"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 Holiness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiness. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Wednesday, July 1, 2015
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
"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
Friday, May 10, 2013
The Blessed Residue
"Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal. The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:1-2
"In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create. The word 'create' is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation. What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section V, 2:1-3
I woke up in the wee hours last night, inspired to search my mind for unforgiveness. I woke up with a new understanding of hidden places and grievances. I realized that every expectation of person, place, or thing is only in my mind, is all made up, and is a grievance. Every person or organization that I want or expect something from, every animate or inanimate form I look to for anything at all is a fictional mental veil across the face of Christ. I experienced a flood of gratitude for each insight, and pure joy at letting it all go. And then I heard the Voice speak the words "blessed residue." I knew that I was to write about these words, and remembered reading them in the Course, so I asked if I should write them down or look them up. I was told to go back to sleep, that I would remember. And I did.
Love is the blessed residue. When everything is forgiven, there is only the innocence of pure Love. When everything is forgiven, even the things you thought were problems are revealed as pure, innocent Joy. This is a spiritual alchemy that has been written about by mystics throughout time. The irony is that we already know this, but pretend that we don't. If we open our minds even slightly, the floodgates open and we can no longer pretend that the minutiae of our world is true or even really there. So we practice tunnel vision on worldly problems and details, and even spiritual questions, clinging to them as if they were our safety and survival. This is their only reality. "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 2)
An utter dependence on Love and the Holy Spirit is our true safety and security. We can safely give our every question and care to the Holy Spirit and know that Love can only give and expand and increase in joyous intensity. This is true creation. "Love created me like ItSelf," we are reminded in ACIM Workbook Lesson 67. We have only to give over (forgive) each thought, each judgment, each expectation to the Holy Spirit to be undone. And the blessed residue, which is pure Love and our true Self, is restored to creative awareness. It was here all along.
"You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart's desire. This is the Voice you hear, and this the Call which cannot be denied." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 182, 12:1-4
"In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create. The word 'create' is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation. What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section V, 2:1-3
I woke up in the wee hours last night, inspired to search my mind for unforgiveness. I woke up with a new understanding of hidden places and grievances. I realized that every expectation of person, place, or thing is only in my mind, is all made up, and is a grievance. Every person or organization that I want or expect something from, every animate or inanimate form I look to for anything at all is a fictional mental veil across the face of Christ. I experienced a flood of gratitude for each insight, and pure joy at letting it all go. And then I heard the Voice speak the words "blessed residue." I knew that I was to write about these words, and remembered reading them in the Course, so I asked if I should write them down or look them up. I was told to go back to sleep, that I would remember. And I did.
Love is the blessed residue. When everything is forgiven, there is only the innocence of pure Love. When everything is forgiven, even the things you thought were problems are revealed as pure, innocent Joy. This is a spiritual alchemy that has been written about by mystics throughout time. The irony is that we already know this, but pretend that we don't. If we open our minds even slightly, the floodgates open and we can no longer pretend that the minutiae of our world is true or even really there. So we practice tunnel vision on worldly problems and details, and even spiritual questions, clinging to them as if they were our safety and survival. This is their only reality. "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 2)
An utter dependence on Love and the Holy Spirit is our true safety and security. We can safely give our every question and care to the Holy Spirit and know that Love can only give and expand and increase in joyous intensity. This is true creation. "Love created me like ItSelf," we are reminded in ACIM Workbook Lesson 67. We have only to give over (forgive) each thought, each judgment, each expectation to the Holy Spirit to be undone. And the blessed residue, which is pure Love and our true Self, is restored to creative awareness. It was here all along.
"You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart's desire. This is the Voice you hear, and this the Call which cannot be denied." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 182, 12:1-4
Sunday, April 21, 2013
Forgiveness Is the Miracle
"It must be true the miracle can heal all forms of sickness, or it cannot heal. Its purpose cannot be to judge which forms are real, and which appearances are true. If one appearance must remain apart from healing, one illusion must be part of truth. And you could not escape guilt, but only some of it. You must forgive God's Son entirely. Or you will keep an image of yourself that is not whole, and will remain afraid to look within and find escape from every idol there. Salvation rests on faith there cannot be some forms of guilt that you cannot forgive." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section VI, 7:1-7
Both the miracle and forgiveness are the state of mind that looks beyond appearances, that overlooks the ephemeral, projected world and sees everything through the eyes of Christ. Forgiveness sees only perfection and innocence, and the miracle sees only the effects of that perfection everywhere.
"There can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal." -- Workbook 198, 9:5-6
Every form of pain and suffering is the projection of the belief in a separated world, a world that is imperfect, a world apart from God. Because everything lives and moves and has its very being in God, where would this world be? With the Holy Spirit's help, we look beyond such false concepts and projections, into the heart of Love, which is everpresent. The Awareness of Love's Presence dissolves everything else. This is the miracle of forgiveness.
"An unforgiving thought is one that makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true." -- Workbook Part II, 1.2:1
It's hard to recognize our own unforgiving thoughts when the entire world we see is based on them. There are so many things we are unwilling to question, because we have an investment in not seeing... our entire identity is wrapped up in our unquestioned thoughts and beliefs, the judgments that make up our thought process. That's why problems and challenges are such a gift... they give us the opportunity to question everything, to realize that nothing is what we judged it to be. They give us the miracle, when we are willing to see the Love and Perfection that are the Reality of everyone, everything, every seeming.
The Course says that all of our time, every day, should be devoted to forgiveness and miracles. It can become a habit, just like the conditioned self and its serial narratives has been habit since we were children. And each of us has a vital role to play, so our forgiveness is essential. The Course reminds us that "the salvation of the world depends on me." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 186) Forgiveness is the Miracle of remembering that we are the holy Son of God, the Christ, pure and innocent... and so is everyone and everything. Forgiveness is the Miracle that returns us to this One Mind, this One Self, this One Love.
"Forgiveness is the the only function meaningful in time. It is the means the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation. Forgiveness is for all... Each must do what is allotted him, for on his part does all the plan depend. He has a special part in time for so he chose, and choosing it, he made it for himself. His wish was not denied but changed in form, to let it serve his brother and himself, and thus become a means to save instead of lose." -- ACIM; Chapter 25, Section VI, 5:3-11
Both the miracle and forgiveness are the state of mind that looks beyond appearances, that overlooks the ephemeral, projected world and sees everything through the eyes of Christ. Forgiveness sees only perfection and innocence, and the miracle sees only the effects of that perfection everywhere.
"There can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought. Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal." -- Workbook 198, 9:5-6
Every form of pain and suffering is the projection of the belief in a separated world, a world that is imperfect, a world apart from God. Because everything lives and moves and has its very being in God, where would this world be? With the Holy Spirit's help, we look beyond such false concepts and projections, into the heart of Love, which is everpresent. The Awareness of Love's Presence dissolves everything else. This is the miracle of forgiveness.
"An unforgiving thought is one that makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true." -- Workbook Part II, 1.2:1
It's hard to recognize our own unforgiving thoughts when the entire world we see is based on them. There are so many things we are unwilling to question, because we have an investment in not seeing... our entire identity is wrapped up in our unquestioned thoughts and beliefs, the judgments that make up our thought process. That's why problems and challenges are such a gift... they give us the opportunity to question everything, to realize that nothing is what we judged it to be. They give us the miracle, when we are willing to see the Love and Perfection that are the Reality of everyone, everything, every seeming.
The Course says that all of our time, every day, should be devoted to forgiveness and miracles. It can become a habit, just like the conditioned self and its serial narratives has been habit since we were children. And each of us has a vital role to play, so our forgiveness is essential. The Course reminds us that "the salvation of the world depends on me." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 186) Forgiveness is the Miracle of remembering that we are the holy Son of God, the Christ, pure and innocent... and so is everyone and everything. Forgiveness is the Miracle that returns us to this One Mind, this One Self, this One Love.
"Forgiveness is the the only function meaningful in time. It is the means the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation. Forgiveness is for all... Each must do what is allotted him, for on his part does all the plan depend. He has a special part in time for so he chose, and choosing it, he made it for himself. His wish was not denied but changed in form, to let it serve his brother and himself, and thus become a means to save instead of lose." -- ACIM; Chapter 25, Section VI, 5:3-11
Monday, April 8, 2013
The Key to Happiness
“You made this up. It is a picture of what you think you are; of
how you see yourself… Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how
it would look through happy eyes? The
world you see is but a judgment on yourself.
