This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
(Note: tech issues caused some missing audio.)
You Are Divine by Design- Rev Mark Anthony Lord
DESCRIPTION
If you’ve ever wondered whether you matter, the answer is a thunderous “Yes!” You are not an extra in life’s drama. You are a star player, a necessary part in God’s plan. But what exactly is God’s plan, and how do you fit into it? Join us Sunday and get ready to drop the “I’m not enough” script and claim your sacred assignment.
SUMMARY
Rev. Mark Anthony Lord offers a talk on the metaphysical concept of the “Science of Mind” symbol and how it relates to one’s spiritual journey. Key points include:
- The top part of the symbol represents the pure spiritual nature of God, which is beyond dualistic thinking. The middle part represents the creative power of the mind, which can affirm or limit one’s experience. The bottom part represents the physical, mental, and emotional expressions of one’s beliefs.
- The speaker shares their personal story of gender identity and how they have learned to embrace the fluidity of their gender, rather than trying to fit into societal norms. This journey mirrors the prodigal son story of returning to one’s true essence.
- The talk emphasizes the importance of moving beyond identification with the mind and physical expressions, and instead realizing one’s true divine nature. The speaker provides guidance on using prayer and affirmation to heal and transcend limiting beliefs.
- The message encourages extending love and compassion to others as a way to remember one’s own divine nature and support their spiritual journey.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Mark Anthony Lord (00:01):
Thank you guys. Good morning everyone. Happy to be with you. Happy to be back here. Is it okay if I move this? Sure. Over a little bit. My name is Mark and it’s such a really joy to be here. I was praying with the group and I’m the founder of this place. Those of you who don’t know passed it on pretty early, but prior to this I was the founder of a place called the Bodhi Spiritual Center, and many of the practitioners and ministers here are also from there, we kind of grew up together and it was amazing to sit in a circle to see such beautiful consciousness here. So I’m humbled and I bow to that first. I love the pronouns by the way. I would introduce myself as he, him, they, and they came to me later in life like five or six years ago.
(00:55):
And I had this real tough revelation of discovering that. And I wish I were 30 years younger to discover that because the younger generation seemed to have a better grasp of this idea. My generation, I’ll say it that way, was just so binary in our upbringing that our minds can’t quite hold the understanding of this and nor could mine, nor could mine. But as I really dove into this, and just since it is pride month, I might as well share a bit of this story before I dive into our teaching. We might be here for three hours, but thank you for being my therapy group.
(01:39):
So I remember as a little kid, literally if you had girls playing over here and boys playing over here, my whole insides matched the girls just who I was, what I felt like play with the dolls, dance, all the things that they were doing. But my whole outsides looked like the boys. And neither is inauthentic for me, but there’s not a place for them to coexist within one construct in a binary society. So as best I could, I threw the girl part out, put that on the shelf. Seriously, four years old. Although when I say it’s the best I could, I did not do a good job at all because anyone would go, oh, that boy’s gay from four years old. But they couldn’t even do that. They just sort of ignored it. And so I grew up with a lot of pain and a lot of struggle, which I’m grateful for every moment because it is what is the launching pad for my whole spiritual life, is the belief that I was completely rejected by God into the revelation that not only am I adored by God, I am the presence of God and there is nothing wrong.
(02:55):
That is the journey of coming home for each one of us. But for some of us, we all have our challenges. But that one was particularly challenging. And so even just a few years back to go, oh, what does that mean? And I had this phenomenal meditation where I welcomed back the feminine nature, the girl in me, and it felt beautiful and swirly and wonderful. And then a little bit later, I welcomed the powerful man into me. And that felt strong. And as you would imagine, the energy of the masculine power in all of us would feel. And they danced together beautifully within my being. And I felt this perfection of what I am. But then it went and they both disappeared and it was sort of empty. And I was like, what is my gender? And to this day I tell you I can’t find something.
