Living the Truth

"In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"This is no magic. It is merely an appeal to Truth, which cannot fail to heal and heal forever. It is not a thought that judges an illusion by its size, its seeming gravity, or anything that is related to the form it takes. It merely focuses on what it is, and knows that no illusion can be real." -- A Course in Miracles

When the Voice led me this morning to write about Living the Truth, I laughed. This has been a period of about two years of trial by fire. Ever since I wrote a certain Little Book (http://www.thelittlebookoforganicabundance.com/) I have been challenged to really live every principle in the book. Thank God. The results have been a deepening peace, and a willingness to be completely naked before the Truth, in all of my mistaken mental constructs and identities. And so forgiveness has been my constant companion, and has revealed over and over the Truth of my Being and of everyone and everything. As Mary Baker Eddy puts it, "Man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual." Thank Goodness we are challenged and led every step of the way, to remember Who We Really Are, and What We Really Want.

I love the clarity of Mary Baker Eddy's insight: "The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen as felt. It is the 'still, small Voice' of Truth uttering ItSelf. We are either turning away from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going up higher." There is no middle ground, no straddling the fence... and there are always and only two choices. As A Course in Miracles puts it: "What difference does the content of a dream make in reality? One either sleeps or wakens. There is nothing in between."

We are not just challenged by some dreams. The illusions we like, we don't want to let go of... and so we insist that they must be true. As ACIM says, "Be not deceived by forms the dream may take.... There is no remedy the world provides that can effect a change in anything. The mind that brings its illusions to the Truth is really changed. There is no change but this. For how can one illusion differ from another but in attributes that have no substance, no reality, no core, and nothing that is truly different?"

So every day I return to the Voice as my sole and only guide through the seemingly compelling illusion that is this world. It is the One Trustworthy Guide, the One True Companion, the One Source of All Good, the Allness of God. When old stories and fears and angers arise, I know them for what they are, and they are easily forgiven and released. The arising of these old fragments of dreams is not a problem unless I am unwilling to look at them and know them for what they are. As Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Get thee behind me, Satan; you are a liar, and the father of all lies." Truth corrects all errors in my mind whenever I turn to It. And that is always up to me, my one decision every moment of every day.

One of the last errors to fall away is the belief in mental influence within the dream. For example, I often feel and know the thoughts of others, even at a distance. And so I have often thought myself to be influenced by the joys and sorrows of others, or thought that I could influence others with my own thoughts and feelings. How could this be the Truth? All that exists within the dream, whether believed to be thought or emotion or substance, is erroneous and unreal. As Mary Baker Eddy puts it: "Matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous." And the belief that one fictionally separate mind can influence another is equally false: "Truth is not contaminated by error."

There is One Mind, One Source, One Allness of Good and Love and Light and Power. This One is Who We Are. There are no separate parts, and so all are healed as One when we Remember. Living the Truth is our only work. Living the Truth brings the only lasting Joy.

"There can never be a meaningful distinction made between what is untrue and equally untrue. Here there are no degrees, and no beliefs that what does not exist is truer in some forms than others. All of them are false, and can be cured because they are not true. So do we lay aside our amulets, our charms and medicines, our chants and bits of magic in whatever form they take. We will be still and listen for the Voice of healing, which will cure all ills as one, restoring saneness to the Son of God. No voice but this One can cure. Today we hear a single Voice which speaks to us of Truth, where all illusions end, and Peace returns to the eternal, quiet Home of God." -- A Course in Miracles