Let’s Get Metaphysical!
Rev. tomás de león
Hello, my name is Rev. tomás de león. I am the Minister at Unity Spiritual Center Georgetown, Texas. I have served as treasurer of the Unity South Central Region (USCR) for the past five years.
In an effort to share ideas and get to know our region better, we, as board members, have been asked to talk about something in our ministry we are doing that just might be a little different.
I am what used to be called “a seeker” back in the early 1970s. My interest in finding answers to life’s mysteries began with UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, the paranormal, etc. In 1976 I was introduced to Edgar Cayce and Kahlil Gibran, and that took me in a different direction. I read every Cayce and Gibran book I could get my hands on.
There is a saying that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. As it turns out, many “teachers” appeared in my life at that time. Among them were Plato and Socrates, Aristotle, Jesus, the Buddha, and many of the fringe groups, such as the views of Eckankar and Scientology, to name a few. I was being inundated with many new ways of seeing life. This eventually led me to a more serious inquiry into these matters, one that resulted in my receiving a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from The University of Texas system. While pursuing that degree, I had a dream of someday being a professor of philosophy; but life happens, and that didn’t work out. Instead, I went into the spiritual wilderness for some fifteen years.
When I found Unity at the age of fifty-four or so, I found a path that I came to see as a way to reconcile my Catholic upbringing with my insistence on universality—the belief that it has to be about everyone. Long story short, I became the leader of that center, and like most, began a book study club. I came up with the name “Let’s Get Metaphysical” because of my philosophical background.
One day I got a fresh thought about the format; how would it be if instead of focusing on one book, and one theme, we would view different leading-edge TED talks or videos about various topics, and thus have multiple ideas to discuss during our ninety-minute sessions? That thought was an instant success. We have been watching videos for over three years now. Broad based subjects such as consciousness itself, the James Webb telescope, artificial intelligence, the Upanishads, the Essences, the Gnostic Gospels, Meister Eckhart, Zoroastrianism, Telemeres, on and on.
The format is that we choose three videos, mostly twelve to fifteen minutes long, meet at the park, bring our lawn chairs, and have amazing conversations. The icing on the cake for me as the minister is that I get a chance to listen to what the people think about these various subjects. In other words, I get a real feel of the consciousness of the congregation.
It has worked out amazingly well. Give it a try. But don’t forget to include nature as part of the ambience; after all, transcendentalism is in Unity’s DNA.
Bendiciones
Some suggested videos to start with:
On a literal connectedness
On what is consciousness
On our bodies to heal