(03:54):
It just feels empty. It just feels open. It feels like everything. It feels like nothing. And I think that’s a blessing. But it certainly can also be an equation that make that equals, I don’t belong anywhere. If I want to play that card, I can find it because I walk into a room with women and oh, I feel wonderful, but I’m not a woman. I walk into a room with men, I’m like, oh God, I feel afraid, but I look like them. So it’s an interesting way to move through life. Again, I share that I don’t know because it’s pride month and because it’s inside of me and because it really does sit in me as something that keeps pushing me to love myself, to know myself, to let myself be different in the ways that I am, to let my belonging come from within me and to bring my belonging into the room.
(04:44):
What a wonderful healing. To not look for belonging to bring it. And if it doesn’t match with anything in the room, there’s nothing wrong with me. There’s nothing wrong with the room. It just may not be my room. That’s simple. Yeah, simple math. Alright, so with that, let’s move on to why we’re here today. I love this reading. If God created you after her own nature, then the thing you are after is already here within you. We love that. That is the coming home. That is what it’s about. But we have come to know ourselves as other, and I actually want use, this is more of a teaching talk today. I want to use the science of mind symbol Dom, if you can put that up for me. This symbol I learned, gosh, 1998 when I was studying out in Los Angeles. And it has stayed with me as such a powerful, powerful teaching tool to define so much.
(05:45):
The more you study it, the more you’re with it, the more layers that exist within it and the more you can use it to understand. I’d love to see a show of hands. Who is this new to? If you’ve never seen before, raise your hand. Okay, so a couple of us. Oh, then many of us already. Well stay conscious. Those who know what it is because there’s more here for you, there’s more. This symbol has depth to it. So the circle represents the allness of God. The top represents the pure spiritual nature. God is I am. It is the unformed. It is the ness. It is that which has no opposite. God is, and that’s where we put our period. Now to keep our attention up there, we use spiritual qualities. God is beauty. Beauty. God is good. God is life. God is love. God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent.
(06:41):
We use words, but the words can start to lift us. But they can also cause within us the thought of opposite. Because the reality is in this top piece here, God is good with no opposite. God is life that knows no death. It is an allness. And we can’t conceive of an allness because we’re in a dualistic world. But we use the words and we close our eyes and we contemplate this highest truth of being because although you can’t conceive of it in this world, you can be lifted up into it in a way that causes a remembering. And so this is the state of our being. This now we get to the middle and it is the mind. It is the creative medium. I like to call it the storehouse. And the way to think about this…..(audio missing)…
(07:51):
is all and it is creative because it says yes, it’s like a machine. It’s like the GPS on your phone. Whatever you put into the GPS on your phone, it doesn’t go. Are you sure baby? Are you sure you want to go there? I don’t think you want to go to the candy store. Why don’t I put the gym in there for you? The GPS just says yes, and it goes wherever you go. This is what the law does. This is what the creative mind does. This is what exists in you. But what also exists in you is every thought that has been had now, you don’t resonate with every one of them in your incarnation. That would be overwhelming in your allness beyond form, you can grasp the idea in spirit. But in this particular incarnation, you are vibrating with the ones that you resonate with, the ones that your family agree to, the one that your history agrees to, the one that the community in which you grew and agrees to the school system.
(08:51):
Everything about your particular world has beliefs and ideas and opinions. Those are the ones that gravitate to you in the mind because they’re familiar, because they got turned on out of the quadrillion possibilities. Thousands of them got turned on around you that you resonate with. This is a representation of your experience of belonging. This is your belonging to your family. This is your belonging to your community. This is what begins to isolate you out of the top experience of allness into an individuation of I am this, but I’m not that because you’re simply vibrating with thoughts, beliefs, ideas. This is how you individuate. This is how you experience belonging. This is all in the mind. Now what happens is it comes into the body, it comes into expression through your body, but not just physical. Your mental experience, your emotional experience, and your physical experience.
