The Thing That I Seek

First, I want to send everyone infinite love and blessings for the New Year.  This is Who We Are!  May all Being remember this!

"I am the goal the world is searching for." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 318

"I am that I am." -- The Bible

"I am That." -- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Reading the above quotations, the natural response of the conditioned self is, "No, I'm not."  Or if you are a bit more open to the possibility, it may lead naturally into self-inquiry... "Who am I?" Or maybe even "What am I?" Am I what I seem to be, or am I beyond the seeming?  Am I what is experiencing the seeming, or what is noticing the seeming?  And if there is both, then are there two of me?  What is the truth of all of this???

For those of us that have been reading and studying and even teaching A Course in Miracles for a while, it is apparent that every sentence and even every word is pointing to this Truth.  "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy."  I am.  I already am.  So who or what is it that is constantly trying to fix up an unholy, flawed self?  And who or what is that flawed self?  Who, what, and why?

This morning I turned in the Workbook to Lesson 47: "God is the strength in which I trusts." To the split mind, this is a dualistic statement of God and me, self and other.  But it is actually referring to God as our True Self.  

To trust in a false sense of self is to suffer, and to live in the constant fear that is the world we see every day.  But when we remember our shared God Self there is only Love, Goodness, Infinite Strength and Power and Security and Joy.  And there is no limit to the miracles that are revealed when this is truly known.  "I am the goal the world is searching for."  Try contemplating this statement between now and the new year.  Try remembering Who You Really Are throughout the new year, and always. 

"Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is a place in you where there is perfect peace.  There is a place in you where nothing is impossible.  There is a place in you where the strength of God abides." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 47:7:3-6

A Question of Freedom

“Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind?  For both you cannot have.  Which do you value?  Which is your goal?  For one you see as means; the other, end.  And one must serve the other and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own.  Means serve the end, and as the end is reached the value of the means decreases, eclipsed entirely when they are recognized as functionless.  No one but yearns for freedom and tries to find it.  Yet he will seek for it where he believes it is and can be found.  He will believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve his choice as means to find it.” – A Course in Miracles; Chapter 22, Section VI, 1:1-10
 
This passage from A Course in Miracles asks us a direct question.  It’s interesting how this blog seems to be taking a turn toward questions and answers, but then I realize that it is the nature of the unwinding mind.  We ask questions until we exhaust ourselves, pretending there is some ‘answer’ missing still.  In our exhaustion, if we’re lucky, we find the stillness, the emptiness, the freedom… the expansive Self.
 
Every seeming question is about Freedom.  We may ask, “How do I get well?” if health is an issue.  We may ask, “How do I make enough money?” if money is an issue.  We may ask, “How do I feel good about myself again?” if guilt and self-condemnation are the issues du jour.  But every single question is about freedom.  Freedom for something, or freedom from something.  All lies, you see.  Because Real Freedom is completely expansive and includes everyone and everything.  It is the Freedom of BEING that ironically results in freedom within the life we live, without even trying.  Because the unified, expansive Mind reflects in unified, expansive life situations. 
 
The question that the Course asks is very direct.  Are we seeking this freedom of unified Mind, or are we just seeking for mental solutions to take care of the physical issues we really value?  I can honestly say that most of my life, even much of my life studying and teaching the Course, was spent in searching for freedom of the body… for pleasure, for success, for recognition, for companionship, for accomplishment, for avoidance, for security… the list of seeming reasons goes on and on.  But all were related to freedom for the imagined self in a body, in a world of bodies. 
 
I had a dream the other night, and I won’t bore you with the plots, twists, turns, and weird associations.  But the symbolic part was this enormous tree, vibrant and alive, but completely hollow.  You could walk inside and never see the top… it was like a huge, dark, infinite unknown.  Some part of me wanted to be afraid of the unknown part, but the wiser part knew it was completely safe, and somehow holy.
 
It was several days later that the Inner Voice clarified the symbol.  Our True Self is vibrant, eternally Alive, but completely empty of everything but the spacious, infinite Altar of Self… Unified Mind Awake and Infinitely Free.  And if this is the freedom we seek, we gladly give over every other aspect of our lives as means to find it… and find it we do.  It is our True Self, the Reality of All that Is.  The question of Freedom is answered the minute we ask a true question. “Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind?  For both you cannot have!”

