Joy for the New Year

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed... and all went to be taxed, every one to his own city." -- The Bible; Luke 2: 1-3

As I was listening to a reading of the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, it was as if a translation was going on in my awareness.  The world of Caesar, in this story, is the illusory material world with all its laws and limitations that seem to bind us and burden us.  The tax is the need to bow down to these laws, to sacrifice to them and obey them and suffer because of them.  Whether these are laws about bodies or laws about finances (and taxes!) or laws about relationships, the result is the same.  We are on a treadmill trying to keep up and we feel guilt if we don't measure up.  So we stay on that treadmill trying to fix it, to change it, or to succeed in it.  Sometimes we just feel the need to punish ourselves or someone else for not measuring up to those insane laws.  It's all the same thing, and the end result is a dizzying sense of burden and unease and guilt, even in the best of times.  

Then, in the midst of this story of all the world bowing down to Caesar and paying taxes in tribute, Mary goes into labor.  There is of course no room for this innocence in the insanity of guilt and need that is the world of Caesar.  No room in the inn, which is where that world says we must stay.  But in this amazing story of joy and deliverance, Mary gives birth to baby Jesus (Emmanuel, God with us!) right where she finds herself, which in the world's view is the lowliest of circumstances.  This birth is taking place right where we are, wherever we are!  No special circumstances needed!  The birth pains come from our clinging to stories of wrongness, guilt, blame, lack, and limitation.  The actual birth is the act of forgiving, of letting go of the burden of believing we are subject to laws of guilt, lack, and limitation.  And the baby (God with us!) is the dawning Awareness of our Eternal Innocence and abiding as expressions of the One Love and Light that is God.  We are that new born Awareness, expressing Love and Joy and Peace.  We are the Christmas Story.  This new day, and every new day. 

As 2018 approaches, we don't need health or relationship or financial or political or ecological miracles to experience security and fulfillment.  "Perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 56:1:5).  True miracles are born of our perfect innocence (ALL of us!)  and Infinite Love (ALL of us!) as pure Awareness.  This Awareness is God expressing in the world of Caesar, and is the only miracle we ever need.  This pure and innocent Awareness reveals the true hope and joy we all bring to the new year as Emmanuel, God with us!  We are the Christmas Story.  This new day, and every new day!  

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

"When they saw the star [when the Awareness of Emmanuel, God with us! dawned], they rejoiced with exceeding great Joy!" -- The Bible; Matthew 2:10

Arise, Shine

Almost every morning when I wake up, I hear a scripture passage from Isaiah that I learned at an early age: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And it amuses me to see that this is how dogs act when they wake up. Have you ever watched a dog wake up? They almost always get up, shake themselves, and exude pure joy.

Humans tend to do the same until a certain age. My younger grandchildren usually wake up joyful and trusting in the goodness of the day ahead. As they get older, this seems to change. As we get older, this seems to change.

But I have found that it hasn't really changed. I have discovered what my dogs and all scripture has been telling me all along... that Who I Am never changes. As it says in the Bible, "The Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps." 

Who We Are never changes, whether we appear to be sleeping or waking, and Self is always light and joyful. Pure Being delights in being.  Sometimes we seem to fall asleep to Who We Are, and we forget to shine.  At such times we can learn a lot from dogs.  Get up, shake yourself Awake, and exude the Joy that you are!

So when I hear, " Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," I know that this is eternally so. That every holy instant, and every holy morning of existence, this is the Truth.

The Kingdom of Joy

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

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

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

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

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

The Miracle

"Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 347

The miracle.  How often are those two words repeated in ACIM, always pointing to the wholeness and perfection that exist without an opposite.  It isn't really anything, doesn't really do anything, never changes and never opposes.  The miracle is what is revealed with a shift in awareness from physical sight (projection) to Spiritual Sight (extension).  It reveals the Spiritual Reality that is all there is, or ever will be. Only the perceptual mechanism of judgment made a world other than perfect and whole appear to exist.  When judgment is forgiven and released, only the innocence of Spiritual Perfection is here.  Only One, only God, only pure Spirit, Mind Awake and Aware of Its Infinite Beauty.

So why would any aspect of mind judge?  Why would any aspect of this Infinite I Am attempt to hide from Self-Awareness?  What part of One Self imagines that there is another to defend against or hide from?  How foolish this all sounds, and yet how familiar.

