No Greater Love

"Do not interpret against God's Love, for you have many witnesses that speak of it so clearly that only the blind and deaf could fail to see and hear them.  This year determine not to deny what has been given you by God.  Awake and share it, for that is the only reason He has called to you. His Voice has spoken clearly, and yet you have so little faith in what you heard because you preferred to place faith in the disaster you have made.  Today let us resolve to accept the joyful tidings that disaster is not real and Reality is not disaster.  Reality is safe and sure and wholly kind to everyone and everything.  There is no greater love than to accept this and be glad.  For Love asks only that you be happy, and will give you everything that makes for happiness."- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 8

No greater Love than to accept happiness.  Wow.  

We associate love with sacrifice.  We think love involves denying happiness for ourselves to give someone else happiness.  We don't notice that this belief is based on separation and duality.  And in duality, someone wins and someone loses.

In the Awareness of Love, there is unity and there is Oneness.  In Oneness there is no sacrifice, because there is wholeness and happiness everywhere, always.  The thought of sacrifice is meaningless when Oneness is accepted and known.  Only our stubborn belief in the disaster of our projected world prevents accepting and knowing what is eternally Present and True.  This is why we can let it all go in any Holy Instant we choose.  We give the world and everything in it all the meaning that it has. Like a movie, without an audience it is nothing.  

"You have never given any problem to the Holy Spirit He has not solved for you, nor will you ever do so.  You have never tried to solve anything yourself and been successful.  Is it not time you brought these facts together and made sense of them?" -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:1-3

I love the irony in the above quote, because it calls lightly to us to laugh at the absurdity of it all, rather than make it all seem so heavy and real.  Instead of sitting in the dark in this theater of the absurd, we can Awaken.

"This is the year for the application of the ideas that have been given you.  For the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not laid idly by." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:4-5

It is up to us to allow the Truth to permeate all our thoughts, all our actions, and all our perceptions.  What we do comes from what we think, and what we think arises from the ideas we habitually focus our awareness on.  This is all there is to it.  We are giving our awareness to Truth, or we are sitting in the dark theater, focusing only on the grim illusions we have projected because we prefer them to Love.

"This year invest in Truth, and let it work in peace." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:7

We who have treasured our painful and crazy perception of a world gone mad, can also forgive it and let it go.  How hard is it to let steam rise and disappear?  Letting go of illusions is no harder than this!  Simply bring all your insane beliefs to the Holy Spirit and let them go.  And allow the Truth to reveal the Love that is All, and Everything.  Let Truth work in peace.  There is no greater Love than to accept this, and be glad!

Have a blessed and holy holiday, and an Awakened New Year!

Questions from a Reader

Dearest Friend:

I just wanted to share some thoughts about your questions yesterday, which are very similar to the ones you had last week.  The gist of it is (if I am hearing you correctly), there are thoughts you are having that you don’t like.  Last week you were having thoughts of judgment that you didn’t like.  So both of these are really the same seeming problem.

Forgiveness is key here, but not as you seem to be using it.  The thing is, forgiveness isn’t a tool to be used to make the human self feel better.  It is an act of completely surrendering judgment and being clueless, empty of judgment, unknowing and not needing to know.  As the Course teaches it, we give our thoughts to the Holy Spirit, which is our True Self, the communicative part of the Christ Mind we share.  None of this is true, but it is what the course calls a ‘happy fiction’ that moves us toward completely relinquishing the imagined separate self. The Absolute Truth is that we never left our right Mind.  But while seeming to live and move in the relative and dualistic dream world, the Holy Spirit will ‘translate’ all our thoughts into Truth (“Truth will correct all errors in my mind.” WB 107).  Translate actually doesn’t mean to change at all, but to make clear.  For example, if I say ‘hola’ to you and you don’t know Spanish, you don’t know what I mean.  But if I then say, ‘that means hello’ to you, I have made the true meaning clear to you.  I haven’t changed anything… I have simply made it clear.  

In the same way, the Course reminds us that if we give every thought to the Holy Spirit, all of it will be used to make clear and obvious what has always been.  The translation of every thought and every situation is the same:  the meaning is always Perfect Goodness, Happiness, Joy, and Infinite Love.  Our True Self has not been affected by any of our misperceptions, just as ‘hola’ means hello whether you know it or not.  

Forgiveness means letting go, not analyzing, worrying, getting angry, or any other form of judging thoughts and situations.  Judging your judgments is just another way of holding onto them, instead of giving them completely to Holy Spirit.  And thinking that you have to ‘do’ something, or to forgive them somehow differently, is another delaying strategy of the personal self.  The personal self will always see personal problems.  That is what holds the illusion of a personal self in place, so of course we are constantly judging.  We fear the loss of self.  Ironically, Our Real Self has no problems.  And from the standpoint of the Real Self, all problems not only disappear, but their relative reflection will either go away or be transformed somehow.  That’s the way projection works.  Either way, you will be happy, safe, and blissfully content resting in Truth.  

