There is more to life than this experience. Open your eyes and see, open your mind and perceive. Realize that within you, in the Kingdom of Heaven within, there is power and life and substance that is sufficient to establish you in wholeness and abundant living. – Eric Butterworth, Discover the Power Within You
I was instantly drawn to the title of the book that I picked it up, flicked through it, and landed on the page that has the word Beatitudes reworded into “BE attitudes.” It was an AWE-Ha moment for me. With just a slight adjustment, the word has taken on another meaning.
This is what Eric Butterworth has masterfully done in this book, giving us insights from a renewed eyesight, a fresh perspective to look at what’s written in the scriptures, without dismissing their original context.
He quotes the original scriptures, chunks them down into phrases, and expounds each in great detail so we can better grasp their deeper meaning. He clarifies what a particular word means for better understanding.
Take “religion” for one, which means “to bind together,” Eric writes. Now we get to rethink what the word stands for, if we’re living by what it was supposed to be, or have we misinterpreted it that we live by mistaken ideals.
Being born and raised as a Catholic myself, the Bible was the only reference I had known. I could easily include the Gospel of Jesus according to Eric for his scholarly skills combined with spiritual philosophy. He could have served as Jesus’ personal secretary if he had lived in that lifetime. Maybe he had!
His overarching message in Discover the Power Within You resonates much of what I share in The Path to Awesomeness book — the Divinity of Man. This is what makes each of us Awesome!
Let’s hear what else Eric has to say about our Awesomeness.
What Would the Christ Do?
Jesus did not set the Christ standard—He simply followed it. The Christ standard is not a series of hard and fast rules for behavior, not simply an analysis of what Jesus did for men to see. It is, instead, a principle that Jesus revealed through His discovery of the Divinity of Man. His teachings are the revelation of certain fundamental principles pertaining to the individual, along with illustrations as to how these principles can best be applied in practice.
But the greatest mistake is in believing that we are “only human.” Our humanity is but the degree to which we have given expression to our divinity. We are human in expression but divine in creation and limitless in potentiality.
When Jesus said, “Follow me,” he was not referring to himself but to the Christ within him. He was not setting a standard, but showing us an example we can follow. He was a way-shower.
Eric argues that if we make Jesus the object of our worship, He ceases to be the way-shower for our own self-realization.
So while the question, “What Would Jesus Do?” points in the right direction, asking “What Would the Christ Do?” leads us better to it. Jesus was pointing to the Christ in everyone — our Divinity.
But then most people would be quick to deny this Truth and consider it blasphemous to claim our Divine nature. We were born with the “original sin.” We are “not worthy” because we are “sinners” and it’s normal for us to make mistakes. It’s “human nature.”
Eric reiterates what I also mentioned in The Path to Awesomeness book that the belief we are “only human” is our greatest misconception. This misconception is the sin we are committing. What’s blasphemous is to claim that you are “only human,” denying the Christ in you, your Divinity.
You and God Are One
You can never be separated from God because you are an expression of God, the very self-livingness of God. God cannot forsake you any more than gravity can forsake you. As an expression of God, you are God expressing Himself as you.
The true self of you, the Christ, spiritual man, is the individualization of God. You are the Presence of God at the point where you are. Thus, it is true of you as it was of Jesus, “I and the Father are one.” You are an individualized part, but the whole is always in the part; thus God is within you.
To embrace the Truth of your Divinity, Eric tells us to refrain from the concept of God as a person. Let’s not create a god in our own image and likeness. God is not a person out there, up above. God is spirit, everywhere in everything.
As I wrote in The Path to Awesomeness, the evolution of our soul is to become a perfected spirit. That’s what Jesus meant when He proclaimed, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father is perfect.”
When Jesus said, “The Father and I are one,” He was saying one in spirit. We have to perceive it in terms of spirit, not as persons with separate bodies so as not to personify God and perceive God separate from ourselves.
In spirit, we are one. God cannot be separated from us, but God can be individualized as us. Each of us is an individualized expression of God just as the wave is an individualized expression of the ocean. There are different waves, but all of it is the ocean.