The great reversal, as ACIM calls the process of mind awakening to Itself, can seem long indeed.  Judgment is used in many forms, in many disguises, always to justify our addiction to the contracted mental state we call a self.  But no matter what we call this upside down perception, these inverted and projected images have no relationship to Reality.  They don't need to be changed or understood.  They simply need to be forgiven and released.

When all judgment is finally put aside, projected images fall away and reveal the miracle of One Spiritual Self abiding and unchanging, All-Loving and All-Whole, Encompassing all that appears to be with pure and radiant Joy.  This is the miracle, the coming of the Christ Child... your own Beloved Self.

"And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." -- Luke 2:10

This or That

"Peace is impossible to those who look on war.  Peace is inevitable to those who offer peace." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 11:4, 1-2

How then do we offer peace?  In our Wednesday night ACIM Tele-class we were talking about judgment.  We discovered that we even judge our spiritual experiences, those moments of Revelation that seem all too rare. This one was amazing, that one wasn't real, etc. Interestingly, it's the very judging and labeling of our experiences that makes peace seem fleeting and impossible.  To the mind asleep and dreaming, every person, place, thing, or phenomenon is either/or.  Everything is either this or that to the mind dreaming in duality.  The categories of this or that are irrelevant.  It's the categorization of every aspect of life that makes peace impossible... because where there is either/or, there is war.

Into this impossible situation comes the Teacher of God, the Voice that speaks in each and every seemingly separate mind.  The Voice is One, and has One judgment that is Its' function: "We are One, not many.  We are Whole, not parts.  We are Peace.  We are Joy.  We are Love Itself.  There is nothing else... There is no either/or..."  Over and over the Voice echoes in our minds, behind every image of incompleteness, every image of conflict, every competitive or ambitious urge, behind every call to struggle and war with the images or people and situations we project and then think we see: "Nothing Real can be threatened.  Nothing unreal exists.  Herein lies the Peace of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Introduction, 2:2-4

This Peace extends infinitely and eternally.  This means It isn't subject to our imagined concepts of time or space or circumstance.  This means that when we remember our only function is forgiveness, we can forgive and release every imaginary obstacle to the awareness of this eternal Peace, Whose other name is Love.  We are literally swimming, floating, flowing, Being as this Peace, this Love.  We have no other existence.

Thank God we are neither this nor that.  We are the All, the Everything... the All-Loving, All-Encompassing, Infinitely Joyous Peace that we mentally tried to distance ourselves from by calling it 'that'.  Such machinations have never, and will never succeed.  We offer Peace because we ARE the Peace of God, forever One and forever extending the Light of Love that shines from the heart of Peace. 

This Holy Christmas Season, please don't get caught up in judging the world and its inhabitants as this or that.  Let's forgive this madness, and see every Radiant aspect of Life as the Peace and Joy and Love that is its Reality.  Whether it appears as big or little, cheap or expensive, good or bad, old or young, cold or hot, enjoyable or miserable, even alive or dead... these are just illusory judgment-veils, instigators of war.  Peace remains untouched and radiant throughout Creation. 

"Like to the sun and ocean your Self continues, unmindful that this tiny part regards itself as you.  It is not missing; it could not exist if it were separate, nor would the Whole be whole without it.  It is not a separate kingdom, ruled by an idea of separation from the rest.  Nor does a fence surround it, preventing it from joining with the rest, and keeping it apart from its Creator.  This little aspect is no different from the Whole, being continuous with It and at One with It.  It leads no separate life, because its life IS the Oneness in which its being was created.  Do not accept a little, fenced-off aspect as yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VIII, 6:1-6

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

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

The Blessed Residue

"Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal.  The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:1-2

"In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create.  The word 'create' is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation.  What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section V, 2:1-3

I woke up in the wee hours last night, inspired to search my mind for unforgiveness.  I woke up with a new understanding of hidden places and grievances.  I realized that every expectation of person, place, or thing is only in my mind, is all made up, and is a grievance.  Every person or organization that I want or expect something from, every animate or inanimate form I look to for anything at all is a fictional mental veil across the face of Christ.  I experienced a flood of gratitude for each insight, and pure joy at letting it all go.  And then I heard the Voice speak the words "blessed residue."  I knew that I was to write about these words, and remembered reading them in the Course, so I asked if I should write them down or look them up.  I was told to go back to sleep, that I would remember.  And I did.