Happiness is the only Reality of all things. It’s not like we need to get rid of or change anything (what in the Allness of God could be deleted or changed?).  We simply need to let go of (forgive) our judgments and meanings and thinking we know.  Once that is given, we see that right where we thought there was a negative thought, there is only happiness.  Right where we thought we saw tragedy or disaster, there is only comfort, joy, and laughter.  This is what the Course means when it says our perceptions are upside down and backwards.  “To give up (forgive) all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely.” (Manual for Teachers 4:IX:1:6)

God’s Will for us is perfect Happiness, and there is no will but God’s.  (WB Lessons 74 and 101)  So you see, even the belief in outcomes has to be translated, because Happiness and Goodness and Love are what has always been and all that can ever BE.  The belief in laws of behavior and reciprocity have to be translated, because we are in Truth under no laws but God’s… which is another way of saying that the Love of God, which includes Perfect Joy and Peace, is ALL THERE IS. (WB Lesson 76)  So nothing else is ever going on but this Love, this Joy, this Happiness.  Nothing!

“Forgiveness is the key to Happiness,” the Course reminds us.  “Forgiveness is my only function here.” “Forgiveness offers everything I want.”  “I will forgive and this will disappear.”  Obviously, this is all we need to wake up.  Not a tool, but the only practice in the dream that can never lead to suffering.  Just give every thought to the Holy Spirit, and allow the Beauty and Joy of each moment, each action, each thought to be translated.  Heaven is here and now.  This Oneness of Being must include everyone, everything, and yes, every thought! 

"Beloved Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you.  Who can condemn whom God has blessed?  There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share his shining innocence.  Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity.  Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section V, 3: 1-5

Blessings...
Mary

THIS is the Glory

"You are not saved from anything [there is nothing but God], but you are saved for glory [the extending of the Light of God that we are].  Glory is your inheritance, given you by your Creator that you might extend it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section IV, 1:4-5 (brackets hold the whispers of Holy Spirit about this quote)

Last night I dreamed about a trio of friends, a girl and two boys.  They were part of some much larger community, a typical hierarchical organization of some sort, which was transitioning from an old building and format to a much newer building and organization.  It was a big deal, with a new head administrator and gala celebration in the works.  And as in all group situations, everybody wanted to be in charge, everybody had personal ideas and preferences, and everybody had an agenda.  Somehow (in the way of dreams) my characters decided to kill off the new administrator and take his place, since no one really knew him yet.  The ringleader took on that appearance and persona, with the other two going along and making sure everyone believed it.  Then ensued a series of such ‘take-overs’, where one of them would kill someone else off and morph into that appearance and persona to take their place.  I kept wanting to wake up, but felt powerless to do so until the impostors were somehow ‘safe’.  I kept hoping they would just be happy with what they had done, but they kept it up until they started killing each other off to be in charge.  I only woke up when my dog-alarms woke me, and I felt hung-over and desperately bad and guilty, as if ‘I’ had been the one doing all the killing, posturing, and deception.  And of course, I had been the one.  What other one could there be? Whose mind dreamed this? 

The Course says in the Manual for Teachers that it takes great learning to understand that ALL things, events, encounters, and circumstances are helpful.  Our nightmares are gifts that bring the buried guilt to the Light to be forgiven.  What is the source of this guilt?  Nothing real, but a lifetime (or lifetimes) of believing the impossible… that we are separate and in competition with many others and with God.  Who knows how many dreams we have projected onto the screen of the sleeping mind, with casts of thousands of players, some seemingly innocent and some obviously guilty.  But all simply perpetuate this insane desire to kill off what gets in the way of our seeming preferences, and to cast as innocent our desire to do so.  All the while we are generating the smoke screen of many separate and sleeping parts, when there is only the One, and that One forever Awake and Aware.

This compulsion to create multiple forms and meanings and needs and versions is hell.  Heaven is the unified Awareness of our Eternal Self, the Oneness of Perfect Wholeness and Love without limits.  This is not boring sameness, but Infinite Creation, Infinite Bliss.  The extension of Love is Our only Purpose, and this Love has no object and no agenda.  It is eternally free and isn’t limited to or by imagined forms.  It doesn’t need to get rid of anything, or change anything, or keep anything. 

Every Sunday in my little church, we sing these words:
“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: World without end, AMEN, AMEN.”

Glory is the sheer joy of reveling in the Truth, the Source, the One, that shines and extends and includes ALL.

The Son is ALL that extends in and as the Awareness of that One.

The Holy Spirit is the extension of this Glory even within the dream, as the Awakening and Quickening of this Awareness.

This Glory, this ALLNESS, this Quickening of Awareness of Self is the only Purpose of every dream, whether by night or by day (because make no mistake, everything sensed with the body is a dream).  How is this Purpose lived?  By shedding every judgment, every preference, every personal agenda, every belief in limits and limitations of form.  THIS is true forgiveness and the Atonement.  THIS is the Glory.

Only One Perceiver

"The Holy Spirit begin by perceiving you as perfect... The perfect equality of the Holy Spirit's perception is the reflection of the perfect equality of God's knowing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section II, 5:1 and 7:1

"This Mind is unequivocal, because it hears only One Voice and answers only in One Way." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section II, 10:2

The concept of Oneness is impossible for the so-called separate mind to grasp.  It can think about Oneness, and conceptualize about Oneness.  But if you want cake, you can't eat a picture of a cake.  You can't eat the word cake.  You can't even eat the recipe!  What you can do is read about cake, and decide if you want the experience of eating it.  Similarly, there comes a time even in the most comfortable of lives, when an expansion takes place and leaves us wondering what lies beyond the known.  We want to know what Oneness is, not simply talk about it or read about it.  And we begin to realize that what we think we know is not the truth.

