This recording features the Sunday Talk portion of the service. For the full service watch here.
DESCRIPTION
As we close our exploration of living “Open at the Top,” we reflect on the spacious truth that every moment holds new possibilities. Join us as we explore how staying curious, creative, and responsive to Life itself opens the door to something new in each moment.
SUMMARY
Rev. Linda Jackson presents a spiritual teaching centered on the concepts of being “open at the top” and our ability to “always begin again.” She invites listeners to remain grounded while remaining open to higher experience, guidance, and spiritual truth. Drawing from Ernest Holmes’ teachings, she emphasizes the balance between maintaining openness to new understanding and avoiding both excessive narrowness and destructive breadth. The talk explores how this openness prevents spiritual stagnation and supports continuous spiritual evolution.
A central theme addresses the relationship between inner consciousness and outer experience. Jackson teaches that the conditions of one’s life follow one’s consciousness, and that peace, love, abundance, and freedom all begin in the inner world. She acknowledges the complexity of this teaching by noting that it would be inappropriate to tell someone experiencing captivity or financial hardship that their circumstances are entirely self-created, while maintaining that inner freedom of thought and consciousness remains within one’s control.
Jackson advocates for approaching goals and intentions by focusing on qualities rather than specific outcomes, aligning energetically with desired qualities to allow divine unfoldment beyond what one could orchestrate alone. She contrasts creating from pure willpower with co-creating in partnership with spirit, suggesting that the latter approach is more transformational and peaceful.
The teaching addresses spiritual practice during difficult times, rejecting both spiritual bypassing and victim consciousness. Jackson introduces the framework of “commune, command, allow” as a practice for receiving guidance, speaking intention into existence through affirmative prayer, and then releasing control to allow inspired action. She emphasizes that each moment offers a fresh beginning, independent of past circumstances, and concludes that through partnership with divine life itself, one may always begin again.
TRANSCRIPTION
This transcription was auto-generated, please excuse typos, errors and omissions.
Rev. Linda Jackson:
If you don’t know, which everybody here does, but just in case we have someone online, I am Reverend Linda. I use she her pronouns and the polar vortex in Chicago doesn’t seem quite as bad as it does in other places in the country right now. So I guess I can still understand why some of you stayed home. But I am wrapping up our January theme. I appreciate you think I’m thorough. I hope that doesn’t mean verbose. So this idea of open at the top, it’s an invitation to be grounded in ourselves and open to a higher experience, to guidance, to possibility, to spiritual truth, to new ideas. And that phrase, open at the top is one of the things that really hooked me on science of mind in my early days of study, this idea of staying open and we don’t teach a closed set of ideas always being willing to take in more.
And then when I was a student of Dr. Tom Sanner, he gifted us with a source book that he had created on Earnest Holmes. And this quote is from the Holmes Seminar lectures courtesy of Dr. Ner. We have two possibilities. We can be so narrow that we never grow or we can be so broad that we have no depth. It is up to us to find the place in between which gives us freedom without giving the freedom to destroy the freedom which makes the freedom possible. That is so Ernest Holmes. That is so Ernest Holmes, right?
But just think about that for a moment… without giving the freedom to destroy the freedom which makes the freedom possible. And he goes on, we have to keep our minds open at the top for a new influx of wisdom. And we have to set up a sign which says, stop, look and listen.
Does this that I believe measure up to truth for there are certain inevitabilities that the ages have declared to be true. So open at the top is about being open to new understanding, not a closed set of rigid beliefs, not a dogma where we leave things unexamined sometimes at the exclusion of anything or any one different. When we’re open at the top, we even view our challenges as messages for growth. And he says, this prevents stagnation, which means it keeps us from feeling stuck and it embraces the idea that we are continuously evolving spiritually. So when we’re open at the top, we’re expanding and we’re becoming more.
And he says this, stop, look and listen. Does this that I believe measure up to truth? That’s truth with a capital T. So that key is being willing to question our current understanding and being open to allow spiritual truth to unfold. And that idea of setting up a reminder sign to stop look and listen is really about mindful awareness, questioning our beliefs against the inevitable truths as he called it. And it makes me laugh because early on in my study of science of mind and my practice, I actually did create a little sort of pneumonic device for myself. I would put my hand out to myself to stop the pattern of thinking. My old response when I would see myself or feel myself start to go into one of my old ways, I would stop that pattern. And when we are open at the top, we remember that life is for us and we shift our thinking from the conditions out here to cause in here and in the book a New Design for Living, he talks about discovering an inner security. And this is how we develop inner security, is recognizing that we are part the cost. We get to choose.
