Being Perfect

"The children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes from perfect trust.  God and His creations are completely dependent on Each Other.  He depends on them because He created them perfect." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section III, 5:1, 6-7

"Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect." -- The Bible; Matthew 5:48

Definition of the word perfect:  

• being entirely without fault or defect 
• absolute; unequivocal
• faithfully reproducing the original
• lacking in no essential detail; complete 
  

Wow.  I can feel myself relaxing.  Relaxing in perfect trust.  Resting in perfection.  An unshakeable certainty of inseparable Oneness with the Love Intelligence and Infinite Goodness that is God. Completeness and fulfillment that never changes.  Wow.

Who are we, that we should be entitled to all this, and more?

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, NOW we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." -- The Bible; 1 John 3:1-2  

How many times a day do our thoughts about ourselves and others shift and change?  From liking to not-liking, from kindness and acceptance to judging and blaming, from grandiose aspirations to morose regrets, we are like mental yo-yo's in the ever-shifting concept of self and other. These images are not who we are!  They are mental constructs, projections with no substance.   

The good news is that Being Perfect has nothing to do with who and what we imagine ourselves to be as bodies and personalities.  Being and Perfection are the Reality of God, which is Principle.  Like an axiom in mathematics, it is a given, an unchanging Principle.  This is our Spiritual Reality!  Our Reality is forever perfect and unchanging in the Mind of God, radiant with Love and Light and Life.  Unchanging.  Joyous.  Free of all limits.  Pure Love.  Encompassing all with our Love and Light and Life.  Being Perfect is our natural state. 

"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 

No Greater Love

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

No greater Love than to accept happiness.  Wow.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Rule of Law

"You will attack what does not satisfy, and thus will not see you made it up.  You always fight illusions.  For the Truth behind them is so lovely and so still in Loving gentleness, were you aware of it you would forget defensiveness entirely, and rush to its embrace." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 1:2-3

Only One.  One Love, One Life, One Mind, One Self.  There are multiple workbook lessons in a Course in Miracles dedicated to this thought, and it is repeated over and over again in the Course, in different ways. There are no laws but Gods.  There is no will but Gods.  There is no love but Gods.  My mind is part of Gods Mind, and I am very holy.  Only One.  Always One.

Our suffering all comes from the belief in other.  We believe there is God, good, certainly... but then there is that which is other than God, other than good, the human creations of sin and suffering and lack and limitation. In our arrogance, we dream of a life other than God. And we suffer from those beliefs, from the dream of a separate life with the rule of law that seems to support man made values and roles that are always selfish and self-serving, and always shifting and changing to hide their nothingness. The rule of law in the world as we dream it has no meaning and no consistency. It is all made up, and based on nothing.

"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.  They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them.  But then they fall and cannot rise again.  They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them.  Their dancing never brought you joy.  But neither were they things to frighten you, nor make you safe if they obeyed your rules.  They must be neither cherished nor attacked, but merely looked upon as children's toys without a single meaning of their own.  See one in them, and you will see meaning in them all.  See none in them, and they will touch you not." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4

So whenever I look out on a world that seems to have gone mad... whenever I seem to see beliefs and laws that are so selfish and unfair it boggles the mind... whenever I am tempted to despair at the bluster and noise and rampant fear... I need only remember that there is only One Creation, and that is Gods.  In it all things are held in perfect Love, in perfect Oneness that is eternally safe and secure, right where the insanity seems to be.  The real meaning of it all is God, the All-Good.  When I project other, I have given this meaning based on false human assumptions, rather than resting in the One Self, the One Loving meaning that all creation shares.

"Salvation is a paradox indeed!  What could it be except a happy dream?  It asks you but that you forgive all things that no one ever did; to overlook what is not there, and not to look upon the unreal as reality.  Such is the only rule for the happy dream." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 7:1-3 and 8:7

The real rule of law is this:  "I am One Self, united with my Creator, at One with every aspect of Creation, and limitless in Power and in Peace." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 95)  

In this awareness all lesser laws are revealed to be nothing at all. 

Join us for our ACIM Teleclass each Wednesday evening.  Call in information is always available at http://www.sundarya.com/acimteleclass.htm
 

Undivided

"Only Love is strong, because it is undivided." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section V, 1:1

The current atmosphere in the world can only be described as fragmented, divisive, and competitive.  How can we even conceive of a world where there is One Mind, One Purpose, where Love and Joy and Peace are our shared and constant state of Being?