This begins the shedding process the Course calls forgiveness.  Over and over, we let go of everything we think we know, every judgment about how things are, every perception of differences and mistakes and flaws and lacks.  Every opinion about how things work or should work, every rule we think we have to follow or that we expect the so-called others to follow.  We give everything in our minds to the Holy Spirit, the One Mind that all perceived separate minds share.  We do it fitfully at first, but as we begin to glimpse the Peace it brings, we find that we are more and more willing to turn everything we think we know over.  Why would we want to keep what has only given us a world of seeming duality and struggle and suffering?

At this point we begin to have glimpses of Oneness.  There is One who is always aware of the shenanigans of the perceived separate mind.  This is the Holy Spirit, who sees only the Perfection that is All. One Mind, One Voice, One Perceiver Who sees only Love and radiates Only Love.  As we become anchored in this Presence, we begin to realize that there has always been only One Perceiver.  Our tunnel vision simply projected a split world, but it had no substance. When we begin to experience the miracle of the unified Presence everywhere, we become more and more willing to stop projecting.  We stop the projector by acknowledging that the projector has never known anything, while the One Perceiver has always Known EVERYTHING, and always will.

This unified Presence and Perception is the closest we can get to Reality while still walking in a world of seeming duality.  It is what the Course calls the Happy Dream... pure Joy, with the Awareness that there are no limits to this Love and Joy, this limitless Wholeness and Perfection, this Perfect Peace.  And It radiates pure appreciation of the Perfection everywhere.  This is the Kingdom of Heaven that Jeshua told us to seek first and always.  This is the unified Mind of the Miracle Worker. 

There's only One. One Perceiver of Perfection and Holiness on earth, as it is in the Pure, Unconditioned Awareness of Heaven.

"It is hard to understand what "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" really means.  This is because it is not understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, and this does not mean anything.  The word "within" is unnecessary.  The Kingdom of Heaven is You." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section III, 1:1-3

This World of Light

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do Not Reconsider

"In everything be led by Him, and do not reconsider.  Trust Him to answer quickly, surely, and with Love for everyone who will be touched in any way by the decision.  And everyone will be.  Would you take unto yourself the sole responsibility for deciding what can bring only good to everyone?  Would you know this?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section III, 17:4-8

A friend asked why, when forgiveness is practiced, it sometimes seems to not be working... in other words, why there is still no peace with the situation, or why there is still fear, etc. The answer lies in the passage above... "In everything be led by Him, and do not reconsider."  All of us have the experience of going through the motions of forgiveness, of completely giving over the situation to Holy Spirit, and then continuing to think about it and what we will do.  This is reconsidering. 

This habit of reconsidering is so ingrained that it's easy to forget that you are choosing to do it.  Like all habits, it is a choice that has been relegated to the subconscious so it's automatic.  But like all choices, it can be brought to awareness, so you can change your mind.  It simply involves the choice to stay present with your own mind.

"You do not guard your thoughts carefully enough.  You are not used to miracle-minded thinking, but you can be trained to think that way.  All miracle workers need that kind of training.  Miracle working entails a full realization of the power of thought in order to avoid miscreation.  The miracle worker must have genuine respect for true cause and effect as a necessary condition for the miracle to occur." -- ACIM; Chapter 2, Section VII

Open your mind and heart to the Holy Spirit, the part of your Self that has never gone unconscious.  Give everything over to the Holy Spirit, which is your very own sane Christ Mind.  Let this Presence of pure Divine Love decide for you.  Let this Divine Love care for you.  Let this Divine Love take care of all the details.  And because it is your true Self, you will always know if there are actions to take or words to be spoken.  You can absolutely trust this Self, which is all-loving because it is pure Love.  This Love is You, the Holy Son of God. 

Reconsidering is a deliberate decision to forget Who You Are, in an attempt to maintain autonomy, to stay separate.   Never doubt the power of your own holy mind to choose... and it is really good at hiding.  When the Son of God chooses to hide, he convinces even himself that he is lost.  It reminds me of small children when they first learn to cover their face and play peek-a-boo.  When their face is covered, they are convinced no one can see them either!  Such is the power of the mind!

Only when we insist on reconsidering can we not experience the ever-present Peace and Joy forgiveness reveals.  Which really means we have still not made the decision to stop hiding.  Our Reality remains ever-present, simply awaiting our decision to Awaken.

"This is the only thing that you need do for vision, happiness, release from pain, and the complete escape from sin, all to be given you.  Say only this, but mean it with no reservations, for here the power of salvation lies:
          I am responsible for what I see.
          I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide
              upon the goal I would achieve.
         And everything that seems to happen to me
              I ask for, and receive as I have asked.
Deceive yourself no longer that you are helpless in the face of what is done to you.  Acknowledge but that you have been mistaken, and all the effects of your mistakes will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 23, Section II, 2:1-7

Misplaced Trust

"Your faith is placed in the most trivial and insane symbols... influence, prestige, being liked, knowing the 'right' people, and an endless list of forms of nothingness that you endow with magical powers.  All these things are your replacement for the Love of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 50

It's pretty appalling to realize that every interaction I have in my daily life has some element of misplaced trust.  At the same time, it's very liberating to realize that because I am actually seeing this, I am able to withdraw my investment in what perpetuates the insanity.  In every situation, I have the opportunity to empty myself of assumptions, and listen to the Inner Teacher.  In every situation, I have the opportunity to be a transparency for the Voice of God, the Holy Spirit.  In every situation, I can trust in what is True and Eternal.  In all things, I can trust Love to move through me and all concerned, whenever I cease to trust in the judgements I have made, the illusory mental constructs of the world.