The Beauty of Holiness

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness." -- Psalm 29

"Your purpose is to see the world through your own Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 1:2

We are taught at a very early age to see differences.  These differences are quickly sorted into good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable.  And as we get older,, the compulsion to avoid the so-called bad and seek the imagined good is the only thing that motivates us (and the entire world!).

Ironically, this endless seeking to avoid pain and seek pleasure doesn't work.  It may appear to work for short periods of time, but all you have to do is look around.  We continue to pretend it works because the alternative is too fearful to the mind.  We avoid looking at the Truth, because we have carefully and methodically been living in the thought system we inherited from our parents or from our social peers.  And all of it is made up.  We make it up daily, as we obey the so-called rules and judgments we have so carefully constructed.

The first glimmers of hope come when we realize that everything is Mind.  What you are aware of is what you experience, even when it is all made up.  Who is experiencing this pain, or this pleasure?  Certainly it seems to be a body, but Who is aware of this body?  And certainly this awareness seems to come and go, but whenever you check, it is always here.  Whenever you become aware of Awareness, it is always here.  Mind Awake is pure Awareness.  And the only Awareness is that of Wholeness, which is what Holiness is.  And it is pure Beauty, pure Love, and pure Joy.

One of the first Bible verses I learned as a child was the famous Shema: "Hear, O Israel:  The Lord your God is One.  And you shall the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind."  To be in alignment with the world of differences, this is interpreted as being something we have to do.  We have to work at being good, work at loving God.  But after studying A Course in Miracles for many years I have gradually come to know that it is a statement of fact.  God is One Mind, and that Mind is Who We Really Are.  This Mind is Whole, Holy, and wholly Loving.  It can only be known when the need to pretend that everything is separate and different falls away.  And this need falls away when we want to know the Truth more than we want to hang on to the carefully constructed ideas and judgements of the world around us.

As the earlier quote reminds us, our purpose here is to finally see the world through our own Holiness.  As we begin to see that there is only Mind, we begin to accept that this One Mind is our true vision.  This begins the process of mental housecleaning that The Course calls forgiveness.  And as the mirror of the mind is swept clean of the compulsion to judge and see differences, all that remains is the Beauty of Holiness. 

In and Out

"In Him we live and move and have our being." --The Bible; Acts 17:28

"I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." -- The Bible; Galatians 2:20

"My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 35

Whether we talk about the Mind of God, or the Spirit of God, or the Allness of God, we are always speaking of Infinite Mind which is all-encompassing.  The problem with our shared dualistic perspective is that even when we speak of God as All, we place ourselves inside that allness, as if we're sort of part of it, but still something 'other'.  Arthur Corey spoke of this dilemma when he wrote, "AS Mind we live and move and have our Being -- not inside of Mind, like seeds in a watermelon!"  We can't seem to help viewing everything as in or out.

I began this blog with some Biblical passages that have pointed me toward the Truth over the years.  And of course, the famous Workbook Lesson from A Course in Miracles that reminds us we are as holy as God is, and never separate from this Infinite Awareness.  Of course, it does so in language that we can understand, however imperfectly.  And I have been reflecting on just how inadequate our language is to speak of what is forever One and indivisible.

In Hindu scriptures they compare our minds to waves in the Ocean of Divine Mind.  In other words, waves are always and forever ocean... not IN the ocean, but ocean BEING ocean.  Our minds are not just part of God's Mind.  Our Minds are God's Mind, Infinitely Extending in Perfect Awareness.  God BEING God.  

"But..."  I know.  I know.  The mind that sleeps seems to shrink in awareness until all it sees is imperfection and fragmented being, everywhere it looks.  It is the act of focusing on this tunnel vision that creates the illusion of in and out.  From the mountaintop, everything looks different.  From a unified Mind, there is only the Beauty of Holiness.