A Course in Miracles tells us that our purpose becomes unified when we share a common goal.  And when the goal is undivided, the means and end are in complete accord.  "You need offer only  undivided attention" to that goal, it reminds us.  There's that word again... 'undivided.'  The Course points out over and over again that this unification of purpose, regardless of seeming circumstances, is what allows our mind to return to sanity, to awareness of Oneness. Undivided. 

So everything is returned to holiness and Wholeness by this simple unification of Purpose.  No longer is the purpose of fixing dinner to feed a body.  It is to remember that our true Self is pure, undivided Love, eternally Whole and Complete, and we participate in this world to joyously remember the Love that we are.  This is our only Purpose.  No longer do we interact with others to get something.  Our holy Purpose is always to see the One Love that we are in all things and all Beings.  Our holy Purpose is to let the Love that we are be the guiding Force in our lives, because only Love is strong in Oneness.  Only Love is undivided.

In a world where unity has different meanings to different people in vastly differing cultures, Unity is still possible.  But not out there.  Only in the heart of each of us can Love be Love.  Only by making this return to Oneness our only Purpose can we experience Oneness in the  midst of seeming insanity.

So every time we are tempted to judge the world as it appears, let's remember to ask, "What is it for?"  This reminds us that, in Truth, everything shares one purpose, without exception.  This returns our undivided attention to the One Goal that all things share, and lets the undivided strength of Love be reflected in the most unlikely of places.  Every time we remember to ask, "What is it for?" we always receive the same answer.  Our unified Purpose is to remember that God, Love, is All. There is only God, only Love, no matter how it appears. Which means that right where I seem to be, as a separate self with separate agendas and purposes, there is only the One Self that we share in God.  One Self, One Light, One Love, reflected everywhere.  Undivided.

"You need offer only undivided attention.  Everything else will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section V, 9:4-5

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

This World of Light

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Accept and Give Miracles

"You are entitled to miracles because of what you are.  You will receive miracles because of what God is.  And you will offer miracles because you are One with God. Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself.  It does not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself, nor on any of the rituals you have devised.  It is inherent in the Truth of what you are.  It was ensured in your creation, and guaranteed by the laws of God." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 77

"I am under no laws but God's.  There are no laws but God's." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 76

I am inspired to offer this as a day of miracles.  Instead of the world we think we see, we are entitled to the miracle of healed perception.  This is my only prayer for each and every one of us. 

"Hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the Truth to you.  You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of God.  Payment is neither given nor received.  Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes, and nothing is replaced by something else.  God's laws forever give and never take." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 76

We claim miracles for ourselves whenever and wherever we find ourselves forgetting Who We Are.  And we give and share miracles as the Voice directs... always in overflowing Love and Gratitude for the Allness and Oneness we share. 

"Ask for them whenever a situation arises in which they are called for.  You will recognize these situations.  And since you are not relying on yourself to find the miracle, you are fully entitled to receive it whenever you ask." -- ACIM; Workbook Lesson 77

Accept miracles today.  And give them freely.  This is your natural vocation.

"Let us today open God's channels to Him, and let His Will extend through us." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76

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

Sharing and Ownership

"There are no strange images in the Mind of God, and what is not in His Mind cannot be in yours, because you are of One Mind, and that Mind belongs to Him.  It is yours because it belongs to Him, for to Him ownership is sharing.  And if it is so for Him, it is so for you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 10, Section IV, 6:2-4

It's always amazing to me that after all these years, I still find sections of the Course that blow me away, as if I've never read them before.  And this in spite of the heavy underlining and highlighting that shows I did indeed read it and find it important.  But how could I miss the import of the statement, "It is yours because it belongs to Him, for to him ownership is sharing."  There's no putting a spin on this statement.  And then this morning I read in Workbook Lesson 106, "Thus does salvation start and thus it ends: when everything is yours, and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever."  It doesn't say some things are given away... it states everything.  And promises that because we give it away, we have it forever.

This is obviously not the way the world seems to work, and it certainly is not the way we have been taught to understand giving and receiving.  It's radical and blunt... whatever we have must belong to all, because to God ownership is sharing, and so it must be for us.  The Course tells us over and over in so many ways that to have, we have to give.  Not giving to get, but giving because it's Who We Are... the outpouring of unconditioned and unconditional Love that simply extends for eternity.