It is not there at all.” – A
Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section III, 4:3-4, 5:1-3
A friend recently asked me about the practice of forgiveness as the Course teaches it. It’s not really forgiveness as the world thinks about it, because it’s not about anything ‘out there’ at all. It’s a mental process, because everything I experience is in my mind, and then projected outward. And while our minds appear to sleep, there is a great need for reminders that the nightmares we project have no real effects. “What God has created follows His Laws, and His alone. Nor is it possible for those who follow them to suffer the results of any other source.” (ACIM 20, IV, 3:6-7) This means our insane projections, though scary, can have no real effects. Of course, as long as we’re asleep, we’re stuck in a nightmare thinking it’s really happening. So forgiveness is the way out of the dream.
Forgiveness as the Course teaches it makes use of the Holy Instant, the “little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden Light that is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards.” The reality of God and the Holy Spirit (which is our reality) is always, now, and forever. “The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more. Here then, is everything. This gift returns the laws of God to your remembrance.”
Because our reality in God is already perfect, whole, and complete, there really is only one purpose to everything… to awaken from the dream we made up. So the Course reminds us repeatedly that forgiveness is our only function. Don’t bother judging the seeming situation, since trying to judge a dream is insane… it’s all made up. Practice forgiveness, and wake up to Perfection. Practice forgiveness, and be Happy.
“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.” -- A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 101
Here is an example of how the function of forgiveness unfolds in the mind. Use your own words, and be specific and thorough with each individual person, situation, or feeling you are examining. Once you experience the deep peace this process brings, don't try and fill the clean and open space with concepts and stories again. Remember that it’s the false concepts and beliefs in your mind that project as the world you think you see. So step back and let Truth arise and lead the way. Ask the Holy Spirit whenever you need to make a decision. BE peace.
A friend recently asked me about the practice of forgiveness as the Course teaches it. It’s not really forgiveness as the world thinks about it, because it’s not about anything ‘out there’ at all. It’s a mental process, because everything I experience is in my mind, and then projected outward. And while our minds appear to sleep, there is a great need for reminders that the nightmares we project have no real effects. “What God has created follows His Laws, and His alone. Nor is it possible for those who follow them to suffer the results of any other source.” (ACIM 20, IV, 3:6-7) This means our insane projections, though scary, can have no real effects. Of course, as long as we’re asleep, we’re stuck in a nightmare thinking it’s really happening. So forgiveness is the way out of the dream.
Forgiveness as the Course teaches it makes use of the Holy Instant, the “little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden Light that is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards.” The reality of God and the Holy Spirit (which is our reality) is always, now, and forever. “The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more. Here then, is everything. This gift returns the laws of God to your remembrance.”
Because our reality in God is already perfect, whole, and complete, there really is only one purpose to everything… to awaken from the dream we made up. So the Course reminds us repeatedly that forgiveness is our only function. Don’t bother judging the seeming situation, since trying to judge a dream is insane… it’s all made up. Practice forgiveness, and wake up to Perfection. Practice forgiveness, and be Happy.
“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.” -- A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 101
Here is an example of how the function of forgiveness unfolds in the mind. Use your own words, and be specific and thorough with each individual person, situation, or feeling you are examining. Once you experience the deep peace this process brings, don't try and fill the clean and open space with concepts and stories again. Remember that it’s the false concepts and beliefs in your mind that project as the world you think you see. So step back and let Truth arise and lead the way. Ask the Holy Spirit whenever you need to make a decision. BE peace.
This feeling
(fear, anger, hurt, pride, jealousy, frustration, pain, hopelessness or
whatever the unsettling emotion may be) that I feel toward and about you and
this situation seems to be about:
(Take time to
be honest about this, in detail)
I see that
every aspect of this is a projection of my belief that I am separate from God
and everyone and everything, which means I think I’m separate from this
situation and from the All, the Everything that is God, which includes all Goodness
and Love and Perfection and Completeness.
Because I think I’m separate, I’m projecting false images of conflict
and pain and lack instead of radiating the Wholeness and Peace that I am. I’m projecting false images of lack and
limitation instead of radiating the perfect Love and Completeness that I am.
I see that it’s
impossible to be separate from the Love of God, which is Everything and
All. I have never been separate and my fear is all
made up and projected as false images.
Everyone and everything that seems to be involved is also eternally One with the Love of God,
and so everyone and everything that seems to be in conflict is actually all Good
and only Good, Perfect, Innocent and Complete.
And so I
forgive myself and everyone and everything for what never even happened! I let it go, and overlook all the seeming
‘evidence’ of lack and pain and suffering.
I look instead to the Holy Spirit, and I give all these images to the
Holy Spirit to be dissolved in my perception throughout imaginary space and
time.
I know that as
I release these images to the Holy Spirit, they are completely undone
throughout the dream (past, present, and future… which are all made up, too)...
the false concepts and images dissolve in the Light like the dreams they are,
and now I know none of it ever happened in reality. All that remains is the Holy Instant of Light
and Love. There is only God, only innocence
and peace, only the clean and open space of Spirit… the Light, Perfection, Peace,
Love, and Joy that is our eternal Home.
By
being honest about our thoughts and feelings in this way, and giving them to
the Holy Spirit, we let Truth correct all such errors in our minds (which is where it all appears to be
happening!). We can then step back and
let our Wholeness (holiness) lead the way, and the symbols and projections in
the dream we call life begin to reflect this Wholeness. Innocence and Peace, Joy and Happiness… these
are the Reality behind everything. And
forgiveness is the way to remember the Reality behind it all.
“Forgiveness
is the key to happiness.” A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 121
Please join us for ACIM Teleclasses every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. central time.
Friday, August 24, 2012
A Special Form
"It is not difficult to understand the reasons why you do not ask the Holy Spirit to solve all problems for you. He has not greater difficulty in resolving some than others. Every problem is the same to Him, because each one is solved in just the same respect and through the same approach. The aspects that need solving do not change, whatever form the problem seems to take. A problem can appear in many forms, and will do so while the problem lasts. It serves no purpose to attempt to solve it in a special form. It will recur and then recur again and yet again, until it has been answered for all time and will not rise again in any form. And only then are you released from it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section II, 1:1-8
Everywhere I look there appear to be problems. Problems facing our world, our nation, our families, our own lives and bodies. Problems that appear to be different from one another, and that appear to have unique solutions. Problems that grip the attention and leave no room for doubt in the reality of the perception. There appear to be specific needs, specific lacks, specific things that don't work as they should. And we argue with each others' assessments of what isn't working and what needs to be done. Each thinks that someone else has to lose so that their perspective can be the true one. It is this that is the antithesis of Truth. And only Truth is the universal solution to every perception that is less than Whole, less than Holy.
"The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one, regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone suffer loss and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the situation is worked out so that no one loses is the problem gone, because is was an error in perception that now has been corrected." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section II, 2:1-3)
There are no special forms, just as there are no special cases or special relationships. There is only One. And this One is Whole, Holy, Complete. This One cannot lack or try and take something from one to give another. Oneness has no divisions and no direction. Oneness is All... Everywhere, Always, Forever. This One Thought is as close to Truth as our divided language can come. And so it is all that is needed. It is the Holy Spirit's answer to every so-called problem.
"You have no problems, though you think you have. And yet you could not think so if you saw them vanish one by one, without regard to size, complexity, or place or time, or any attribute which you perceive that makes each one seem different from the rest. Think not the limits you impose on what you see can limit God in any way." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section II, 3:3-5)
And so it becomes obvious why we don't ask the Holy Spirit to solve ALL problems. "Every problem is an error." (ACIM; 26, II, 4:2) They are false perceptions, mere interpretations or points of view. They are a fragmented and faulty picture. But there are some false perceptions we choose to keep. They are the 'limits' that we set to define reality. They are all made up, but we lull ourselves into the group mind of the status quo, of the family or tribe with which we've identified. This could be a family of origin, a political party, or a religion. There are no real differences. It's all made up. Given to the Holy Spirit, our minds are made Whole and Holy again, and all differences disappear. There is only One. WE ARE ONE.