So are both real?  This is the question all of us have asked at some point.  Immersed in dualism, we imagine there is a 'both', a 'two', an in and an out.  The gift of A Course in Miracles is that it shows us how our tunnel vision perspective deludes and frightens us, when it is just a false sense of things, an insubstantial projection of the sleeping mind, and completely false.  "Where is the darkness when the Light has come?" the Course asks us.  "Nothing, and nowhere," is the reply.

We are forever pure Spirit, pure Mind, which is beyond all appearances that shift and change. We are neither in nor out.

"Unity alone is not a thing of dreams." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 12, 6:10

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

Do Not Reconsider

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Misplaced Trust

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

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

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

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

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

Give All to All

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

As Common as Grass

"Therefore the Master says... I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass." -- Tao te Ching, p. 57; Stephen Mitchell Translation

"Miracles are natural.  When they do not occur, something has gone wrong." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 6:1-2

What seems to come naturally in our lives is evidently not really natural.  For example, babies aren't born with the ability to sing an Aria, or a pop song.  But singing feels natural to me.  If I inquire honestly though, it took a lot of practicing as a child and then as an adult to get to the point where it feels so automatic.  Reading the above quotations has me thinking about just what is natural, what is common and ordinary?  If Goodness and Miracles are actually what is common and natural, then we have done a bang-up job of obscuring the Truth with a lot of the un-natural and un-common.

A Course in Miracles explains that defenses are the costliest of habits.  They obscure the ever-present Goodness and perfection of our true Self.  And what are defenses?  They are thoughts, perceptions, habits, projections... all to distract the awareness and attention from the perfection of Self.  All with the common attribute of dividing and dissecting the awareness into multitudes of judgements about what is good, what is bad, what is me, what is them, what is here, what is there... and on and on and on.  It's the original and ultimate defamation of character. 

But what remains when these defenses are forgiven and released is the natural perfection of our Christ Self.  The miracle is natural because the Christ is our reality.  The miracle reveals what has always been effortlessly true, and so is the most natural thing in the world.  All that is required of us is the willingness to let our judgements go, to forgive our false witness to the Son of God.  We can twist ourselves into un-natural and un-worthy caricatures, but we can never make them true.  Who we are remains holy... wholly innocent and free, eternally One in the Mind of God.

"All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother, or God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section III, 2:1

Forgiving by Making it All the Same

"Make this year different  by making it all the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 10:11

"This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different and with different values.  Yet they are all the same.  Again there is no order; only a seeming hierarchy of values." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VIII, 8:8-10

"It is impossible that one illusion be less amenable to Truth than are the rest.  But it is possible that some are given greater value, and less willingly offered to Truth for healing and for help.  No illusion has any truth in it.  Yet it appears some are more true than others, although this clearly makes no sense at all.  All that a hierarchy of illusions can show is preference, not reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chpater 26, Section VII, 6:1-5

Happy Boxing Day!  I meant to write this post for Christmas, but am a day late... so Boxing Day it is.  Which is actually perfect for the ACIM quotes I'm writing about.  And for making it all the same.

From infancy we are all carefully conditioned to differentiate and categorize, to establish values for everything we see.  Good, bad, better, best, ugly, beautiful, or just O.K.  Regardless of the placement in a hierarchy of values, everything we come across has this in common.  We judge it to be valuable or valueless, and place it somewhere in our personal hierarchy of illusions. 

Now this is how we seem to make sense of the world, and how we manage to get out of bed in the morning.  The problem with this sort system is that it hides the ever-present Truth... that we have given everything (EVERYTHING) all the meaning that it has... that everything exists in Mind, and Mind alone.  As long as we're categorizing and judging, this simply cannot be seen or known, and true forgiveness is impossible.  It's only when we realize that it's all the same because it's all made up... only then can we begin to glimpse the Truth.

How many of us are willing to see the world without the conditioned judgments of a lifetime?  Without the comfort of our own bias?  As the Mind that is projecting it all, rather than some fictional character it's all happening to?  Forgiveness is impossible without this realization.  Otherwise, we think something really happened that needs our forgiveness.  Whereas true forgiveness is the simple realization that nothing actually happened except our own misplaced categorizations and judgements. 

