Stories and Laws

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"Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set.  It is His laws that guarantee your safety.  All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4:1-3

"I am under no laws but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76

Every day seems to be an endless round of things to be done, people to please, and stories to tell and listen to.  Such are the laws of work, of friendship, of being a good person.  Such are the laws of survival of the body and its relative bodies, be they persons, animals, or structures.  We like to tell the story that we want more 'free' time to meditate, to read, to write, to listen to God.  Such are the laws of being spiritual, of being dedicated to a spiritual path, of being enlightened.  Such rubbish!  There are no laws but God's, and God's laws are unchanging and perfectly complete!  There is no need to search for what is effortlessly true. And there is no need to look for laws in the world, where there simply aren't any!  It's all made up!

Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering.  But he might have said  that the desire to tell stories about what binds us is the source of all suffering.  Because every imagined desire, every imagined problem, every imagined pleasure, every imagined encounter... all of it... has absolutely no substance and no power but the story we tell of it.  That's all there is to it.  And stories can be forgiven and dropped.  We can allow the laws of God to tell the true story of All that Is. In the unified vision of God (our true Eye), there is only Love, the story of Everything.

The conditioned mind is quick to defend its stories.  There is an existential fear of having nothing to say and nothing to do, of being nothing.  The irony is that as the stories are forgiven and relinquished, we experience the expanded Awareness of Self, our true Being, which has always been and will eternally be all there Is.  And the only laws in this expansive, eternal Life we share are laws of Love, Joy, Abundance, Peace, and Ever-New Joy.

When we forgive and cease believing our own stories, with new-born senses we see and hear a new story of Everything: "No matter how this appears, this is Good.  No matter what story you have been told, there is only Love in you and around you and AS you.  No matter what laws you think you must obey, you are always in the arms of Love, and need only follow Love's promptings."  As we listen to the Truth that Divine Love whispers to us, the old stories and fears fall away, and the world is reborn in our experience.  This isn't a fictional story.  This is experiential Truth.  Beyond all stories and earthly laws, the Truth of Being remains and longs to remind us that we are under no laws but God's.

"God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76, 9:6

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

The Kingdom of Joy

Pure joy.  Pure ecstasy.  Pure goodness.  Pure being without an object or an opposite.  This is Who We Are.  But we are so intent on change and changing that we ignore the bliss of what is always effortlessly present.  We are so intent on trying to get what we think we don't have that we ignore the Wholeness of Being that has never lacked anything.  The Holy Instant when we make this re-discovery is not in the future.  It's not something we experienced before and want to have again.  The Kingdom of Joy is now, and is only experienced NOW.

In India they call the constant seeking of the conditioned mind Samsara, which translates roughly to the wheel of suffering.  Although we know our seeking has never brought us happiness, we continue to seek, continue to 'believe' that we will find what we want.  When Jesus said to seek and ye shall find, he didn't say what you'd find.  He simply urged us to continue to seek until we discover the Kingdom of Joy that is always here, and is always our reality. Because we have raised beliefs to cover the face of what IS, we will continue to compulsively seek until we let go of all beliefs.  Beliefs are conceptual getting mechanisms, tools of the ego.  Not one of them is true.

It's funny how angry and puffed up our minds can get when we don't find what we think we want.  The smokescreen of anger is the hardest smokescreen to see through.  It's hard to accept that our compulsive anger is simply the fear of the Love and Joy that we really are.  Somehow the belief that personal limits and rules and beliefs define me and keep me safe has seemed to obscure the Joy of my limitless Reality.  Somehow my compulsive habits of thought and rituals of body and mind have become my gods, the idols I pretend will give me what I want.  How silly of me.

Thankfully the Kingdom of Joy remains ever-present, untouched by my imaginings.  Joy and Love surround and enfold the entirety of the Kingdom, and Its Being has no end.  Ever-new Joy, continually expanding Bliss and Love, and a Peace so profound and all-encompassing it cannot be conceived by the conditioned mind.  All conditioning has to be laid aside, like last years toys.  All beliefs, all concepts, all wanting can be simply and lovingly released and seen to be nothing. The thought of something can be released, so I can again remember the Everything that I Am.

This New Years Day my prayer is simply the complete release of all the 'somethings' that appear to lurk in consciousness, like the clutter in the kitchen that needs to be cleared before the feast is prepared.  The Feast is the fullness of the Kingdom of Joy.

This World of Light

"This world of Light, this circle of brightness is the real world, where guilt meets with forgiveness.  Here the world outside is seen anew, without the shadow of guilt upon it.  Here are you forgiven, for here you have forgiven everyone.  Here is the new perception, where everything is bright and shining with innocence, washed in the waters of forgiveness, and cleansed of every evil thought you laid upon it.  Here is your innocence waiting to clothe you and protect you, and make you ready for the final step in the journey inward.  Here are the dark and heavy garments of guilt laid by, and gently replaced by purity and love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section IX, 9:1-7

"Freedom must be impossible as long as you perceive a body as yourself.  The body is a limit.  Who would seek for freedom in a body looks for it where it can not be found.  The mind that serves the Holy Spirit is unlimited forever, in all ways, beyond the laws of time and space, unbound by any preconceptions, and with strength and power to do whatever is asked... It has been given to the Source of Love... It rests in God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 199

Love, Light, Limitless Awareness... all of these are words, symbols twice removed, that have been used to describe the experience of our unified Self, the Field of Light and Love and Intelligent Awareness that is called God.  The Christ is the Light of this Awareness, and the Holy Spirit is Its Voice.  But it is the Christ Light that we speak of here.

