peace and watch Dyer’s movie  “The Shift.” on YouTub犀利士
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Peace and happiness are always just a thought away!  Namaste, Phil