How liberating this is!  "I will forgive, and this will disappear."  ACIM Workbook 193, 13:3

"It is a dream of judgment.  So must [you] judge not, and [you] will awaken." A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:3-5

Brushing Our Teeth

"Mind reaches to ItSelf.  It is not made up of different parts which reach each other... Within ItSelf It has no limits, and there is nothing outside It.  It encompasses everything... There is nothing else anywhere or ever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 8:5-6, 8-9, & 11

While speaking to a spiritual coaching client the other day, the analogy of brushing our teeth arose.  I was explaining that all spiritual sight and spiritual understanding are in and of the Mind... everything without exception takes place in the One Mind.  There is nothing but Mind.  Body only exists within the perception of the sleeping mind that imagines itself separate and so 'projects' a separate experience in mind. 

However, there is no denying that we are all having the experience of being in a body.  And as we go about our daily experience of being in a body, there are certain things we do without exception or question.  None of us would think of going a day without brushing our teeth at least once, and usually at least twice.  Many of us brush and floss more often than that.  We don't question it or think about it... we just do it. 

In order to remember the Truth, it is necessary to practice that type of unquestioning vigilance with certain thoughts and visual images that awaken the mind.  It's sort of like mentally brushing our spiritual teeth, and we do it not because such thoughts or practices are magic, or will give us something we think we want.  We practice spiritually because it re-aligns our sleeping minds with Truth, with Mind Awake. Spiritual practices themselves are irrelevant, just as all form is irrelevant.  It's their purpose, their mental content, that matters.  And the only purpose of any spiritual practice is to align the sleeping mind with Truth, which is always already here, fully present and all-encompassing.  Only the sleeping mind could imagine otherwise.

A Course in Miracles is a system of mind training that has blessed my life for over twenty years.  The Course teaches us to how to practice forgiveness in a way that releases our mind from all the projected images we have accumlated, and allows the unconditioned Mind (pure Spirit, Joy, and Love) to return to Awareness.  There are many other spiritual practices, and all have validity because of their ultimate shared purpose.  What I love about the Course is that it clearly returns all power to the Source, the One Mind, and reminds us that we are One with that Source.  Not as individuals (that's the imaginary part), but as pure Spirit/Mind.  All we have to do to remember and awaken is practice faithfully, just like brushing our teeth.  It really is that simple, and that hard.  What are you practicing faithfully today?

"This is a Course in mind training.  All learning involves attention and study at some level." (ACIM, Chapter 1, Section VII, 4:1-2)

Hoarding

"Hoarding: Amassing money or valued objects and hiding or storing it away, typically in a carefully guarded way." -- The New Oxford American Dictionary

"Hoarding: Gathering things together in the external. This is a vain effort to avert an imagined lack or shortage in the future." -- from The Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:19-21

I didn't particularly want to write about this topic today.  It sort of chose me, as the topic of hoarding has been in my face lately, and there are no accidents in consciousness.  So I am looking more closely at the literal and metaphysical teaching here, because I know it's always pointing me to what is True.

As many of you know, I run an animal sanctuary on my farm.  I'm very careful not to take more animals than I can care for, and I've largely outgrown the notion that it's my job to save all the creatures of the world.  So I don't have the hoarding mentality of some animal rescue workers.  But recently a no-kill shelter nearby was shut down and all the animals taken because they developed a hoarding mentality... in other words, they kept taking animals even when they had no room for them.  They thought that saving their bodies meant something.  And I used to feel that it was about saving bodies, too.  

Now, I do stop for every turtle I see on the road.  And if I see an animal in need, I do my very best to find help for it.  If someone calls me with an animal that has been abandoned or abused and I don't have room, I help them find someone who does.  But the caring for these beautiful creatures has taught me that bodies don't mean so much... they come and go.  But the spirit, the divine idea of each creature is so perfect and permanent.  The divine idea of every animal that's ever lived or died here remains, in all its perfection.  Their being is my being.  Their spirit nurtures and teaches my spirit.  We are quite literally One.  I've come to realize that real Sanctuary is of and for the Spirit.  It can't be lost, nor can it ever be lacking.