This Light is the only Body we have.  It is formless, but includes everything.  It has no boundaries or limits, and is the only Reality behind every appearance in the world of projection.  It is the only Reality wherever we appear to be, wherever we appear to go, whatever we appear to do.  It is the only Reality of ALL, because it is literally ALL.  There is no other Cause, and no other Effect. 

The Christ Light is our only Mind.  It's not a physical light, since all seeming physicality is ephemeral projection.  This Light is pure Awareness, boundless Love, and limitless Mind.  It is Mind Awake.

A Course in Miracles repeatedly reminds us that "I am not a body.  I am free." (Workbook Lesson 199) And what in the collective delusion we call form is ever free?  The illusion of time seems to hold everything in form in bondage, as does the very nature of everything that comes and goes.  The fixation of the so-called egoic mind cannot even conceive of Freedom.  It is always trying to be free from.  Awakening occurs when the fixation loosens through constant forgiveness and release, when the mind opens and finds no boundaries at all.  True Freedom is not subject/object.  True Freedom is One, and is limitless and boundless, without a beginning and without an end.  It shines, and shines forever.  It is the Real World of endless Light and Love.

"This world of Light, this circle of brightness is the REAL WORLD."  Yes, where guilt meets with forgiveness all seeming boundaries and limits are released, and our eternal, unified nature of pure Innocence and Freedom is remembered.

"You are God's Son.  In Immortality you live forever.  Would you not return your mind to this?" -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 199, 8:1-3

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

Begin Again

"Routines as such are dangerous, because they easily becom gods in their own right, threatening the very goals for which they were set up.  Broadly speaking it can be said that it is well to start the day right [i.e., giving the day to God].  But it is ALWAYS possible to begin again, should the day begin with error." [emphasis mine] -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 2:5-7

We're pretty hard on ourselves.  We set unrealistic expectations for our bodies and our minds, all of which are based on goals and actions out there, with the world as we imagine it.  The problem is, they're unrealistic because they're not true, not because we didn't do it right.  Even the goals and actions we seem to acheive or approve of will disappoint sooner or later, because they're based on the false gods referenced in the above quote... earthly rituals to the gods of diet, relationships, pleasure, or finance.  But we can begin again.  Any instant. 

One way we remain in bondage to egoic pursuit is the lie that it's not possible to begin again, so we might as well make the best of what we've got.  We'd better make this body work well, because we won't get another one.  We'd better subsume ourselves to this dysfunctional relationship or we'll be alone.  We'd better be frugal and only spend on necessities for ourselves, because the economy shows no mercy.  It's every man (or woman) for themselves.

How might this perspective soften and change if we felt innocent?  If we knew that every holy instant we are born anew?  If we really stopped for an instant... really allowed the Real to shine from everyone and everything?  If we stopped writing the script of unrealistic and false expectations?  All we're giving up is the illusion of protecting illusions about ourselves and the world we think we see.

I've come to realize that the only task I have before me every day, no matter what it looks like, is to let go of everything I think I know, to let the Real shine through every appearance.  In the words of Mary Baker Eddy: "... depart from the material sense, into the spiritual sense of Being."  A Course in Miracles calls this process 'forgiveness', the shedding of the false self.  What does that mean?  It means letting go of the evidence of the thinking mind, the evidence of the physical senses, and being fully present and aware NOW.  In the midst of that awareness is our true knowing, our Spiritual Self.  Everything that seems to be happening out there is actually a play of consciousness within the One Mind, the Self, the Allness of what we sometimes call God.  Fully present awareness, without condition, is key.

So we begin again, every holy instant, by forgiving, by releasing, by letting go of every routine and conditioned response, every bit of sensory data.  What remains is pure Awareness, and the Grace of our true Self. 

Truth

"Truth is a savior and can only will for happiness and peace for everyone.  It gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply.  It sees that lack in anyone would be a lack in all.  And so it gives its light that all may see and benefit as one." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 92, 5:3-6

"And you shall know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free." -- The Bible; John 8:32

What is Truth?  John Keats waxed poetic on this subject while pondering things that come and go... his "Ode on a Grecian Urn" faces his own mortality in the frozen images on an ancient vessel, and in his poetic way he discovered that the ideas and images embedded in the ancient urn are exactly like the images in any given life, the faces and bodies and scenery and relationships.  What is true about any of them?  Keats put it this way, as if the urn itself were speaking: "Beauty is truth, truth beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."  Keats was spiraling upward in his quest for Truth.  He saw that is exists not in the physical, but in the silent spiritual.  He saw that Beauty and Truth are synonyms for the One, and are not dependent on the physical or the form of things that come and go, but that everything reflects Beauty and Truth when it is truly seen, beyond form.

Jesus said we can and will know the Truth.  He said it is our very freedom.  The Bible, A Course in Miracles, Buddhism, Vedanta... they all use the word Truth as a synonym for enlightenment and our Real Being.  Some use the word God, others Self or Atman, but the meaning is One.