(10:00):
So this is where your beliefs, your ideas out picture, this makes sense. It’s pretty basic metaphysics, isn’t it? But what’s important here, and this is where the big mistake happens that can’t be emphasized enough, is you think you are this and don’t anyone tell me you don’t. We think we are this and we go, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Boom. Yeah, yeah. And this boom, this has so much identification in you. I mean you wake up and what do you see? You wake up and what do you think? You wake up and what do you feel? This is what you become from the moment the eyes pop open. And heck, even when you’re dreaming at night, you’re still there. You may not be the physical part, but you are the emotional, you are the mental. So you are identifying here and here and here and here, and you come here and you’re sick of being this and this hurts and this changes and this is inconsistent and it’s confusing and it makes you feel separate and alone.
(11:17):
So your spirit wakes up and says, oh, there’s more. Awesome, awesome. So you start to explore this, but this is a minefield. You start to explore this and you step on a landmine, you start to explore this and we go, well, you are beautiful. You are absolutely beautiful. This is your being. But you go, what does my body look like? How much do I weigh? What am am I? God, I’m getting old. How can you say I’m beautiful? No one’s ever caught me. Beautiful. You’re here. Everything that is given to you goes through physical and your mental and your emotional channels to see if it is true. And if there’s negation in that, well, no one ever called me that. Well, my family’s not that. Well, I wasn’t the popular one. I was never, that’s not what I’m here. That’s not what I’m here to be this lifetime. So you’ve got all of …. (missing audio)…
(12:13):
…this. We’re not changing our view point of view on the Titanic. That make sense? The ship is going down. This ship is going down. Make peace with that today. If you make peace with it, you’ll begin to dis-identify with it. The world is obsessed with keeping you here. Change this, change this. Get skinnier, get this. I just watched a video and I freaking did it today. Do you know if you can bounce like this? You improve your elasticity and then you get 10 years younger. I fricking tried it. I’m in my bedroom like this. Huh, interesting. Why not? What am I doing? I’m doing here in hopes that this changes in hopes that this will shift. And they’re not bad things, but none of them are this. This is where we’re called the story of that. I’m going to need help on time, you guys. I’m so lost. Just so you know, the story of the prodigal son is everything.
(13:46):
It is completely this story, this son, this I am that is created from God is says, I want to be, I want to be this. I am this. And so the son by the way, in the story, he gets his inheritance. He says to the Father, give me my inheritance. I’m going, I’m out of here. Give me my joy. Give me my beauty, give me my strength. Give all the powers of God that I am and let me try to manage them here. This is the far off land that the son went to. He went away into the physical world. And you know what happened there? Striving limited resources, trying to prove himself, trying to win friends and influenced people in the physical world until all of his spiritual resources ran dry. Why did his spiritual resources run dry? Not because there wasn’t more, because he disconnected in identification.
(14:48):
This runs dry. If it is not connected, the power source and the only place it becomes disconnected to the power source is in you. And I’m not that. I’m not in a world that says you’re being blasphemous. How dare you say you are this? How dare you. When everyone else is saying they’re this, it’s a scary move. It’s a scary move. We’re comfortable here. We’re comfortable here. But this is the one that heals. This is the one that heals. So the prodigal son bottoms out. He’s done. His friends are gone. All of his resources are gone, which first represents spiritual bankruptcy. We are in spiritual bankruptcy. We’re running on empty and we’re done trying to fix the physical world that just keeps aging no matter what I do. And so there’s this moment and the prodigal son where he says, I could go back to my father’s house and I could work for him and have a better life than this.
