Hallucinations

"What if you recognized this world is an hallucination?  What if you really understood you made it up?  What if you realized that those who seem to walk about in it, to sin and die, attack and murder and destroy themselves, are wholly unreal?  Could you have faith in what you see, if you accepted this?  And would you see it?  Hallucinations disappear when they are recognized for what they are.  This is the healing and the remedy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VIII, 7:3-7, and 8:1-2

Like all spiritual scriptures, A Course in Miracles can be read on multiple levels, which results in what the Course calls level confusion.  Just like church, any spiritual teaching can be used to make the user more comfortable in their own illusions.  They just seem shinier and holier than other illusions.  In Truth, they are all made up.  All hallucinations' only value (including the Bible and the Course!) is whether they assist the mind in waking up to its own hallucinations and letting them go. I love A Course in Miracles because it reminds us of this repeatedly.  But it's so easy to gloss over those passages and latch on to the comfortable ones, isn't it?

In The Bible Jesus told us that we have to lose our lives to find Life.  He wasn't talking about the cross, although that was an extreme example and symbol of the teaching.  He was talking about losing the little self, the identification with a separate self with separate ideas and separate agendas.  He was talking about the compulsion to identify that self with a body that needs special care and special protection.  He was talking about the little self with its constant planning and schemes for pleasure and self-reliance.  He was talking about life as usual.

Nobody wants to hear this.  What little self, with its vested interest in an identity, wants to hear that it is an hallucination?  Who wants to hear that all our cherished values and ideas about how life works are all made up, and simply not even there?  Who wants to hear that we are the mentally ill, every last one of us?  This seems like a no-brainer to the little self... just focus on what you believe to be true, and live as if it is true, and ignore the fact that it keeps not being true. This is the nature of the world, where every hallucination comes to pass. 

But we have another choice!  When we change our mind about the purpose of the world, it isn't about perpetuating the hallucinations, but about letting them go.  And when the only purpose of the world becomes the healing of the mind, then every single hallucination dissolves, and the Light of the Self that is always here is revealed. 

"Is it harder to dispel the belief of the insane in a larger hallucination as opposed to a smaller one?  Will he agree more quickly to the unreality of a louder voice he hears than to that of a softer one?  Will he dismiss more easily a whispered demand to kill than a shout?  And do the number of pitchforks the devils he sees carrying affect their credibility in his perception?  His mind has categorized them all as real, and so they are all real to him.  When he realizes they are all illusions they will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 8, 5:2-7

In the Light of Self that remains, there is only God, only One Self.  All hallucinations are simply the opportunity to awaken from the insanity of self-preservation.  And this is not death, but Life!

"Give up this frantic and insane attempt that cheats you of the joy of living with your God and Father [Unified Self], and of waking gladly to His Love and Holiness that join together as the Truth in You, making you One with Him.  When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing.  There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.  Only your own volition seems to make deciding hard.  The Holy Spirit [the Voice of Self] will not delay in answering your every question what to do.  He knows.  And He will tell you, and then do it for you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section IV, 5:6, and 6:1-6

Who in their right mind would let hallucinations run their life?  Who would let an hallucination decide for them?  That's what we do every day, every hour, and every minute that we live as if we were a separate self with separate desires and separate needs.  But as we forgive the fictions and let them go, we find the One Self is ever-present, and All that has ever been.  This One Self, this Infinite Love, is all we ever need to dispel the dreams and Awaken to Joy.

It Really Is That Simple

"The Law of Existence is Perfection.  Not moving toward or away from anything, not trying to add anything, but every whit Whole.  Everything else is perception, point of view, and is not the Wholeness and Perfection of Being.  Every point of view is the out-picturing of a belief in non-perfection.  If beliefs didn't get uncomfortable, I'd have no reason to give them up." -- Betty Albee

"Altars are beliefs, but God and His creations are beyond belief because they are, beyond question." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section V:C, 7:2

When I was first introduced to Betty Albee's statement a couple of years ago (that every perception is the projection of a belief in non-perfection) I glossed over it. It didn't resonate, and seemed too abstract for me at the time.  But I have come to realize it is a simple statement of Truth that I didn't want to hear.  As the Course reminds me: "You have made many ideas that you have placed between yourself and your Creator, and these beliefs are the world as you perceive it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 4:4