"Think then how great your own release will be when you are willing to receive correction for all your problems. You will not keep one, for pain in any form you will not want. And you will see each little hurt resolved before the Holy Spirit's gentle sight. For all of them are little in His sight, and worth no more than just a tiny sigh before they disappear, to be forever undone and unremembered. What seemed once to be a special problem, a mistake without a remedy, or an affliction without a cure, has been transformed into a universal blessing. And in its place the Love of God can be remembered, and will shine away all memory of sacrifice and loss. For it is not your Father's Will that you should offer or receive less than He gave, when He created you in Perfect Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section II, 7:1-7 & 8:6
Everywhere I look there appear to be problems. Problems facing our world, our nation, our families, our own lives and bodies. Problems that appear to be different from one another, and that appear to have unique solutions. Problems that grip the attention and leave no room for doubt in the reality of the perception. There appear to be specific needs, specific lacks, specific things that don't work as they should. And we argue with each others' assessments of what isn't working and what needs to be done. Each thinks that someone else has to lose so that their perspective can be the true one. It is this that is the antithesis of Truth. And only Truth is the universal solution to every perception that is less than Whole, less than Holy.
"The Holy Spirit offers you release from every problem that you think you have. They are the same to Him because each one, regardless of the form it seems to take, is a demand that someone suffer loss and make a sacrifice that you might gain. And when the situation is worked out so that no one loses is the problem gone, because is was an error in perception that now has been corrected." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section II, 2:1-3)
There are no special forms, just as there are no special cases or special relationships. There is only One. And this One is Whole, Holy, Complete. This One cannot lack or try and take something from one to give another. Oneness has no divisions and no direction. Oneness is All... Everywhere, Always, Forever. This One Thought is as close to Truth as our divided language can come. And so it is all that is needed. It is the Holy Spirit's answer to every so-called problem.
"You have no problems, though you think you have. And yet you could not think so if you saw them vanish one by one, without regard to size, complexity, or place or time, or any attribute which you perceive that makes each one seem different from the rest. Think not the limits you impose on what you see can limit God in any way." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section II, 3:3-5)
And so it becomes obvious why we don't ask the Holy Spirit to solve ALL problems. "Every problem is an error." (ACIM; 26, II, 4:2) They are false perceptions, mere interpretations or points of view. They are a fragmented and faulty picture. But there are some false perceptions we choose to keep. They are the 'limits' that we set to define reality. They are all made up, but we lull ourselves into the group mind of the status quo, of the family or tribe with which we've identified. This could be a family of origin, a political party, or a religion. There are no real differences. It's all made up. Given to the Holy Spirit, our minds are made Whole and Holy again, and all differences disappear. There is only One. WE ARE ONE.
"Think then how great your own release will be when you are willing to receive correction for all your problems. You will not keep one, for pain in any form you will not want. And you will see each little hurt resolved before the Holy Spirit's gentle sight. For all of them are little in His sight, and worth no more than just a tiny sigh before they disappear, to be forever undone and unremembered. What seemed once to be a special problem, a mistake without a remedy, or an affliction without a cure, has been transformed into a universal blessing. And in its place the Love of God can be remembered, and will shine away all memory of sacrifice and loss. For it is not your Father's Will that you should offer or receive less than He gave, when He created you in Perfect Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section II, 7:1-7 & 8:6
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, December 25, 2010
Merry Christmas!
"You Who remember what I really am, remember what I really want. And all I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine. Let me not forget, my self is nothing, but my Self is all." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 358, 1:1, 4, 7
As I sit waiting for the dawn on Christmas morning, I'm filled with gratitude for the Self we share, the Christ-Self that is born again and again as each holy mind awakens it ItSelf. And I know that no story of Santa Clause, however sweet and wonderful, can compare to the miracles we experience through remembering our Christ-Self.
Our way is lit by miracles... the healed perceptions that lift us to remembrance. And each holy instant becomes sacred, regardless of form or appearance. "All I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine." Yes! Such freedom and grace in this effortless and radical reliance on what is True. "Let me not forget, my self is nothing, but my Self is all."
May the merriest of joy-filled moments be yours on this Christmas morning, as we remember Who We really Are.
"The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 2:1-2
As I sit waiting for the dawn on Christmas morning, I'm filled with gratitude for the Self we share, the Christ-Self that is born again and again as each holy mind awakens it ItSelf. And I know that no story of Santa Clause, however sweet and wonderful, can compare to the miracles we experience through remembering our Christ-Self.
Our way is lit by miracles... the healed perceptions that lift us to remembrance. And each holy instant becomes sacred, regardless of form or appearance. "All I want is what You offer me, in just the form You choose that it be mine." Yes! Such freedom and grace in this effortless and radical reliance on what is True. "Let me not forget, my self is nothing, but my Self is all."
May the merriest of joy-filled moments be yours on this Christmas morning, as we remember Who We really Are.
"The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 2:1-2
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Decisions, Decisions
In this so-called life, decisions make up every minute of every day. Even my youngest grandson is choosing his state of mind minute by minute, second by second. I can see the impulses arise and cross his little three-month-old face like clouds. I can see the second he decides to smile instead of cry. I can see him struggle to give voice (and I mean voice) to his discomfort. Little Kai Joseph is just like us... choosing to react to external forms, or to interact with the Love that is in him and all around him, always.
We're not talking about will-power here. That's the mistaken belief that we can exert control over our bodies and other forms in the external world. As Mary Baker Eddy put it, "Will power is a product of belief... and is not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright." And A Course in Miracles says it very simply: "There is no Will but God's."
So what are all the decisions we make every day? We have to first remember that all decisions are of the mind, and have nothing to do with form. My grandson's decisions may reflect in his face, but it's all in his mind. Similarly, our minute-by-minute decisions are mental processes. The illusion of a world arises from these mental projections. "Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 304, 1:3-4)
Decisions, decisions... how can we make decisions, then, if we're not in our right mind... if we think we've made a will other than God's? Again, A Course in Miracles gives us a way out: "Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as what it is. The power of decision is our own. Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear. What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was, eternally as it is now. And it will take the place of self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 8:1-5)
Decisions are continuous, and we are always looking at only two choices, two mental states. Our True Self, the Son of God Who is Peace and Love and Life and Reality... or an illusion of a separate self, which projects as fear and lack and limitation and death. We know which we're choosing by our state of mind.
"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-2 & 10:1-2
We're not talking about will-power here. That's the mistaken belief that we can exert control over our bodies and other forms in the external world. As Mary Baker Eddy put it, "Will power is a product of belief... and is not a faculty of Soul. Hence it cannot govern man aright." And A Course in Miracles says it very simply: "There is no Will but God's."
So what are all the decisions we make every day? We have to first remember that all decisions are of the mind, and have nothing to do with form. My grandson's decisions may reflect in his face, but it's all in his mind. Similarly, our minute-by-minute decisions are mental processes. The illusion of a world arises from these mental projections. "Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 304, 1:3-4)
Decisions, decisions... how can we make decisions, then, if we're not in our right mind... if we think we've made a will other than God's? Again, A Course in Miracles gives us a way out: "Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as what it is. The power of decision is our own. Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear. What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was, eternally as it is now. And it will take the place of self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 8:1-5)
Decisions are continuous, and we are always looking at only two choices, two mental states. Our True Self, the Son of God Who is Peace and Love and Life and Reality... or an illusion of a separate self, which projects as fear and lack and limitation and death. We know which we're choosing by our state of mind.
"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-2 & 10:1-2
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
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
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
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Gang Wars
"You always choose between your weakness and the strength of Christ in you. And what you choose is what you think is real. Simply by never using weakness to direct your actions, you have given it no power. And the light of Christ in you is given charge of everything you do." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 2:3-6
I was watching some crime drama on T.V. (don't ask me why!) and I saw very clearly the choices that led a young man from a good family to become a member of a street gang... and not just a member, but an active participant in an ongoing war against other street gangs. The choices he made were always based on who he thought he was, and where his safety and fulfillment could be found. Wrong choice after wrong choice led him to a nasty ending. Does this sound familiar?
I love how extreme examples in our lives and cultures serve to show us our own mental choices. We project them and create cultural stories and tragedies to pretend they are 'out there.' We live in perpetual cultural gang wars... clashing ideas, values, stories, all seemingly competing for our time, our allegiance, our money, and our very souls. What gang do you belong to? What are your colors?
