A Future Undisturbed

"Your present trust in Him is the defense that promises a future undisturbed, without a trace of sorrow, and with joy that constantly increases, as this life becomes a holy instant, set in time, but heeding only immortality. Let no defenses but your present trust direct the future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with the Truth that only your defenses would conceal." -- A Course in Miracles

I remember reading years ago, in Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi," that God is ever-new joy. And then many years later hearing Gangaji say that there is no end to the deepening of Awareness of Self, of God. In the above quote from ACIM we are reminded once again that the joy we really are is constantly increasing, giving itself as only Love can. I find this so incredibly moving and comforting in my moments of forgetting. And as I allow myself to be comforted without defense, without any obstacles of thought, I am instantly Home in this expanding Love that is our real Life. Why would I defend myself against what brings me only joy and peace?

The answer to this lies in the conditioned fear of Love. Our whole world is constructed around it. It seems the chief tool for self-deception in this dream world is to act like we are seeking what we want to defend against. We keep looking, looking, and acting like we haven't a clue where it could be, or why we seem to find it and then lose it... so we have to look some more, until we despair of looking and declare that it never really existed. This could apply to most anything, because everything is just Love in disguise... and the disguise is of our own making.

I am not speaking theory here. Direct experience will show you that literally anything you are defending against is the Love you fear. If you are willing to try this as an experiment, the only thing you risk losing is your illusion of yourself and the world. So let's try it, O.K.?

Bring into your mind and heart whatever you most fear... it could be something you fear will happen, or something you fear to lose, or a person who troubles you. Whatever it is, allow all of this experience and the feelings that go with it into your awareness without resistance. Welcome it as you would an honored guest. At the same time, allow into your mind and heart whatever you think you most want... again, whatever it is, allow all of this experience and the feelings that come with it into your awareness without resistance, mingling now with what you most fear. There may be other things that rise into awareness as you do this, and welcome them too. Rest in this awareness of all of it within your own mind and heart. Just rest and let it all be. Now, I ask you... in this inclusive awareness, what is your experience?

When our true wholeness is experienced, all our illusions fall away, and only Love remains. A future undisturbed is the result of inclusion, not exclusion. Defenses never work because they are always and only trying to run from the Love that is Who We Really Are. And Who We Are is a given, and shines without effort and without obstruction in spite of our illusory attempts to disguise it and hide from it. ACIM calls this wholeness forgiveness, the letting go of all limited self-definition and the dissolving of the world as we know it. Only Love remains.

"Only perfect Love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist." -- A Course in Miracles