"Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness." -- Psalm 29
"Your purpose is to see the world through your own Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 1:2
We are taught at a very early age to see differences. These differences are quickly sorted into good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable. And as we get older,, the compulsion to avoid the so-called bad and seek the imagined good is the only thing that motivates us (and the entire world!).
Ironically, this endless seeking to avoid pain and seek pleasure doesn't work. It may appear to work for short periods of time, but all you have to do is look around. We continue to pretend it works because the alternative is too fearful to the mind. We avoid looking at the Truth, because we have carefully and methodically been living in the thought system we inherited from our parents or from our social peers. And all of it is made up. We make it up daily, as we obey the so-called rules and judgments we have so carefully constructed.
The first glimmers of hope come when we realize that everything is Mind. What you are aware of is what you experience, even when it is all made up. Who is experiencing this pain, or this pleasure? Certainly it seems to be a body, but Who is aware of this body? And certainly this awareness seems to come and go, but whenever you check, it is always here. Whenever you become aware of Awareness, it is always here. Mind Awake is pure Awareness. And the only Awareness is that of Wholeness, which is what Holiness is. And it is pure Beauty, pure Love, and pure Joy.
One of the first Bible verses I learned as a child was the famous Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is One. And you shall the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." To be in alignment with the world of differences, this is interpreted as being something we have to do. We have to work at being good, work at loving God. But after studying A Course in Miracles for many years I have gradually come to know that it is a statement of fact. God is One Mind, and that Mind is Who We Really Are. This Mind is Whole, Holy, and wholly Loving. It can only be known when the need to pretend that everything is separate and different falls away. And this need falls away when we want to know the Truth more than we want to hang on to the carefully constructed ideas and judgements of the world around us.
As the earlier quote reminds us, our purpose here is to finally see the world through our own Holiness. As we begin to see that there is only Mind, we begin to accept that this One Mind is our true vision. This begins the process of mental housecleaning that The Course calls forgiveness. And as the mirror of the mind is swept clean of the compulsion to judge and see differences, all that remains is the Beauty of Holiness.
Showing posts with label Beauty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beauty. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Other
I remember years ago when I attended Loving Relationships Training with Sondra Ray. She had us all looking for our personal lies. If we could let that one lie go, she insisted, then all our false beliefs about ourselves and the world would fall away. She used the image of a hand (the personal lie) holding a bunch of balloons (our beliefs about ourselves and the world). If the hand is released, the balloons are too. It's a great image. However, the reason it didn't appear to work for anyone for any length of time might be because it was based on belief. A belief about beliefs is still belief. What lies behind all beliefs? What is the original lie?
What I mean is that Truth, being True, just IS. It doesn't need belief to BE. Who We Are in Reality must be True, because when every thought and belief is released, I Am. The only accurate statement I could make about this is that I Am Awareness ItSelf. So are you. What has been termed the Christ of Our Being is Whole, with no other. Oneness, Aware of ItSelf as I Am.
The original belief, the original lie that projects all other lies is that I am Other. I am other than God. I am other than you, or them, or it. The Other belief is then projected onto the screen of the mind as a host of others, with a host of issues and problems and longings and sorrows. The Other is never complete... how could Completeness be experienced in such a fragmented state? When I am the Other, then everything is experienced as other. Nothing is ever whole, never here, never complete.
A Course in Miracles tells us, "My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made." This is a way of taking back the responsibility for all the otherness we seem to experience, instead of the projected pretense that it's happening to us. Once released, it's possible to return to the awareness of I Am, instead of I am with an otherly object. In the Great I Am, there is no other.
When I recognize the Other in my life, I need only forgive and release. Behind every seeming lies the perfection and holiness and beauty that we are... that I Am. This is the Miracle.
"...Say, 'Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven' and you have said, 'I know what I Am'... " -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section VI, 11:8
What I mean is that Truth, being True, just IS. It doesn't need belief to BE. Who We Are in Reality must be True, because when every thought and belief is released, I Am. The only accurate statement I could make about this is that I Am Awareness ItSelf. So are you. What has been termed the Christ of Our Being is Whole, with no other. Oneness, Aware of ItSelf as I Am.