"The real basis for doubt about the outcome of any problem that has been given to God's Teacher for resolution is always self-doubt.  And that necessarily implies that trust has been placed in an illusory self, for only such a self can be doubted." -- ACIM Manual for Teachers, 7:5:1-2

When trust is placed in an identity (my own perceived self, or the perceived self of another) I have denied the Real Self, which lives and moves and has Its Being in God, Divine Love.  One Self, wholly undivided and wholly Trustworthy.  The Love of God is tangible and ever-present.  It surrounds us and holds us, fills us and leads us, empowers us and gives us endless joy.  We can truly trust the Love of God in all things and in all ways, because it is the Reality of all that is. 

"Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing.  This is the answer to whatever confronts you." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 50

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

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.

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
 

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Give All to All

"Only those who have a real and lasting sense of Abundance can be truly charitable.  This is obvious when you consider what is involved.  To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have to do without it.  When you associate giving with sacrifice, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better, and can therefore do without the thing you give." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section II, 6:1-4

Whoa... this is really true, isn't it?  I pay my cable bill because I think I'm getting something for it.  I buy feed for the horses and dogs and cats because I think I'm getting a sense of satisfaction taking care of all these animals.  I give to my children because I think it gives me a sense of satisfaction and connection. 

Now the Course is not telling us to stop paying our bills or giving to our children.  But it is pointing out the way the egoic mind works.  Our conditioned self only gives to get.  Because getting is what the ego does to maintain the illusion of separate self, and to make sure guilt stays repressed and hidden.

"The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it.  That is why the concept of 'getting' arose in the ego's thought system.  Appetites are 'getting' mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself.  This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called 'higher ego needs'." -- ACIM; Chapter 4, II, 7:3-6

What is giving out of Abundance, then?  Abundance is an attribute of God, and therefore of our true nature since we exist as extensions of the Mind of God.  God has given us EVERYTHING, because God IS EVERYTHING... literally.  There is no other.  All means all.  So what exists that could be lost, or needed?  Giving out of Abundance is just being natural.  The Course gives the first teaching of the Holy Spirit as "To have, give all to all."  We know that we have because we have it to give. :-))

How do we make such a shift in perception?  How do we change our minds to such an extent?  Our self-concept, our egoic notion of a self, says we are limited, with limited resources, and only those that are careful with their resources have enough in this world.  In other words, our egoic notion of self-esteem is tied up with what we think we have acquired by what the Course calls the 'getting' mechanism.  "Self-esteem in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality, and is therefore temporarily less predatory." (ACIM; II, 4, 6:8)  So we think we have by getting, and temporarily think we are safe, as long as we don't have to give.  Ha!

True Abundance is the Awareness of God.  The overflowing of Being that is our True Self, living and moving and having being in God.  By learning to listen only to the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit... by learning to walk in the Awareness of God's ever-Presence... we come to realize we are the Abundance of Spirit.  Giving is the only natural extension of this realization, because all giving is mental, and of the mind.  We are pure Spirit, reflecting the Mind of God.

"To have, give all to all." -- A Course in Miracles;  Chapter 6, Section V: A

The Illusion of Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Blessing or Curse?

"The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all.  It cannot change what is its waking state.  It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body.  What is alien to the mind does not exist, because it has no source.  For mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state.  It cannot make the physical.  What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 6:1-7

I've been reflecting on what I seem to be seeing and hearing from people around me... stories of struggle with what is really happening or what is really true, with spiritual paths, with physical symptoms, with sticky relationship problems.  I know that all of it is my perception, and that nothing is as it appears.  And so I forgive and release these projections to Holy Spirit (which is another name for my True Self), ask for healed perception, and accept the healing of Atonement.  And as I do, I'm led to reflect on the blessing (or curse?) of this.  To the world around me, including clients, family and most friends, this non-dual view of the world would seem a curse... because I am no longer apparently in alignment with any popular thought-system in the world, including much of religious thought.  They might ask how I could possibly see such an (apparently) aberrant world-view as anything but a curse.

Upon reflection, I find it extraordinary that the Truth is aberrant to people.  We would rather see a world of opposites, with mysterious bad things happening without a source.  We would rather believe that bad stuff really does happen, and then try to forgive it even while we think it's real.  Do we think God creates bad things and punishes us?  Or do we think we somehow usurped the power of God and created it ourselves?!  Do we think all this crap is really happening?  And if it is really happening, what allegiance do we owe to a divine Parent who would treat us this way, or even allow it to exist as creator of all?  If it were an earthly parent, we would report them for child abuse.  But friends, God is the All-Good.  God is the Source of All, and All is Love and Light and Truth.  Where would the darkness or the mistakes come from?  What would be their source? 