I used to belong to the 'spiritual' gang. We tend to act like we're not a gang, but we are. We pretend we're lacking enlightenment, so we have to perpetually seek fulfillment. We attack the culture and society that seem to prevent us from living as we want to live, that doesn't seem to honor us or understand us. We pretend to be 'better' and more evolved, and so we are entitled to judge the other gangs. We think our safety and fulfillment lie in these games. We are no different than any other gang. We are mentally at war with the world.
Every country, every culture, every political party, every passionate cause, and even every family has its colors and its gang culture. We all belong to gangs within gangs, and sometimes our gang wars overlap and intertwine with each other. But make no mistake... every conflict, no matter how mild, is the result of gang wars, always based on choosing to value a weak and fictional self as real. "Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again." He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 3:1-3
How simple to realize that we are always choosing between the false self, the gang member, or our True Self, the Christ in us! The false self is like that boy in the crime drama... he thought he was weak and limited, thought he needed to belong to a gang to be strong and protected. Was he ever wrong! And so are we. "The images you make cannot prevail against what God HimSelf would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength [your True Self] prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 31, Section VIII, 4:1-2 & 6:1-3
Wow. This seems too good to be true, doesn't it? And besides, we are loyal to our gangs. Our family is still our family. We should be grateful to belong to (fill in the blank). Our family, country, church, school, group, etc. is so much better, isn't it? What if we belonged to that country? What if we had those people as relatives? What if, what if, what if... an endless litany of justification for our choices of misplaced allegiance and mis-identification. We feel safe and protected by the numbing familiarity of belonging. And we never question.
But we can always choose again. As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day." Each instant is new, fresh, infinite in possibility and beauty. We have only to choose again. Gang wars only go on as long as we think there are separate, conflicting gangs. When we remember that we are collectively One Self, one with God and everything that lives, there can be no more war... only endless love, appreciation, and joy. We have simply awakened to the Truth, safe in God.
"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words: I Am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I Am His Son. Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail. And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. For in this choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 5:1-7
I was watching some crime drama on T.V. (don't ask me why!) and I saw very clearly the choices that led a young man from a good family to become a member of a street gang... and not just a member, but an active participant in an ongoing war against other street gangs. The choices he made were always based on who he thought he was, and where his safety and fulfillment could be found. Wrong choice after wrong choice led him to a nasty ending. Does this sound familiar?
I love how extreme examples in our lives and cultures serve to show us our own mental choices. We project them and create cultural stories and tragedies to pretend they are 'out there.' We live in perpetual cultural gang wars... clashing ideas, values, stories, all seemingly competing for our time, our allegiance, our money, and our very souls. What gang do you belong to? What are your colors?
I used to belong to the 'spiritual' gang. We tend to act like we're not a gang, but we are. We pretend we're lacking enlightenment, so we have to perpetually seek fulfillment. We attack the culture and society that seem to prevent us from living as we want to live, that doesn't seem to honor us or understand us. We pretend to be 'better' and more evolved, and so we are entitled to judge the other gangs. We think our safety and fulfillment lie in these games. We are no different than any other gang. We are mentally at war with the world.
Every country, every culture, every political party, every passionate cause, and even every family has its colors and its gang culture. We all belong to gangs within gangs, and sometimes our gang wars overlap and intertwine with each other. But make no mistake... every conflict, no matter how mild, is the result of gang wars, always based on choosing to value a weak and fictional self as real. "Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, "My brother, choose again." He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 3:1-3
How simple to realize that we are always choosing between the false self, the gang member, or our True Self, the Christ in us! The false self is like that boy in the crime drama... he thought he was weak and limited, thought he needed to belong to a gang to be strong and protected. Was he ever wrong! And so are we. "The images you make cannot prevail against what God HimSelf would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ's strength [your True Self] prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 31, Section VIII, 4:1-2 & 6:1-3
Wow. This seems too good to be true, doesn't it? And besides, we are loyal to our gangs. Our family is still our family. We should be grateful to belong to (fill in the blank). Our family, country, church, school, group, etc. is so much better, isn't it? What if we belonged to that country? What if we had those people as relatives? What if, what if, what if... an endless litany of justification for our choices of misplaced allegiance and mis-identification. We feel safe and protected by the numbing familiarity of belonging. And we never question.
But we can always choose again. As Scarlett said, "Tomorrow is another day." Each instant is new, fresh, infinite in possibility and beauty. We have only to choose again. Gang wars only go on as long as we think there are separate, conflicting gangs. When we remember that we are collectively One Self, one with God and everything that lives, there can be no more war... only endless love, appreciation, and joy. We have simply awakened to the Truth, safe in God.
"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words: I Am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I Am His Son. Thus is Christ's strength invited to prevail, replacing all your weakness with the strength that comes from God and that can never fail. And thus are miracles as natural as fear and agony appeared to be before the choice for holiness was made. For in this choice are false distinctions gone, illusory alternatives laid by, and nothing left to interfere with Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 5:1-7
Monday, July 12, 2010
Changing Thoughts
"Think of this awhile: The world you see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind, and choose the joy of God as what you really want." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 6:1-4
One of my teachers once said, "Thought is always moving." We have the illusion of sameness from one day to the next, but there is no such thing as a day when our thoughts are identical. They are always moving, like a kaleidoscope. And this analogy is especially apt, since the restless, changing, often nonsensical pattern of our thoughts projects the world we think we see. Things pop up and come and go, in seemingly random patterns. But make no mistake: It is our own projection, the mirror of our own thoughts and nothing else.
So the hard truth that none of us really want to see is that we are never at the mercy of a changing world. We live in our own projections, reacting to our own judgments and stories. The world we think we see is made of images reflecting our own changing thoughts.
"It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing What You Are. And as you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy Will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 5:1-8
How do we recognize Who and What we are? By letting go of the insistence that we know who we are. We think we know where we were born, who our parents were, and where we were educated. We think we know what we like and what we don't like. And we think these judgments and the thoughts associated with them mean something. We think these things point to who we are. In reality, they point to the kaleidoscope of action and reaction of thought that passes for life, and that projects the world as we have known it.
If we are still just a moment... if we're willing to not know for just an instant... if we're willing to allow that who and what we are must be natural, must be effortlessly already here, that it doesn't need to be judged or explained or defined or maintained... in the stillness of an instant, the Truth dawns. The changing thoughts that project the world are stilled, and in the unconditioned awareness of the holy instant, we recognize our true Self. This Self has never been lost, has always been. Our constantly changing thoughts and projections have simply obscured our awareness for a time.
"Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 191, 7:1 & 9:1-4
One of my teachers once said, "Thought is always moving." We have the illusion of sameness from one day to the next, but there is no such thing as a day when our thoughts are identical. They are always moving, like a kaleidoscope. And this analogy is especially apt, since the restless, changing, often nonsensical pattern of our thoughts projects the world we think we see. Things pop up and come and go, in seemingly random patterns. But make no mistake: It is our own projection, the mirror of our own thoughts and nothing else.
So the hard truth that none of us really want to see is that we are never at the mercy of a changing world. We live in our own projections, reacting to our own judgments and stories. The world we think we see is made of images reflecting our own changing thoughts.
"It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing What You Are. And as you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy Will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 5:1-8
How do we recognize Who and What we are? By letting go of the insistence that we know who we are. We think we know where we were born, who our parents were, and where we were educated. We think we know what we like and what we don't like. And we think these judgments and the thoughts associated with them mean something. We think these things point to who we are. In reality, they point to the kaleidoscope of action and reaction of thought that passes for life, and that projects the world as we have known it.
If we are still just a moment... if we're willing to not know for just an instant... if we're willing to allow that who and what we are must be natural, must be effortlessly already here, that it doesn't need to be judged or explained or defined or maintained... in the stillness of an instant, the Truth dawns. The changing thoughts that project the world are stilled, and in the unconditioned awareness of the holy instant, we recognize our true Self. This Self has never been lost, has always been. Our constantly changing thoughts and projections have simply obscured our awareness for a time.
"Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 191, 7:1 & 9:1-4
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
All We Could Ever Want
"No call to God can be unheard nor left unanswered. And of this I can be sure; His answer is the one I really want." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 358
There are calls and answers bombarding us every day. At work, at home, at church, and even on the internet we are called on to help, to assist, to serve. At home, at work, at church, and through our internet connections, we also call on others to help, to assist, and to serve. But calling out to God is not like this. We think God should respond like a 'good' human. And we humanly act like we expect God to help, to assist, or to serve us in our need as we see it.