The original belief, the original lie that projects all other lies is that I am Other. I am other than God. I am other than you, or them, or it. The Other belief is then projected onto the screen of the mind as a host of others, with a host of issues and problems and longings and sorrows. The Other is never complete... how could Completeness be experienced in such a fragmented state? When I am the Other, then everything is experienced as other. Nothing is ever whole, never here, never complete.
A Course in Miracles tells us, "My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made." This is a way of taking back the responsibility for all the otherness we seem to experience, instead of the projected pretense that it's happening to us. Once released, it's possible to return to the awareness of I Am, instead of I am with an otherly object. In the Great I Am, there is no other.
When I recognize the Other in my life, I need only forgive and release. Behind every seeming lies the perfection and holiness and beauty that we are... that I Am. This is the Miracle.
"...Say, 'Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven' and you have said, 'I know what I Am'... " -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section VI, 11:8
Saturday, September 4, 2010
This is My Father's World
"This is my Father's world; He shines in all that's fair. In rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere." -- from the hymn, "This is My Father's World"
"All things are echoes of the Voice for God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151
I love singing the old hymns I grew up with... every Sunday for over three years I've been doing one of them Acappella during communion at St. Vincent's-in-the-Vineyard (which is what gave me the idea for the CD). Some of my ACIM friends have questioned how I can reconcile the thought systems, especially my latest YouTube posting. This is a valid question, and I am never one to shy away from deeper inquiry. I've learned the hard way over the years to beware of trying to shine up my illusions with Truth, trying to spiritualize or 'fix' what I am already identified with. And by illusions I mean all conditioned thought and habitual behavior, including beloved traditions. They are all made up, and we give them all the meaning they have for us.
At the same time, when we have forgiven and released the meanings we learned from our families, or that we took on as part of an identity... when we have ceased to judge any of our projections and former judgments as good or bad... then God becomes the only meaning of all things. All the forms and aspects of life take on one purpose and one meaning... awakening to the Presence, and to our true Self. We have given the world of our projection to God: "Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and happiness God wills as proof of His eternal Love. All the threads of fantasy are gone. And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 14:1, 3-4
Whether it's the words of a beloved hymn or the words of scripture, unless we forgive and release the past we are only reading and listening through conditioned response, and have no eyes and ears to hear. It's the same with the natural world... unless we forgive and release our fixed belief in a concrete, material world we can't hear the Voice and see the Love of God reflected here. A forgiven world reveals the face of Christ everywhere, and the Love of God as the only meaning of all things.
THIS is my Father's world... forgiven and thus transformed to what is so close to Heaven that the transition to Christ's Vision is easily made, through Grace.
"Through your transfiguration is the world redeemed, and joyfully released from guilt." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 16:3
"All things are echoes of the Voice for God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151
I love singing the old hymns I grew up with... every Sunday for over three years I've been doing one of them Acappella during communion at St. Vincent's-in-the-Vineyard (which is what gave me the idea for the CD). Some of my ACIM friends have questioned how I can reconcile the thought systems, especially my latest YouTube posting. This is a valid question, and I am never one to shy away from deeper inquiry. I've learned the hard way over the years to beware of trying to shine up my illusions with Truth, trying to spiritualize or 'fix' what I am already identified with. And by illusions I mean all conditioned thought and habitual behavior, including beloved traditions. They are all made up, and we give them all the meaning they have for us.
At the same time, when we have forgiven and released the meanings we learned from our families, or that we took on as part of an identity... when we have ceased to judge any of our projections and former judgments as good or bad... then God becomes the only meaning of all things. All the forms and aspects of life take on one purpose and one meaning... awakening to the Presence, and to our true Self. We have given the world of our projection to God: "Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and happiness God wills as proof of His eternal Love. All the threads of fantasy are gone. And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 14:1, 3-4
Whether it's the words of a beloved hymn or the words of scripture, unless we forgive and release the past we are only reading and listening through conditioned response, and have no eyes and ears to hear. It's the same with the natural world... unless we forgive and release our fixed belief in a concrete, material world we can't hear the Voice and see the Love of God reflected here. A forgiven world reveals the face of Christ everywhere, and the Love of God as the only meaning of all things.