We are God, personified in human bodies, but unified in spirit.
So Eric encourages us that while it’s right to perceive God as “spirit,” or as “consciousness,” or as “Source,” it’s also rightful to know God as “me.”
“I Am That I AM.” You are that I AM.
Namaskar
No matter where you are or what you may be, no matter how much you have lost or how little you have gained, no matter how far you may think yourself to be from the heights you have set for yourself or feel that God has set for you, the power to become is your divine inheritance. You can overcome, you can succeed, you can be healed—if you believe in your divinity.
Similar to the greeting Namaste, Eric introduces us to the Hindustani word Namaskar, which means “I salute the divinity in you.”
But more than its utterance, Namaskar reminds us to perceive the spirit in every person, honoring the Divinity in everyone.
Eric says this is what was portrayed in Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son. It is the Father recognizing the Divinity of the Son in spite of its wrongdoings.
He likens it to a boy returning home after playing some dirty stuff. Our tendency as a human is to see him as a “dirty little boy.” But Eric makes a distinction that he is a boy with dirty hands and face. Bathe him and clean him up and it will reveal the innocent boy that he has always been.
The story tells us that while there are people with dirty hands and faces, there are no dirty people.
Namaskar is a reminder to see beneath appearances and to recognize the Divinity of Man, the Christ in all of us, our Sonship to the Father.
And remember that no matter how far off it seems we are, we can always return home.
The BE Attitudes
To bless is “to confer prosperity upon, to enrich.” Thus “blessed” makes a wonderful promise, telling you what will happen to you if you condition your mind to the full acceptance of these attitudes. In each case through the eight BE attitudes, the “blessed” is a one-word definition of all the good that will come to you if you understand and live by these amazing attitudes of BEING.
Blessed are we to have Eric distill for us one of the greatest teachings of Jesus, His Sermon on the Mount – The Beatitudes. He dedicates an entire chapter in the book to elaborate them and ends each one with an affirming statement to condition our mind to these attitudes of Being – the BE Attitudes.
Let’s go through them briefly:
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- Having a humble spirit, being teachable, open-minded, and receptive to the Truth
- Not about becoming poor, but renouncing mental baggage – the possessions of the mind, getting attached to material things; instead of owning them, they own you
I am open and receptive to the inflow and the outpouring of all there is in God.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
- Because often, in our sorrow and desperation, we are able to let go and the presence of God can come in
- Breakdowns often lead to breakthroughs
I am grateful for the challenges that lead me beyond my extremity to God’s opportunity.
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
- Meekness is surrendering to God so God can work through you
- It’s about taming your ego to align with the greater power within you
I am in tune with God – that which is God-inspired and God-directed shall prevail.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
- Righteousness here refers to right-thinking, which leads to success, good health, or any desired good
- Hunger and thirst mean willingness with all of your mind and heart
I seek with all my mind and heart, and I shall find.
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
- Refers to the law of consciousness, or the concept we’re more familiar with – the Law of Attraction, what comes to you is what your state of consciousness has drawn to you
- Change your attitude toward the world and the world will respond in kind
I keep my thoughts centered upon only those things that I want to see manifest in my life.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
- Getting your thought centered on the good, the true, and the beautiful so you can see God in everything
- Pure in heart means non-judgmental awareness to see beyond forms and appearances
- Eric says, “Man is not in the world to set it right but to see it rightly.”
I see the world, not as it is, but as I am, and I am in spiritual unity with God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called sons of God.
- Call yourself a son of God, believe it, know it, embody it, and you become a peacemaker; because it’s not about what you do that brings peace, but who you are – a light in the darkness
I am a child of God and I act like one. I am a radiating center of peace and love.
Blessed are they that have been persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
- The persecution happens in your own mind as you discipline yourself toward right-thinking
- Experiencing mental inertia or the mind’s resistance to change; but once you’ve overcome it, you’ll ascend to higher consciousness, a.k.a. heaven
In my quest for Truth, I press on past my humanity to a deepening awareness and an increasing releasement of my potential divinity.