I've always had the tendency to be idealistic and non-materialistic, as a child of the 60's and a life-long lover of the Spiritual.  I remember as a youth being inspired by the book, Stranger in a Strange Land, with its message of Love without limits and sharing without boundaries.  But all of my ideas and concepts through the years still centered on the notion of me in a body, and other people in the form of their bodies, attempting to share and love in a world of limitation and competition.  It never works.  These are the strange images the opening quotation refers to... images of discrete forms that seem to divide and limit the Oneness of Spirit.  But no such strange images exist in the Real World.

The Course reminds us that we are not bodies... we are pure Spirit, the image and reflection of God:  "I am as God created me." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 110) and "Spirit am I, a holy Son of God; free of all limits, safe and healed and whole; free to forgive, and free to save the world." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 97, 7:2)  The dream world of strange images seems to come and go, seems to enjoy or seems to suffer.  But consider all your night dreaming over the years.  You have had dreams of every description, and have lived and died many times and in many ways.  You have defied the seeming laws of the world, and failed and triumphed again and again.  And yet, what real effects have any of those dreams had?  Not one dream was ever cause of anything, and none of the seeming effects survived your waking.  No dream analysis has ever done anything except give us a new story to tell.  Our 'past lives' in dreams have absolutely no effect.. they are just dreams. 

The really good news is that our supposed waking life is another layer of dreaming.  "Hear the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises: You are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him.  Nothing else exists and only this is Real.  You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake.  There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken.  Your dreams contain many of the ego's symbols, and they have confused you.  Yet that was only because you were asleep and did not know.  When you wake you will see the Truth around you and in you, and you will no longer believe in dreams because they will have no reality for you." (ACIM Chapter 6, Section IV, 6:1-7)

Our Reality is the unified Oneness of Spirit, the unconditioned Awareness of One Self, One Mind, One Life and Love.  Competition and ownership cease to have meaning in Oneness, for who would have more than another?  Who in Oneness could possibly know anything other than perfect sharing with All?  And what could be lacking in All? Our dreaming mind has imagined a self that is split into infinite pieces, projecting infinite dreams of competition, striving, ownership, and struggle... always in the vain attempt to reclaim for the split self the sense of wholeness and completion that seems to be lost in separation.  The joke is that we never lost the Wholeness and Perfection we seek.  And we regain our memory of our True Self by giving... as we give, as we share, as we no longer seek to divide and keep divided bits of life to ourselves through ownership, we re-discover the infinite Being that we are.

"God gave you all there is.  And to be sure you could not lose it, did He also give the same to every living thing as well.  And thus is every living thing a part of you, as of HimSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VIII, 9:7-9

Forgiveness Is the Miracle

"It must be true the miracle can heal all forms of sickness, or it cannot heal.  Its purpose cannot be to judge which forms are real, and which appearances are true.  If one appearance must remain apart from healing, one illusion must be part of truth.  And you could not escape guilt, but only some of it.  You must forgive God's Son entirely.  Or you will keep an image of yourself that is not whole, and will remain afraid to look within and find escape from every idol there.  Salvation rests on faith there cannot be some forms of guilt that you cannot forgive." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section VI, 7:1-7

Both the miracle and forgiveness are the state of mind that looks beyond appearances, that overlooks the ephemeral, projected world and sees everything through the eyes of Christ.  Forgiveness sees only perfection and innocence, and the miracle sees only the effects of that perfection everywhere.

"There can be no form of suffering that fails to hide an unforgiving thought.  Nor can there be a form of pain forgiveness cannot heal." -- Workbook 198, 9:5-6

Every form of pain and suffering is the projection of the belief in a separated world, a world that is imperfect, a world apart from God.  Because everything lives and moves and has its very being in God, where would this world be?  With the Holy Spirit's help, we look beyond such false concepts and projections, into the heart of Love, which is everpresent.  The Awareness of Love's Presence dissolves everything else.  This is the miracle of forgiveness.

"An unforgiving thought is one that makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true." -- Workbook Part II, 1.2:1

It's hard to recognize our own unforgiving thoughts when the entire world we see is based on them.  There are so many things we are unwilling to question, because we have an investment in not seeing... our entire identity is wrapped up in our unquestioned thoughts and beliefs, the judgments that make up our thought process.  That's why problems and challenges are such a gift... they give us the opportunity to question everything, to realize that nothing is what we judged it to be.  They give us the miracle, when we are willing to see the Love and Perfection that are the Reality of everyone, everything, every seeming.