THIS is my Father's world... forgiven and thus transformed to what is so close to Heaven that the transition to Christ's Vision is easily made, through Grace.
"Through your transfiguration is the world redeemed, and joyfully released from guilt." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 16:3
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Fireflies
First, an apology to all who have tried to purchase the CD or individual mp3s and discovered the links don't work! Thank you for letting me know... it will be corrected by tomorrow evening at the latest... and now the lyrics that inspired today's blog:
I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems.
-- from the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City
I give piano lessons to my 10 year old grandson, Drew. And because he loves the above song "Fireflies," I created a chord chart for him and taught him about chords and inversions this afternoon. He was really excited to be applying what he's learning to songs he knows. And quite frankly, the song is really catchy and clever... and at times profound. I love it.
It reminds me of the metaphysics of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and its "Life is but a dream" message. We would all like to make ourselves believe that we are safe on a slowly turning planet, and that we are awake... but as the song says, it's hard to keep convincing ourselves of that when we so obviously live in a world of dreams where nothing is what is seems. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Our life is not as we imagine it."
As I write this, fireflies are winking on and off under my 150 year old oak and hickory trees. Fireflies are dreamlike creatures any way you look at them, floating high up in the branches or down in the moist grass, like fairies or tiny angels. They remind me that we dream beautiful dreams together, too. And that the more beautiful, the more loving, the more innocent our dreams, the closer our minds come to remembering Who We Really Are. "You are surrounded only by Him [God]. What limits can there be on You whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, VI, 10:6-7
It's up to us, always up to us to return our dreaming minds to God, where we have always been in Truth. And as we do we know that "These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene." (ACIM; WB 186, 10:1) Each moment we're focusing our perception either on the good and the perfect that reflects the Truth of God, or on the lies of the false separate self which always claims lack and limitation. And each brother and sister, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, gives us an opportunity to remember. And to forgive our willingness to succumb again and again to the seduction of the flawed, the limited, the suffering... the dream of pain and death.
The song "Fireflies" reminds us that beauty reflects the real, but is not the real... nothing in the world of dreams can do more than reflect the mind that's dreaming. And do we really want to awaken?
"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
-- from the song "Fireflies" by Owl City
I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems.
-- from the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City
I give piano lessons to my 10 year old grandson, Drew. And because he loves the above song "Fireflies," I created a chord chart for him and taught him about chords and inversions this afternoon. He was really excited to be applying what he's learning to songs he knows. And quite frankly, the song is really catchy and clever... and at times profound. I love it.
It reminds me of the metaphysics of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and its "Life is but a dream" message. We would all like to make ourselves believe that we are safe on a slowly turning planet, and that we are awake... but as the song says, it's hard to keep convincing ourselves of that when we so obviously live in a world of dreams where nothing is what is seems. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Our life is not as we imagine it."
As I write this, fireflies are winking on and off under my 150 year old oak and hickory trees. Fireflies are dreamlike creatures any way you look at them, floating high up in the branches or down in the moist grass, like fairies or tiny angels. They remind me that we dream beautiful dreams together, too. And that the more beautiful, the more loving, the more innocent our dreams, the closer our minds come to remembering Who We Really Are. "You are surrounded only by Him [God]. What limits can there be on You whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, VI, 10:6-7
It's up to us, always up to us to return our dreaming minds to God, where we have always been in Truth. And as we do we know that "These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene." (ACIM; WB 186, 10:1) Each moment we're focusing our perception either on the good and the perfect that reflects the Truth of God, or on the lies of the false separate self which always claims lack and limitation. And each brother and sister, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, gives us an opportunity to remember. And to forgive our willingness to succumb again and again to the seduction of the flawed, the limited, the suffering... the dream of pain and death.
The song "Fireflies" reminds us that beauty reflects the real, but is not the real... nothing in the world of dreams can do more than reflect the mind that's dreaming. And do we really want to awaken?