A Course in Miracles puts it very bluntly: "The Truth is true, and nothing else is true."  In this world where all truth seems relative, such a statement can seem as cryptic as a zen koan.  But let's look at mathematics.  No matter how you turn it, 2+2 will always and forever equal 4.  It is an unchanging truth, a mathematical principle.  In the same way, the Truth of Being underlies everything that seems to appear and seems to disappear.  It is the unconditioned awareness of Self, an all-inclusive awareness that is always here, always available, and is the very ground of Being.  It is the Source and the Substance of all that is.

So why bother even talking about such things?  We know 2+2 equals 4, but we don't think about it when we're picking out 4 apples or oranges at the store.  Talking about Truth is just philosophy, impractical and not grounded in 'real' life. 

Well, our daily life isn't always as benign as picking out a few apples.  Its very impermanence drives us inward, seeking to understand and to know, and this is a gift.  All struggles and challenges are really our best friends, because they move us beyond the complacency of everyday comforts to the inner awareness that is the Truth of Being.  This awakening to Self, to the Oneness of God, is our only purpose for being here.  This is the Truth that sets us free.

"Salvation is the recognition that the Truth is true, and nothing else is true.  Truth cannot have an opposite.  As God created you, you remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false.  And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response.  This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from seeming falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152

Hoarding

"Hoarding: Amassing money or valued objects and hiding or storing it away, typically in a carefully guarded way." -- The New Oxford American Dictionary

"Hoarding: Gathering things together in the external. This is a vain effort to avert an imagined lack or shortage in the future." -- from The Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:19-21

I didn't particularly want to write about this topic today.  It sort of chose me, as the topic of hoarding has been in my face lately, and there are no accidents in consciousness.  So I am looking more closely at the literal and metaphysical teaching here, because I know it's always pointing me to what is True.

As many of you know, I run an animal sanctuary on my farm.  I'm very careful not to take more animals than I can care for, and I've largely outgrown the notion that it's my job to save all the creatures of the world.  So I don't have the hoarding mentality of some animal rescue workers.  But recently a no-kill shelter nearby was shut down and all the animals taken because they developed a hoarding mentality... in other words, they kept taking animals even when they had no room for them.  They thought that saving their bodies meant something.  And I used to feel that it was about saving bodies, too.  

Now, I do stop for every turtle I see on the road.  And if I see an animal in need, I do my very best to find help for it.  If someone calls me with an animal that has been abandoned or abused and I don't have room, I help them find someone who does.  But the caring for these beautiful creatures has taught me that bodies don't mean so much... they come and go.  But the spirit, the divine idea of each creature is so perfect and permanent.  The divine idea of every animal that's ever lived or died here remains, in all its perfection.  Their being is my being.  Their spirit nurtures and teaches my spirit.  We are quite literally One.  I've come to realize that real Sanctuary is of and for the Spirit.  It can't be lost, nor can it ever be lacking.

Hoarding shows up in so many ways.  We are a culture of hoarders.  Our medical communities hoard bodies... keeping a body alive becomes more important than the Reality of Being, the Spirit that is the essence of each person.  It's easy to see this kind of hoarding in nursing homes and hospitals.  

Our financial communities hoard money, of course.  But not just money.  What is hoarded is the destructive idea of competition and winning, of having or being more because of what is accumulated.  Again, the form of hoarding is pretty secondary... it's the thought that I am more, or validated, or better because I've collected some paper or metal or some iou's.  We're like a culture of little children playing a really bad game of Monopoly.  And our sports and media cultures hoard everything from celebrity to information.

Even those of us without much money manage to hoard.  We may hoard friends or relationships, memorabilia from our families, old photographs, old books or writing or ideas that we think we might want to look at 'later.' We may hoard old musical instruments or guns or tea cups or anything in the name of 'collecting.'  I've seen street people with shopping carts full of hoarded junk that they think they might need sometime.  And those of us with clutter have to acknowledge that clutter is a form of hoarding.  If we're not hanging on to the clutter for some reason, why haven't we cleaned it up?  What is it for?  What is any of it for?

A Course in Miracles says that 'more' is the motto of the human ego... and that it doesn't even matter more of what.  Hoarding is the nature of the self that thinks it is a body.  And I've come to discover that the worst form of hoarding is the hoarding of concepts, because we don't see ourselves doing it.  We tell the same stories, using the same concepts of self, over and over and over... and these concepts we hoard are always false ideas about a self that's in a body.  We're carefully taught these stories, these concepts, by parents and teachers and media.  But we're willing slaves to this hoarding... we eagerly accumlate the false sense of identity it gives us, even when that identity is tied to a seemingly miserable or flawed self.  We hoard these false self-concepts because we think it's who and what we are, and that we would somehow be lacking existence and life without them.  That this fear is largely unconscious makes it the most insidious form of hoarding.

So by now we've all reached the same conclusion... that simply living in this world means we're hoarders.  We're all trying to accumlate a sense of self that is safe, healthy, financially sound, and autonomous... and in our efforting, we'll settle for a self that is fairly safe, sort of healthy, getting by financially, and isolated from other scary people.  It's this very efforting that Jesus referred to in the above quote from Matthew.  It's this very efforting that hides the Presence of the Kingdom from our Awareness, right here and right now.