Hoarding shows up in so many ways.  We are a culture of hoarders.  Our medical communities hoard bodies... keeping a body alive becomes more important than the Reality of Being, the Spirit that is the essence of each person.  It's easy to see this kind of hoarding in nursing homes and hospitals.  

Our financial communities hoard money, of course.  But not just money.  What is hoarded is the destructive idea of competition and winning, of having or being more because of what is accumulated.  Again, the form of hoarding is pretty secondary... it's the thought that I am more, or validated, or better because I've collected some paper or metal or some iou's.  We're like a culture of little children playing a really bad game of Monopoly.  And our sports and media cultures hoard everything from celebrity to information.

Even those of us without much money manage to hoard.  We may hoard friends or relationships, memorabilia from our families, old photographs, old books or writing or ideas that we think we might want to look at 'later.' We may hoard old musical instruments or guns or tea cups or anything in the name of 'collecting.'  I've seen street people with shopping carts full of hoarded junk that they think they might need sometime.  And those of us with clutter have to acknowledge that clutter is a form of hoarding.  If we're not hanging on to the clutter for some reason, why haven't we cleaned it up?  What is it for?  What is any of it for?

A Course in Miracles says that 'more' is the motto of the human ego... and that it doesn't even matter more of what.  Hoarding is the nature of the self that thinks it is a body.  And I've come to discover that the worst form of hoarding is the hoarding of concepts, because we don't see ourselves doing it.  We tell the same stories, using the same concepts of self, over and over and over... and these concepts we hoard are always false ideas about a self that's in a body.  We're carefully taught these stories, these concepts, by parents and teachers and media.  But we're willing slaves to this hoarding... we eagerly accumlate the false sense of identity it gives us, even when that identity is tied to a seemingly miserable or flawed self.  We hoard these false self-concepts because we think it's who and what we are, and that we would somehow be lacking existence and life without them.  That this fear is largely unconscious makes it the most insidious form of hoarding.

So by now we've all reached the same conclusion... that simply living in this world means we're hoarders.  We're all trying to accumlate a sense of self that is safe, healthy, financially sound, and autonomous... and in our efforting, we'll settle for a self that is fairly safe, sort of healthy, getting by financially, and isolated from other scary people.  It's this very efforting that Jesus referred to in the above quote from Matthew.  It's this very efforting that hides the Presence of the Kingdom from our Awareness, right here and right now.

A safe and autonomous self can never be.  Only bodies appear separate, and we are not our bodies.  Where would a separate self be, in Oneness?  Nothing and nowhere.  But our Self, our infinitely unique and varied Self, is always safe and whole and uniquely expressing, in and as each of us.  We are Spirit, and we are One, and we are individually unique and precious in this Oneness.  Animals can be animals and still be One with me.  You can be uniquely you and still be my Self.  I can let go of literally everyone and everything and still be One with it All.  Nothing is lost or lacking in Oneness, ever.  This is the nature of our God-Self, and of the Kingdom.  And this awareness is the end of hoarding, and the beginning of our Real Life in and as Spirit.  

"Take no thought, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'Wherewithal shall we be clothed?'  But seek ye first the Kingdom of God... and all these things shall be added unto you." -- Matthew 6:31-33

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

The Awareness of Being One

"All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation." -- Mary Baker Eddy

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

I love the way Life continually presents us with opportunities to see Truth everywhere.  Truth being, of course, simply another name for Oneness.  Discovering that Good is the Reality of this Oneness, no matter how it appears, is so flipping exciting I have a hard time writing about it coherently.  After all, we've all heard this a million times:  "It's all good," we say hopefully... all the while noticing how not good it appears to be.  

The above quote from ACIM helps... there is nothing outside Oneness, and nothing else within.  How could there be?  So with only the One, there is only, well... the One!  All Good, only Good... in Principle and in manifestation.

The thing is, this all sounds good, but I see riots in Egypt and people going hungry and pets being mistreated, etc., etc., etc.  I see my bills mounting and donations falling short.  I see people judging one another and arguing over things that don't matter.  So how does Oneness even matter, in Principle or in manifestation? 