The Laws of God. the Laws of Truth, are Perfection, Wholeness, Abundance, Innocence, Peace, Joy, Love and All ideas of Goodness and Perfection without an opposite and without limits or possibility of change.  These Laws are not imposed from without, but are actually our very Being.  We can put I Am in front of any one of them and be telling the Truth.  And the Course reminds us that these Laws of Oneness are the only Reality there is: "I am under no laws but God's.  I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me.  I suffer only because of my belief in them.  They have no real effect on me at all.  I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God's.  And His are the Laws of Freedom." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 88

Now if your eyes haven't glazed over and you are actually contemplating the Truth presented here, you are beginning to feel the joy that only a glimpse of true Freedom can bring. I am perfectly free of the effects of ALL the beliefs and concepts, the rules and limitations... they are all made up!  In other words, "Concepts are learned.  They are not natural." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 7:1-2 

So we find that we are only under the influence of our own belief in imperfection, which is the same as saying we believe God has been rendered imperfect, separated from creation, and our point of view (our perception) reflects this illusion.  It's crazy, but it's these false perceptions that make up the world as we know it. "Illusions are but beliefs in what is not there." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section III, 4:9

Please don't take my word for it.  There are so many teachers of non-duality that are more eloquent in explaining all this.  What you need is proof.  And the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes.  If you start with "God IS" and "God is ALL"(ALL must include all) and work from there, you will always find that imperfection and all the world of projection is an impossibility. "How simple is salvation!  All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be.  The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects.  And that is all." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section I, 1:1-4

There is only One Self.  God IS, and we are the Light of God... that's our Reality.  Miracles light the mind that begins to forgive and release all human concepts and beliefs and points of view. "You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator.  Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist.  Only the creations of Light are real." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 24:2-4 

Salvation really is that simple. 

"Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is.  Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for.  We do not know.  Let every image be loosened from our minds and swept away." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section I, 12:1-4

Real Freedom...

"There is no death.  The Son of God is free.  Death is a thought that takes on many forms, often unrecognized.  It may appear as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt; as anger, faithlessness, and lack of trust; concern for bodies, envy, and all forms in which the wish to be as you are not may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are reflections of the worshipping of death as savior and as giver of release." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 163, 1:1-3

It takes some quiet reflection to really take in the truth of this passage from ACIM.  "Death takes many forms, often unrecognized."  And it's all in the mind... the mind that imagines itself separate and vulnerable and at effect with the world around it.  The mind that imagines that it would be somehow better off if someone or something were different.  We want to delete whole parts of our lives and replace them with others.  We want to delete some people, and acquire others.  All of these things are the out-picturing of the idea of death, because they involve the coming and going of the transitory and inevitably unfulfilled.  They all involve the serial adventures of a separate body that doesn't have a lot of time here on earth, so hey, we better make the most of it.

"There is no death.  The Son of God is free."  We are already the Son of God.  We don't need to change the world around us for that to be true, or to escape from someone or some situation in order to realize it.  The world is just the out-picturing of the belief we're not free.  That we're imprisoned in a body, at the mercy of a separate world and a capricious God.  There is no such world, except in our tortured minds and perceptions.  Because as long as we cling to the notion of separateness and separate interests, we believe in death.  We believe and experience as true that someone or something has to die so that someone or something else can live.  Eat or be eaten.  Stand up for yourself.  You and me against the world.  There are many versions of the story of me.

The Course tells us that "It's impossible to worship death in any form and still select a few you would not cherish and would yet avoid, while still believing in the rest.  For death is total.  Either all things die, or else they live and cannot die.  No compromise is possible." What this means is that we are either aware of ourselves as One Mind and Spirit, the Sons of God, or we are believing that we're separate bodies in a dog eat dog world.  We can't have it both ways. 

There is no death, because God is All, and there is nothing and nowhere else.  Where would death be?  Outside of All?  There is no death, because we live and move and have our being in and as this All.  There is no death because there is One Infinite Self that we share for all eternity. 

"What time but now can Truth be recognized?  The present is the only time there is.  And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever True." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 164, 1:1-3

Every Single Thought!

"Every thought you have contributes to truth or illusion; either it extends the Truth or it multiplies illusions.  You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 16, 2:3-4

Today's blog post is very short.  Perhaps it will help you (as it helped me through the writing of it) to rest and to trust.

The above passage from A Course in Miracles  is most comforting to me, although to my conditioned self it does at first seem overwhelming.  What's comforting is that when I lose myself in my daily routine, or am momentarily shocked or fearful because of seeming events, I haven't really done more than multiply zero.  And no matter how large a number you multiply by zero, the result is still nothing. 