You’ve heard this all before, right? The conditions of your life follow your consciousness. And I talked about it last month using the term our outer experience, reorganizes to align with our inner experience. And when the mind is centered, loving, self-governed, our outer life reorganizes around that, just like we said, peace begins in our inner world. Love begins in our inner world. Abundance begins in our inner world, freedom begins in our inner world. Everything begins within and we are always choosing. Now, I just want to acknowledge that it would feel abusive to tell someone who’s being held captive that freedom starts within or someone who’s struggling financially, that their abundance starts within. We have to accept where we are, start where we are, right?
So it’s not to blame us for our experience or to say your captivity is your fault. That would never be helpful. And in the world we’re living in, sometimes this is challenging to know how much responsibility we take for what we’re seeing in the world, right? This quote is attributed to Nelson Mandela. There’s a similar quote from Gandhi. He says, you can restrain my body, but you can never imprison my mind. It’s about using the power of your mind to change your experience. It doesn’t mean we avoid bad things from happening. Mandela was saying that while physical freedom may be taken away, the freedom of thought and internal state remains under one’s own control. He claimed his inner freedom through surrender and resisting hatred during his imprisonment. I hope there’s something in there for all of us with the state of the world and news of another shooting in Minneapolis. This is just a lot. It’s a lot. But as we become disciplined in what we cultivate within and what we take within, we can take dominion over our experience so that we always have the freedom of thought in our internal state. This is how we consciously design our lives.
So in that context, it’s important to know that no matter what has happened or not happened, what we have done or not done, we may always begin again. It’s never too late to connect with that peace within with the love within the abundance, we may always begin again. So when we set New Year’s goals or intentions, even when we do vision boards, I always invite getting related to the quality and not attached to the exact outcome. When we try to orchestrate everything, we miss the beauty of divine unfoldment. The universe provides in amazing unlimited ways things we don’t even hold in our awareness.
And when we align energetically with the qualities, we open to an unfoldment that is beyond what we could have created on our own. And this is not just a theory, I have a lived experience of this. I could not have orchestrated the beautiful place that I’m living. I didn’t even know it existed. But I held in consciousness the quality of beauty, ease and grace. And my prayer partners called it in with me. And this is not a disrespect of intentional manifestation. You hear both ways like just hold the quality and let spirit provide. Or you hear that be very specific, get really clear two schools of thought and this intentional manifestation being very specific. It’s powerful to move from being at the effect of into creator and taking responsibility and making choices and creating something new. Yeah, it’s life changing, but it can also bear a lot of burden to keep it going. And then when we move from that creator to co-creating with spirit, it’s transformational.
That’s so much more peaceful and peaceful. I know a brilliant young man with a lovely wife and kids and they’ve worked so hard the past few years and he really made things happen. I mean, he powered through muscle through, he acquired several properties. He had a high paying job. He built his mini empire. He did this on his own. He took on that attitude of, look what I’ve done, look what I’ve created. And when he made a little mistake and ended up with a tax implication that he had missed, and suddenly he had some debt and at the same time things were not going the way he wanted at work, he couldn’t see a way out. And the problem with thinking that we are doing it all alone, that we’re the creator is then when something does slip, we also take all the responsibility for what’s wrong.
When we think we’re doing it on our own, we can get in our ego about what we’re creating. That’s when we can get so messed up if it doesn’t go as we planned. When we align with the qualities and we partner with God, with life itself to create through us, we experience our good. And as things shift and change, which they always do, everything out here is temporal. It’s always going to change. And when it changes, we can just trust that more good is coming. We don’t have to dictate exactly what it’s going to look like.
And I think Amy mentioned CSL communities traditionally cover the foundational concepts in January from the first four sections of science of mind, the fundamental idea of God, what earners calls the thing itself, which is a little sci-fi sounding, but infinite mind and the power within where each individual expressions of God and creative mind were creative centers in it. And that Laura of correspondence where our outer conditions correspond to our inner mental attitudes and the idea of using mental equivalence. We cultivate the inner consciousness for what we are seeking. So God, universal mind and its creative power does for us what it can do through us. And we can apply these principles for healing and transformation, not just in theory, but in practical application. We can have a different experience of our lives. And I tell you, I can’t imagine my life without it.