The Course says that all of our time, every day, should be devoted to forgiveness and miracles.  It can become a habit, just like the conditioned self and its serial narratives has been habit since we were children.  And each of us has a vital role to play, so our forgiveness is essential.  The Course reminds us that "the salvation of the world depends on me." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 186)  Forgiveness is the Miracle of remembering that we are the holy Son of God, the Christ, pure and innocent... and so is everyone and everything.  Forgiveness is the Miracle that returns us to this One Mind, this One Self, this One Love. 

"Forgiveness is the the only function meaningful in time.  It is the means the Holy Spirit uses to translate specialness from sin into salvation.  Forgiveness is for all... Each must do what is allotted him, for on his part does all the plan depend.  He has a special part in time for so he chose, and choosing it, he made it for himself.  His wish was not denied but changed in form, to let it serve his brother and himself, and thus become a means to save instead of lose." -- ACIM; Chapter 25, Section VI, 5:3-11

The Key to Happiness

“You made this up.  It is a picture of what you think you are; of how you see yourself… Have you not wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes?  The world you see is but a judgment on yourself.  It is not there at all.” – A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section III, 4:3-4, 5:1-3

A friend recently asked me about the practice of forgiveness as the Course teaches it.  It’s not really forgiveness as the world thinks about it, because it’s not about anything ‘out there’ at all.  It’s a mental process, because everything I experience is in my mind, and then projected outward.  And while our minds appear to sleep, there is a great need for reminders that the nightmares we project have no real effects.  “What God has created follows His Laws, and His alone.  Nor is it possible for those who follow them to suffer the results of any other source.” (ACIM 20, IV, 3:6-7)  This means our insane projections, though scary, can have no real effects.  Of course, as long as we’re asleep, we’re stuck in a nightmare thinking it’s really happening.  So forgiveness is the way out of the dream.

Forgiveness as the Course teaches it makes use of the Holy Instant, the “little breath of eternity that runs through time like golden Light that is all the same; nothing before it, nothing afterwards.”  The reality of God and the Holy Spirit (which is our reality) is always, now, and forever.  “The past takes nothing from it, and the future will add no more.  Here then, is everything.  This gift returns the laws of God to your remembrance.” 

Because our reality in God is already perfect, whole, and complete, there really is only one purpose to everything… to awaken from the dream we made up.  So the Course reminds us repeatedly that forgiveness is our only function.  Don’t bother judging the seeming situation, since trying to judge a dream is insane… it’s all made up.  Practice forgiveness, and wake up to Perfection.  Practice forgiveness, and be Happy.

“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.” --  A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 101

Here is an example of how the function of forgiveness unfolds in the mind.  Use your own words, and be specific and thorough with each individual person, situation, or feeling you are examining.  Once you experience the deep peace this process brings, don't try and fill the clean and open space with concepts and stories again.  Remember that it’s the false concepts and beliefs in your mind that project as the world you think you see.  So step back and let Truth arise and lead the way.  Ask the Holy Spirit whenever you need to make a decision.  BE peace.

This feeling (fear, anger, hurt, pride, jealousy, frustration, pain, hopelessness or whatever the unsettling emotion may be) that I feel toward and about you and this situation seems to be about:

(Take time to be honest about this, in detail)
 

I see that every aspect of this is a projection of my belief that I am separate from God and everyone and everything, which means I think I’m separate from this situation and from the All, the Everything that is God, which includes all Goodness and Love and Perfection and Completeness.  Because I think I’m separate, I’m projecting false images of conflict and pain and lack instead of radiating the Wholeness and Peace that I am.  I’m projecting false images of lack and limitation instead of radiating the perfect Love and Completeness that I am.
 

I see that it’s impossible to be separate from the Love of God, which is Everything and All.   I have never been separate and my fear is all made up and projected as false images.  Everyone and everything that seems to be involved is also eternally One with the Love of God, and so everyone and everything that seems to be in conflict is actually all Good and only Good, Perfect, Innocent and Complete.
 

And so I forgive myself and everyone and everything for what never even happened!  I let it go, and overlook all the seeming ‘evidence’ of lack and pain and suffering.  I look instead to the Holy Spirit, and I give all these images to the Holy Spirit to be dissolved in my perception throughout imaginary space and time.
 