"There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the Truth.  It does not have degrees.  It is the one condition in which all that God created share.  Like all His Thoughts, it has no opposite.  There is no death because what God created shares His life.  There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist.  There is no death because the Father and the Son are one." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 1:1-7

There is no opposite to God... there cannot be God and anything.  Why would we not find this Truth comforting?  Why do we prefer a dream of opposition to God, of illusory suffering and death, of struggle and lack and limitation?  In India they call this compulsive dream 'samsara', which roughly translates to the wheel of suffering.  The wheel turns, the characters and situations seem to change, but the stories are all the same.  And every awakened soul who has walked this dream has come to tell us that it's our dream, and it's up to us to snap out of it.  With such good news, wouldn't we rather be happy than right?

A Course in Miracles offers simple yet elegant tools to awaken from the dream.  But we have to be willing to shed our fixation with the world as real.  It is not.  Often I awaken from my night time dreams to hear the Voice reassuring me that these dreams are just like my daytime dreams, and all of them are easily released and transformed.  This has been my experience.  There is no order of difficulty in miracles because only God is real, and nothing else is at all.  There is no hierarchy of illusions, and there are no steps to take to awaken.  Mind is asleep and believing its own dreams or it is awake in God.  And only one of these seeming choices really exists at all. 

While we dream, forgiveness and Atonement allow our dreaming perceptions to be healed and released, day by day.  More and more we walk through our life as one awakening from a deep sleep, where the dreams make no sense at all.  There is no real curse to be found, anywhere.  There is only our true Self in God, and endless blessing. 

"Let us today be children of the Truth, and not deny our holy heritage.  Our life is not as we imagine it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 10:1-2

The Will to Awaken

"The real world is the state of mind in which the only purpose of the world is seen to be forgiveness.  No rules are idly set, and no demands are made of anyone or anything to twist and fit into the dream of fear.  Instead, there is a wish to understand all things created as they really are.  And it is recognized that all things must first be forgiven, and then understood." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section V, 1:1 & 4-6

I've been thinking a lot this year about the seeming process of awakening, and the shedding of the false self that is required.  As St. Paul put it, "I die daily" so that "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."  This beautiful thought is beloved in Christianity, but is also largely revered as a poetic and idealistic sentiment, not as a literal process that requires our willingness.  Even those charismatic Christians who see it as literal still hang on to the notion of a little self that is saved by the God/Man, Jesus Christ.  They don't see that this simply perpetuates their false view of themselves as separate from God, weaker and imperfect. 

And whose will was it that these imperfect creatures exist?  Certainly not God, Who creates all things in His Holy Mind and so eternally extends HimSelf.  The Spirit of God did not and could not create imperfection.  How could the imperfect exist in the absolute harmony and perfection of God, the eternally One and Whole?  So what seems imperfect must be an imperfect perception only, a false sense of what eternally IS.  

The will to awaken is the willingness to constantly release each and every perception that arises, and give it to the part of our mind that remains aware of our eternal Oneness with God... the Holy Spirit.  This is what forgiveness is... and this is the process of Atonement, the interlocking chain of forgiveness that results in the Awakening of the One Son of God, even within the dream separation.

So what is the will to awaken?  And why do so very few seem to have it?  ACIM tells us that "The Call is universal.  It goes on all the time everywhere.  Many hear it, but few will answer.  Everyone will answer in the end, but the end can [seem] a long, long way off." -- (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 1.2:4-5 & 7-9)  In other words, we have a vested interest still in the dream.  After all, it's our dream... and we continue to question how these very beautiful and desirable parts could need our forgiveness and release.  Can't we just forgive all the bad stuff and keep these parts we like, the parts that we're comfortable with, the parts that speak to us of tradition and continuity within the dream?

Our teacher and guide is uncompromising.  Jeshua said, "A man must lose his life in order to save it."  Yikes.  This is not what our egos want to hear. 

How do we find the will to awaken?  How do we release the mental resistance that flails about and questions our very sanity?  I'd like to tell you there's an easy way through this passage, but the Truth is that the only way out is through.  You will pass through this fire, and you will not be burned. 

On the other side of all seeming turmoil is the perfect peace of realizing that there never was a problem... we have always been right here, safe in God.  On this side, we simply keep giving our perceptions to the Holy Spirit and following the directions of the Voice within.  This perfect trust will be reinforced as we are willing to follow the Holy Spirit's Voice instead of our own fearful imaginings.  Forgive and follow the Voice.  Forgive and follow the Voice.  This is the will to awaken.

"A major hindrance in this aspect of learning is the teacher of God's fear about the validity of what he hears.  And what he hears may indeed be quite startling.  It may also seem to be quite irrelevant to the presented problem as he perceives it, and may in fact confront the teacher with a situation that appears to be very embarrassing to him.  All these are judgments that have no value.  They are his own, coming from a shabby self-perception which he would leave behind." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 21. 5:1-5

A New Creation

"Therefore if anyone be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new!" -- The Bible; 2 Corinthians 5:17

"Let me remember that there is no sin.  Sin is the only thought that makes the goal of God seem unattainable.  What else could blind us to the obvious, and make the strange and distorted seem more clear?" -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 259, 1:1-2

It's very early morning, after a rainy night.  The earth smells fresh and clean, and breathes with peace, the way I feel after an early morning shower.  Everything feels new, although most would argue that it is the same world I went to bed looking at last night.  That is not my experience.  