So we’re still back to basics this month, as you know, we’ve been using the book, a New Design for Living, sort of a summary and assessable practical guide to Holmes’ teaching. And I just want to acknowledge that the Spiritual solutions book study that starts tomorrow is using that book. So if you bought the book and you’re not ready to be done with it, they’re going to go through, is it five weeks mean or six weeks, six weeks of studying that book. We do have some here in the room if you want to purchase one, but we don’t need January to start fresh. So if you’ve already blown your New Year’s resolution, no matter where you are, no matter where you find yourself in need of change, we can always begin again. So regardless of circumstance, regardless of timing, regardless of how messy or unfinished things feel, and when you’re going through some stuff, it’s not always helpful to hear your thoughts create your experience.
It could feel like, so then it’s my fault that this is happening, which I believe is the feeling that my friend had. And when new thought folks say it’s all good, it’s all God, which it is by the way. Everything is for your growth. But hearing that when we’re in struggle can feel like a bypass a bit Pollyanna. Is everybody familiar with Pollyanna? Yeah, I knew the phrase, but I looked it up. My mom once accused my spiritual views of being Pollyanna. It was like ouch. But the term Pollyanna actually comes from a 1913 novel about an orphan named Pollyanna. And I think Disney later made a movie. But Pollyanna played the glad game finding something positive in everything. It was her coping mechanism. So even in her own misfortune, she would find something positive. So the term has taken a bit of a negative slant or sort of a naive view of life. And I can see how our practice of finding the messages inside the mess could verge on trying to find the positive in everything.
But I will just say this last week, what’s been almost two weeks now held three deaths and attempted suicide and in an up close and personal way, I mean I’m actively involved in these situations and then someone hit my parked car, they slid on the eyes and then the pipes were freezing and the house I own and the car and the pipes. It’s nothing compared to life and death. But when you’re moving through stuff, when life is lifeing, we have to allow space for the grief, for the sadness, for the fear space, for our human experience. They say spiritual beings having a human experience. We have to honor our humanness, not spiritually bypass, not play the Pollyanna glad game and at the same time not play the victim intentionally allow it to move through remaining open at the top. And it’s not usually a one and done like, okay, I’ve worked that out. I have to keep it going. I have to begin again.
So with all due respect to the Jason Raz song, I went with the Sarah Bareis, let the Rain. And you heard the chorus repeat, let the rain come down, make a brand new ground. Ground the rain, the storms, the challenges, they create a new ground. This is from where we begin again, from that new ground, something new is possible. So how do we begin again, not by blaming ourselves for where we are, not by bypassing as if it’s not happening. It begins with a breath, with presence, with awareness, feeling the feelings when we center ourselves and open to higher guidance, to possibility and spiritual truth. So we breathe, we center, we surrender, and we surrender into acceptance of what is.
As we align with spirit, the God of your being, whatever name you give it, there is no word that can contain the infinite. So when you align with this infinite intelligence, we are individual expressions of the infinite. We are the direct line for the unlimited potential beyond anything I can create on my own. When we breathe and center and surrender and align with that high idea and begin again in that way, we directly impact the conditions of our life. So this is not a Pollyanna glad game, it’s a powerful reframe, a mindset shift. It supports us not to bypass, to find the strength within ourselves to begin again, to be with what is and to create something new from it. So when challenges arise, awareness is the first step. Awareness helps change perspective. We can choose, we can change our mindset or the filter we’re seeing through. And as the unconscious comes into conscious awareness rather than rushing to the how is it for me? If you allow yourself to stay in the feelings, not wallow as a victim and not bypass as in the glad game, but to give your self space open at the top, being in the unknown, the uncertainty, letting the rain come down, that moving through it is often where we receive insight or a revelation. The science of mind not only offers a manifesting technology, it invites the revelation of spiritual perspective.
So as I surrender to possibility and flow and trust, life is for me. And as I moved through the intensity of my last week, I am so grateful to have this foundation. This is a new design for living. Dr. Stanner uses the phrase, commune command allow as a flow of receiving, giving, receiving. So when we lift ourselves, transcend our experience to commune with the divine we receive. When we hold ourselves in that communion, we are receptive and we receive insight. And from that we impress or command like affirmative prayer, giving our word, speaking it into existence. And then we allow, we get out of the way, we receive. And from there we take inspired action, but not from a place of striving. We’re taking action while in receiving mode. And you’re no design for living. The primary tool for designing your life is affirmative prayer, speaking it into existence. And I’m inviting us to think of it as commune command allow. We are asked to practice taking action from inspiration, from guidance, from the guidance we receive in communing rather than from gripping, striving, or controlling an outcome.