How could this be possible? Our God-Self knows that the projections we see are phantoms... they are all made up. Our real need is to awaken from the grip of our own delusions. Jesus knew this, and in his compassion told us quite plainly that "God is no respecter of persons, for he makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good." In other words, the sun shines... that's what it does, without judgment as to who or what it shines on and through. The sun gives life by being what it is. God IS... Being IS... Awareness IS... that's what it IS and what it does, without judgment or interference. God IS life and love and goodness itself, and by Being in God, we too have all life and love and goodness. It's only the cloud projections of our own thought-forms, our own stories, which hide this from our awareness.
What then, does our quote mean when it reassures us that "No call to God can be unheard or unanswered?" To really understand this, to really glimpse it, is freedom.
In many, many posts here on this blog we've repeated the Truth that sets us free... we are created in the image of God... perfect, whole, and completely spiritual, as God is Spirit. The Truth that answers us when we call can only answer spiritually and always and only reminds us of the Truth... that we are perfect, whole, and holy... perfect reflections of the Love of God. That any imagined need is met in this knowing. That imagined needs arise out of forgetting Who We Are. The Grace and Love of God, our true Source and Ground of Being, is truly our sufficiency in all things.
Which brings us to the second part of the above quote... that "of this I can be sure; His answer is the one I really want." We can always be sure that the remembrance of the Truth of Being, of our eternal perfection and goodness and love, is all we ever really wanted, and all we could ever want.
"God hides nothing from His Son, even though His Son would hide himself. You will never lose your way, for God leads you. When you wander, you but undertake a journey that is not real." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section III, 5:1, 3-4
There are calls and answers bombarding us every day. At work, at home, at church, and even on the internet we are called on to help, to assist, to serve. At home, at work, at church, and through our internet connections, we also call on others to help, to assist, and to serve. But calling out to God is not like this. We think God should respond like a 'good' human. And we humanly act like we expect God to help, to assist, or to serve us in our need as we see it.
How could this be possible? Our God-Self knows that the projections we see are phantoms... they are all made up. Our real need is to awaken from the grip of our own delusions. Jesus knew this, and in his compassion told us quite plainly that "God is no respecter of persons, for he makes His sun to shine on the evil and the good." In other words, the sun shines... that's what it does, without judgment as to who or what it shines on and through. The sun gives life by being what it is. God IS... Being IS... Awareness IS... that's what it IS and what it does, without judgment or interference. God IS life and love and goodness itself, and by Being in God, we too have all life and love and goodness. It's only the cloud projections of our own thought-forms, our own stories, which hide this from our awareness.
What then, does our quote mean when it reassures us that "No call to God can be unheard or unanswered?" To really understand this, to really glimpse it, is freedom.
In many, many posts here on this blog we've repeated the Truth that sets us free... we are created in the image of God... perfect, whole, and completely spiritual, as God is Spirit. The Truth that answers us when we call can only answer spiritually and always and only reminds us of the Truth... that we are perfect, whole, and holy... perfect reflections of the Love of God. That any imagined need is met in this knowing. That imagined needs arise out of forgetting Who We Are. The Grace and Love of God, our true Source and Ground of Being, is truly our sufficiency in all things.
Which brings us to the second part of the above quote... that "of this I can be sure; His answer is the one I really want." We can always be sure that the remembrance of the Truth of Being, of our eternal perfection and goodness and love, is all we ever really wanted, and all we could ever want.
"God hides nothing from His Son, even though His Son would hide himself. You will never lose your way, for God leads you. When you wander, you but undertake a journey that is not real." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section III, 5:1, 3-4
Friday, June 5, 2009
Just Like Him
"Whenever you question your value, say: God HimSelf is incomplete without me." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VII, 8:1-2
When we meet someone's children, it's very common for us to comment on how much like the parents the children are. "Oh, he's just like his father," we like to say. We find no cause for surprise in this... it's expected. And yet we base our religions on how unlike God we are... we're expected to focus on the litany of our shortcomings and sins, and to accept that we'll always fall short of the glory of God. We're expected to bow and recite and genuflect to this parent that we are nothing like... it's like being the ultimate foster child with a very stern, dysfunctional parent. It makes no sense at all.
The Reality of God isn't father or mother... God is Infinite Mind, Infinite Awareness, the Ocean of Consciousness in which we live and move and have our being. We speak of God as He only because we don't have a gender neutral pronoun in our language. I often use Self, because it describes most accurately our very Real relationship with this Infinite Awareness that we are. All our self-created individual identities veil this relationship, but do not and cannot sever it.
Our individuality was never meant to be separate... simply a current in the larger Awareness of Self, like a current in the ocean. The current is still ocean, and is completely dependent on the ocean to be at all. The current has all the qualities of ocean. Through the act of clinging to separate identities as autonomous and finite, we seem to lose our memory of the infinite nature of Self. But thank God our memory remains, unnoticed, like something so familiar and obvious that we no longer pay attention to it. And when our attention returns, when we forgive and release our stories of a separate self even temporarily, in that sacred stillness we discover our very own Self... closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.
So the gist of all this is that we can have no real qualities or attributes that we don't share with God. We share the Wholeness, the Wisdom, the Peace, the Joy, the all-encompassing Love. God is All-Inclusive. And we (every living thing) are currents in the Mind of God, reflections of the Infinite nature of our True Self. We are chips off the proverbial block, the spitting image of our Source. We are just like Him.
"No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 156, 3:2
When we meet someone's children, it's very common for us to comment on how much like the parents the children are. "Oh, he's just like his father," we like to say. We find no cause for surprise in this... it's expected. And yet we base our religions on how unlike God we are... we're expected to focus on the litany of our shortcomings and sins, and to accept that we'll always fall short of the glory of God. We're expected to bow and recite and genuflect to this parent that we are nothing like... it's like being the ultimate foster child with a very stern, dysfunctional parent. It makes no sense at all.
The Reality of God isn't father or mother... God is Infinite Mind, Infinite Awareness, the Ocean of Consciousness in which we live and move and have our being. We speak of God as He only because we don't have a gender neutral pronoun in our language. I often use Self, because it describes most accurately our very Real relationship with this Infinite Awareness that we are. All our self-created individual identities veil this relationship, but do not and cannot sever it.
Our individuality was never meant to be separate... simply a current in the larger Awareness of Self, like a current in the ocean. The current is still ocean, and is completely dependent on the ocean to be at all. The current has all the qualities of ocean. Through the act of clinging to separate identities as autonomous and finite, we seem to lose our memory of the infinite nature of Self. But thank God our memory remains, unnoticed, like something so familiar and obvious that we no longer pay attention to it. And when our attention returns, when we forgive and release our stories of a separate self even temporarily, in that sacred stillness we discover our very own Self... closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.
So the gist of all this is that we can have no real qualities or attributes that we don't share with God. We share the Wholeness, the Wisdom, the Peace, the Joy, the all-encompassing Love. God is All-Inclusive. And we (every living thing) are currents in the Mind of God, reflections of the Infinite nature of our True Self. We are chips off the proverbial block, the spitting image of our Source. We are just like Him.
"No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 156, 3:2
Friday, March 27, 2009
Too Sleepy to Remember
"But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil." -- The Bible; Matthew 5:39
"Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. You behold the Son of God as a victim to attack by fantasies, by dreams, and by illusions he has made; yet helpless in their presence, needful of defense by still more fantasies, and dreams by which illusions of his safety comfort him." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 153, 4:1 & 5
"Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you. Choice is always made between Christ's strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him. Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great that attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 153, 6:1-4
We've all been too sleepy to remember. It happened to me this morning... a bright, slumberous tropical morning with exotic bird calls and blowing palm branches. I awoke feeling oddly disoriented, looking for something familiar. That's what our illusory separated selves do... they identify with particular things or people, and then feel lost beyond the familiar props. That's because they don't really exist... like a stage persona, without the other characters and props, the illusion of it all vanishes. Where am I? Who am I?