A safe and autonomous self can never be.  Only bodies appear separate, and we are not our bodies.  Where would a separate self be, in Oneness?  Nothing and nowhere.  But our Self, our infinitely unique and varied Self, is always safe and whole and uniquely expressing, in and as each of us.  We are Spirit, and we are One, and we are individually unique and precious in this Oneness.  Animals can be animals and still be One with me.  You can be uniquely you and still be my Self.  I can let go of literally everyone and everything and still be One with it All.  Nothing is lost or lacking in Oneness, ever.  This is the nature of our God-Self, and of the Kingdom.  And this awareness is the end of hoarding, and the beginning of our Real Life in and as Spirit.  

"Take no thought, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?'  But seek ye first the Kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you." -- Matthew 6:31-33

In Our Own Image

"No one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 68, 1:7

I have been practicing self-inquiry as taught by A Course in Miracles for a long time now.  It's a version of self-inquiry very similar to "Who am I,"the form given by such advaita masters as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj.  The drill goes that as you examine your body, you realize that if you're looking at it, it's not 'I' but a projected image.  The 'I' is actually what is looking and witnessing.  As you look at the senses and their subject/object relationship with the world, you realize the senses are not 'I'.  As you look at your thinking mind, you realize that there is some 'I' looking even at the thoughts that come and go.  And so you gradually refocus the mind to Source, the 'I Am' at the heart of all Being.  As A Course in Miracles teaches it, you reverse the process of projection to return to Self with a capital 'S.'   This Self is All-Inclusiveness, a Oneness or Singularity without an object.

This is a very effective tool for those who really want to remember who they are.  But for most of us, the desire and self-discipline is pretty much lacking.  We can't focus for any length of time on who is looking because we're too distracted by what we're looking at... and that is because we don't really want to know.  We're enamored of our own images... and why wouldn't we be?  We projected them... they're our babies, and we're attached to our own images and thought-forms.  And so we pretend they're real.  As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "Projection will always hurt you.  It reinforces your belief in your own split mind." (ACIM; Chapter 6, Section II, 3:1-2)  Our imagined separateness seems to defend and protect that separateness by forgetting, and by projecting outward the images of the sleeping mind.

The real problem, though, is also the good news.  Because our sleeping minds are constantly projecting, the projected world appears as divided as our minds.  We can have lovely dreams, but we also will have nightmares.  The experience of one guarantees the experience of the other.  Or you could say that suffering is implicit in pleasure, and pleasure is implicit in suffering.  And how is this good news, you may well ask?  Because the unstable nature of our projections sooner or later drives us to self-inquiry.  Sooner or later our undisciplined minds seek meaning beyond the appearance of our own projections. 

The real Truth is that the projected world is a collection of thought-forms in our own image.  We project who we think we are, divided into a cast of thousands.  The quote I used at the beginning of this blog points out that for the mind asleep, even our conception of Source is projected and experienced in our own image.  This is why the God of Christianity and Islam is so often seen as violent, judgmental, vindictive, etc.  It's not our Source that we're seeing, but our own sleeping minds.

The even better news is that our actual Source is not the sleeping mind, but Mind Awake.  This Mind is One, All-Inclusive, All-in-All.  As the Tao te Ching puts it:  "There is a Being, All Inclusive, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment.  I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way, and I rejoice in Its Presence."  Source doesn't project... it IS.  The refocusing of the mind through self-inquiry returns us to this primal Awareness.  And this Awareness then is reflected in the seeming individual mind as Self, a Oneness that is reflected in the projected world as unified vision and experience.  In this Awareness of Self there is only Perfection, only Love, and a Joyous Peace that includes everything.  

So whose image am I projecting?  As long as we live in this dream world, we will always be projecting a world and its imagined source in our own image.  So the real question is: Who am I?

"The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world.  And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself.  Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts [images].  The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them.  There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are.  It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns, unhindered and unbound.  Where concepts of the self have been laid by is Truth revealed exactly as it IS." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1-3, 17:1-4

Enlightenment

"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.  No one can call upon them in vain." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 26. 2:1-2, 5

"Sometimes a teacher of God may have a brief experience of direct union with God.  In this world, it is almost impossible that this endure.  If God were reached directly in sustained awareness, the body would not be long maintained.  Those who have laid the body down merely to extend their helpfulness to those remaining behind are few indeed.  And they need helpers who are still in bondage and still asleep, so that by their awakening can God's Voice be heard." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 26. 3:1-2, 8-10

Yesterday a friend and I were talking about enlightenment... about the tendency to look for teachers, gurus, for someone who gets it and knows more than we do.  Maybe even someone whose state of consciousness can be directly transmitted to us, like taking a pill, or being given all the answers.

I remember in the late 60's and early 70's when I was reading Alan Watts and experimenting with hallucinogens to experience God.  I had some amazing openings, and it did indeed change my life.  I experienced enlightenment more times than I can say.  And yet it seemed that I couldn't stay there.  Taking a pill can give us a glimpse.  Being in the presence of an enlightened teacher can give us a glimpse.  But it's not a glimpse of something we have to attain or somewhere we have to go.  It's a glimpse of our True Self... always here and always readily available.