Every minute of every day we are awakening to a new creation.  And only the thoughts of limitation and adjustment that we insist on bringing with us obscure each holy instant of release and freedom.  A Course in Miracles calls these limiting thoughts and conditioned beliefs 'sin'.  And then reminds us that it's all made up.  There is no sin.  There is only mind that imagines itself separate from its Source, and therefore separate from everything that is.

What does it mean to be 'in' Christ?  ACIM puts it this way: "Christ is God's Son as He created Him.  He is the Self we share, uniting us with one another, and with God as well.  He is the Thought which still abides within the Mind that is His Source.  He has not left His holy home, nor lost the innocence in which He was created.  He abides unchanged forever in the Mind of God." -- ACIM; Workbook Part II, 6.

This is our Reality, our true Self.  To be a new creation in Christ is simply to remember Who We are as God created us.  And how does this make all things new?  "The Holy Spirit reaches from the Christ in you to all your dreams [false perceptions], and bids them come to Him, to be translated into Truth."  This is the process of forgiveness which ACIM calls the Atonement.  "For when forgiveness rests upon the world and peace has come to every Son of God, what could there be to keep things [seeming] separate, for what remains to see except Christ's face?" -- ACIM; Workbook Part II, 6.

So every minute of every day we are awakening to Who We Are.  This awakening feels like rebirth, again and again, and we literally are become a new creation.

"Home of the Holy Spirit, and at home in God alone, does Christ remain at peace within the Heaven of your holy mind.  This is the only part of you that has Reality in Truth.  The rest is dreams.  Yet will these dreams be given unto Christ, to fade before His glory and reveal your holy Self, the Christ, to you at last." -- ACIM; Workbook Part II, 6.

A Long Time Coming...

First, all links are working on the CD website, and I have also posted a new YouTube video.  Enjoy!  And don't forget to purchase mp3s or order the whole CD, and support the animals at The Claire Foundation Animal Sanctuary. 

All quotes today are from the Manual for Teachers in A Course in Miracles.  Where no reference is given, quotes are from section 10, "How is Judgment Relinquished?"

"And now must [you] attain a state that may remain impossible to reach for a long, long time.  [You] must learn to lay all judgment aside, and ask only what [you] really want in every circumstance." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 4, I, A, 7:7-8

Of course, time is an illusion.  What seems like a long time coming is just how it seems to us, as we cling to the remnants of personal judgment, guilt, and fear.  We cling to our personal judgments and conditioned self-image (which is nothing but a collection of judgments) because we think it is who we are... and it seems that giving up judgment would be the death of our identity and individuality.  In fact, the false identity keeps us blind to our true Self and individuality in God.

Every snowflake, every grain of sand is unique and individual... no two are ever the same.  And yet their only identity is in the collective.  A snowflake is nothing without the snowfall or the snowbank.  A single grain of sand is useless, but the sand dunes create shelter and habitat.  Each of us is unique, too, but not in the ways we imagine.  We each reflect God and only God in this world, each in a unique way that only has meaning within the Whole.  When we judge what we or anyone else should be, or what we should be doing or saying based on human perspectives (which are simply the memories we carry around as if they were true), we are projecting a false image over the face of Self... which is the face of Christ.

So how in the heck do we give up judgment?  How in the heck do we let go of who we think we are, or should be, or will be?  A Course in Miracles gives us clear direction:  "It is necessary... to realize not that he should not judge, but that he cannot.  In giving up judgment, he is merely giving up what he did not have.  He gives up the illusion; or better, he has an illusion of giving up.  He has actually become more honest.  Recognizing that judgment was always impossible [which of us could ever know or be aware of the full spectrum of possibilities or circumstances, past, present or future?], he no longer attempts it.  This is no sacrifice.  On the contrary, he puts himself in a position where judgment through him rather than by him can occur.  And this judgment [of the Holy Spirit] is neither 'good' nor 'bad'.  It is the only judgment there is, and it is only One: "God's Son is guiltless, and sin does not exist."     

Whenever we're confronted with decisions or problems, it may seem excruciatingly hard not to judge it 'practically'... but there is nothing practical about the world of suffering that arises from these false projections we call judgments.  Each of us will "lay it down happily the instant he recognizes the cost.  All of the ugliness he sees about him is its outcome.  All of the pain he looks upon is its result.  All of the loneliness and sense of loss; of passing time and growing hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have come of it [judgment].  And now he knows that these things need not be.  Not one is true.  For he has given up their cause, and they, which never were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him.  Therefore lay judgment down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude.  Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it.  And it was all illusion.  Nothing more."

I am writing this blog today because giving up judgment has seemed to be a long time coming for me.  I thought I was a very judgmental person, even very recently.  I thought I had to struggle to somehow 'overcome' judgment.  But Grace has a way of correcting our false perceptions of ourselves in the unlikeliest of circumstances.  I am so grateful for every false judgment I ever thought I made... because I now know that it was all made up, including all self-judgment.  Every circumstance has become a happy dream, another way to remember God, and my Self.