But this morning I am willing to be still... and as I quietly listen, I remember: "I am the holy Son of God HimSelf." (ACIM; Workbook 191) My whole being melts and dissolves and relaxes into this Truth. As ACIM goes on to remind us, "In that thought is everything you look on wholly changed. Let the Son of God awaken from His sleep, and opening His holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness."
I love this passage. It reminds me that regardless of how it all began, or how many times I forget or seem to fall asleep, God is inevitable. God doesn't sleep. Who We Are is a given. Our Oneness with All Holiness and Goodness is simply All that IS. My imagined self may sometimes seem too sleepy to remember, but my true Self is Mind Awake... eternally safe, eternally whole, eternally One. As ACIM puts it: "Wholeness has no form, because it is unlimited."
Our human way is to struggle with everything. We struggle to relax enough to go to sleep at night, then we struggle again to wake up just enough to remember our own fictions, and then we struggle to resist whatever appears to be in consciousness that we think we don't want. What we have chosen to forget is that every act of struggle and resistance and defense is the glue that holds the stage persona together. The illusion requires a story, and all stories have resistance and struggle involved. All stories involve some sort of attack and defense, even if it's only worrying about our food and how it will or won't protect our imaginary bodies.
We sleep and dream that we live a life apart from God. Thank God it has never been true, and nothing we ever dream will change the Truth of Being. Becoming quiet and defenseless returns us to our right mind and the remembrance of all that is True. Our right mind is always One with God, and never sleeps. We can turn from illusions to Truth at any moment. We are never really too sleepy to remember.
"Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light." -- The Bible; Ephesians 5:14
"Defenses are the costliest of all the prices which the ego would exact. You behold the Son of God as a victim to attack by fantasies, by dreams, and by illusions he has made; yet helpless in their presence, needful of defense by still more fantasies, and dreams by which illusions of his safety comfort him." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 153, 4:1 & 5
"Defenselessness is strength. It testifies to recognition of the Christ in you. Choice is always made between Christ's strength and your own weakness, seen apart from Him. Defenselessness can never be attacked, because it recognizes strength so great that attack is folly, or a silly game a tired child might play, when he becomes too sleepy to remember what he wants." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 153, 6:1-4
We've all been too sleepy to remember. It happened to me this morning... a bright, slumberous tropical morning with exotic bird calls and blowing palm branches. I awoke feeling oddly disoriented, looking for something familiar. That's what our illusory separated selves do... they identify with particular things or people, and then feel lost beyond the familiar props. That's because they don't really exist... like a stage persona, without the other characters and props, the illusion of it all vanishes. Where am I? Who am I?
But this morning I am willing to be still... and as I quietly listen, I remember: "I am the holy Son of God HimSelf." (ACIM; Workbook 191) My whole being melts and dissolves and relaxes into this Truth. As ACIM goes on to remind us, "In that thought is everything you look on wholly changed. Let the Son of God awaken from His sleep, and opening His holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness."
I love this passage. It reminds me that regardless of how it all began, or how many times I forget or seem to fall asleep, God is inevitable. God doesn't sleep. Who We Are is a given. Our Oneness with All Holiness and Goodness is simply All that IS. My imagined self may sometimes seem too sleepy to remember, but my true Self is Mind Awake... eternally safe, eternally whole, eternally One. As ACIM puts it: "Wholeness has no form, because it is unlimited."
Our human way is to struggle with everything. We struggle to relax enough to go to sleep at night, then we struggle again to wake up just enough to remember our own fictions, and then we struggle to resist whatever appears to be in consciousness that we think we don't want. What we have chosen to forget is that every act of struggle and resistance and defense is the glue that holds the stage persona together. The illusion requires a story, and all stories have resistance and struggle involved. All stories involve some sort of attack and defense, even if it's only worrying about our food and how it will or won't protect our imaginary bodies.
We sleep and dream that we live a life apart from God. Thank God it has never been true, and nothing we ever dream will change the Truth of Being. Becoming quiet and defenseless returns us to our right mind and the remembrance of all that is True. Our right mind is always One with God, and never sleeps. We can turn from illusions to Truth at any moment. We are never really too sleepy to remember.
"Awake thou that sleepest, and Christ shall give thee Light." -- The Bible; Ephesians 5:14
Monday, December 22, 2008
Listen
"Listen, and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless. Hear, and be silent. He would speak to you. He comes with miracles a thousand times as happy and as wonderful as those you ever dreamed or wished for in your dreams. His miracles are true. They will not fade when dreaming ends. They end the dream instead; and last forever, for they come from God to His dear Son, whose other name is You. Be still and listen to the Truth today." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 106, 2:1, 4:2-7, 9:1
"Let the Voice for God alone be Judge of what is worthy of your belief. Let Him be Judge of what you are, for He has certainty in which there is no doubt, because it rests on Certainty so great that doubt is meaningless before Its face. Accept His Word for what you are, for He bears witness to your beautiful creation, and the Mind Whose Thought created your reality. Let Him be Judge as well of everything that seems to happen to you in this world. His lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between illusions and the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 151, 7:1, 8:1, 9:2, 6, & 7
Listen. What do you hear? Your heart beating. The hum of the furnace or the crackle of a fire. The soft cadence of your own breathing. Perhaps the breathing of a companion lying next to you. As your listening deepens, you may hear the silent settling of the house around you, and an occasional sound from beyond the house, cars in the street or the distant roar of a highway. Deeper still, and even with all the many sounds, cradling them all, there is a well of holy Silence. This Silence is so vast, so endless, It holds everything within Its Love. We fear the Truth of It, and so we focus on busyness, on mental distractions, on constant mind chatter. We fear simply being still and listening to the Truth. And yet it calls to us, like Home. It is Home. And out of this holy stillness, the Voice for God speaks to us.
Why do we fear the silence? ACIM reminds us that when we shut up and listen, the Voice will help us see through illusions, to recognize what is true. We are told that the Voice will remove all faith that we've placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss. "You will no longer doubt that only Good can come to you who are Beloved of God." Wow. What is it we fear, then? The loss of our littleness, our limitations, our pain and suffering and loss? We guard them as if they were our treasure. As Jesus told us, where our treasure is, there our heart will be. Our hearts have been totally committed to the illusion of a little, separate, suffering self. We are married to our illusions.
We seem to be a world of little, separate, suffering selves. Thank God it's just a bad dream. God is All, and God is One. We live and move and have our being in God... and so we are One with each other and safe in the Oneness of God. My prayer for us all this Christmas is that we take time to be still and listen, to let God's Voice be heard in the silence. This One simple act will completely transform our perception of the world. "I will be still and listen to the Truth." What could be more important?
"Give Him your thoughts and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills His Son, as proof of His eternal Love. Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 151, 14:1, 15:2
"Let the Voice for God alone be Judge of what is worthy of your belief. Let Him be Judge of what you are, for He has certainty in which there is no doubt, because it rests on Certainty so great that doubt is meaningless before Its face. Accept His Word for what you are, for He bears witness to your beautiful creation, and the Mind Whose Thought created your reality. Let Him be Judge as well of everything that seems to happen to you in this world. His lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between illusions and the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 151, 7:1, 8:1, 9:2, 6, & 7
Listen. What do you hear? Your heart beating. The hum of the furnace or the crackle of a fire. The soft cadence of your own breathing. Perhaps the breathing of a companion lying next to you. As your listening deepens, you may hear the silent settling of the house around you, and an occasional sound from beyond the house, cars in the street or the distant roar of a highway. Deeper still, and even with all the many sounds, cradling them all, there is a well of holy Silence. This Silence is so vast, so endless, It holds everything within Its Love. We fear the Truth of It, and so we focus on busyness, on mental distractions, on constant mind chatter. We fear simply being still and listening to the Truth. And yet it calls to us, like Home. It is Home. And out of this holy stillness, the Voice for God speaks to us.
Why do we fear the silence? ACIM reminds us that when we shut up and listen, the Voice will help us see through illusions, to recognize what is true. We are told that the Voice will remove all faith that we've placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss. "You will no longer doubt that only Good can come to you who are Beloved of God." Wow. What is it we fear, then? The loss of our littleness, our limitations, our pain and suffering and loss? We guard them as if they were our treasure. As Jesus told us, where our treasure is, there our heart will be. Our hearts have been totally committed to the illusion of a little, separate, suffering self. We are married to our illusions.
