Center for Spiritual Living Midtown

You Got Another THINK Coming!

Rather than focusing this to the people out there in our lives, this is a focus to remind OURSELVES. It’s an announcement that we can do better thinking in any situation. When we feel cornered, or angered, or just don’t know what to say, we can announce to ourselves that there is a different way to THINK, a better way to THINK, a wise way to THINK.

Why Is Everybody So Angry - Rev. Paul Gonyea

If we find ourselves constantly relating to the world in an angry or resentful way, we don’t need to justify it or claim it as our own; we just need to admit that it’s there, and try to understand the reason behind it. In The Course In Miracles, there’s a statement that says, “You are never angry for the reason you think you are.” That’s very true. Anger is not a cause, it’s an effect. It’s not a disease, it is a symptom of a consciousness that’s out of balance. When something upsets us, we shouldn’t think of ourselves as “being angry.” We shouldn’t say “I’ve always had a bad temper.” Instead, we should think of it as “experiencing anger.” You see the difference? In one case, we have the emotion. In the other case, the emotion has us. Making that distinction allows us to exercise our power of decision. It allows us to consciously direct our physical response until it is back in line with our inner wisdom, back in harmony with our spiritual nature. It allows us to use the Divine Power working through us to heal something that could otherwise tear us apart.

Einstein at CSL Midtown - Rev. David Barrett

What if Albert Einstein were a guest speaker at CSL Midtown? What would he say? Is our teaching really that different than anything that he has ever said? Did he ever think religion and science were two separate entities? He said, "There is no true science which does not emanate from the mysterious. Every thinking person must be filled with awe and wonder just by looking up at the stars." Come experience just what that 'awe and wonder' is.

A Higher Class of Problems

People who live their life ‘large’ have already demonstrated that they can handle the simpler problems. That’s how they got where they are. As we learn to handle the problems that come up in our life, life doesn't necessarily get easier. It just gets more interesting, more exciting. The more we demonstrate our ability to overcome simpler problems, the more we grow. And the more we grow, the more opportunities we will get to deal with life on a more challenging level. Our level of problems indicates our level of belief in ourselves. And our level of belief in ourselves indicates our level of belief in this power we call God.

How Free Are We in Our Freedom

We celebrate freedom this holiday weekend and it is a great weekend to celebrate. There is a freedom even greater than the celebration of a national freedom, and it is in Universal Freedom. When you truly understand the word “Freedom”, you will no longer feel bound by any person, place, or situation.

How to Control A Control Freak - Rev. Paul Gonyea

It’s true that we need to take control of our life. If we don’t, we end up reacting to everything going on outside of us, which makes us anxious, resentful, frustrated, jealous and unhappy. To make good use of the Power of Life, to use our inner spiritual strength and capabilities, we definitely need to be proactive instead of reactive. But the control we need to exert the most is not a psychological and physical control of external events and circumstances, which is the direction we usually go — it’s the mental and spiritual control of our own ability to choose, which is something very different. It’s the ability to choose those people and things and situations we do or do not want to have in our life, and the ability to decide what we can do about it in our own consciousness, at the level of cause.

Standing In A Powerful Place

We stand in a powerful place this very moment. We stand between Love and Law, we stand between Jachin and Boaz, and we stand between Passover and Shavout…. All meaning the same thing, all of it being said for thousands of years. Let us recognize the powerful place, and activate it.

Standing In A Powerful Place

We stand in a powerful place this very moment. We stand between Love and Law, we stand between Jachin and Boaz, and we stand between Passover and Shavout…. All meaning the same thing, all of it being said for thousands of years. Let us recognize the powerful place, and activate it.

My Ol Man Sez - Rev. Paul Gonyea

We need to recognize that the beliefs we hold about our own abilities, about how smart or dumb we are, how talented or incompetent we are, how attractive or ugly we are, or how lovable or unlovable we are, are learned beliefs. We learn them, for better or worse, by listening to people we admire and respect, people who have a lot of credibility, like our father or our mother. As we’re growing up, as our mind and our personality are developing, we gather beliefs about ourselves and accept those beliefs as the way we really are. That’s why, if your father tells you as a child that you’re not very smart, or if your mother tells you you’re not very pretty, it can take a long time to find out that these are their misguided opinions rather than statements of truth 

Lessons From St. Francis - Rev. Paul Gonyea

The socially acceptable response to those things in this world that some people call “evil” has always been to fight it and to conquer it. When the average non-spiritually-aware person is confronted with hatred, or injury, or doubt or despair or darkness or sadness, they want to do something about it. If someone hates us, we hate them back. If someone injures us, we try and injure them more so they’ll stop. That’s the way humanity has dealt with issues like these for thousands of years. People even justify it “in the name of religion,” or “in the name of God.” Of course, we don’t have to look any further than the Middle East to see how well that approach works.