Similarly, I don't have to do anything to extend the Truth except be Aware.  When I'm Aware, I see that the infinite, all-encompassing Truth of Being is all that is ever going on.  It extends because it IS.  I am safe because I am living and moving and having my being in, as, and through the Infinite Self.  I acknowledge this Presence, and It extends through me.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." -- The Bible; Proverbs 3:6

My Only Need

"God has already done all things that need to be done.  And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 337, 1:5-6

There has long been a virtual cult in self-help circles, a cult of the virtues of self-esteem.  And it's true that we can build our ego up and feel better about ourselves attitudinally.  But it's not real self love.  The love of an illusion of self can only give us the illusion of love, an illusion that comes and goes.  It's the same with loving (or hating) another person... loving (or hating) the illusion we've projected can only breed more illusion.

There is only one way to know the Truth... we have to release what isn't true, and see what is always here, always effortlessly present.  Like the huge dome of the sky, God is what is always here, regardless of the thought clouds and projections that come and go.  To accept that my real Self is One with God and all that Is... and that God is the Source and I am One with Source... and that creation is seamless, whole, and complete, no lack or limitation possible in all of God's Being... this acceptance allows me finally to simply BE.  I need do nothing. 

In this lies freedom... because it also means that I am free to do whatever arises through the spontaneous inspiration that emanates from our One Being.  I am not obligated or coerced or in bondage to anyone or anything.  I co-create with all of Self in joy and love.  Like the sun shines, we ARE.  My only need, and yours, is to accept this and live it.

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

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

Nothing But My Thoughts

"Father, Your Son is perfect.  When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten Who I Am, and that I am as You created me.  Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness.  If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are.  I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.  The Thoughts I think with You can only bless.  The Thoughts I think with You alone are true." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 281

It's all literally made up... nothing but thought-stuff... there is nothing I'm interacting with but my own thoughts.  There's no one to fight with, no one to blame, no one to look up to or to save me.  There's no one who knows more or less, or who has more or less than I do.  Reality is here, now, whole, and complete.  And it's always loving. 

This reminds me of an old Outer Limits episode, where this woman wakes up to her normal world with its normal shapes and forms, with one big exception... there's nobody there but her!  So she spends the entire time freaking out and panicking and trying to find the 'others' that must be 'out there' too.  This is particularly funny when you think about how our egos are always trying to get others to think and be like we want them to.  And they are!  They are! 

Does this mean that we are alone in all the universe?  Does this mean that I am just this isolated ego, imagining and dreaming over and over and over?  No... we live and move and have our being in God, in the One, in the Infinite and All-Good.  It's the dream of isolation and separation that is false, that is a projected misconception in a million different forms. 

In the dream of separation from each other and God, there is nothing real.  But there is Reality... and the one measure of the Real is that it is eternal, unchanging, infinite, boundless, all-embracing Love.  There is no place or time or living thing that is separate, wrong, flawed, lacking, or in need of change or adjustment.  What appears to be so is the false projected as if it were true.

There is only one lie:  that we are separate from the All.  And this is simply an error about who and where we are, a misconception.  And conceptions can be changed, to align more nearly to what is true.  Nothing but my misconceptions, my thoughts, can hurt me.  Nothing but my thoughts of separation and autonomy could project this illusion of a world that God did not create. 

The Thoughts of God remain in the Mind of God.  This is where we are, and where we will always be... One God, One World, One Beloved Self, perfect and holy and forever.

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

The Judge of What You Are

"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.  Christ cannot doubt HimSelf.  The Voice for God can only honor Him, rejoicing in His perfect, everlasting sinlessness.  Whom He has judged can only laugh at guilt, unwilling now to play with toys of sin; unheeding of the body's witnesses before the rapture of Christ's holy face.  And thus He judges YOU." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 8:1-4

Wow, in the last couple of days alone I have had five or six conversations with people who are judging themselves very harshly.  This is of course my own journey as well, so it's a wonderful opportunity to see my projections in living color. 

