In and Out

"In Him we live and move and have our being." --The Bible; Acts 17:28

"I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." -- The Bible; Galatians 2:20

"My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 35

Whether we talk about the Mind of God, or the Spirit of God, or the Allness of God, we are always speaking of Infinite Mind which is all-encompassing.  The problem with our shared dualistic perspective is that even when we speak of God as All, we place ourselves inside that allness, as if we're sort of part of it, but still something 'other'.  Arthur Corey spoke of this dilemma when he wrote, "AS Mind we live and move and have our Being -- not inside of Mind, like seeds in a watermelon!"  We can't seem to help viewing everything as in or out.

I began this blog with some Biblical passages that have pointed me toward the Truth over the years.  And of course, the famous Workbook Lesson from A Course in Miracles that reminds us we are as holy as God is, and never separate from this Infinite Awareness.  Of course, it does so in language that we can understand, however imperfectly.  And I have been reflecting on just how inadequate our language is to speak of what is forever One and indivisible.

In Hindu scriptures they compare our minds to waves in the Ocean of Divine Mind.  In other words, waves are always and forever ocean... not IN the ocean, but ocean BEING ocean.  Our minds are not just part of God's Mind.  Our Minds are God's Mind, Infinitely Extending in Perfect Awareness.  God BEING God.  

"But..."  I know.  I know.  The mind that sleeps seems to shrink in awareness until all it sees is imperfection and fragmented being, everywhere it looks.  It is the act of focusing on this tunnel vision that creates the illusion of in and out.  From the mountaintop, everything looks different.  From a unified Mind, there is only the Beauty of Holiness.

So are both real?  This is the question all of us have asked at some point.  Immersed in dualism, we imagine there is a 'both', a 'two', an in and an out.  The gift of A Course in Miracles is that it shows us how our tunnel vision perspective deludes and frightens us, when it is just a false sense of things, an insubstantial projection of the sleeping mind, and completely false.  "Where is the darkness when the Light has come?" the Course asks us.  "Nothing, and nowhere," is the reply.

We are forever pure Spirit, pure Mind, which is beyond all appearances that shift and change. We are neither in nor out.

"Unity alone is not a thing of dreams." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 12, 6:10