"His sense of care is gone, for he has none.  He has given it away, along with judgment.  Now he makes no mistakes.  His Guide is sure.  And where before he came to judge, he comes to bless.  Where now he laughs, he used to come to weep." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 10, 5:7-13

Angels

"He will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways." -- The Bible; Psalm 91:11

"The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 8:4

I've always been fascinated and comforted by the thought of angels, as many of us are.  I've even had a couple of actual encounters with what I believed at the time to be angelic beings.  And there have been many, many times that I felt an 'overshadowing,' like a comforting Presence in the midst of sorrow or suffering.

What I've come to accept is that all forms and beliefs are made up, mental constructs by human egos trying to maintain a separate identity by looking for something outside to react to and believe in and be rescued by.  But the content of everything is always angelic... We are the eternal Thoughts of God, always in a divinely circulating activity of Oneness.  Only the Thoughts of God exist.  God creates all that is Real by extending the Oneness that we are.  

We rest in the Mind of God in perfect peace and perfect joy.  And when we forget Who and Where we are, the angel Thoughts of God hold us, sustain us, and bring us gently back to ourselves.  That these aspects of Self appear sometimes as glorious beings of Light is perfect... they are symbols of the Light and Truth of God, as we are.  That angels resonate so deeply in our collective consciousness shows how very much aware we all still are of our true Home and our true Self. 

I will continue to believe in and see and even have conversations with angels in this life.  They symbolize all that is Real to me, just as my conversations with Jesus and the Holy Spirit help return me to my right Mind again and again.  And yet I know that beyond this dream we call life, there is our True Life, which needs no symbols and no reminders... and that Life is our eternal Being in God.  So thank God for all the precious symbols and reminders in the dream.  Thank God for Angels.

"Wholeness needs no form because it is unlimited." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 3:2

I wrote a little parable about our journey through the dream we call life, called "Follow the Star."  You can click on the title to go to that link. 

Sailing on Light

 "Light carries not just energy but also momentum -- a story told by every comet tail, which consists of dust blown by sunlight from a comet's core." -- Setting Sail into Space, Propelled by Sunshine; by Dennis Overbye for the NY Times, November 10, 2009

"Being must be extended.  The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of God.  Your Self-fulness is as boundless as God's.  Like His, It extends forever and in perfect peace.  Its radiance is so intense that It creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of Its Wholeness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IX, 2:6, 4:1, & 6:7-9

Sometimes I read a phrase or even a word, and I'm transported or returned.  Sometimes it will be a passage of music or the eyes of a friend.  Whatever the symbol, whatever the reminder, it returns me momentarily to my Self.  It can be anyone, anywhere.  It IS everyone, everywhere.  And the awareness of expansion, of inclusive vision, IS our natural state.  So when I read the above quote in the NY Times this morning, it worked in consciousness like yeast in a loaf of bread... 

We are such expansive Beings, living and moving and having our Being in the Mind of God.  We are emanations of that Light, in relationship with It like the sunbeam is to the sun.  The notion that light has not just energy but momentum is pregnant with meaning for us.  It means that just by being what it is, light creates.  It means that the simplicity of Being is our vital and essential function, and that function has energy and momentum.  We are.  We radiate.  We extend.  Just like our Source.

Unlike our material experience with its limited life spans, ideas expand and extend without limit when they're shared.  We're spiritual creations, ideas in the Mind of God, and are blessed with each other to allow the Love and Light that is the core of our Being to extend and emanate forever.  As it says in Christian liturgy, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.  Amen."  We're still always and only talking about the Oneness and Allness of God.  The Son emanates from the Source, and Spirit extends, expands, communicates and expresses.  To paraphrase the quote from the NY Times, the Allness of Being (God) extends ItSelf through energy and momentum that are forever One with their Source.

What does this mean for us?  Or is this just a beautiful abstraction?  Oh, it's so much more than that.  It's an affirmation of the simplicitiy of Being, a reminder that all our human machinations are beside the point.  That whatever we do, wherever we find ourselves in our human drama, Who we are is untouched and eternal and forever emanating the Light of God.  It's not ours to decide.  It's not ours to do.  It's simply ours to BE.

Let there be Light.  I Am as God created me.  I Am Being, sailing on Light, extending as the Light and Love of God.  No other prayer is needed.

"God is All in all in a very literal sense.  All being is in Him Who IS all Being." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IV, 7:4-5

     

Inclusive Vision

"There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before." -- A Course in Miracles; T31, VIII. 8:3-4

"Truth is not fragmentary, disconnected, unsystematic, but concentrated and immovably fixed in Principle. The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action." -- Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy; p.93, lines 11-16

I love that the words 'intense' and 'inclusive' are used in the same sentence, in the above quote from ACIM. It is no easy task to return our minds to inclusive thinking. It requires focus and willing discipline... the willingness to surrender our fragmented , selfish ideas to the inclusive vision of our High Self, the Holy Spirit. It requires the focus to notice when we're not doing that. It requires the willingness to Awaken.