Who is the judge of who and what I am?  I've taken it upon myself to judge my inadequacies at every opportunity.  I've imagined I see the physical flaws, the mental limitations, the emotional vulnerability, the failures and the successes as I judge them.  These are the false perceptions that begin within and are projected without as a flawed and struggling world full of flawed and struggling people.  Whether I see them as enemies or friends is irrelevant.  I don't see them at all.  I see my projections, and nothing else.  "You cannot judge.  You merely can believe the ego's judgements, all of which are false.  It guides your senses carefully, to prove how weak you are; how helpless and afraid, how apprehensive of just punishment, how black with sin, how wretched in your guilt." -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 4:3-5

But we all know how very familiar and real this false sense of self and other seems to us.  The compulsion to live our life as this false self dictates is nearly overwhelming at times.  How do we stop this addictive and destructive behavior, this constant judging of everyone and everything, this constant assumption that we know who we are and what we're doing?  ACIM says we must learn to doubt the evidence of our senses rather than our Self.  As we cease to judge according to appearances, we "clear the way to recognize Self, and let the Voice for God alone be Judge of what is worthy of belief."

And so we come down to it, once again.  Forgiveness is our function here, not judgment.  We do not and cannot know the big picture while we walk about in this dream world.  But we can forgive and release our judgments to One Who Knows, and allow Him to lead the way.  "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 [seeming] gap between illusions and Truth.  He will remove all faith you have placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss.  He gives you Vision which looks beyond these grim appearances and beholds the gentle face of Christ in all of them.  You will no longer doubt that only good can come to you who are beloved of God, for He will judge all happenings and teach the single lesson that they all contain." -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 9:6-7, 10:1-3

And what is the single lesson that everything contains?  "Let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind, removing the elements of dreams, and give them back again as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.  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."  -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 13:4, 14:1

The single lesson is always that the Son of God that we are remains in God, sinless and eternally perfect and beloved and loving.  And no dreams or fantasies have ever had the slightest effect on this Reality.

God is the only judge of what you are, and what I am, and what all creation is.  And the single judgment is always the Truth about the Son of God. 

"As each thought is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind which saw the Truth in it and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added.  All the threads of fantasy are gone.  And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere.  Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified.  So are you taught to teach the Son of God the holy lesson of his sanctity." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 14:2-4, 15:2-3

This is My Father's World

"This is my Father's world; He shines in all that's fair.  In rustling grass I hear Him pass; He speaks to me everywhere." -- from the hymn, "This is My Father's World"

"All things are echoes of the Voice for God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151

I love singing the old hymns I grew up with... every Sunday for over three years I've been doing one of them Acappella during communion at St. Vincent's-in-the-Vineyard (which is what gave me the idea for the CD).  Some of my ACIM friends have questioned how I can reconcile the thought systems, especially my latest YouTube posting.  This is a valid question, and I am never one to shy away from deeper inquiry.  I've learned the hard way over the years to beware of trying to shine up my illusions with Truth, trying to spiritualize or 'fix' what I am already identified with.  And by illusions I mean all conditioned thought and habitual behavior, including beloved traditions.  They are all made up, and we give them all the meaning they have for us.

At the same time, when we have forgiven and released the meanings we learned from our families, or that we took on as part of an identity... when we have ceased to judge any of our projections and former judgments as good or bad... then God becomes the only meaning of all things.  All the forms and aspects of life take on one purpose and one meaning... awakening to the Presence, and to our true Self.  We have given the world of our projection to God: "Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and happiness God wills as proof of His eternal Love.  All the threads of fantasy are gone.  And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 14:1, 3-4

Whether it's the words of a beloved hymn or the words of scripture, unless we forgive and release the past we are only reading and listening through conditioned response, and have no eyes and ears to hear.  It's the same with the natural world... unless we forgive and release our fixed belief in a concrete, material world we can't hear the Voice and see the Love of God reflected here.  A forgiven world reveals the face of Christ everywhere, and the Love of God as the only meaning of all things.

THIS is my Father's world... forgiven and thus transformed to what is so close to Heaven that the transition to Christ's Vision is easily made, through Grace. 

"Through your transfiguration is the world redeemed, and joyfully released from guilt." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 16:3

Fireflies

First, an apology to all who have tried to purchase the CD or individual mp3s and discovered the links don't work!  Thank you for letting me know... it will be corrected by tomorrow evening at the latest... and now the lyrics that inspired today's blog:

I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems.
-- from the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City

I give piano lessons to my 10 year old grandson, Drew.  And because he loves the above song "Fireflies," I created a chord chart for him and taught him about chords and inversions this afternoon.  He was really excited to be applying what he's learning to songs he knows.  And quite frankly, the song is really catchy and clever... and at times profound.  I love it.