Right-use-ness
For we are always dealing with law. Your responsibility to yourself as well as to the divine law, is to keep yourself inwardly poised and to keep your thoughts positive and loving, in spite of injustice or disorder around you.
This is a large order! But then we are dealing with a large and wonderful principle, the divinity of man. If you remember who you are, and keep your inward contact, you will not let yourself be drawn into experiences on another’s level of thought. You will meet them on your level, for your thought is your life.
Eric breaks down the scriptures further in another chapter, titled Your Thought is Your Life, wherein he says that we’re always dealing with the law of consciousness – the realm of thoughts. And that the basis of our experience of life are the thoughts we have from moment to moment.
He reconstructs the word righteousness into “right-use-ness,” which means the right use of our thinking. In The Untethered Soul, Michael Singer tells us that we abuse our mind when we use it in the wrong way. Stop, look, and listen to your thinking.
Positive thinking is not about thinking only positive thoughts, but training the mind to think positive despite the “negative” circumstances around you.
Eric says that it’s the lesson that Jesus imparts to his apostles when they encountered the storm on the Sea of Galilee; that in the face of the storm in life, we must keep the faith, remain steadfast in our thinking.
Prayer is not asking for the situation to change. The right use of prayer is to align our thinking with God in all situations we encounter in life. In A Return to Love, Marianne Williamson shares a prayer to get us back to right-thinking: “Dear God, I am willing to see this differently.”
See things rightly for, as Eric says, prayer changes things only as it changes you.
The Law of Nonresistance
Turn to the other side of your nature. You are both human and divine. There is that in you that can never be hurt, that is always poised and peaceful, that knows your spiritual unity with God and knows that no one can take your good from you. In this diviner state of consciousness, the hurt is healed, the influence of the other person on you is nullified and you become a healing influence upon him.
What you resist persists. So when you’re faced with negative situations and negative people, do not resist them. You cannot approach negativity with negativity for that only compounds the problem.
Instead, “turn the other cheek.” But that doesn’t mean you become a doormat or victim. Eric clarifies that what it means is turning to your divine nature, turning to right-thinking about your experience.
When someone has wronged you, it may seem right to get even with them. But how do you get even? Not by persecuting them, for you’ll be suffering from your own persecution. Also not through unforgiveness because you exchange your own freedom in making them repay for their sin.
The only way to get even is with love. Love, only love, as Marianne and all the other teachers remind us.
A Course In Miracles teaches us that anything that’s not loving is a call for love. And when there’s a call for love, we must respond to it with love because that is what we are.
Ask and So It Is
The key to healing is to lift up your thought to the consciousness of the wholeness of life in you. You need not ask for it. God is that wholeness, but you must accept it into your mind which has been seeing in part.
You don’t have to ask God for wisdom, for God is wisdom. Your mind is an activity in the Infinite Mind of God. If there is any break in the flow of the inspiration of the Almighty in you, that break is in you—not in God. Your need is to reestablish yourself in the consciousness of the all-knowing Mind of God in you.
Eric tells us that when we ask God for help, we are claiming our inheritance as a spiritual being. There is nothing that God has that we don’t have because we are never separate from God. Only our thinking makes it seem so.
Prayer is to lift our consciousness, not God’s. It’s to condition our needs to God, not conditioning God to our needs. It’s not to ask God to do something for us, but rather something we do for ourselves.
Eric compares it to nature and the things around us. Do you ask the sun for sunlight? No, you simply step outside the house to get sunlight. Do you ask electricity to light the lamp? No, you merely turn the switch on. Similarly, when you ask God for something, you just “tune in, tap in, turn on,” as Abraham Hicks often calls it.
You ask and it is given. Because it is already so.
In the Corona Formula, I discuss at great length how your health directly correlates to your level of consciousness. I also lay out the techniques how you can work on it to facilitate your healing.