So this idea of designing your life, if most of you, many of you know I guess not everyone, but for over 35 years I’ve worked as a brand identity designer. And in my work as a designer, I’m asking what are the objectives, the parameters of the project, what’s the desired outcome? This is a very different from art. We focus on meeting objectives, form follows function. So it’s really easy for me to fall into that, making it happen, solving the problem. And sometimes it’s even helpful, I’m pretty productive. But here we’re being invited into revelation, into being the conduit through which the inspiration comes. We commune and receive insight, we command, we speak our word from that insight. And then we allow the enfoldment, we release control and allow inspired action to make itself known.
So science of mind and many of the sister teachings at their base are about this transformation rising out of our current experience transcending the world of form. Because we are one with an all-encompassing power and presence. We live, move, and have our being in God, spirit, the divine, the thing itself. We are in it and of it, but the divine is also more than we are. It includes everything that could ever be. When you commune with a divine presence, you transcend your human experience and tap into those infinite possibilities. You access the consciousness of the infinite. And it is from that consciousness that transformation occurs. We must be open and willing to question our current understanding, not stuck in limited perspectives, and to move through our experiences, allowing spiritual truth to unfold so we’re not bound by the past. Past is not precedence. And each moment we may begin again.
And I’m going to pull a few things out of the reading. Here we are in a certain sense, like an artist setting up our to paint a new scene. The basic colors and pigments, the canvas and the easel and the brushes will be the ones we used yesterday. But who knows what new picture will be precipitated upon the canvas through our creative imagination. Who knows what new inspiration will flow through us to accomplish something new and different. He’s not telling us, create a mental image and hold it tightly and expect it to look a certain way. Who knows what new inspiration will flow through us to accomplish something new and different. Every moment is a fresh starting point unconditioned by anything that has ever existed. We are not bound by the past. The challenge is to increase our knowledge of the infinite potential, to rise above conditions into the infinite communing with the divine opening ourself to that field of pure potential. This is life-changing folks, to realize that an infinite artist, the divine creator, the cosmic reality is back of and in and through all of our acts. We are not doing it on our own.
And each day is a new creation, a new moment for a fuller awareness of spiritual reality and a time for designing the new life we want to live. We can always begin again. So I’m going to invite Greg and Paige back up. Just sort of summarizing. Living open at the top doesn’t mean we avoid the rain. It means we trust that even the storms are shaping the ground for us. Often it is the rain. It is in the rain. That clarity comes and insight reveals itself. And even with the same colors and the same canvas, a new creation comes through. We are not bound by the past, we are not doing this alone. In each moment, in partnership with life itself, we may always begin again. This is our new design for living. I’m going to take us into some practice as we begin. Again, if you’re willing, settle into your seat and maybe a hand to your heart or open your hands in your lap, whatever’s comfortable for you with your receptive mode. Just taking a couple of conscious breaths, nice deep inhalations and exhalations breathing at your own pace.
We’re not fixing, we’re not imagining, we’re not striving just being here now, surrendering into what is. Just acknowledge anything that you may be carrying right now and just let it be here. Just naming the weight or the rain or the uncertainty without needing to analyze, not needing to make up a story about it. And if you are in a position you’re not carrying anything right now, honor that. Just see what else is here for you. Opening yourself to the divine whatever way is natural for you. Feeling into connection, feeling into presence. Communing with the divine within.
Not asking for outcomes, just being open, receiving, listening, remembering yourself as the inlet and outlet for spirit. And a couple of simple inward questions. What is here for me? What is mine in this? Is there a quality of God that you are seeking? Love, peace, freedom, abundance. Whatever the quality, lift yourself into resonance with that quality. Feel the vibration of that quality. And a few simple inward affirmations. Or if you choose, you can speak the quality out loud as you speak it into existence. I am going to say a few phrases and I will say them once and have you repeat after me. I’m willing to begin again. I’m willing to begin again. I trust, I am guided, a trusting guide, and I receive all. I need to begin again and I receive all I need to begin again.
I just sit in the embodiment of these words and I affirm that any action needed will be divinely guided, inspired action. I affirm we go from here, resting in spirit, trusting, expecting, allowing the spiritual unfoldment, knowing that good comes to you beyond your imagination. And I’m grateful. I’m grateful for this coming together and grateful for the communing with spirit. I’m grateful for the guidance and the insight. I’m grateful for the trusting and allowing the unfoldment of good. I know it is already done. And if any of this resonates with you as being true, please join me in affirming it is so by saying And so it’s, thank you.