So why do I say I couldn't stay there?  Why after we leave the retreat do we fall back into old ways of seeing and believing?  Because an awareness of Self requires the conscious relinquishment of perception and sensory data.  Taking a pill or being in a holy place can give us a glimpse of what is always here... but we can only see it by giving up the false.  This is why the Course says that these glimpses are almost impossible to maintain here in the dream we call life.  The sensory data and the collective beliefs are seen as necessary and even good (really, they're neither good nor bad... just all made up).  The conscious choice, which must be continuous, to shed all such judgments and perceptions... well, as Jesus would have put it, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  Not because it's hard... illusions aren't easy or hard, big or little... but because we have a vested interest in the world we walk in.  It's our dream.  As ACIM puts it: "I have done this, and this I would undo."

So here we are.  We can call on the image of our enlightened Self, in the form of Jesus or Buddha or Quan Yin or a host of others.  These images will always respond, because they are not anywhere but in us.  They are the Voice and image of Self in a language we can currently hear and respond to.  This is not the same as looking outside of ourself, to pills or physical gurus, to save us.  The images of Self we find within, like the Voice of the Holy Spirit, ARE Self.  A Self so vast and loving and perfect that tears of joy and gratitude are often shed as we remember, however briefly.

Finally, the Course reminds us: "Do not despair, then, because of limitations.  It is your function to escape from them, but not to be without them.  If you would be heard by those who suffer, you must speak their language.  If you would be a savior, you must understand what needs to be escaped." 

Enlightenment, the remembering of Self, requires the conscious shedding of the false self we have constructed.  This is the interlocking chain of forgiveness that A Course in Miracles calls the Atonement Principle.  Perfection and Radiance is the Truth at the heart of it all.  Everything else is only for forgiving. 

Take Joy in It!

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.  It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace; a thought of timeless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 6:1-2

What brings you joy?  Nothing and no one.  Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything.  Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go.  Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.

The freedom this brings us is limitless.  We're here to take joy in it!  Whatever it is!  We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.

It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality.  How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God?  Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience.  As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE."  Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation.  Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite.  We don't have to play it safe.  We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are. 

This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self.  Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life.  Take Joy in it! 

The Awareness of Being One

"All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"Heaven is not a place nor a condition.  It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6

I love the way Life continually presents us with opportunities to see Truth everywhere.  Truth being, of course, simply another name for Oneness.  Discovering that Good is the Reality of this Oneness, no matter how it appears, is so flipping exciting I have a hard time writing about it coherently.  After all, we've all heard this a million times:  "It's all good," we say hopefully... all the while noticing how not good it appears to be.  

The above quote from ACIM helps... there is nothing outside Oneness, and nothing else within.  How could there be?  So with only the One, there is only, well... the One!  All Good, only Good... in Principle and in manifestation.

The thing is, this all sounds good, but I see riots in Egypt and people going hungry and pets being mistreated, etc., etc., etc.  I see my bills mounting and donations falling short.  I see people judging one another and arguing over things that don't matter.  So how does Oneness even matter, in Principle or in manifestation? 

Again, A Course in Miracles helps to discern the false from the True: "Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  And what I look on is my state of mind reflected outward." (ACIM Workbook 304, 1:3-4)  Obviously, when the mind is unaware of Oneness, it projects duality in person, place, and thing.  The awareness of Oneness is the Principle that reflects the wholeness and perfection that is Reality.  The awareness of Oneness reflects the All-Good in all ways.

I have experienced, and continue to experience, many miracles of healed perception.  Always what occurs is that I have, at least momentarily, accepted the One Mind as All.  This is the healing... and the healed mind reflects wholeness, abundance, and endless Good in all possible forms.  As I mature spiritually, it becomes more and more comforting to rest in the awareness of Being One, which is the miracle for everyone and everything, in every situation.  There is nothing else.  The seemingly hidden Presence of Good awaits only our recognition.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him [Biblical speak for the One] and He shall direct thy paths." -- Proverbs 3:6

Waiting for God

"I have no cause for anger or fear, for You surround me.  And in every need that I perceive, Your Grace suffices me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 348

We're conditioned from an early age to listen to our parents, our teachers, our friends, our church... in other words, we look to the outer world for information, direction, and validation.  Learning to listen within and wait for God's appointments and direction seems counter intuitive, and even crazy.  Interesting defense, isn't it?  The ego (the fictional aggregate of mental constructs we call a self, imagining we're separate from God and each other) is the very definition of insanity... a delusional defense against the whole.  So it calls what is true, false, and insists that the unreal has substance and validity.  That's how projection works.  It's also the justification for fear and anger and all the insanity the ego insists is real.

Only take a moment to consider rationally... God, the very Ground of Being, is everywhere... pure and eternal Life and Love without form or condition.  We live and move and have our Being in God.  So how could we look anywhere other than God for what is essential and true?  How could we look anywhere other than God for Who We Are?  There is nowhere else.  There's nothing out there but projected ideas based on a mistake... the mistake that somehow walling ourselves off from the whole will give us what we want and keep us safe.  And when has that ever been the truth?  Safe from what?  What else is there but God, the All in All? 

Waiting for God doesn't involve the future... it involves a present willingness to be still, to listen each holy instant in unceasing mindfulness.  This doesn't involve effort or struggle or even a technique or practice.  Once the willingness is given by the mind, the beauty of our true Self takes over.  Stillness, one-pointedness, awakened awareness, pure joy and unshakable peace... these are all attributes we find to be our own, as natural as breathing.  More so. 

Waiting for God means we're willing to release the false and embrace the True.  And we at last remember the Grace that enfolds and surrounds us and suffices us in all things. 