We seem to be a world of little, separate, suffering selves. Thank God it's just a bad dream. God is All, and God is One. We live and move and have our being in God... and so we are One with each other and safe in the Oneness of God. My prayer for us all this Christmas is that we take time to be still and listen, to let God's Voice be heard in the silence. This One simple act will completely transform our perception of the world. "I will be still and listen to the Truth." What could be more important?
"Give Him your thoughts and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills His Son, as proof of His eternal Love. Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 151, 14:1, 15:2
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
What is One is One
"Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God's teachers. They watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. Yet they are not deceived by what they see. They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is no more real than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. Unity alone is not a thing of dreams." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 12. 6:6-10
"As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain that the body's function is but to let God's Voice speak through it to human ears... to let the thought of unity come in, and what is One is recognized as One. The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 12. 4:2, 5-6
Oneness seems the simplest of concepts, and the most easily disproved by the ego. I remember arguing with my sister after reading Allan Watts in the late 1960's. How can we be one? You're there and I'm here. Ridiculous concept! Then I had my first psychedelic experience and reframed that opinion. I discovered, with and without hallucinogens, that Oneness has nothing to do with concepts and everything to do with Reality. I remembered.
It has been many years since that experience of remembering, and there have been many benchmarks along the way. None of them matter. What matters is what is revealed as old ideas and self-concepts fall away. I remain as God created me, One with God and every aspect of creation, and have never been anywhere but safe and whole and free in the Field of intelligent, loving Oneness that we call God. I dream a dream of separation and judgment. I Awaken, and remember. Perhaps I seem to dream again, but I remain Awake in the dream. And so, all that enters my consciousness Awakens, too. It's my dream. As A Course in Miracles reminds me, "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy. There is nothing my holiness cannot do."
What is One is forever One. No dream of fear or hate or separation or even misguided human love and attachment can change our Reality of Oneness with God and All that Is. Peace and Joy and Freedom and true Love without limits or boundaries is our Reality. It doesn't shift and change with circumstance, and isn't dependent on bodies or imaginary human laws and supposed limitations. What is One is One. And nothing else.
"Truth must be All-Inclusive, if it be the Truth at all. Accept no opposites and no exceptions, for to do so is to contradict the Truth entirely. Salvation is the recognition that the Truth is true, and nothing else is true." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 2:6-7, 3:1
"As God created you, you must 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 falsehood, and the false kept separate from the Truth, as what it is." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 5:1-3
"As they advance in their profession, they become more and more certain that the body's function is but to let God's Voice speak through it to human ears... to let the thought of unity come in, and what is One is recognized as One. The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 12. 4:2, 5-6
Oneness seems the simplest of concepts, and the most easily disproved by the ego. I remember arguing with my sister after reading Allan Watts in the late 1960's. How can we be one? You're there and I'm here. Ridiculous concept! Then I had my first psychedelic experience and reframed that opinion. I discovered, with and without hallucinogens, that Oneness has nothing to do with concepts and everything to do with Reality. I remembered.
It has been many years since that experience of remembering, and there have been many benchmarks along the way. None of them matter. What matters is what is revealed as old ideas and self-concepts fall away. I remain as God created me, One with God and every aspect of creation, and have never been anywhere but safe and whole and free in the Field of intelligent, loving Oneness that we call God. I dream a dream of separation and judgment. I Awaken, and remember. Perhaps I seem to dream again, but I remain Awake in the dream. And so, all that enters my consciousness Awakens, too. It's my dream. As A Course in Miracles reminds me, "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy. There is nothing my holiness cannot do."
What is One is forever One. No dream of fear or hate or separation or even misguided human love and attachment can change our Reality of Oneness with God and All that Is. Peace and Joy and Freedom and true Love without limits or boundaries is our Reality. It doesn't shift and change with circumstance, and isn't dependent on bodies or imaginary human laws and supposed limitations. What is One is One. And nothing else.
"Truth must be All-Inclusive, if it be the Truth at all. Accept no opposites and no exceptions, for to do so is to contradict the Truth entirely. Salvation is the recognition that the Truth is true, and nothing else is true." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 2:6-7, 3:1
"As God created you, you must 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 falsehood, and the false kept separate from the Truth, as what it is." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 5:1-3
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Everyday Miracles
"Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven. From there the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 11:1-2
"There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I,1:1
Every day is filled with miracles. Everywhere I look, every day, there are miracles everywhere. The miracle of healed perception reveals the Allness of God in every single aspect of creation. Busy or resting, talking or silent, indulging in preferences or moving through aversions, there is absolutely no difference, not the slightest difference at all. The ego's conceptual sense of things is made up of mental constructs that I project, like a movie, with no reality of its own, and absolutely no influence on Reality at all. God remains, All-in-All.
A Course in Miracles reminds us that we remain eternally as God created us... a perfect idea in the Mind of God, Holy and Eternal as God. We are the Holy Son of God, and we are One. It is the dreaming mind that imagines itself separate, projecting dreams within dreams and getting lost in our dreaming. It doesn't matter at all if the dreams are ones we like or ones we don't. If we make the outcome of dreams our goal, we are lost in the dream. The Bible tells us to "Awake, thou that sleepest!"
Every perception in this dream world hides a miracle, the spiritual Reality of God. Every perception. The most mundane task is transformed into a Holy Sacrament when we forgive and release our perceptions, revealing the miracle of God in all that is. Everyday miracles are always right here and right now.
"The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your Forgiveness and Your Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 12:4
"There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not "harder" or "bigger" than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I,1:1
Every day is filled with miracles. Everywhere I look, every day, there are miracles everywhere. The miracle of healed perception reveals the Allness of God in every single aspect of creation. Busy or resting, talking or silent, indulging in preferences or moving through aversions, there is absolutely no difference, not the slightest difference at all. The ego's conceptual sense of things is made up of mental constructs that I project, like a movie, with no reality of its own, and absolutely no influence on Reality at all. God remains, All-in-All.
A Course in Miracles reminds us that we remain eternally as God created us... a perfect idea in the Mind of God, Holy and Eternal as God. We are the Holy Son of God, and we are One. It is the dreaming mind that imagines itself separate, projecting dreams within dreams and getting lost in our dreaming. It doesn't matter at all if the dreams are ones we like or ones we don't. If we make the outcome of dreams our goal, we are lost in the dream. The Bible tells us to "Awake, thou that sleepest!"
Every perception in this dream world hides a miracle, the spiritual Reality of God. Every perception. The most mundane task is transformed into a Holy Sacrament when we forgive and release our perceptions, revealing the miracle of God in all that is. Everyday miracles are always right here and right now.
"The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember Your Forgiveness and Your Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 12:4
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Happy Learner
"The Holy Spirit needs a happy learner, in whom His mission can be happily accomplished. You who are steadfastly devoted to misery must first recognize that you are miserable and not happy. The Holy Spirit cannot teach without this contrast, for you believe that misery is happiness. This has so confused you that you have undertaken to learn to do what you can never do, believing that unless you learn it you will not be happy. You do not realize that the foundation on which this most peculiar learning goal depends means absolutely nothing. Yet it may still make sense to you. Have faith in nothing and you will find the 'treasure' that you seek. Yet you will add another burden to your already burdened mind. You will believe that nothing is of value, and will value it. A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section II, 1:1-11
"It is helpful to keep in mind that if you are serious about learning this course, you must realize that the creation of God is One. Therefore, any thoughts that separate you from anyone else constitute a consciously chosen attempt to deny your Identity. If you think your happiness or pain come from outside, you are denying the principle of the Atonement, which means you do not want to remember it. This is not a sin, but a correctable mistake once you know you have made it. Therefore, you need to become increasingly vigilant for when your special thoughts and actions attack the Oneness of God's Son. The idea is not that you feel guilty over your specialness, but that you become aware of it. Jesus' purpose is to help us do just that, for it is in looking at the ego that we learn to accept the Atonement for ourselves, remembering the glorious thought that throughout the ego's insanity we have remained as God created us." -- Kenneth Wapnick
I laugh really hard when I read the above quote from Ken Wapnick. It is so completely true... and is a great example of how there is always One Who Knows, the Awakened Self, regardless of what the ego says and does. The reason I find it so incredibly funny is that Ken Wapnick has been the object of a whole bunch of lawsuits for being an ACIM Nazi, and for invalid copyright of what many people feel should be public domain, like The Bible. He and Judith Skutch lied under oath and said that Jesus was not the author of ACIM in order to get the copyright, since only literary works by living entities can be copyrighted. Of course, who am I to say what I would do in his shoes? I know Mary Baker Eddy endured lawsuits, too, with people accusing her of plagiarizing, among other things. It's not easy to live in this world yet not be of it.