"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
-- from the song "Fireflies" by Owl City
Friday, March 6, 2009
Sweet Surrender
"The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 5, II, 4:5
Today's blog is a challenge. I've had this topic in mind for a long time, but it has been gestating, like the seed that all divine ideas are. It's sprouting today, a lovely spring morning with the birds singing and the breeze dancing music in the wind chimes. Harmony is in the very air of the dream this morning, and it's easy to relax and allow this idea to have its way with me. So here goes...
When I was 20 years old, I transferred to the UMKC Conservatory of Music, and my life changed enormously, for many reasons. The most memorable and lasting was my relationship with a statue at the Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery. Ironic that a statue, a graven image, should teach me so much over the years about the nature of illusion, and about the beauty of surrendering each moment to Truth. I didn't know then that literally all of it was my projection, and that the symbols in my dream have only the meaning I give them. But then, that is part of the game, isn't it? Pretending it's happening TO us.
I was young, it was the early 1970's, and I read Alan Watts and Ram Dass and Paramahansa Yogananda and B.K.S. Iyengar. Everything was an adventure in consciousness to me, and I developed the habit at an early age of questioning everything, of looking beyond the obvious for Truth. It was during a time of deep questioning and apparent suffering that I discovered HER.
She is a beautiful, larger than life statue of Quan Yin (they spell it Guanyin at the Gallery), and she is known throughout the world as a Bodhisattva of compassion. As the story goes, she Awakened to the nature of the dream (became enlightened), that it is all Self. And so she vowed to never totally relinquish her form in the dream until all aspects of Self awaken. You can see a photograph of this particular statue of Quan Yin at: http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase_ImageView.cfm?id=597&theme=china
When I first saw her, I was speechless. Everything stopped. My mind dissolved, and I sat for what must have been hours with tears running down my face. Nothing in particular happened. I simply sat in complete surrender to the Love I felt in her presence.
Now, I know a statue is like everything else in the dream. Yet what she symbolized to me then, and what she continues to symbolize for me now, is Perfect Love and complete, total Joy. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of teachers, because although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. And they will appear when and where it is helpful for them to do so. No one can call on them in vain. Nor is there anyone of whom they are unaware. All needs are known to them, and all mistakes are recognized and overlooked by them. The time will come when this is understood." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers, 26, 2:1-7)
What this image has always symbolized for me is beyond words. And yet the closet I could come to describing it is a complete abandonment to Love, an absolutely exquisite, sweet surrender. There is an elegant composure and relaxation to her, that has nothing to do with control, and everything to do with being completely and utterly natural and free. Being completely at home, completely at One with it all. This sweet, sweet surrender to Love is why we're here, and is our true Freedom.
"Freedom is creation, because it is Love. Whom you seek to imprison you do not love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 8, Section IV, 8:2-3
Today's blog is a challenge. I've had this topic in mind for a long time, but it has been gestating, like the seed that all divine ideas are. It's sprouting today, a lovely spring morning with the birds singing and the breeze dancing music in the wind chimes. Harmony is in the very air of the dream this morning, and it's easy to relax and allow this idea to have its way with me. So here goes...
When I was 20 years old, I transferred to the UMKC Conservatory of Music, and my life changed enormously, for many reasons. The most memorable and lasting was my relationship with a statue at the Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery. Ironic that a statue, a graven image, should teach me so much over the years about the nature of illusion, and about the beauty of surrendering each moment to Truth. I didn't know then that literally all of it was my projection, and that the symbols in my dream have only the meaning I give them. But then, that is part of the game, isn't it? Pretending it's happening TO us.
I was young, it was the early 1970's, and I read Alan Watts and Ram Dass and Paramahansa Yogananda and B.K.S. Iyengar. Everything was an adventure in consciousness to me, and I developed the habit at an early age of questioning everything, of looking beyond the obvious for Truth. It was during a time of deep questioning and apparent suffering that I discovered HER.
