Stories and Laws

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's finally really spring.  The crocus started blooming three weeks ago, and now the daffodils are in full bloom and the spring grass is greening.  It fills me with a sense of beauty, renewal, and gratitude for new beginnings in this world.  But for many people this beautiful spring weather has been apparently deadly, with tornadoes and thunderstorms and hurricane force winds in epic proportions.  Is this the handiwork of a loving God?  It would appear we're all under the crap shoot laws that govern the weather, which quite frankly can be very unloving.  Can these chaotic laws be real?  Can it be that we're misinterpreting the very nature of reality and what the projections that pass for real mean?

A Course in Miracles helps us see beyond the seeming reality of projected sensory experience:
"Think you that you can bring truth to fanstasy, and learn what truth means from the perspective of illusions?  Truth has no meaning in illusion.  The frame of reference for its meaning must be ItSelf." -- ACIM; Chapter 17, Section I, 5:1-3

It's sort of like trying to map the terrain while you're walking in a valley.  You're going to have major distortions from that perspective.  The only way to see the big picture and map it properly is to view it from above.  Similarly, the only way to know what's True is to see the world through the eyes of Truth, or the expanded awareness that is called Spirit, or God. 

"The natural man does not perceive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." -- The Bible; 1 Corinthians, 2:14

It's foolishness to tell anyone that everything I see is my projection, and that every projection is simply a contracted way of seeing.  Only from the perspective of the expanded awareness of Spirit doesn the Truth become evident to us.  We mostly choose to remain in the contracted awareness that subjects itself to systems with chaotic laws and punitive judgment.

Every day we willingly put ourselves into contracted systems, ways of seeing the world.  Sometimes we call those systems pleasure, sometimes pain.  We submit to rules and laws that seem unavoidable, because we have a vested interest in the world we see and experience (it is, after all, the one we're pretending is real).  We're no different than my oldest grandson, who day after day submits to the sometimes physically punishing rules and requirements of being a football or basketball player because he loves it.  And he does, as the world defines love.  Just as each of us loves our situation, whether we say we do or not.  We simply wouldn't be where we are if we didn't.

I know, I know.  How can I say that I LOVE struggling for health, or money, or approval, or (fill in the blank)?  How can I say that I LOVE watching the world at war with itself?  How can that be LOVE?  Well, because Love is all that exists, what we're experiencing in these situations are a false sense of what IS.  And because we're really not capable of anything but Love, even the things we think we hate are simply a warped (distorted) sense of what IS.  To the closed mind, everything looks closed, right or wrong, good or bad, black or white.  To the unsealed and open mind, everything is Love.

The laws of God, as A Course in Miracles calls the Reality of things, can only be Love, and thus can only be Loving.  There isn't anything else.  So when we're experiencing a false sense of being, a sense of lack or limitation or suffering, our mind is self-limiting by believing in the apparent sense of things we're convinced must be true or real.  We're willingly participating in a system of made-up rules... laws that limit us and so (we think) keep us safe and normal... even when they seem to kill us.  At least we're like everyone else, right?  At least we're not being weird. 

What happens if we're willing to entertain the scandalous thought that it's all made up?  That every problem, every fear, every pain, every death is a false sense of what IS?  Or even more scandalous, that it's all a form of self-limiting very like being a football player... we are self-limiting by willingly taking on the rules of the game and culture, whatever it may be.  There is nothing outside of mind.  Whose mind is experiencing the limitation?   So whose mind has willingly adopted those rules (laws) as real?  Where are all the situations and relationships taking place, if not in your own (or in my case, my own) consciousness?

The fact that we have never been subject to any law but Love is the key to liberation.  Nor could we ever be.  Love IS.  You are subject only to the laws of your own consciousness in this world.  But in Reality, you are both subject and object, completely One with the Love that is All in All.

"There are no laws but Gods.  God's laws forever give, and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76, 9:1 & 6