It reminds me of the metaphysics of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and its "Life is but a dream" message.  We would all like to make ourselves believe that we are safe on a slowly turning planet, and that we are awake... but as the song says, it's hard to keep convincing ourselves of that when we so obviously live in a world of dreams where nothing is what is seems.  A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Our life is not as we imagine it."

As I write this, fireflies are winking on and off under my 150 year old oak and hickory trees.  Fireflies are dreamlike creatures any way you look at them, floating high up in the branches or down in the moist grass, like fairies or tiny angels.  They remind me that we dream beautiful dreams together, too.  And that the more beautiful, the more loving, the more innocent our dreams, the closer our minds come to remembering Who We Really Are.  "You are surrounded only by Him [God].  What limits can there be on You whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, VI, 10:6-7

It's up to us, always up to us to return our dreaming minds to God, where we have always been in Truth.  And as we do we know that "These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene." (ACIM; WB 186, 10:1)  Each moment we're focusing our perception either on the good and the perfect that reflects the Truth of God, or on the lies of the false separate self which always claims lack and limitation.  And each brother and sister, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, gives us an opportunity to remember.  And to forgive our willingness to succumb again and again to the seduction of the flawed, the limited, the suffering... the dream of pain and death.

The song "Fireflies" reminds us that beauty reflects the real, but is not the real... nothing in the world of dreams can do more than reflect the mind that's dreaming.  And do we really want to awaken?   

"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
-- from the song "Fireflies" by Owl City

What's Changing?

"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 was just talking to a friend who commented how everything in the world is in the process of monumental change.  My rather surprising and spontaneous comment was: "Not here.  Everything here seems to be hardly changing at all."  I think it took me by surprise as much as it did my friend!  And it gave me pause.  After all, there are a lot of outer changes in my life.  I was just blessed with grandson number four.  I just took on two new cats and a new dog here at the Sanctuary, and a new Quaker parrot may be coming, as well as another horse.  I'm making changes in my websites and the content offered there.  And I've started doing more public speaking appearances.  So what is the source of the 'nothing's changing' comment?

People are always complaining about their lives, of course.  Either everything is changing or nothing is changing... and both seem to be cause for complaint!  So what is the real issue?

A Course in Miracles explains that literally everything in our daily lives, the things we think we want and the things we think we don't want, serve only one purpose:  to keep us so preoccupied with the illusion of life, the constantly changing kaleidoscope of forms and events, that we don't acknowledge that it isn't real.  Our true Self is eternal and unchanging, the Ground of All Being... and the changing, shifting forms that come and go are mere shadows, and are falsely perceived as substance by the egoic, conditioned mind.

The more our awareness of the eternal deepens, the more we notice that there is no real difference in content in all the constantly changing forms.  The quality of all of them is nothingness... and so nothing really changes.  Forms shift and change, the furniture is rearranged, but nothing in the world of illusory forms ever really happens.  It doesn't matter if we move from one side of the world to the other... we find that nothing has changed.  Because what is Real remains in us... unmoving, eternal, perfect, and joyously serene. 

It's the Real and eternal shining in my new grandson that I celebrate.  It's the Real shining through the eyes of the animals and people in our lives that we love.  It doesn't change, even though our emotions may be in flux, and the forms and relationships may shift and change.  The Real, the Eternal, the True, the Love... no matter what we call It, THIS is always effortlessly present, and can be attended to with our awareness in the midst of it all.  This we can depend on.  This will never change.

"As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with all transitory states by definition false.  And that includes all shifts in feelings, alterations in conditions of the body or the mind; in all awareness and in all response.  This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 152, 5:1-3

See and Be Radiant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our Name and Our Inheritance

"This is a Course in how to know your Self.  You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section III, 4:1-2

"Repeat the Name of God and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His.  Repeat His Name and all the tiny nameless things on earth slip into right perspective." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 183, 5:1-2

It is becoming clearer and clearer each day.  The only thing that matters is remembering and remaining anchored in Who I Am.  All problems, issues, and challenges point to one thing only: the false self.  Only the false self, the conditioned persona, can be victim of illusions.  The True Self remains changeless, all powerful and all loving, lacking nothing, confronted with nothing other than Self, in the heaven of endless Oneness and Completion.  It is such a joy-filled ride, awakening.  Such a kick to relax and realize I Am, and have always been, right here in God, God appearing as and through me, always new, always expanding, yet always complete and whole.  There really aren't words in our vocabulary to describe this Beingness and this process of Awakening.  Many have tried, simply because the joy of it can't contain ItSelf, and wants to be shared with Self.  So forgive me the inadequate symbols, and listen instead to the Truth that shines unimpeded through these words.