I know that as I release these images to the Holy Spirit, they are completely undone throughout the dream (past, present, and future… which are all made up, too)... the false concepts and images dissolve in the Light like the dreams they are, and now I know none of it ever happened in reality.  All that remains is the Holy Instant of Light and Love.  There is only God, only innocence and peace, only the clean and open space of Spirit… the Light, Perfection, Peace, Love, and Joy that is our eternal Home. 
 

By being honest about our thoughts and feelings in this way, and giving them to the Holy Spirit, we let Truth correct all such errors in our minds (which is where it all appears to be happening!).  We can then step back and let our Wholeness (holiness) lead the way, and the symbols and projections in the dream we call life begin to reflect this Wholeness.  Innocence and Peace, Joy and Happiness… these are the Reality behind everything.  And forgiveness is the way to remember the Reality behind it all. 
 

“Forgiveness is the key to happiness.”  A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 121
 

Please join us for ACIM Teleclasses every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. central time.

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

A Larger Sense of Life

"What better vocation could there be for any part of the Kingdom than to restore it to the perfect integration that can make it whole?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section II, 10:9

I have had several friends pass over the last ten years.  At 61, I'm at the age where such things seem to become more common.  At the recent passing of a professional colleague, I commented to a friend, with absolute honesty, that a part of me was 'jealous.'  My friend replied, "You mean you want to die?"  I didn't reply.  What to say to a question like that?  I wanted to say, "No, I simply long for a larger sense of Life."  But I suspected my words would not make sense to those who are still identified with a body and the limitations that appear to be part of such identification.

I watch my beloved grandchildren expand in Life.  They move naturally, fairly effortlessly from a limited beginning in a body that is apparently helpless, into toddler antics, to grade school exploration, to middle school angst, to high school where one's peers are one's world.  Then on to college and a larger sense of life and self.  But as we age, we tend to over-identify with the limitations that make up each expansion.  So that it seems like dying when we move on... and on... always moving toward the remembrance of the Self that has no limits and no boundaries, no separate sense at all.

I was watching a movie about a man with Alzheimer's, and his big fear was that he could no longer remember who he had been in his life, and to him that was worse than death.  We cling to memories and achievements, and even failures, as if they somehow define us.  And we tend to diagnose people with the longing to move beyond all of that with either depression (i.e., they have no 'will to live' or 'no purpose anymore.'), or Alzheimer's (i.e., they can't remember the story anymore, and so they scare those of us who still cling to the story of who we are).  Now my mother (who passed last year), had circulatory dementia, which is very similar to Alzheimer's.  But the thing is, when she just relaxed and could just BE, she was happy.  It was only when the fear of not knowing gripped her that she struggled, got angry, and fought those who tried to help. Part of her was longing for a larger sense of Self... but the conditioned, identified mind fought desperately to maintain itself.  That is suffering... fighting to keep an illusion.  Peace is seeing that only illusions can be lost.

In India, it used to be traditional for retired men and women to renounce the world and become sannyasins.  The feeling was that they had performed their duty to the world and their families, and now the rest of their life would be dedicated to seeking the true Self.  I've always thought I would do that one day... but a friend who was reading this post just commented that I've been doing that for years.  Well.  Longing for a larger sense of Self is not new for this grandmother. :-)) 

But seriously, our culture only values growing older with the same values we had when we were younger.  More money or less money, the message is the same... pursue pleasure and the maintaining of the body.  Find hobbies or family to obsess about.  Anything to keep one safely limited to the belief that life is the body and the memories it stores.  The expansion to a larger sense of Life is feared and avoided at all costs. 

I have noticed lately that all suffering is always about clinging to some limitations (mental or physical) that I have  come to identify as 'me' or 'mine'.  And all happiness comes from allowing my Awareness to expand beyond such identifications.  Now this is nothing new.  But seeing it, really seeing it, has been liberating for me. 

As my longing for a larger sense of Life becomes the defining motivation for living, I begin to see that this longing IS the only motivation for Life.  It was only my identification with limits rather than Reality that kept me from noticing.  I see it in my grandchildren, in my children, in the political posturing and name-calling.  I see it in those who worship their bodies and obsess about exercise and diet.  I see it in those who seem to succeed and in those who seem to fail.  I see it in those who seem to be friends and in those who seem to be foes.  I see that there is One Life.  And the longing for that larger awareness of the Self that IS Life, is EVERYWHERE, ALWAYS. 

"Those who see themselves as whole make no demands." --A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 2:7

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