She is a beautiful, larger than life statue of Quan Yin (they spell it Guanyin at the Gallery), and she is known throughout the world as a Bodhisattva of compassion. As the story goes, she Awakened to the nature of the dream (became enlightened), that it is all Self. And so she vowed to never totally relinquish her form in the dream until all aspects of Self awaken. You can see a photograph of this particular statue of Quan Yin at: http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/CollectionDatabase_ImageView.cfm?id=597&theme=china
When I first saw her, I was speechless. Everything stopped. My mind dissolved, and I sat for what must have been hours with tears running down my face. Nothing in particular happened. I simply sat in complete surrender to the Love I felt in her presence.
Now, I know a statue is like everything else in the dream. Yet what she symbolized to me then, and what she continues to symbolize for me now, is Perfect Love and complete, total Joy. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "There are those who have reached God directly, retaining no trace of worldly limits and remembering their own identity perfectly. These might be called the Teachers of teachers, because although they are no longer visible, their image can yet be called upon. And they will appear when and where it is helpful for them to do so. No one can call on them in vain. Nor is there anyone of whom they are unaware. All needs are known to them, and all mistakes are recognized and overlooked by them. The time will come when this is understood." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers, 26, 2:1-7)
What this image has always symbolized for me is beyond words. And yet the closet I could come to describing it is a complete abandonment to Love, an absolutely exquisite, sweet surrender. There is an elegant composure and relaxation to her, that has nothing to do with control, and everything to do with being completely and utterly natural and free. Being completely at home, completely at One with it all. This sweet, sweet surrender to Love is why we're here, and is our true Freedom.
"Freedom is creation, because it is Love. Whom you seek to imprison you do not love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 8, Section IV, 8:2-3
Friday, February 27, 2009
Beauty and Truth
"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." -- Ode on a Grecian Urn; by John Keats
I made a commitment when I started this blog, to only post when guided to do so, only when inspiration moves me. So over a month has gone by since my last post, and I was beginning to think (as egos do) that maybe I'm not supposed to do this anymore, and that's O.K. And then this morning I heard the title for today's blog. That's how it happens. I hear the title, or a quote, and understand more truly each time how Idea and its fulfillment are One. Every idea is like a seed... it has its own blueprint built in. And when we allow it to unfold organically, it always reveals more of Truth.
Beauty is an aspect of God that is dear to us. But like Truth and Love, we have distorted and confused it with human notions and projections. As an aspect of God, Beauty is an eternal quality, not subject to form or to the comings and goings of illusory time. Beauty is a quality, not a form. And because it's an aspect of God, it's everywhere, and for all.
Our human concept of beauty is based (like all ego concepts) on the scarcity principle. In other words, if it were everywhere, it would be common, and therefore not beautiful or special. If everyone had money, then no one would be rich (or special). If everyone had (fill in the blank), then no one would be special. You can see a pattern here.
But I grew up in rural Missouri in this dream we call life. And I knew at an early age that Beauty is abundant, and everywhere. In the barn, in the chicken house, in the garden, in the cornfield, in the hammock, in the yard, in the kitchen, in the bathtub... my early life flowed with a harmony and beauty that radiated not from form, but from Being. It was only with great human effort that I was civilized (ha!) enough to see that I must surely lack something, and that something could only come by wanting what everyone else seemed to want... an education (ha!), boyfriends (ha!), recognition and fame for my 'special' talent (ha!), and lots and lots of money which would set me apart from everyone else. What a crock. But who was I to argue with the rest of my seeming world? And how was I to know (yet) that I had created all of it? I did not want to know that my own thoughts and feelings and beliefs about who I am seemed to create incarnation after incarnation, story after story, serial adventures where I was first victim and then victimizer... and all of them, all of them, based on the belief in separation from God, on scarcity and specialness.
All of that is obviously very entertaining, since it has kept my attention and allegiance for countless incarnations. And yet... here I am. And my memory of Truth and Beauty are as clear in my quiet moments now as they were in the beginning, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy." (The Bible; Job 38:7) It is obvious in moments of quiet Oneness that nothing has ever happened. Nothing has ever been more or less. Nothing has ever been less than Perfect and Beautiful.
Awareness of Beauty awakens us to the Truth and Love of God within the dream. The brushstrokes of Beauty have nothing to do with what is done, or who does them. The brushstrokes of Beauty are tangible Truth...reminders of Who We Are, as the Truth of Being is remembered. We can follow the brushstrokes back to remembrance... that Who We Are remains One with God, flawless and perfect, eternal and whole, harmonious and secure.
