What is Ours to Cause and Create? »

The “We Are CSL” Vision Tree

By Tina Greene, RScP

The completed “We Are CSL” Vision Tree at the Centers for Spiritual Living annual convention in Irvine, CA

The Vision of the Centers for Spiritual Living is “a world that works for everyone.” As practicing religious scientists, we know intellectually that living from our vision is the quickest way to that vision. But for many of us these words are much easier said than done.
What does it really mean to live from a vision anyway? And how do we do that?
The answer I’ve been working with for the last few years, both as a practitioner and a teacher of Intentional Creativity®, is that we live from our vision when we embody our vision. If I want to experience peace, I live as peace. If I want to experience love, I remember that I AM love and act accordingly. It’s simply a variation of the heart of our teaching: As within, so without.
When I read the theme for the 2018 CSL Convention — “We Are CSL” — I received one of those divine downloads that I’ve learned to pay careful attention to. What if I created a communal art project that gave all participants an opportunity to embody their personal visions of a world that works for everyone? And what if, through that process, together we created a piece of art that embodied our collective vision? How cool would that be?
In that moment, I saw the “We Are CSL” Vision Tree in my mind’s eye. Using a Klimt-like Tree of Life as the backdrop, attendees would be invited to participate in a ritual to discover their unique contributions to a world that works for everyone. And as we embodied our own vision of that world – represented by the individual leaves — we would bring our collective vision into form right there on the Vision Tree. Together, we would embody our individual and collective vision.
At the convention’s opening night, we learned that the theme, “We Are CSL,” has a dual meaning. Yes, it refers to our collective organization being the sum of its parts. The second, less obvious meaning – at least to me– was that each of us is our own Center for Spiritual Living.
In that moment I knew that the Vision Tree project, which reflected both meanings, was one of those miracles that we experience when we’re paying close attention. Everything was coming together in a beautiful and unexpected way.

Photo courtesy of Hobby Parent

The Red Thread Ritual

The Vision Tree ritual started with a sparkly ball of red thread and this ancient Chinese legend:

Everyone who is destined to meet in this lifetime is connected by an invisible red thread that’s been in place since before birth. That thread may stretch and fray, but it will never break.

Each person wrapped the red thread around their wrist before passing it on. Then we gently “tugged on the red thread” and felt the resistance that indicated there was someone on the other end. This is a great metaphor for all of us.
That tug reminds us that we are never alone. Instead, we are part of — and one with — the great web of life. It reminds us that support is just a “tug” away. For example, if someone posts in our Intentional Creativity Facebook group that they are “tugging on the red thread,” they receive immediate prayer support from whoever happens to be online at that time. Since we have thousands of members worldwide, someone is always able to respond. It’s like having a worldwide network of on-call practitioners.
The next step involved cutting ourselves free from the group and, with help, tying our own piece of red thread around our wrist. This represents the second teaching of the red thread, the one that aligned so perfectly with the individual-focused theme of the convention: While we are always virtually connected, each of us is only responsible for the piece of the red thread that we hold in our hands.
We each have our own voice and our own unique gifts to share. Our sacred assignment is to focus on what is ours to be and do, and to trust that everyone else is doing the same.
With this in heart, we moved to the central question: In a world that works for everyone, what is mine to cause and create?
Each of us will have our own answer to this question. Even if the words we choose are the same, the fact that we are unique expressions of the Divine will make our answers — and how we bring them into form — unique. Besides, how can there possibly be too much love or acceptance or compassion in the world?
Some answers came quickly. Others required a deeper dive. There were tears and laughter and amazing conversations as together we explored that central question: What is mine to cause and create?
The sense of empowerment — individual and collective — was palpable. We left this part of the convention filled with a deep sense of hope and possibility.

Call to Action: Bring Your Vision into Form

As the “We Are CSL” Vision Tree showed us, when we choose to engage actively with our vision, magic happens. If we are to bring the convention magic into our own lives, we have to show up for — and to — our vision on a daily basis. As the saying goes, we must “treat and move our feet.” We have to back up our vision with action.
I am an acronym junkie. I love using key words to help me remember a process I use that works. Not only does that help me, it makes it easier to share with my coaching clients and audiences. So I took the word ACT into meditation and asked my heart if ACT is an acronym for something I already do. The answer was right there. I hope you find it useful.

ACT

Align your intention with who you are and with your vision.
Choose what is yours to cause and create.
Trust that all is well.
If we remember to ACT on a regular basis, we will embody our visions. This is how we change the world. We live from our vision. We embody our vision. We act on our vision of a world that works for everyone.
We have everything we need already. It’s all inside. As Dr. Ernest Holmes said in “Living the Science of Mind”:

“We are centers or points
in a Cosmic Universal Consciousness
which is the Origin of all things.
On the scale of our individual lives
we reproduce the Divine Order in its entirety.”

For more information about Tina Greene, visit http://tinagreenewisdom.com. For more information about the Vision Tree, visit http://tinagreenewisdom.com/vision-tree/ or email her at her at Tina@TinaGreeneWisdom.com.