Again, A Course in Miracles helps to discern the false from the True: "Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  And what I look on is my state of mind reflected outward." (ACIM Workbook 304, 1:3-4)  Obviously, when the mind is unaware of Oneness, it projects duality in person, place, and thing.  The awareness of Oneness is the Principle that reflects the wholeness and perfection that is Reality.  The awareness of Oneness reflects the All-Good in all ways.

I have experienced, and continue to experience, many miracles of healed perception.  Always what occurs is that I have, at least momentarily, accepted the One Mind as All.  This is the healing... and the healed mind reflects wholeness, abundance, and endless Good in all possible forms.  As I mature spiritually, it becomes more and more comforting to rest in the awareness of Being One, which is the miracle for everyone and everything, in every situation.  There is nothing else.  The seemingly hidden Presence of Good awaits only our recognition.

"In all thy ways acknowledge Him [Biblical speak for the One] and He shall direct thy paths." -- Proverbs 3:6

Self to Self

Wow, it's been nearly a month since I posted last.  I have had many inspired thoughts, but no inspiration to write about it.  This morning I read a great quote from Margaret Laird that expresses this perfectly: "There was a time I believed that I read or listened to others to find out what others thought.  Now I know I read and listen to another's speaking to discover what I am [the I AM] thinking.  We cannot expect to find Truth outside of our own awareness."  This past month, I spent a lot of time looking inward, listening to the Voice of I Am, and inquiring deeper into the appearance of things.  It's been fruitful, though challenging.

The challenge is the deeper recognition that duality in all its forms is only appearance, and that appearance is always and only my own conceptualization of what appears.  Mary Baker Eddy said, "Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?"  Without those concepts, duality (subject and object consciousness) dissolves or resolves (words are inadequate here) into Truth, which is experienced as Oneness, a unity, a whole, with no opposites or contraries or negations. 

This going deeper involves seeing that everything we perceive in the phenomenal world is a duality:  I perceive goodness, but it is my concept of goodness, which is based on the opposite of what I perceive as badness.  I perceive supply, or income, but it is my concept of income, based on the opposite of what I conceive as lack or poverty.  I perceive kindness, but it is my concept of kindness, based on what I conceive of as unkind or hateful or spiteful.  I'm really just wandering around in a world of concepts, rather than experiencing Goodness, Supply, or Kindness (Love), which are a unity without opposite because they are All-Inclusive.  We can't conceive of Oneness.  But we can become Aware of It, since It is the Truth of everyone and everything. 

A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "When you decide upon the form of what you want, you lose the understanding of its purpose.  Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited."  In duality thinking (which is all thinking), what we lose is the Awareness of Wholeness.  And as we gradually glimpse the deeper meaning of the oft-misunderstood Biblical statement: "Take no thought," we become explorers of this dawning Awareness, which includes everything but is not defined by any of it.  It heals and blesses, but not for any reason we could give conceptually.  It simply IS the Reality of All.

How do you write about this?  How do you speak of It?  Which is why I haven't been inspired to write much over the past month.  And then I read Margaret Laird this morning, as she explained that the only reason anyone writes is to know their own mind.  So I'm writing this morning, to clarify for myself this deepening Awareness of Self.

To paraphrase Margaret Laird again, the individual living Self-consciously as Mind (Unconditioned Awareness, Oneness... concepts fail here) evolves an apparent ego-image never afraid for itself, never taking thought for itself as 'I', as well as a physical body that is self-restoring as long as it is apparently needed.  The ego-image which evolves from this Awareness (that the only 'I' is the Mind of Unconditioned Awareness, our very Self) never reacts to concepts and situations, but always acts with intelligence.  It has no power to save itself, fix itself up, or transcend itself.  The Mind (the Unconditioned Awareness of 'I' that is Self) is its existence and its power for constant newness and freshness.  In this Light everything takes on the loveliness of perfection, beyond all concepts.

Of course, all of this exercise in giving voice to the unspeakable is just a smokescreen... the inclusive Reality is that only the 'I' is writing and reading this, and only the 'I' knows its Self.  There's only One.