"This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the Truth. This small step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into Beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 17, Section II, 2:1-3, 6
I made a commitment when I started this blog, to only post when guided to do so, only when inspiration moves me. So over a month has gone by since my last post, and I was beginning to think (as egos do) that maybe I'm not supposed to do this anymore, and that's O.K. And then this morning I heard the title for today's blog. That's how it happens. I hear the title, or a quote, and understand more truly each time how Idea and its fulfillment are One. Every idea is like a seed... it has its own blueprint built in. And when we allow it to unfold organically, it always reveals more of Truth.
Beauty is an aspect of God that is dear to us. But like Truth and Love, we have distorted and confused it with human notions and projections. As an aspect of God, Beauty is an eternal quality, not subject to form or to the comings and goings of illusory time. Beauty is a quality, not a form. And because it's an aspect of God, it's everywhere, and for all.
Our human concept of beauty is based (like all ego concepts) on the scarcity principle. In other words, if it were everywhere, it would be common, and therefore not beautiful or special. If everyone had money, then no one would be rich (or special). If everyone had (fill in the blank), then no one would be special. You can see a pattern here.
But I grew up in rural Missouri in this dream we call life. And I knew at an early age that Beauty is abundant, and everywhere. In the barn, in the chicken house, in the garden, in the cornfield, in the hammock, in the yard, in the kitchen, in the bathtub... my early life flowed with a harmony and beauty that radiated not from form, but from Being. It was only with great human effort that I was civilized (ha!) enough to see that I must surely lack something, and that something could only come by wanting what everyone else seemed to want... an education (ha!), boyfriends (ha!), recognition and fame for my 'special' talent (ha!), and lots and lots of money which would set me apart from everyone else. What a crock. But who was I to argue with the rest of my seeming world? And how was I to know (yet) that I had created all of it? I did not want to know that my own thoughts and feelings and beliefs about who I am seemed to create incarnation after incarnation, story after story, serial adventures where I was first victim and then victimizer... and all of them, all of them, based on the belief in separation from God, on scarcity and specialness.
All of that is obviously very entertaining, since it has kept my attention and allegiance for countless incarnations. And yet... here I am. And my memory of Truth and Beauty are as clear in my quiet moments now as they were in the beginning, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy." (The Bible; Job 38:7) It is obvious in moments of quiet Oneness that nothing has ever happened. Nothing has ever been more or less. Nothing has ever been less than Perfect and Beautiful.
Awareness of Beauty awakens us to the Truth and Love of God within the dream. The brushstrokes of Beauty have nothing to do with what is done, or who does them. The brushstrokes of Beauty are tangible Truth...reminders of Who We Are, as the Truth of Being is remembered. We can follow the brushstrokes back to remembrance... that Who We Are remains One with God, flawless and perfect, eternal and whole, harmonious and secure.
"This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the Truth. This small step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into Beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 17, Section II, 2:1-3, 6
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Loving as God Loves
"We "love" another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for Love is incapable of asking for anything. Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder. It is, however, only at the level of the Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been lost. The "little I" seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions, and external "love." The Self That God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved, and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs, and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance." -- A Course in Miracles; Preface, xi-xii
Loving as God loves is the most natural thing in the world. One might even say it is the only real thing in the world. The projections and illusions that make loving seem difficult, that make love seem absent or scarce or limited in any way, are simply illusions. Only by forgiving our own illusions, by letting them go and ceasing to value them in any way, is the Omnipresence of Love remembered. By true forgiveness, the thinking of the world is reversed.
Loving as God loves is the remembering of perfect, all-inclusive equality. "Only one equal gift can be offered to the equal Sons of God, and that is full appreciation. Nothing more and nothing less." ACIM also reminds us that we cannot love what we do not appreciate.
Love and appreciation are not words, nor are they concepts. They are aspects of Truth, of God, of Reality. They are the qualities of Being that are always fully present, waiting to be consciously remembered. There is no judgement in love and appreciation, no comparison of this and that, no them and us, no that person and me. There is only perfect Oneness and conscious awareness of that Oneness, with God and all God's Ideas.