(15:57):
Now he’s thinking in here, I could go work for my father. I could go effort. I could go be a good boy. I could do it right this time. And then I’ll get the blessings. And when trying to get it right and when trying to change your mind so that you can get it right and then you’ll get something good. This is the mindset. I’m going to do something to earn my way back into this place and I’ll just be a lonely servant. That’s what he says. I’ll just be a lonely servant. He’s still identifying here. This is what we do in our spiritual path. We’re still identifying here, trying to be here, trying to lift up. Because what’s really required is a complete letting go, A complete disidentification. And that represents the walk home. That’s what the prodigal son did. He just walked home one step at a time, closer and closer and closer.
(17:02):
And what he walked through was this. He walked through this. Now that’s how I speak of it. That’s not so much in the story, but that is our path because you’re walking home means disidentifying from the physical and then disidentifying with this. And believe me, this has you even more than the physical. This has you. It’s personal. Every crazy thought, where is it? Well, it’s in your mind. Well, it must be yours. All the emotions that are happening in the body, the trigger. Someone says something, you’re triggered. Our language doesn’t even support us in finding our freedom because I’m triggered. You triggered me. It becomes this back and forth thing of me. You, me, you, me, you, me, you, me, you, me, you. So we move through this, but we hit a landmine on the path, a big one. And it says, how dare you, who do you think you are?
(18:11):
You are breaking the code of your family. You are breaking the code of generations. You are stepping off the ways of the world. Good luck. You are going to say God is your unlimited source and really mean it. Instead of go, God is my unlimited source, fix my bank account. God is my unlimited source. Fix my bank account. God is my unlimited source. Fix my bank account. Don’t BS yourself. God is my unlimited source. But make this better. Come on, right. No, do something you guys, you look like you’re in coma. I feel like I’m talking at a Catholic church here.
(18:49):
Come alive. I’m Catholic. I get to say that. So we want to not try to make this come here. That’s what we’re doing. That’s the seduction. That’s what we got to wake up. If I ask you to wake up from anything today, it is, you are probably trying to make this happen here. You’re trying to go, oh, there’s a problem here. God come here and fix this. God, come here and fix this. God, come here and fix this. That’s even how I learned the science of mind. That’s how we teach the science of mind. So I take responsibility for that. I apologize if I mistaught any of you. It was the best I had. It was the best I had. But damn it, the hardest move is none of this. I am this and I’m only this and I’m only this and I’m only this.
(19:41):
And until you lose your mind. And then the Mind de-clutches, which is what happened to Buddha, all that happened to Buddha is he became de-clutched from the mind. And he realized that every single thought and belief in there is not him. Every feeling that flows from the thought is not him. He touched freedom. He found his way to here because he knew he wasn’t the body. He got that one early on, he knew it wasn’t the body. He would meditate for hours. He would put the body in positions and hold them for hours and hours and wait, I can’t even imagine. So he had transcended the physical, but it was here where the work really happened. And so many times I hear people say, I can’t meditate. I can’t meditate. … (missing audio)…
(20:53):
It’s called the ego. That’s what the course of miracles calls it. The belief that your other has a life force to it. And that belief system, the ego construct is fighting for its existence. And that’s what represented in the who do you think you are? That’s what’s represented in the belief that what will your family think? Go to your next family dinner and tell them, you guys, I want to tell you something. I’m God, just lemme know how it goes and just hold it. I’m God. And see what they do. And I’m not judging them or you. I’m giving you an image to make you see what the resistance is in us. It’s hard. That’s why this community is so necessary to come here to even contemplate this because by this afternoon you’re going to be back here and here it’s just going to happen to every one of us. Shoot, probably by the time you’re walking out the door, going down the stairs, something’s going to grab you.
(22:02):
So the prodigal son just goes home and he walks through every landmine. He just keeps going. My father’s house, my father’s house, my father’s house. I am God. I am I am. I am. My father’s house, my father’s house, my father’s house. My father’s house. And what happens in the story, the Father, the God, the mother, whatever name you give it, the divine is thrilled instantly. The divine doesn’t know any of this. The divine doesn’t place any attention here. The divine, according to course miracles doesn’t even know what this is because this is all it is. How can all that is no other. It’s just not even possible mathematically for all that is to know something else. So it’s mind blowing. But this is where the prodigal son returns. And here is open arms, here is allness. Here’s beingness. Here’s memory. Here is remembering, here is waking up.
