Need/Obligate

"There is no miracle you cannot give, for all are given you. Receive them now by opening the storehouse of your mind where they are laid, and giving them away. Christ's Vision is a miracle. Christ's Vision is the miracle in which all miracles are born." -- A Course in Miracles; Lesson 159, 2:4-5, 3:1, & 4:1

"The substitution of the spiritual for the material definition elucidates the meaning." -- Mary Baker Eddy

I love the lessons our dreams provide us, always dreams of forgiveness. Forgiving the material, apparent meanings we have superimposed on Reality... and remembering once again the Allness of God and our eternal Oneness with all Good.

In the above quotes from A Course in Miracles, it's easy to see ourselves doling out physical or fiscal miracles in the world... in the self-aggrandizement of our egos, we co-opt the meaning of miracles to suit our belief in the material. So it's really, really important to remember that only the spiritual meaning of the word miracle applies, ever. Notice the above quote talks about opening the storehouse of our mind. A miracle is always and forever healed perception, and always involves a shift from the separated, material illusion to seeing through the eyes of pure Spirit, our Oneness with God, which ACIM calls the Atonement, Christ's Vision.

Our egoic, separated, illusory self sees every act of giving as an act somehow for itself. This is why Jesus urged us not to let our right hand know what our left hand is doing. We haven't really done anything by giving a material thing or substance, or even by giving bodily acts of service. There's certainly nothing wrong with them... but there is also nothing right about them. This belief in martyrdom and self-sacrifice is all an egoic tool, part of the story in the endless, serial dream of separate bodies and their nonsensical heroic journeys.

Over and over I have seen, in my own dream and the dreams around me, this co-opting of the idea of love by the ego. It's really just the "I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine" mentality, thinly disguised with platitudes and pseudo-spirituality. Real Love IS. It needs nothing, and yet gives everything by simply BEING. It doesn't give out of need, or out of pity. It doesn't give out of a feeling of guilt. It doesn't give in the usual sense at all... It simply IS, and so it radiates and overflows with Abundance of Being. This Abundance of Being is what reflects in the dream as needs being met. It is not need/obligate. It needs no recognition and no return on investment.

I know what it's like to be lost in a dream of lack and loss. I know what it's like to feel like there is absolutely nowhere to turn. And I also know what it's like to awaken from that dream... and I know what it's like to feel so very much gratitude for that very dream, and the Awakening it facilitated.

Yesterday in church, the benediction was unusual, but so appropriate: "May you know hunger and thirst and lack, so that you may know the Abundance of God." A blessing paraphrased straight from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus didn't say "Blessed are the manifesters," or "Blessed are those who demonstrate abundance in the world." He said, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." As Mary Baker Eddy pointed out, it's always and only the spiritual meaning that is true. The spiritual meaning of the experience of lack is the blessing of our true hunger and thirst for Awakening, without a story. It's not physical, and it's certainly not fiscal. And it's only when we give up the outer search for fulfillment of any kind (with all its rationales) that the true meaning of giving and receiving becomes apparent, within Self, with absolute freedom... and need/obligate becomes an archaic relic from a bygone era.

"Christ's Vision is the bridge between the worlds. And in Its power can you safely trust to carry you from this world into one made holy by forgiveness. Things which seem quite solid here are merely shadows there; transparent, faintly seen, at times forgot, and never able to obscure the Light that shines beyond them. Holiness has been restored to Vision, and the blind can see. This is the Holy Spirit's single gift; the treasure house to which you can appeal with perfect certainty for all the things that can contribute to your happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 159, 5:1-4, & 6:1