The point is that the happy learner is one who doesn't take any of it personally. The happy learner accepts that it is all nothing. As ACIM puts it, "A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." It's not personal, and it's not true. Whether we're fighting for or defending a book or a way of life or the desire to be right, we are mistakenly valuing nothing. End of story.
What happens when we value something outside of ourselves? What happens when we would rather be right than happy? What happens when something shiny in the dream catches our eye, and we value it and long for it? What happens when we lose ourselves in our not-so-hidden agendas? Over and over we immerse ourselves in the story of the dream, coming up for air only when our suffering gets too intense. Only when we can't stand it anymore do we think that there might be another way.
The happy learner doesn't have to wait until the lawsuits are flying. The happy learner isn't dependent on the who, what, where, or why of it all. The happy learner is willing to let the Holy Spirit lead the way, and to value only what is Always and Everywhere, for everyone. The happy learner has given up the need to indulge personal comfort and desire... and most of all, the happy learner has given up the compulsive need to be smug and comfortable and right.
"Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from the futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Would you rather be right, or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the Truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VII, 1:6-12
"It is helpful to keep in mind that if you are serious about learning this course, you must realize that the creation of God is One. Therefore, any thoughts that separate you from anyone else constitute a consciously chosen attempt to deny your Identity. If you think your happiness or pain come from outside, you are denying the principle of the Atonement, which means you do not want to remember it. This is not a sin, but a correctable mistake once you know you have made it. Therefore, you need to become increasingly vigilant for when your special thoughts and actions attack the Oneness of God's Son. The idea is not that you feel guilty over your specialness, but that you become aware of it. Jesus' purpose is to help us do just that, for it is in looking at the ego that we learn to accept the Atonement for ourselves, remembering the glorious thought that throughout the ego's insanity we have remained as God created us." -- Kenneth Wapnick
I laugh really hard when I read the above quote from Ken Wapnick. It is so completely true... and is a great example of how there is always One Who Knows, the Awakened Self, regardless of what the ego says and does. The reason I find it so incredibly funny is that Ken Wapnick has been the object of a whole bunch of lawsuits for being an ACIM Nazi, and for invalid copyright of what many people feel should be public domain, like The Bible. He and Judith Skutch lied under oath and said that Jesus was not the author of ACIM in order to get the copyright, since only literary works by living entities can be copyrighted. Of course, who am I to say what I would do in his shoes? I know Mary Baker Eddy endured lawsuits, too, with people accusing her of plagiarizing, among other things. It's not easy to live in this world yet not be of it.
The point is that the happy learner is one who doesn't take any of it personally. The happy learner accepts that it is all nothing. As ACIM puts it, "A little piece of glass, a speck of dust, a body or a war are one to you. For if you value one thing made of nothing, you have believed that nothing can be precious, and that you can learn how to make the untrue true." It's not personal, and it's not true. Whether we're fighting for or defending a book or a way of life or the desire to be right, we are mistakenly valuing nothing. End of story.
What happens when we value something outside of ourselves? What happens when we would rather be right than happy? What happens when something shiny in the dream catches our eye, and we value it and long for it? What happens when we lose ourselves in our not-so-hidden agendas? Over and over we immerse ourselves in the story of the dream, coming up for air only when our suffering gets too intense. Only when we can't stand it anymore do we think that there might be another way.
The happy learner doesn't have to wait until the lawsuits are flying. The happy learner isn't dependent on the who, what, where, or why of it all. The happy learner is willing to let the Holy Spirit lead the way, and to value only what is Always and Everywhere, for everyone. The happy learner has given up the need to indulge personal comfort and desire... and most of all, the happy learner has given up the compulsive need to be smug and comfortable and right.
"Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from the futile search for what you want, insisting where it must be found. What if it is not there? Would you rather be right, or happy? Be you glad that you are told where happiness abides, and seek no longer elsewhere. You will fail. But it is given you to know the Truth, and not to seek for it outside yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VII, 1:6-12
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Moral Courage
"Moral courage is 'the lion of the tribe of Judah,' the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in 'green pastures, beside the still waters.' In the figurative transmission from the Divine Thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and perseverance are likened to 'the cattle upon a thousand hills.' They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompanies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individuality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 514, Lines 10-25
"I am the Holy Son of God HimSelf. I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain, cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do all that salvation asks." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 7:3-4
I love the thought of moral courage. It is like a shot of vigor, like standing in the face of whatever seems to be with calm assurance that all is, and has forever been, very well. It is a complete letting go of the seduction of arguing for lack, limitation, and mortality as real. As the Son of God, we emanate and radiate God, and only God. A ray of sun radiates sunlight, and only sunlight. A Course in Miracles says it this way: "Ideas leave not their source."
As the Son of God, we cannot be unlike God... therefore we cannot suffer, cannot be in pain, cannot be inflamed or depleted, cannot suffer lack, loss, or limitation of any kind. We radiate all the attributes of God, and only God. Moral courage is the willingness to simply Be as God created us, without any need to embellish. No needs at all.
I have had some experiences lately that have given me the opportunity to experience this more fully. The willingness to fully engage with whatever God asks of me in any moment, without judgement or rationalization, without argument or trying to change it... this is the moral courage Mary Baker Eddy speaks of, like the lion roaming the forest without fear, in perfect freedom. And this lion truly isn't carnivorous, and exists peacefully with every other idea. There is no competition among the radiant thoughts of God. "And a little child shall lead them." As the Son of God, I am also like a little child, walking without fear among all people and all experiences, and willing to go wherever my Father leads me. Like that ray of sunlight, I shine where I am shone.
There is no self-consciousness in Being the Son of God, because there is no separate self that needs to look a certain way or appear this way or that. There is One Self, shining through the prism of Life as myriad colors and expressions, Infinite Love and Variety, all so very Good. As Yogananda put it, "God is ever-new Joy." There's nothing dull about being as God created me.
So moral courage is the willingness to Be as God created us, not as we imagine ourselves. "Stand and see the salvation of the Lord." Truly, there is nothing else.
"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All Power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-4, & 10:1-2
"I am the Holy Son of God HimSelf. I cannot suffer, cannot be in pain, cannot suffer loss, nor fail to do all that salvation asks." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 7:3-4
I love the thought of moral courage. It is like a shot of vigor, like standing in the face of whatever seems to be with calm assurance that all is, and has forever been, very well. It is a complete letting go of the seduction of arguing for lack, limitation, and mortality as real. As the Son of God, we emanate and radiate God, and only God. A ray of sun radiates sunlight, and only sunlight. A Course in Miracles says it this way: "Ideas leave not their source."
As the Son of God, we cannot be unlike God... therefore we cannot suffer, cannot be in pain, cannot be inflamed or depleted, cannot suffer lack, loss, or limitation of any kind. We radiate all the attributes of God, and only God. Moral courage is the willingness to simply Be as God created us, without any need to embellish. No needs at all.
I have had some experiences lately that have given me the opportunity to experience this more fully. The willingness to fully engage with whatever God asks of me in any moment, without judgement or rationalization, without argument or trying to change it... this is the moral courage Mary Baker Eddy speaks of, like the lion roaming the forest without fear, in perfect freedom. And this lion truly isn't carnivorous, and exists peacefully with every other idea. There is no competition among the radiant thoughts of God. "And a little child shall lead them." As the Son of God, I am also like a little child, walking without fear among all people and all experiences, and willing to go wherever my Father leads me. Like that ray of sunlight, I shine where I am shone.
There is no self-consciousness in Being the Son of God, because there is no separate self that needs to look a certain way or appear this way or that. There is One Self, shining through the prism of Life as myriad colors and expressions, Infinite Love and Variety, all so very Good. As Yogananda put it, "God is ever-new Joy." There's nothing dull about being as God created me.
So moral courage is the willingness to Be as God created us, not as we imagine ourselves. "Stand and see the salvation of the Lord." Truly, there is nothing else.
"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All Power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-4, & 10:1-2
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