Love is the blessed residue.  When everything is forgiven, there is only the innocence of pure Love.  When everything is forgiven, even the things you thought were problems are revealed as pure, innocent Joy.  This is a spiritual alchemy that has been written about by mystics throughout time.  The irony is that we already know this, but pretend that we don't.  If we open our minds even slightly, the floodgates open and we can no longer pretend that the minutiae of our world is true or even really there.  So we practice tunnel vision on worldly problems and details, and even spiritual questions, clinging to them as if they were our safety and survival.  This is their only reality.  "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 2)

An utter dependence on Love and the Holy Spirit is our true safety and security.  We can safely give our every question and care to the Holy Spirit and know that Love can only give and expand and increase in joyous intensity.  This is true creation.  "Love created me like ItSelf," we are reminded in ACIM Workbook Lesson 67.  We have only to give over (forgive) each thought, each judgment, each expectation to the Holy Spirit to be undone.  And the blessed residue, which is pure Love and our true Self, is restored to creative awareness.  It was here all along. 

"You have not lost your innocence.  It is for this you yearn.  This is your heart's desire.  This is the Voice you hear, and this the Call which cannot be denied." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 182, 12:1-4

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 Light of Strength

"The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself.  No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 92, 8:1-2

Constant, sure, abiding... these are the shining attributes of the ever-present, unchanging Christ Self that is our Reality.  Vacillating, uncertain, always in flux... these are the attributes of the conditioned self, the egoic self-concept.  Sometimes in the midst of the egoic delusion, the only way to give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and return to sanity is to gently remind ourselves that what is true doesn't shift and change, and so this (whatever version of egoic stuff is arising) must not be true.  It's like Ramana Maharshi asking, "Who am I?", and going through the process of elimination... "Not this, not this..."  All of 'this' that the mind can conceive is simply concept, not reality.  When the mind is wiped clean of all its concepts, what remains is the effortless light and strength of Mind Awake, which is pure Love.

Forgiveness is the process of washing the mind of concepts.  As we give over every thought, emotion, judgment, and experience to the Holy Spirit for healing, the mind becomes quiet.  In the Introduction to the Course, we are told that, "The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of Love, for that is beyond what can be taught.  It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of Love's Presence, which is your natural inheritance." (ACIM; Introduction, 1:6-7)  Every single apparent block to awareness is a mental construct, a concept held as true in the sleeping mind.  "Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts." (ACIM; Chapter 31, V, 14:3)

As we forgive all concepts of a world and of a self, the mind becomes still, radiating only the light of strength and that is the ever-present reality of our true Self. 

"The power of decision is our own.  And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God.  To recognize God's Son implies as well that all self-concepts have been laid aside, and recognized as false.  Their arrogance has been perceived.  And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 10:1-5

Back to the Basics

This morning I heard quite clearly to begin blogging again... and to title this entry 'back to the basics.'  What exactly did I hear?  In my understanding and interpretation of it, I heard my Self.  In another interpretation it might be called inspiration.  What I do know is that True experience always inspires and motivates me to inquire more deeply, to be more fully present in authentic ways, and to enjoy every minute of it. 

As I inquire without an agenda, without a spiritual or scientific preconception or predisposition, these are the basics that occur to me as essential to experience the Truth of Being in my life:

1.  Ask open questions... and be willing to hear different answers.
2.  Be fully present with life, and appreciate it just as it is... even when it isn't comfortable or pleasant.
3.  Be willing to be surprised and delighted and transformed.
4.  Take joy in the simple and everyday... but don't be a slave to it.
5.  Take joy in the unusual and abnormal... but don't be seduced by it.
6.  In other words, take joy in letting everything be as it is, without judging it... and then...
7.  Be willing to see it all differently.
8.  Most of all, be willing to see your self differently, without definition or preconception.
9.  Be willing to see through the eyes of the inclusive Self.

These are the basics I return to every day, whether it's through meditating, walking in the woods, sharing a meal with friends or family, working on a thorny computer issue, writing about technology or music or spirituality, or playing with my animals or grandchildren.  It's all of a piece.  There is no real separation... just categories of mind and consciousness that I have defined and that weave in and out of experience.  It's up to me to return to the basics so I can live fully in an awareness of inclusivity, of my true Self that is all of it and more.  How do I know?  Back to the basics... inquiry and experience are the only true tests.  Everything else is simply hearsay.