"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... 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, 17:1-4

Waiting for God

"I have no cause for anger or fear, for You surround me.  And in every need that I perceive, Your Grace suffices me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 348

We're conditioned from an early age to listen to our parents, our teachers, our friends, our church... in other words, we look to the outer world for information, direction, and validation.  Learning to listen within and wait for God's appointments and direction seems counter intuitive, and even crazy.  Interesting defense, isn't it?  The ego (the fictional aggregate of mental constructs we call a self, imagining we're separate from God and each other) is the very definition of insanity... a delusional defense against the whole.  So it calls what is true, false, and insists that the unreal has substance and validity.  That's how projection works.  It's also the justification for fear and anger and all the insanity the ego insists is real.

Only take a moment to consider rationally... God, the very Ground of Being, is everywhere... pure and eternal Life and Love without form or condition.  We live and move and have our Being in God.  So how could we look anywhere other than God for what is essential and true?  How could we look anywhere other than God for Who We Are?  There is nowhere else.  There's nothing out there but projected ideas based on a mistake... the mistake that somehow walling ourselves off from the whole will give us what we want and keep us safe.  And when has that ever been the truth?  Safe from what?  What else is there but God, the All in All? 

Waiting for God doesn't involve the future... it involves a present willingness to be still, to listen each holy instant in unceasing mindfulness.  This doesn't involve effort or struggle or even a technique or practice.  Once the willingness is given by the mind, the beauty of our true Self takes over.  Stillness, one-pointedness, awakened awareness, pure joy and unshakable peace... these are all attributes we find to be our own, as natural as breathing.  More so. 

Waiting for God means we're willing to release the false and embrace the True.  And we at last remember the Grace that enfolds and surrounds us and suffices us in all things. 

Awake in the Dark

"There is nothing you can hold against reality.  All that must be forgiven are the illusions you have held against your brothers.  Their reality has no past, and only illusions can be forgiven.  God holds nothing against anyone, for He is incapable of illusions of any kind.  Release your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them.  Thus will you learn that you have been forgiven, for it is you who offered them illusions." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 9:1-6

I lay in bed in the dark, in the wee hours, unable to sleep.  Thought upon thought weaves through my awareness, everything murky and uncomfortable.  Nothing awful, mind you... simply the haziness of illusion, weaving itself in a downward spiral into stories and projections of judgment and separation.  None of it true.  How do I know that none of it is true?  Because it is restless, murky, and unclear.  There is no peace.  When a thought arises that is in alignment with the Reality of God, there is an immediate lightening in consciousness.  And that thought leads to another, and then another, on an upward spiral back to peace. 

Remembering that all my judgments are nonsense helps a lot.  "Forgive your brothers from the slavery of their illusions by forgiving them for the illusions you perceive in them."  Yes, I'm the perceiver... whenever I see a problem, I'm always the one naming it and weaving a story about it in my mind.  So I'm the only one who can forgive it.  "Thus you will learn that you have been forgiven."  Yes, all the judgments about me were in my mind, too.  They are all my stories. 

Everything is mind... mind asleep, or Mind Awake.  Mind asleep is not really doing anything or creating anything... simply dreaming, even when it seems to be awake.  Our One Mind Awake is the Source of All that is Real.  It is the Mind of God, and it is my real mind.  And yours.  And everyone's.  In Reality, there's only One of Us.

The One Awakened Mind, the Mind that created us and lives us, is joyous and free and at peace.  It has always been.  "The sleep of forgetfulness is only the unwillingness to remember." (ACIM; Chapter 16, Section VII, 12:4)

Why do we seem to prefer our dream stories and problems?  Why do we worship them with our time and attention, when only a little sigh of release will return us to sanity and peaces?  Forgiveness offers this and so much more.  "Remember that you always choose between Truth and illusions."  Minute by minute we get to choose.  So every holy instant is a new beginning.  Awake in the dark, I remember.