The news that we are One and the same as God is not new.  Even the Bible has it stated quite clearly:  "I say,"You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless you shall die like mortals, and fall like any prince." (The Bible; Psalm 82:6-7)  Because we insist on embracing the false identities of separateness and lack and limitation, we die as if we're NOT sons of God, NOT One and forever Whole.  And why do we insist on hanging on to a fiction of self that seems to suffer and die?  Because it seems safer in our insanity to pretend we're small and at the mercy of our own dream, than to take responsibility for our choice to live in endless illusion, in a shadowy world of projection and skewed perception.  Because for as long as the dream has seemed to be, people have been threatened by the Truth of Who We Are.

Look at the following passage from The Bible:  "Jesus replied, "I have shown you many good works from the Father.  For which of these are you going to stone me?"  The Jews answered, "It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God."  Jesus answered, "Is it not written in your own law, "I said, you are gods?" (The Bible; John 10:32-34)

We stone ourselves now, each time we let the inner voice that says, "Who do you think you are?" or "What are you, God?" throw us back into unworthiness and guilt.  We are the Sons of God, and God has ONE SON.  That is US... not separate little selves, but the Self we are collectively, with all of creation.  This Self has a Voice that speaks so clearly in our hearts and minds that it can never be mistaken or forgotten, unless that is what we want and what we choose. 

"Sooner or later must everyone bridge the gap he imagines exists between the selves.  Each one builds this bridge, which carries him across the [imaginary] gap as soon as he is willing to expend some little effort on behalf of bridging it.  You will go through this last [imaginary] undoing quite unharmed, and will at last emerge as your Self." (A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section III, 8:2-3 & IV, 2:3)

There is no gap!  How can there be any separation in what is eternally whole and One?  If there is One God, and we are gods, then each of us must be a transparency for the One, and for nothing else.  All that is required, as ACIM reminds us, is to expend a little effort to remember as we go about our lives.  For nothing else is real, and we are not who we thought we were.  The Christ, the Son of God, reflects only God.  This is our name and our inheritance.

"The Name of God is my inheritance.  God's Name reminds me that I am His Son, not slave to time, unbound by laws which rule the world of sick illusions, free in God, forever and forever One with Him." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 204, 1:1-2

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

Spiritual Paranoia

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Forgiveness of Sins

"Which is easier to say: "Your sins are forgiven you," or to say, "Arise and walk"?  But that you may know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins (then he said to the paralytic), "Arise, take up your bed, and go to your house." -- The Bible; Matthew 9:5-6

"I believe in the Holy Spirit [the Voice for Our True Self, One with God], the holy [whole, or One] catholic [universal] church, the communion [Oneness] of saints [those Who Remember our Oneness], the forgiveness of sins [the release of all that appears separate from God], the resurrection of the body [the redefinition of its purpose, the return to God], and the life everlasting [the only Life there is].  Amen." -- The Apostles Creed, with my translation (-:

One of my soul-friends recently asked me to help her to move beyond a literal interpretation of church liturgy.  But when I was inspired to write this during morning prayer, I had no idea how to approach it or even what to say.  I've learned, though, to trust the movement of inspiration, which simply means "filled with spirit."  The Holy Spirit, the only real part of our mind, the Voice for Self that has never lost its Awareness of Self as One with God, always inspires and guides us as we listen... and will always translate the words and symbols of our lives to help us return our whole mind to Self, and to God.

This morning I was contemplating a Workbook Lesson from A Course in Miracles: "Let me not forget my function."  In this lesson, we are told to examine each and every thought that arises, and to realize that each one represents a goal, an activity, a function that we have decided is necessary for life and salvation.  This can be as mundane as thinking we have to eat, that we need to clean our house, or as complicated as looking for employment or relief from suffering through a medical procedure.  We are then gently reminded that these are false goals, and have no real meaning of themselves.  Our only function is the One God gave us.  This lofty function is simply that we are forever Being a transparency for God, Being One with God in every aspect and every way.  That is our eternal reality, and cannot change.  It is incorruptible. 