(23:05):
But our current spirituality, the one that I was trained in for many years, the one that I love and the one that brought me here existed a lot here. Yes, this, yes, this, yes, this. So for me it served. It’s served because probably building the tension, building the propulsive energy needed. But then there comes a point where it’s like, oh man, there’s got to be something else. There’s got to be something more than trying to figure out how to pray, right? And get God here. And in my opinion, and this goes against the grain of science of mind. So here, this is me. If you ever repeat, you go. Mark said that is his. Mark said that is his science of mind is trying to make this be here. It’s trying to make God be all of this. And it just isn’t true. You can’t make the unchangeable changeable. Now the mind will try and you’ll have all kinds of ideas. But …(missing audio)…
(26:39):
Does it mean you go to the doctors? Probably. I mean, if you’re so transcendent that you can heal the body without it you’ll know. But if not, use the world of form to support this identification. But this is it. I am that. And all of this is an expression of the past. All of this is an expression of the fear. And it’s recycling and it’s recycling. And everyone’s agreeing and everyone’s agreeing. And you’re here going, Ooh, maybe I can get off that wheel. Maybe I could exit the wheel and really find myself here. Our prayer structure here really is brilliant because it does work. Because first step is here. So God is the first step of prayer. I am is the second step of prayer. It’s here. The third step is I declare. Now many of you think that the third step happens here. It happens here.
(27:45):
The power of your word, the truth telling. This happens here. I’m grateful this happens here. I release the word into the law. Boom. Step five is where it moves out of this consciousness. Step five, I release it. Now the law is activated. Now, the truth you told is planted here. The truth you told has a chance to be expressed here. What will happen to the truth you told here? If you leave it there one time and then you negate it, it will dissolve. It will attract negative beliefs around it. And this is why you say I’m abundant. I am free. You talk about you have financial fear here it hurts. So you go to here. Make sense? You tell the truth. I’m free. I’m abundant. God is abundant. I’m abundant. God is abundant. I’m abundant. This is my truth. And I declare this is in every experience of my life. I’m grateful I release this into the law. Boom. The law goes, yes, but what else happens to that one thought? That’s still in the storehouse? No, you’re not. Who are you kidding? Are you kidding me? Did you see what you did with your money last time? You’re full of?
(29:03):
I’m not saying don’t plant the seed of truth. I’m saying one time doesn’t typically do it. You have to do it again. You have to do it again. Not repeat the prayer. You have to repeat the vibration. You have to vibrate, re vibrate, re vibrate how many times until it is healed, until this storehouse of resistance to your abundant nature is dissolved. That’s how long, because then you go, I’m abundant. Yes. Boom. No resistance. It’s perfect law, but we got to stop being lazy. We got to get out of the instant gratification world and go, well, I said the prayer yesterday. Yeah, but what am I thinking today? The course of miracle says we are far too tolerant with sloppy thinking. We’re far too tolerant with negative thoughts, … (missing audio)…
(30:16):
light, because this is all you are and this is all you ever will be. This is it. Not this. If I could show you, I always say this, I wish I had a magic ability to take you to a mountaintop and show you the 742 bodies that you’ve had. If you believe in reincarnation and you saw all your lifetimes lined up, I go, well, which one are you? And your mind might go all of them. But the better choice would be none of them. I’m none of them. That’s the prodigal son in me dreaming myself and a far off land that I’m something other than this. The way to go home is through our prayers, through our meditations. The way to go home is praying for other people to create a consciousness here of so much prayer. So much prayer that we, every time … (missing audio)…
(31:28):
Yesterday I’m out. …(missing audio)…
(31:46):
And then they started fighting. And they were way down here. And the one was really mean. She was really, really hateful to the other. And you could see the abuse cycle. I could see the abuse pattern that they were stuck in. Now my human mind was like, oh, that bitch. That kind of thing. And I walked past them and I did a little prayer. And then a little bit later in the farmer’s market, they were there and there’s a little more peace between them. And the one who was so mean, she had this really wild purple hair. And I just felt spirit come up to me and I want to try. I go, your hair is so cool. I absolutely love it. And she lit up, oh my God, thank you. She was affirmed, she was seen. And I knew when I walked away, thank you God, thank you, God.