All in All

"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3

Last night I was lifting my thought to God before sleep.  As I remembered that God is All, thought followed thought.  If God is All, then there is no such thing as someone in need of healing or supply... God IS the need and the healing and supply.  If God is All, then there is no such thing as me and God... God IS the life and being that I think of as me.  If God is All, then there is no such thing as other people, no such thing as strangers... God IS the life and being of all that is.  God is All in All.

My daily fragmented thinking can barely conceive of such Wholeness.  I think in separate terms, separate forms, and particular details.  My real Self, my God-Self, sees All as Self, All with One meaning... Love and Wholeness, Innocence and Holiness, Truth and Beauty and endless Perfection... these are One and the same, All in All.

When people call with pressing illness or other urgent needs, I have learned to relax into this Allness, and allow It to tell me what is true.  Regardless of circumstance or appearance, God is the correction, fulfillment, healing, and supply... God is the real Life and Being of everyone and everything.  God is All in All.

"The Will of God is One, and all there is." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 20, 6:9

The Illusion of Time

"Each day should be devoted to miracles.  The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively.  It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end.  Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 15:2-4

"Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which is the ego's domain, accepts it without question.  The only aspect of time that is eternal [real] is now." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section III, 6:4-5

The illusion of time seems to be the thickest veil we project across reality, to obscure the eternal.  We may question a lot of the world's thinking, but my kids still appeared to grow up, my hair still appeared to turn white, and the seasons still appear to come and go... along with these bodies we seem to live in.  We still seem to have deadlines and appointments to keep.  How can we say this is not real, when our very lives appear to be slaves to time and its seeming power over us? 

This morning I had a very interesting learning experience.  I thought I had somewhere that I had committed to be, and it involved getting up very early (5 a.m.) and taking care of all the animals here at the Sanctuary so that I could leave the house by 7 a.m.  No problem, usually.  But this morning I woke up and felt like I shouldn't go.  I prayed about it... in other words, I forgave and released my belief in time and the part of me that didn't want to go... but still couldn't get a clear 'go' or 'don't go'.  I knew that in reality it didn't matter what I do... it matters only what the whole situation symbolizes, since that's all it really is.  So I gave it to the Holy Spirit, my true Self, and forgave the whole notion of time and space and went back to bed.

When I woke up, two interesting things happened.  One, I checked my e-mail and discovered that I 'miraculously' wasn't supposed to be there today, even though I clearly had it down in my calendar!  And second, the wind had blown the barnyard gate off its latches... but only one horse was out, and she came right back in when I went out to feed them... no chasing involved.  Now all of the horses could have run... but they didn't.  And I could have driven to St. Louis and not been there when the gate blew off, and all the horses could have run off and been who knows where when I got home this evening.  But I was here.  So all I said was, "Thank you, Holy Spirit."  

Now I don't think it matters at all whether it's about appointments or horses.  They are symbols in the dream, and what they stand for in my dream is the awakening of the Son of God.  By releasing it all to the Holy Spirit, by making no decisions by my egoic self, the meaning of all of it is changed.  Now they are learning symbols, pointing to the timeless and eternal, the unchanging and Real.  "Thank you, Holy Spirit, that only God is the meaning of everything."  And God is everywhere, everything, always, and forever... wholeness, fulfillment, joy, love, and peace, this very now.

Jeshua ben Joseph gave us many ways to see past the illusion of time and impermanence.  He said, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." (The Bible; Matthew 18:3)  The complete dependence of a child, without any thought of yesterday or tomorrow.  They simply know that they are loved and cared for NOW.

A Course in Miracles tells us that, "Except ye become as little children" means that unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father.  The specialness of God's Sons does not stem from exclusion, but from inclusion." (A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section V, 3:4-5)

We live and move and have our Being in God, and live as currents of thought and Being within the Mind of God.  This Being is eternal and infinite and ALL, as God Is.  Our Being is not exclusive, but inclusive of the entire Kingdom that is the Mind of God.  The Sons of God are ONE, and without limit... whether appearing as horses, gates, or people.  And the illusion of time has no meaning or power or reality in the Infinity of God.

"You cannot understand yourself alone.  This is because you have no meaning apart from your rightful place in the Sonship, and the rightful place of the Sonship is God.  This is your life, your eternity, and your Self.  It is of this that the Holy Spirit [always] reminds you.  It is this that the Holy Spirit [always] sees." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section III, 8:1-5

Never Alone

"This world is but the dream that you can be alone, and think without affecting those apart from you.  To be alone must mean you are apart.  It is like the house set upon straw.  It seems to be quite solid and substantial in itself.  Yet its stability cannot be judged apart from its foundation.  If it rests on straw, there is no need to bar the door and lock the windows and make fast the bolts.  The wind will topple it, and rain will come and carry it into oblivion.  What can be safe that rests upon a shadow?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section VII, 5:2-3, 7-11, 6:3

It's interesting that the above passage from A Course in Miracles points to the concept of aloneness as a house built on straw.  The idea of being alone is the belief that all things are separate, because we imagine ourselves to be separate from our Source.  This tiny false idea is the basis of a whole world of prodigal sons, trying to make their way home to what they never left.

On the other hand, ACIM reminds us that a solid foundation is based on our relationship with every living thing, for as we acknowledge the innocence and perfection of our brothers and sisters, we remember our own.  "Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him.  The winds will blow upon it and the rain will beat against it, but with no effect.  The world will wash away, and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone.  It is an ark of safety, resting on God's promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself."  Not alone. 

