He Must Increase, But I Must Decrease

"He must increase, but I must decrease." -- The Bible; John 3:30

I love this quote from John the Baptist. It expresses so eloquently what Mary Baker Eddy calls the 'unselfing' that we all must go through to remember Who We Are. The little self must be seen-through, must be exposed as a fiction, to allow the Christ to be revealed in us. Our allegiance to the little self must decrease, so that our awareness of the Christ, our Oneness with God, may increase.

A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body's eyes and hears through the body's ears. It appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, yet actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. The opposite of seeing through the body's eyes is the vision of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing through the body's ears is communication through the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us."

Jeshua ben Joseph also put it this way: "No man putteth new wine into old bottles, else the new wine doth burst the bottles and the wine is spilled; but new wine must be put into new bottles." He also said, "No man can serve two masters." This dissolving of old allegiances and identities is often experienced as painful when we are trying to pour the new wine of spiritual awareness into old ways of being, trying to remember our true Self while still clinging to the separated self and its pleasures and pains.

The letting go of old identities, both our own and our perceptions of others, is what A Course in Miracles calls forgiveness. It is the complete relinquishment of the need to judge. Judgement always involves illusions, the projections of the seemingly separated mind... because "whatever is True is eternal, and cannot change or be changed... because it is already perfect."

When we are willing to decrease our allegiance to limited, human things, the great paradox is that we gain everything as our awareness of the Christ increases. The remembrance of Who We Are in God is the door to the limitless Joy and Abundance and Peace that is our Eternal Reality.

"Behold, I make all things new." The Bible; Revelation 21:5