And, if you haven’t already, you can subscribe to the You Can Heal Yourself e-mail series for FREE by signing up below.
Be What You Want to Have
Seek first to be, and you will have, Jesus is saying. To have more you must be more. Success cannot be measured by what you have amassed. It can only be known by the level of consciousness you have achieved.
Have faith in God, in an opulent, orderly Universe. And have faith in yourself and your innate divinity, by which you can do what you need to do and have what you desire to have.
To have more you must be more. If we want to have more money, we must grow into the kind of person with a consciousness of prosperity. We cannot have more money with a scarcity mindset, thinking that there’s a lack of it.
Truth is, there’s nothing lacking of anything. You’re always full of faith. The question is, as Jesus once asked, “Where is your faith?” Is it in the spirit of abundance within you, or in the forms of abundance? One of which is money that can either appear as more or lacking.
And there are many other forms of abundance. Money is only one of the expressions it can have.
When I’ve experienced a financial crisis, I realized that while I may seem to not having money, I did have an abundance of health and I was rich in ideas — ideas that later on converted into avenues of income.
Have faith in you, not outside of you. For inside you is the Kingdom of God. And the only real business you have here on this world is, as Eric writes it, the “express business” — the business of expressing God in you, through you, as you.
Therefore, be rich. Think rich and grow rich – in spirit – and you will manifest riches in your life, including money.
Life Is For Living
Life is not for dying—Life is for living! Life is for growing and unfolding, for experiencing a deeper and deeper awareness of the ISness of God and of His perfect life. Anything you will ever be, you already are. The greatness of the Infinite is already involved in you. Sleeping within you is a strong, capable, confident, dynamic person—the person you long to be. No matter what obstacles may beset you, there is the seed potential within you of the giantlike man or woman who can conquer and overcome.
Eric is proclaiming the message of Jesus’ resurrection — that life is for living. Jesus has shown us that death is not the end of life, for life never ends. Rather, dying is just another experience of life. Just as birth, being a child, growing up, going to school, getting a job, doing what you like, or any other experience is. All of it is life.
But what kind of experience are we having? Is it one of living or dying?
Sadly, we were introduced to a society that seems like always running out of time, as if we’re all doomed from the moment we were born. Worse, the religions of the world, ironically those that were supposed to evangelize Jesus’ teachings, had our sights set on the crucifixion instead of the resurrection, which is the demonstration of man’s divinity.
This is what must be resurrected and risen — the Christ in you, your divinity. This is what you ought to carry out in every experience of your life.
Sure, there will be times that you have to carry your cross. But always remember that you also carry with you your divinity.
You’re alive. Hallelujah!
Now, rise and live to the fullest.
Thy Kingdom Come
The Kingdom of Heaven, then, is the principle of expansion. Life is a limitless experience in an expanding Universe. The very nature of life is growth.
Life is growth and unfoldment, and life is lived from inside out.
It really doesn’t matter what happens around you or to you. These things are in the world, and you can overcome the world. All that really matters is what happens in you.
So, when is the second coming of Christ? It’s entirely up to you.
This book, Discover The Power Within You, was published in 1989 and Eric concluded it by writing that the time is more than ripe. Well, it’s overripe by now, hah!
The Golden Age is already upon us and the new Earth is here. We’re in the advent of a new human race. And Eric tells us that this race is made up of individuals — you and me.
If we are to bring Heaven on Earth, then each of us must contribute our individual piece of Heaven. That is how we build the Kingdom of God.
We ask, “What would Jesus do?”
Perhaps the time is more than ripe we asked ourselves the same question:
“What would I do?”
Discover the Power Within You: A Guide to the Unexplored Depths Within
PS: Thank you for taking the time to read. Tell me, what insight most resonated with you?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ERIC BUTTERWORTH (1916-2003) served as minister, author, and radio personality. He earned high respect for his delivery of universal spiritual ideas. His teaching focused on the divinity of all people, and his desire was that everyone would know their oneness with God.
Visit him at ericbutterworth.com