(32:37):
Because that gave someone love who needed a little bit of love. Don’t we just forget who we are when we’re screaming at somebody else. And the other part of me would’ve went and lectured her, you are just broken. You’ve got this going on, your family, blah, blah, blah, blah. All this, eh? But spirit made it simple. Just give her a piece of love. I didn’t even like her hair. Truth be told, didn’t matter, didn’t matter. It was fabulous. It was creative. It wasn’t about, it was about giving someone love and letting love be used in a way that must’ve been perfect for her. That’s how simple it is. And I did walk away going, thank you, God. I was blessed by seeing something differently and taking a moment to give some love to another. That’s a lot of information. I don’t know how to do it differently. Take what you like, leave the rest. Let’s take a breath and move this into prayer.
(33:39):
Thank you for letting me be here. Breathe deep. Really connect with that breath. Put your attention into your heart. Imagine a ball of golden light. Breathe into this ball of golden light. This is the spiritual power center. Just a symbol, a symbol of love, a symbol of connection beyond this world, this symbol of God is I am. Breathe into that. Keep your attention upon it.
(34:41):
Music team… inaudible… So many are trying to …
(34:55):
A prayer of love. Lifts them high. It heals them. Sustains them and sets them free. Prayer of love. Lifts them high. It heals them, sustains them and sets them free..
(35:17):
This is what we do from this golden light. As we pray for others, as we give love to others, our minds are healed. The restoration process is easy. You don’t need to go through every landmine in your own self. You just see the grace of God in everybody. You have way home. It is through your brothers and sisters. It is through the appearance of a stranger who is calling you to remember the truth, your prayer of love. And I ask right now, the Holy Spirit, the whole spirit of God that I am and that we are to extend this light of prayer, to extend it first and foremost for ourselves. Imagine this gold light streaming through the body, purifying the body of all the fear and the false beliefs, purifying the energy of the mind, purifying the emotional body and lifting you right up and through higher and higher and higher into the allness of self. I am that God is. And that’s all that is. God is. And that is all that is. God is. And I am that. And that is all that I am. Breathe in. This is all that I am. And as I think and I live and I move from this truth, this heals everything else. Everything else from this allness of being. See someone in your mind’s eye that needs a prayer. See someone in your world who you’ve been seeing them as a problem or having a problem. See them. See them as God created them. See them. Our prayer oh God lifts them high. It heals them, sustains them and sets them free. Our prayer oh god, lifts them high. See them. It heals them. Sustains them and sets them free. Our prayer of love. Our prayer of love lifts them high. Lift them high. It heals them. It heals them. Sustains them and sets them free. Sing it from your heart. A prayer of love. Lifts them high. Lifts them high. It heals them. Sustains them. And sets them free. See them.
(38:09):
Lift them high. In your mind, you are God and only God. You are God and only God. You are God and only God. I forgot who you are. Forgive me. Forgive me. I forgot who you are. Thank you for helping me. Remember, for as I see you as God, I remember I am God. And this is the only game that we play. Take a breath,
(38:34):
Prayer of love. Lifts them high. It heals them, sustains them, and sets them free.
(38:47):
Grateful for this opportunity to use our minds in a way that heals and sets others free.
(38:52):
This is what …(missing audio)…
(39:10):
Thank you. Thank you.
(39:13):
Thank you, Rev. Mark.