We can no more be separate from the rest of life than we could ever be separated from our Source, from God.  We are literally reflections of the Light shining in God's Mind, and have no being or will or qualities apart from God.  We are God in expression, innocent and free as God created us... all of us together.  This Principle of Oneness is the Ground of Being... our Home built upon the unshakable foundation of Truth.  For we are One with God and with each other.  And we are never alone.

"There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent.  There is nothing to be feared.  There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His.  God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing.  For there is no lack in him." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section I, 1:1-3, and Chapter 28, Section VII, 1:1-2

See and Be Radiant

"Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, and the wealth of the nations shall come to you." -- The Bible; Isaiah 60:5

"Miracles are seen in Light.  It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together.  The miracle is always here.  Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see.  It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected.  You will see them in the Light; you will not see them in the dark." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 91:1:1, 4-7

I had a really bad dream the other night.  It was so real, and so scary, and I felt so awful when I woke up.  I was so discouraged that I could hardly drag myself out of bed.  When I took a few moments to go within and examine my feelings, I realized that my emotional reaction was based on old (unsubstantiated) judgements that it was wrong to have such bad dreams... that I caused them somehow by not being spiritual enough, by not keeping my mind and heart stayed on God enough.  In other words, if I was good enough, my dreams would be good.  Isn't that the basis of all 'positive' thinking, too?  And of all the endless attempts to manipulate the dream, to make it better, to 'attract' something we think we want?  This all takes place in the dream.  It's all made up!

I finally noticed that I was making the dream something.  I was giving it a reality and meaning in my mind.  And it wasn't even really there!  All of that reaction and emotional turmoil over fiction!  Just like the first time I saw ET with my children, years ago when they were still little.  My daughter Joan and I couldn't stop crying after it was over... the pain of that image of being separated from what we love was overwhelming.  But it wasn't even really happening!  All of that suffering over fiction!

There's a pattern here that you may recognize.  We dream our dreams, both at night and in our daytime projections... and then we judge and categorize and attribute qualities to this nothingness.  We may be temporarily pleased or we may temporarily suffer, but either way we live as if these dreams are life.  And they are actually not... they are nothing, zero, like the dreams we have at night.  And we dream endlessly... because we cannot see the Truth, and the miracles that symbolize the Truth in the dream, without Light.  We are dreaming in the darkness of conditioned mind, the imagined mind of the mortal self who thinks it is weak and vulnerable and transient.  And all the while, in the darkness of conditioned, reactive mind, we suffer over fiction! 

God, our True Self, is All-in-All, and All Good, All Power, All Love, All Life.  No bad dream has ever changed the Reality of this Truth.  The miracle, the vision of Truth reflected in the dream, awaits our Light.  It is the Light of our own Awareness we bring... the forgiveness of the dream (it's a fiction!) and the acceptance that we are the Light of God here in the dream.  As we shine our awareness on the world, awake and aware of what is true, the miracle of the happy dream, which reflects the Goodness and Love of God, is revealed.  Then we really shall see and be radiant! 

"What you think you are is a belief to be undone.  What you really are must be revealed." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 91:6:7-8

Spiritual Paranoia

"Once you understand it is impossible that you be hurt except by your own thoughts, the fear of God must disappear.  You cannot then believe that fear is caused without [from outside your own mind]. And God, Whom you had thought to banish, can be welcomed back within the holy mind He never left." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 196, 8:3-5

Welcoming God back into the holy mind He[She] never left??  God is in my mind, and has always been????!!!!!????  These are very frightening thoughts to all of us.  For we find so much objectionable in our minds and thoughts... things we would never want anyone else to know about, much less God!  What is God, some kind of spirit lurking in the recesses of our minds, attempting to overtake us?  If God is IN our minds, then what is this other stuff???  And how can it be there if God is All, and everywhere and everything???

These thoughts, or something like them, arise in all our minds when we get too close to the Truth.  Our spiritual paranoia is such that we would rather die as weak and sinful mortals than acknowledge the grandeur of our true Being in God, as reflections and extensions of the Infinite.  We would rather live with the illusion that we are at the mercy of the world around us, that we are powerless and subject to all the laws the world evangelizes:  the laws of health, of diet, of economics, of 'nice' relationships and people, of judgment and punishment and guilt, of cause and effect as the material laws proclaim them.  As ACIM puts it, "The thing you dread the most is your salvation.  You have sought to be both weak and bound, because you feared your own strength and freedom.  Yet salvation lies in them." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 196, 9:4 & 7-8

This can be quite terrifying.  "When you realize once and for all that it is you that you fear, the mind perceives itself as split."  Both bondage and salvation, both in my own mind!  Yikes, what hope is there, then?  Won't it always be just this war of the worlds????

If we want to know the Truth enough to come this far, then it is easy to see the certainty of outcome.  The very nature of mental constructs and thought forms is that they are illusory... not real.  They are phantasms of the mind, as all fear is.  What is real is eternal and formless, and resides in the Mind of God, which extends ItSelf to all that Is, eternally whole and loving and calm, strong and free, infinite in Truth and in Being.  We are One with this Mind, and so sanity and Truth are in us, and we are always free to return to this Awareness of Self.  Or we can continue to make up scary stories and pretend to be bound by them.