"Seek and find His message in the holy instant, where all illusions are forgiven.  From here the miracle extends to bless everyone and to resolve all problems, be they perceived as great or small, possible or impossible.  There is nothing that will not give place to Him and to His Majesty.  The Truth lies here and nowhere else.  You choose this or nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section VII, 11:1-3, 6-7

Decisions, Decisions

In this so-called life, decisions make up every minute of every day.  Even my youngest grandson is choosing his state of mind minute by minute, second by second.  I can see the impulses arise and cross his little three-month-old face like clouds.  I can see the second he decides to smile instead of cry.  I can see him struggle to give voice (and I mean voice) to his discomfort.  Little Kai Joseph is just like us... choosing to react to external forms, or to interact with the Love that is in him and all around him, always.

We're not talking about will-power here.  That's the mistaken belief that we can exert control over our bodies and other forms in the external world.  As Mary Baker Eddy put it, "Will power is a product of belief... and is not a faculty of Soul.  Hence it cannot govern man aright."  And A Course in Miracles says it very simply: "There is no Will but God's."

So what are all the decisions we make every day?  We have to first remember that all decisions are of the mind, and have nothing to do with form.  My grandson's decisions may reflect in his face, but it's all in his mind.  Similarly, our minute-by-minute decisions are mental processes.  The illusion of a world arises from these mental projections.  "Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 304, 1:3-4)

Decisions, decisions... how can we make decisions, then, if we're not in our right mind... if we think we've made a will other than God's?  Again, A Course in Miracles gives us a way out: "Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as what it is.  The power of decision is our own.  Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear.  What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was, eternally as it is now.  And it will take the place of self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 8:1-5)

Decisions are continuous, and we are always looking at only two choices, two mental states.  Our True Self, the Son of God Who is Peace and Love and Life and Reality... or an illusion of a separate self, which projects as fear and lack and limitation and death.  We know which we're choosing by our state of mind. 

"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this:  All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven.  There is nothing that you cannot do.  Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made.  In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-2 & 10:1-2

Magnification

"Trusting your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself.  When you attack a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him.  You do not look beyond his errors.  Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness of the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as yours." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 181, 1:1-4

"Magnify (mag-ni-fi) verb: To enlarge in fact or appearance; to cause to be held in greater esteem or respect." -- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

I've always loved the Magnificat, Mary's Song as she becomes impregnated by the Holy Spirit: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice in God my Savior." (The Bible; Luke 1:46)  These words have come to mind many times in my life, when no other words could express the awe and wonder of the moment.  I've often reflected on the concept of magnification, and when I re-read the above passage from A Course in Miracles, I realize that it's really all about focus.

We are transparencies for the Light and Love of God... a sort of spiritual lens, meant to magnify and reflect only God, which is of course all there really is.  The problem seems to be that we are intent on magnifying the false, the transitory... the antithesis of God, as if there could be anything other than God.  This is the collective compulsion of the world we have projected, for the simple reason that it's our compulsion and our projection!

We are very much like children intent on living in fantasy.  We train our children carefully to live in fantasy.  We encourage them and provide them with endless toys and tools to do this... another projected magnification of our own compulsions.  So you see that all perception has a focus, and it is always an intentional magnification of what we want to project.  This seems to be less than conscious.  But notice how your experience of any situation changes as your focus changes... whatever you're focusing on is magnified in your experience.  It's this selective tunnel vision that dictates your experience at any given moment. 

Forgiveness is the process of changing our focus.  We cease to focus on the flaws, the problems, the sins... we refocus on what is true.  We release our insistence on worshipping the projected problems and discomforts, and magnify instead the innocence and peace of God that is really here, this very now.  Changing focus in this way requires a commitment to Truth instead of our habitual perceptions.  To magnify God in our lives instead of our fantasies means we have to stop glorifying our imagined self and its serial adventures. 

The good news is that this really requires nothing at all... even the re-focusing is a symbol within the dream of separation from God.  We can't be separate from what is forever One.  We can't magnify what isn't there.  Like children being brought in from imaginary play to the loving arms of their family, we return to our Self in God through the magnification of our own innocence and perfection.

"Nor do we ask for fantasies.  For what we seek to look upon is really there.  And as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world.  When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours.  And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well.  This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 181, 8:1-6