Some thoughts on UNITY and SPIRITUALITY
My name is Rev. Ildiko Kudlik. Originally, I am a creative-educator who integrates the Divine’s absoluteness into her work. I am also a licensed Unity Minister who is working towards her ordination. I am in the process of setting up a Unity Spiritual Centre with the main intention to create a Youth and Family Projecy for the entire European Union.
What defines Unity?
- We believe that prayer works. (we use a 5-stepmeditation process and affirmative prayer).
- We help people discover and live their spiritual purpose and potential.
- We help people have a stronger connection to God every day.
- Our spiritual centres have inspiring ministers and are involved in spiritual social action and social activities. Unity provides a positive alternative to negative religious experiences.
- We provide a philosophy that is spiritual, not religious, and is love-based, not fear-based. We honor all paths to God.
- We believe in making a positive difference in the world.
INCLUSIVITY AND FREEDOM OF BEING: We are grateful for your support; you are not expected to be ‘like’ anybody but yourself in order to belong.
How do I see Unity?
In my understanding, Unity offers tools for discovering the indwelling Spirit of the Divine and practices for daily spiritual living.
Though we call our spiritual centre a Ministry, we do not have tenets or dogmas to teach or to follow. We follow the 5 basic principles in Unity – pls see above -, and we offer two unique tools: a five-step meditation process and an affirmative prayer. Other that that it is based on the professional background of the individual minister what kinds of tools they may offer to support the spiritual unfoldment of the members of their centre. For example, the minister who is also an Art-therapist may offers artistic tools to his/her members.
I am trained coach, artist and educators so I run different spirit filled classes and artsy educational programs for our members in order to ensure that your spiritual unfoldment is done in a fun and creative way.
The different educational and creative programs I offer all have an element of
Divine Spark in them, too.
Approaches to spirituality
In general, there are three main ways to approach spirituality: Mystical, that for example Sufism offers, Soul Transcendence that for example San Mat offers, or Metaphysical that Unity offers.
Personally, I am drawn to all three of them. They offer different tools and practices to connect with the Divine Presence.
Unity, Christianity and the Bible
Unity is not a christian church but a spiritual movement whose roots are somewhat linked with Christian ideas. For example, in Unity, we are taught that the Bible’s events are the story of man’s unfoldment. You can see similar spiritual unfoldment stories with various spiritual movements such as Hinduism, the Sikh tradition, Islam, and more. In his book Keep a True Lent, Charles Fillmore, the Co-Founder of Unity, wrote, “Every time we rise to the realization of eternal, indwelling life, making union with the Father-Mind (the Divine), the Resurrection of Jesus takes place within us. I encourage you to embrace the personal significance of the resurrection journey and the work and life of Jesus Christ.”
Every major spiritual teacher like Moses, Jesus, Mohammad, Krishna, and other has a story to tell us. They all taught the same lesson: The lesson of Love. They all talked about the same ‘God’ or Divine Being who Loves us unconditionally. This is the core truth of all religions, spiritual movements and that of Unity Movement as well.
Within Unity, some ministers follow a Christian approach and call Jesus the way shower. It always depends on the members of the Temple or the Spiritual Centre. Unity welcomes everyone without an agenda. We ‘teach’ the way of Love, creating a deep personal relationship with the Divine whatever name you may call this Divine Presence.
Connection instead of separation
Unity, similar toy other spiritual organisation offers teachings and guidance. We embrace all the spiritual teachings that talk about connecting and unifying humanity under one Divine Source. We welcome people of all faith who are open to embrace our common spiritual ancestry and use it for our upliftment and benefit.
At the Unity Spiritual Centre in Europe, we simply wish to serve people who feel drawn to what we do. We do not want people to believe in anything other than themselves and the All-Good Divine Presence. We wish to support people into a unique and personal connection to the Divine. We use certain tools that works for us. We hope that what we offer works for you. If it does not, we encourage you to keep on looking and find what does.
Walking with the Divine
In my view, Life is made in co-creation with the Divine Being – that is called many names from God to Allah – whether we are aware of it or not. When we consciously allow the Divine to guide us our Life gets lighter. At the same time, we are responsible for the creation of our life because we are given free will to decide what course of action to take. We should use this gift wisely.
God or the Divine is not a person. The Divine Being or Divine Presence is an energy source that encompasses all there is the Universe. I also believe – and this is also my experience – that a spark of the Divine’s resides inside of us all in the form of unique features and abilities. We are made up of various layers that is exciting to investigate. If we wish to meet this unique spark of the Divine’s within ourselves, we need to remove the debris what stands in between.
The Ego uses our one-of-a-kind attributions to protect itself and with that it lives in separation from the Essence of our being and of the Divine. Our exceptional intelligence is employed to defend a fearful and wounded Ego-self. As we release our fears and misconceptions of ourselves and that of the world, we start recovering the special qualities of the Soul – our unique spark of the Divine – that is to inspire and contribute. As we mature in our spiritual evolution, we start fully living our Divine-Self delighting ourselves and the Divine in the meantime.