So whenever we find ourselves competitively comparing and contrasting, analyzing and explaining and justifying, it's a sure sign that we are caught again in the exclusive concepts of the egoic self, and we are not appreciating or loving what we have designated as 'other'. These subtle (sometimes not so subtle) mind games that weave the egoic illusion are always accompanied by discomfort of some kind. As our spiritual radar becomes more refined, we learn to recognize it, forgive it, and let it go. Only by this radical and constant forgiveness is the thinking of the illusory egoic world reversed.
Loving as God loves is effortless, and is our true Freedom. Loving is our true vocation, our only purpose, and our ultimate Joy.
"Open your mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the gift of God replace them all. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach Love's meaning to your clean and open mind." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 127, 8:2-4, 9:5
Loving as God loves is the most natural thing in the world. One might even say it is the only real thing in the world. The projections and illusions that make loving seem difficult, that make love seem absent or scarce or limited in any way, are simply illusions. Only by forgiving our own illusions, by letting them go and ceasing to value them in any way, is the Omnipresence of Love remembered. By true forgiveness, the thinking of the world is reversed.
Loving as God loves is the remembering of perfect, all-inclusive equality. "Only one equal gift can be offered to the equal Sons of God, and that is full appreciation. Nothing more and nothing less." ACIM also reminds us that we cannot love what we do not appreciate.
Love and appreciation are not words, nor are they concepts. They are aspects of Truth, of God, of Reality. They are the qualities of Being that are always fully present, waiting to be consciously remembered. There is no judgement in love and appreciation, no comparison of this and that, no them and us, no that person and me. There is only perfect Oneness and conscious awareness of that Oneness, with God and all God's Ideas.
So whenever we find ourselves competitively comparing and contrasting, analyzing and explaining and justifying, it's a sure sign that we are caught again in the exclusive concepts of the egoic self, and we are not appreciating or loving what we have designated as 'other'. These subtle (sometimes not so subtle) mind games that weave the egoic illusion are always accompanied by discomfort of some kind. As our spiritual radar becomes more refined, we learn to recognize it, forgive it, and let it go. Only by this radical and constant forgiveness is the thinking of the illusory egoic world reversed.
Loving as God loves is effortless, and is our true Freedom. Loving is our true vocation, our only purpose, and our ultimate Joy.
"Open your mind and rest. The world that seems to hold you prisoner can be escaped by anyone who does not hold it dear. Withdraw all value you have placed upon its meager offerings and senseless gifts, and let the gift of God replace them all. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach Love's meaning to your clean and open mind." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 127, 8:2-4, 9:5
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Breathless and Beautiful
There must be always remaining in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is
breathless and beautiful.
-- Howard Thurman
That which in itself is breathless and beautiful. In itself. Not because of someone or something. Not because of the sunset or the innocent baby. Not because of that certain person, place, or thing. Not because life is going the way we want it to. In itself.
What does it mean to experience being breathless and beautiful in ourselves? In moments of revelation, glimpses of our Oneness with God, the breath stops and there is complete joy and rest and beauty, whole and complete, breathless and beautiful beyond description. I love the very phrase 'breathless and beautiful,' because it reminds me that any holy instant I choose to be aware, I am at rest in God, the eternally breathless and beautiful. And what else is there?
"I rest in God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 109
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is
breathless and beautiful.
-- Howard Thurman
That which in itself is breathless and beautiful. In itself. Not because of someone or something. Not because of the sunset or the innocent baby. Not because of that certain person, place, or thing. Not because life is going the way we want it to. In itself.
What does it mean to experience being breathless and beautiful in ourselves? In moments of revelation, glimpses of our Oneness with God, the breath stops and there is complete joy and rest and beauty, whole and complete, breathless and beautiful beyond description. I love the very phrase 'breathless and beautiful,' because it reminds me that any holy instant I choose to be aware, I am at rest in God, the eternally breathless and beautiful. And what else is there?
"I rest in God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 109
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