So remember, when we find ourselves in the grip of such spiritual paranoia, it is a very good sign.  It means we are very close to reclaiming our power... to realizing that we are the terrorist, and the healer. 

"This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain, and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you.  Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:
          I am responsible for what I see.
          I choose the feelings I experience,
         And I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
         And everything that seems to happen to me, I ask for,
         And receive as I have asked.
Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you.  Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all effects of your mistakes will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 2:1-7

Everything and Nothing

"We thank our Father for one thing alone; that we are separate from no living thing, and therefore One with Him.  And we rejoice that no exceptions ever can be made which would reduce our wholeness, nor impair or change our function to complete the One Who is HimSelf completion.  We give thanks for every living thing, for otherwise we offer thanks for nothing, and we fail to recognize the gifts of God to us.  We have been given everything.  If we refuse to recognize it, we are not entitled therefore to our bitterness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 195, 6:1-3 & 9:2-3

"Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself.  Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, or every thought it judges worthy, and all ideas of which it is ashamed.  Hold onto nothing.  Do not bring with you one thought the past has taught, nor one belief you ever learned before from anything.  Forget this world, forget this Course, and come with wholly empty hands unto your God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 189, 7:1-5

I highlighted passages from the above quotes to make a point.  We have been given everything, literally... as Beings who live and move and have our Being in Oneness with the Infinite, everything is ours.  But to return to an awareness of the Everything that IS, we have to let go of the nothing that ISN'T. 

The easiest way to come to this awareness is to just be still.  Here I am.  I didn't create myself.  I am.  And so there is an 'I' that exists without effort, that is aware of what comes and goes, but never moves or changes in itSelf.  This 'I' holds everything in its awareness.  'I' have been given everything.  But as soon as the attention contracts to the specifics of thought, form, judgment, and analysis... as soon as the awareness zooms in and trys to grasp what it is aware of, the 'I' that is aware fades into the background, forgotten and seemingly obscured by the exclusiveness of individuated mind and its thoughts.  Only the unconditioned awareness of 'I' is capable of the inclusiveness that returns the awareness to the All, the Everything.

Allness is beyond the grasp of the individuated mind... the me that I think I am.  This me is preoccupied with survival and comfort, with being liked or loved, withdrawing into the safety of the familiar.  But resting in the Silence of 'I' for only an instant, the Inclusive Self returns to awareness.  Everything is Who I Am.  As they say in Advaita Vedanta, "I Am That."  And in the Bible it says, "I Am That I Am."  We have simply to be quiet and allow, "I Am" to rest in unspecific and unconditioned awareness.  And let the nothingness of daily thought and identity go.  What remains is the simple Truth of Being. 
 
"Nothing is so easy to recognize as Truth.  This is the only recognition that is immediate, clear, and natural." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section XI, 5:7-8

Grace without Cost

"His Grace the answer is to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His Love.  His gift of Grace is more than just an answer.  It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot; all certainty of what Love's meaning IS." - A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 168, 2:3, 3:5-6

I have seemingly had little work and few new clients for nearly 6 months now. Work is a topic I have been praying about regularly... not just to have it (and I've applied for countless 'jobs'), but to see what errors in my own mind and heart I am seeing reflected in the world.  I pray to understand and forgive and heal this seeming lack for all of us, since I know we are One Mind and One Heart.  And I know from my direct experience of God that this is not being done TO me (or anyone else).  God has given us everything... but I can only receive what I accept.  What do I accept as true about work?  What do I accept as true about myself?  What do I accept as true about God?  Do I think these are different subjects, unrelated?  Since God is All, they must be One.

In listening to my own thoughts and words on this topic, I realize that even when I talk about changing my perceptions, I say, "I'm working on... (fill in the blank)."  Hmmm...  Why is it that we associate the word 'work' with words like 'hard' or 'effort' or 'struggle' or 'a work in progress?'  Where has all this efforting gotten us?  What about the word Grace?  What about the Joy of living and moving and having our being in God?  What about Grace without cost?

We are created in the image of God.  In God we live and move and have our being.  This is beyond question, since it is a direct experience NOW.  If it's not your direct experience, I urge you to spend time in silence and allow yourself to remember Who You Are, as a reflection of God, as a transparency for God.  Never take anyone else's word for this.  That's like reading the menu but never actually eating the feast.  And Grace, the expression of remembering Who We Are, is the effortless flow of Awareness that pours from this fountain of Joy at the core of our Being.  As the quote above reminds us, it's the catalyst for remembering the Love that We Are.  Grace has no price and no cost.  It's always pouring from within our Being, and requires no effort, no 'work' on ourselves.  It is the effortless remembrance of what has always been.  We have only to accept it.

As I remember minute-by-minute and day-by-day that Grace has no cost, I soften and open and allow Love to move in my life.  I continue to receive unexpected donations for the Sanctuary and for my Spiritual Direction and ACIM Classes.  New clients call out of the blue.  My books sell more copies and my CD project takes wing as more and more people pre-order.  I am loved and nurtured and supported in my work, without efforting.  Grace has no cost... we don't have to earn it or be good enough or do it right.  We just have to return to our right Mind. 

However and wherever we find ourselves, we are in the midst of God.  Right where we are is holy ground.  That's Grace for you.  Grace without cost.