All of this is done in consciousness. Notice Mary Baker Eddy points out that lifting our thought in this way is done through stillness and strength, through stationary power. It's never about the outer, which is only the image-making projection of what lies in consciousness. What appears without is projected, and therefore illusory. As Mrs Eddy says in her scientific statement of being: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; p. 468, lines 9-10)

I was reminded of this in a very dear way by a friend. I was in the process of sending out a letter about some business matter. My friend commented that by sending out the letter in this way, I am in effect acknowledging that I see it happening to me, taking place 'out there,' and that I somehow need something else to happen 'out there.' She suggested that I write a letter in consciousness, thanking the recipients for having already met the requirements... in effect, forgiving their debts... and for the opportunities and income that have resulted for so many. All of this taking place in consciousness. Not out there. The letter will never be sent. Its purpose is not to get anything to happen 'out there.' There is no 'out there!' The purpose of the letter is to return my mind to Wholeness, to the realization, in stillness and stationary strength, that it is all taking place in consciousness, where every imagined problem, separation, or need is seen to be nothing. Whose consciousness? My dream is occurring here in my mind... and in the stillness I remember that there is only One Mind. I can release and forgive my aberrant dreams, the scattered dreams that see separate, fragmented selves.... and I can again welcome the inclusive, expansive vision of my High Self, the Holy Spirit. This all-inclusive vision is the Holy Spirit's gift to us when we are willing to once again be still.

Inclusive Vision is not about manipulating or trying to change the dream. It's about returning our mind and heart to what is true. There is only One, only God, only GOOD. Inclusive Vision returns us to the Wholeness of our right Mind. It is the Grace of God made manifest, on earth as it is in the Heaven of Oneness.

"In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." -- The Bible; Isaiah 30:15

The Script is Written

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." -- The Bible; Genesis 2:1

"Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees. This can be taught; and must be taught by all who would achieve it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 158, 7:1-5 & 8:1

Creation is finished. The script is written. We are complete. Our reality is a perfect Idea, a Light that can't be touched or changed or screwed up. Whew.

Alright, so most days it really doesn't feel like it. Most days we're caught up in the serial adventures of seeming... we seem to be limited by our body, by our circumstances, by life itself. None of this seeming is true at all, and is our own projection, cleverly designed by our longing for autonomy to distract and defend against the Truth. We want to be separate and special, and we want to stay that way, to defend our little scrap of nothing... even at the cost of Everything.

A Course in Miracles asks us this pertinent question: "How long can it take to be where God would have you be? For you are where you have forever been and will forever be. All that you have, you have forever." (ACIM; Chapter 15, Section II, 3:1-3) To relax and remember and BE takes no time and no effort at all. We remain, eternally, as God created us. Creation is finished. The script is already written!

We spend our days giving time and attention and resources to valueless habits and relationships. Through forgiveness, we sort the wheat from the chaff. And each of us begins to realize that "many, if not most of the things he valued before will merely hinder his ability to transfer what he has learned to new situations as they arise. Because he has valued the valueless, he will not generalize the lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 4.I.A. 4:3-4) We don't allow ourselves to remember what we already know, what we already are, because we don't want to 'lose' any of our cherished illusions. We fear the loss of nothing. So we exclude huge chunks of our life and relationships from Truth. We try to keep them separate.

The decision to use time only for Awakening is a monumental one. Are we willing to walk our talk? Are we willing to give our time and attention, our abilities and our relationships, and yes, even our money to the Holy Spirit to use solely for Truth? Everything has to be translated, since this is a world of illusion, a world of distorted perception of what we really are. Dissolving all illusion to reveal what has always been remains the only purpose of everything in this dream we call life. Because there really is nothing else. We remain perfect, as God created us, an idea beyond what can be touched. Creation is finished. The script is already written!

"Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. The script is written." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 158, 4:1-3

Personal Investment

"No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become what he wants it to be." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section I, 5:2

"One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction, or that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring salvation to all minds." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 108, 5:1-2

I've been an impatient person much of my life, with a personal investment in hurrying conversations along. On top of that, I like to be right. So I've learned that I'm not a reliable witness to anything at all. Trusting my personal self to judge a person or a situation is totally ridiculous. Thank God there is One in me who has no personal investment. There is One Self in us all that will judge truly and inclusively, with love and forgiveness of every error, if we only release our personal investment and ask. That is how salvation works. That is how our thought becomes impersonal and unified.

The impersonal, inclusive, all-encompassing perspective of Our True Self doesn't require us to become zombies or robots. We still have an apparent life-stream, an apparent persona, who will continue to make apparent mistakes. But since none of this is ever true, nor has ever been true, forgiveness becomes the way we walk in the world. Forgiveness becomes what everything is for. This makes our personal experiences a heck of a lot more enjoyable, and releases us from the narcissistic tendencies that plague us all... to tell our own stories our way, to judge others as the enemy, to always be right, to be on top, to be seen by others the way we want to be seen... the list of narcissistic tendencies is quite long. Ask any mental health professional. What most of us don't realize is that all of us have a personal investment in how we see things. And so all of us are caught in a narcissistic dream. We see ourselves as separate from others and from God. We are lost in dreaming.

Forgiveness is all about realizing that our perceptions are simply false. Period. And as we ask the Holy Spirit, the Voice of Our True Self within each of our minds, to help us awaken by releasing our personal investments, we find a new world rising before us. In this world there are no separate interests. There are no competitions. There is only Love, and sometimes a cry for Love. And nothing else.

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

"Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven; the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 208, Line 19