Perfect Happiness

"God's Will for me is perfect happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101

"I share God's Will of happiness for me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 102

"There is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 74

Reason tells us that Omnipresent God, Source, our Infinite and Eternal Creator must be perfect, whole, and complete.  So if there is only One Infinite, Eternal Source, where did imperfection come from?  We seem to find flaws and problems and imperfection everywhere we look, especially in ourselves.  But if Omnipresent God is One, Perfect, and Whole, then I can only reflect God's Will, which is God's Being.  Omnipresent, Infinite and Eternal means there can be nothing else, no 'other' Will but God's.

Religionists who believe in sin and redemption will argue that it's some sort of holy test in which we are learning to become like God.  But where the heck did a creation unlike its Creator come from?  What would be its source?  Every suffering and sorrow in the world can be traced back to this belief in a bad seed, a seed that produces something totally unintended and unlike its source.  But look at the natural world.  Does a lettuce seed produce turnips???

Jesus once compared the Kingdom to a mustard seed.  He also told us the Kingdom of Heaven is already IN us.  A mustard seed already has everything that it is and will be within it.  Like all ideas in the mind of God it is self-full, complete and self-fulfilling.  Once planted, its happiness is that unfolding, that becoming, the extending of being in infinite variety, but always of the essence of its Creator.  It's never the form that is perfect... form is constantly changing and flowing into new form, in endless celebration of the perfection at the heart of it all.

What Jesus showed us is how to stop obsessing about form.  He demonstrated over and over that when you know God as your Self, and as the Self of everyone and everything, you see this perfection at the core of all Being.  And then the forms that change and flow are seen to reflect this perfection as they change and flow.  Perfection has nothing to do with your concept of perfection.  Perfection is Wholeness of Being, and Perfect Happiness... not something you 'have' but something you BE.  Something you already are and have always been. 

This seed of happiness that is the core of everything, is pure joy.  This bubbling well of joy that is in you and in me, IS perfect happiness.

"God, being Love, is also happiness."  A Course in Miracles; Workbook 103 

Altered States

"The opportunity of spiritual awakening, enlightenment and Self-realization is that what we call the mind is stilled.  Since we are no longer misidentified with thought as our true identity, then thought [ego] can no longer use us.  The ego [thought] and its push and pull strategies are finished.  Instead, the altered state of consciousness that appears to be ego dissolves, to reveal the pure Awareness that really IS.  The mind then becomes the willing servant of Truth; the Heart of unconditional Love and perfect Peace and Joy." -- Katie Davis

When I read the above quote, it struck me first because she equates thought with ego, which is also what A Course in Miracles teaches.  I also loved it because the term 'altered states' has been so extensively used to describe mystical, spiritual experiences.  But how can you alter what is real and eternal?  The altered states must actually be those that seem to alter Reality, that seem to be separate from the One, that seem to produce thoughts and feelings and experiences that are other than Good, other than God.  Of course!  And the only thing that can think it is separate from Allness is a thought.  The egoic notion of self is simply a thought, an identification with thought and its images (projections) as self.

As a child of the 60's and long-time spiritual dilettante, I was a major worshiper of altered states... of spiritual experiences and the Truth I thought they pointed to.  What a shock to realize I was really worshiping images, like any other image, no more 'spiritual' than any other projection.  I was seeking a concept of awakening, a thought, always another and higher thought.  The seeking of altered states of consciousness is itself the egoic notion of something 'other' or 'better' or 'higher'.  When right here, silently Present and Aware, our Self IS unaltered, infinite Perfection.

It takes a lot of letting go to begin to realize that a projector simply projects images, and that those images are all the same.  The projector and the images are neutral... they're nothing substantial at all.   All images and the thoughts they reflect have one thing in common... they're not really here.  Once we put the projector and its images away, there's nothing here but pure Awareness, the Truth of Being.  And this Perfect Awareness then becomes the Source of any images reflected while we remain as seemingly separate entities.  Because the Source is True, the images reflected become closer and closer to Reality. 

So like children coming in from a day of make-believe, let's lay aside the thinking mind, letting go of all compulsion to seek altered states of consciousness.  Instead, let's simply come in, always inward, and sit in silent contentment with the Love and Perfection that is our true Self.  This inner vigil, this resting in our God-Self... this is the only natural state there is.

"All this can very simply be reduced to this: "What is the same can not be different [can not be altered!], and what is One can not have separate parts." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 7:6-7

In Our Own Image

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Take Joy in It!

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

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

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

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

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

Meaning and Emptiness

Good Sunday morning to you... or whenever you happen to be reading this post.  I know those of you who subscribe via e-mail often receive it the next day.  The good news is that it's all good.  Which brings us to the topic that inspired this post... meaning and emptiness. 