But in this dream we call life, the way we remember this Self Who is One, the way we return our whole mind to God, is through forgiveness.  The forgiveness of sins is the letting go of every goal, every judgment, every function that we have decided is necessary or good or worthy... the letting go of every fear and every effort and every personal love or hate... the forgiveness of our desire to be separate and live in a world of appearances, where we are at the mercy of the gods of this world... and most of all, forgiveness for our worship of the personal: self-control, self-love, self-aggrandizement, power over others, money, food, medicine, human love and approval, or of any form that seems to say that there is any power or cause that is real or necessary other than God.

Jesus told us that we have power on earth to forgive sins.  Jesus asked us which is easier, to say 'your sins are forgiven,' or to say 'get up and walk?'  He showed that when you really know Who You Are, you can just say 'get up.' But if you don't fully remember Who You Are and you just say 'get up and walk,' the person who's getting up probably will still be ascribing the ability to do it or not to a body, to medicine, or to some physical circumstance.  But if you say 'your sins are forgiven you' and are aware of the Oneness of God and the Oneness of our minds, then you are released immediately from ascribing power or ability or cause to anything other than God...  God, in whom we live and move and have our Being... God, in whom there is no darkness, no sickness, no lack, and no suffering.

In the final words of The Apostles Creed, as quoted above, we affirm "I believe in... the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting."  We've already talked about the forgiveness of our allegiance to false gods and illusory powers.  But what about the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting?  We are told in 1 Peter: 1:23: "...having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the Word of God which lives and abides forever."  When we forgive, we are resurrected from the illusory Adamic dream of separation from God and the death and suffering it demands. Through forgiveness we Awaken to One Self, safe in God, forever One with All, forever One with infinite Life and Love.  This is the reality that our forgiveness reveals... and the resurrection of the body means the body has been given a new purpose that is incorruptible, as we Awaken through the Word of God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit in us.  As we are a transparency for the eternal and perfect, the world (including our body), reflects only God.

This does not mean, of course, that our bodies will reflect egoic notions of perfection.  It means they will reflect true perfection, which is spiritual and inclusive and whole.  The body's new meaning is as a communication device, a transparency for Truth through forgiveness.  And like all devices, it can be laid down when it is no longer useful.  Our true Self, our incorruptible Being, lives on, uninterrupted.

We have the power to release the whole world, through the forgiveness of sins.  And as we forgive, we Awaken. 

"Forgiveness offers everything I want." - A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 122 

Begin Again in 2010

Here we are, beginning again in the circle of time.  I invite anyone who is interested to join in the ongoing study of A Course in Miracles which begins again on Wednesday, January 6, 2010.  You can always get updated information about the calls on my website, at http://www.sundarya.com/ACIMteleclasses.htm.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  And so we begin again.

Beginners mind is a mind that has released its need to know.  Beginners mind is a mind that has emptied itself of past associations, so it can see Reality as it is.  Beginners mind, the innocent mind, is the return to zero, to nothing... and then everything that emerges from this sacred space is pure Inspiration from Source, from our True Self, from God.  As we are willing to let go of everything, of all our human constructs and identities, they are translated and transformed into instruments of Light.

A Course in Miracles begins with these statements of Principle: "There is no order of difficulty in miracles.  One is not 'harder' or 'bigger' than another."  (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 1:1-2) This means there is no human identity or concept that cannot be released and therefore translated, no human experience that will not become a miracle when it is forgiven and all past meanings released.  There is no order of difficulty, and therefore there are no exceptions.  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (The Bible; Isaiah 1:18)  This is reasonable; this is rational; this is Principle.

"Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement.  Atonement works all the time and in all dimensions of time." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 25:1-2)  No exceptions, and omni-directional, omni-dimensional.  No exclusions.  And so this completed chain of forgiveness leaves us washed clean, erased of human concepts, white as snow.  Beginners mind.

"Miracles represent freedom from fear.  'Atoning' means 'undoing.'  The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 26:1-3)  And so the miracle is the undoing of what never was... the erasing of illusory and transient memories and concepts from the mind... and we find in the sacred space the miracle of beginners mind, and the Freedom and Love of our True Self.

"Miracles honor you because you are loveable.  They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the Light in you.  They thus atone for [undo] your errors by freeing you from your nightmares.  By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 33:1-4)  Released from past associations, from the many memories and stories that populate our split mind... released from all self-concepts, we find our Self again.  This is my prayer for us all as we begin again in 2010. 

"Spirit is in a state of Grace forever.  Your reality is only Spirit.  Therefore you are in a state of Grace forever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section III, 5:4-6