A Course in Miracles tells us that there is nothing the world fears more than meaninglessness.  We fear emptiness so much that we make up stories and meanings to fill every perceived space.  The first few lessons in the ACIM Workbook begin to help us understand how this compulsion works.  "Nothing I see or think means anything.  I've given it all the meaning it has." But first, let's look at the supposed emptiness we fear.

In eastern spiritual traditions, from Buddhism to Taoism to Sufism and Hinduism, emptiness is equated with divinity.  In Hawaiian ho'oponono, zero is equated with the divine.  From a scientific standpoint, when I was in high school they taught that outer space was a vacuum, and that a vacuum tube was one where every bit of air was sucked out of it... so that of course meant that outer space was a void, with nothing alive in it.  Ha!  Now we know that there is a Field, often called Einstein's Field, of scalar energy that is the real content of every bit of space and everything else.  The thing is, scalar energy can't be measured because it doesn't do anything.  It's also called still point or standing wave energy.  It is the apparent source of everything, the Field out of which all that is arises, but it's a... well, it's a zero. 

You can also understand scalar energy from the concept of phase cancellation, an acoustical principle which simply says that two sound waves that are polar opposites cancel each other out when played simultaneously... in other words, both sounds are playing, but nothing is heard.  They are reportedly using this principle to address noise pollution in the Japanese subway system.  Scalar energy then is a more all-embracing understanding of this principle.  Everything in the supposedly 'material' world is energy, or appears to be... and so every energy has a frequency and can be measured.  And every measurable frequency has a polar opposite frequency.  When these two opposites are brought together, the result is zero, stillpoint, or what they call a standing wave.  My understanding of what is really happening is that when opposites are brought together, Reality is briefly glimpsed... the Reality of Spirit behind everything that seems to exist.

Why do we so fear the Truth that everything is really Spirit... not just spiritual, but literally Spirit?  Because we think that makes the material world we continually project meaningless, or evil, or wrong?  It doesn't... it just means we're making believe.  Or is it because, like little children, we don't want our playtime interrupted?  I've learned to notice carefully the perceptual temper tantrums I seem to experience.  They clue me in on what aspect of my own dream I'm using to hide from Reality.

A Course in Miracles tells it like it is:  "It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there.  This idea can be quite disturbing and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms.  Yet that does not preclude applying it.  No more than that is required for these or any other exercises.  Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 9, 2:1-5)  The debris is always and only our own stories, beliefs, and meanings.  There is nothing else 'darkening' our minds.

One of my grandsons, Tripp Michael, is now three years old.  It's nearly impossible to keep his room clean, because as soon as you put all his leggos, cars and trucks away, he compulsively empties them all out onto the floor again.  He wants them where he can see them, play with them or not, and manipulate them as he sees fit.  More likely than not, he simply ignores them then... but he wants them when he wants them.  I love this, because it's such a mirror for what I do, what we all do mentally, and why true forgiveness is so challenging for us. 

We empty our minds temporarily when we meditate, but we really are just compartmentalizing, like stuffing those leggos in a corner until we want them.  We may go through the motions of giving our perceptions to Holy Spirit to be corrected, but we really just hope for spiritual brownie points as we cling to our ideas about what seems to be going on.  We really are like small children with our own perceptions.  We cling to them as if they were who we are.   They are not.

I began this post by pointing out that it's all good.  I should clarify.  I use goodness not in the sense of a judgment, good or not good.  Good is a synonym for God.  It's all God.  It's all Spirit.  There is nothing else.  The world as we imagine it is actually nothing at all.  And this is what we fear most.

But fear not, for I bring you Good News, tidings of Great Joy (also a synonym for God).  Your imagined sins and your imagined brownie points are all forgiven you (they never happened)... and behind every perception, every meaning, every belief lies the immeasurable Reality, the all-embracing Love that lives us, forever.  Our Reality is safe in this supposed emptiness.  So don't try to fill the emptiness with new or different stories, or seek for meaning in them.  Rest in the Silent Expansiveness of your True Self.  And then let Self lead your life, and give a new meaning to all that seemed to be.

I'm closing this post with a quote from the biblical book of Revelation... not only because it is an often misunderstood quote, but because ACIM defines revelation as the actual experience of God, which is beyond words or meaning.  And so it is.

"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying; neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.  And He that sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." And He said unto me, "Write, for these words are true and faithful." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:4-5