“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!”
Showing posts with label Mind Awake. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mind Awake. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
Saturday, December 14, 2013
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
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
Monday, November 11, 2013
Nothing Else at All
"Mind reaches to itself. It is not made up of different parts, which reach each other. It does not go out. Within itself it has no limits, and there is nothing outside it. It encompasses everything. It encompasses you entirely; you within it and it within you. There is nothing else, anywhere or ever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 8:5-11
I've been undergoing a lot seeming outer change. Travel, work, new friends, many holy encounters that are very much outside the box. But the one constant is the reassurance of the Holy Spirit, the still, small Voice of Self that always says there are no real differences. There's nothing any different now than before, nothing any different here from there, nothing any different anywhere at all. In fact, it becomes more apparent there is only Mind Awake, and there is never (and never has been) anything else, anywhere, ever.
Mind Awake reveals the complete illusory nature of time and space and all the differences that masquerade as the material world. Each seeming challenge resolves and melts into nothingness. Each seeming judgement reveals itself as nothing, which is what forgiveness is. Each person, place, and thing reveals the Love that shines within Mind Awake, the only Reality. And all that was ever needed was my full attention.
Ironically, my full attention has nothing to do with the seeming individual human mind. It has nothing to do with busyness or thinking or any seeming distractions. No matter what the human mind is immersed in, Mind Awake remains eternally Present and unchanged. I don't have to do anything at all. Because Mind is not made up of different parts that need to wake up. Mind encompasses me and all that I seem to think or do or be. Each Holy Instant reveals full Presence and the Light of Self. Nothing to do, nothing to change, and nothing else at all.
"When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the Light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; "I need do nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VII, 5:7
I've been undergoing a lot seeming outer change. Travel, work, new friends, many holy encounters that are very much outside the box. But the one constant is the reassurance of the Holy Spirit, the still, small Voice of Self that always says there are no real differences. There's nothing any different now than before, nothing any different here from there, nothing any different anywhere at all. In fact, it becomes more apparent there is only Mind Awake, and there is never (and never has been) anything else, anywhere, ever.
Mind Awake reveals the complete illusory nature of time and space and all the differences that masquerade as the material world. Each seeming challenge resolves and melts into nothingness. Each seeming judgement reveals itself as nothing, which is what forgiveness is. Each person, place, and thing reveals the Love that shines within Mind Awake, the only Reality. And all that was ever needed was my full attention.
Ironically, my full attention has nothing to do with the seeming individual human mind. It has nothing to do with busyness or thinking or any seeming distractions. No matter what the human mind is immersed in, Mind Awake remains eternally Present and unchanged. I don't have to do anything at all. Because Mind is not made up of different parts that need to wake up. Mind encompasses me and all that I seem to think or do or be. Each Holy Instant reveals full Presence and the Light of Self. Nothing to do, nothing to change, and nothing else at all.
"When peace comes at last to those who wrestle with temptation and fight against the giving in to sin; when the Light comes at last into the mind given to contemplation; or when the goal is finally achieved by anyone, it always comes with just one happy realization; "I need do nothing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VII, 5:7
Monday, April 22, 2013
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
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
Sunday, April 21, 2013
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
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
Sunday, November 18, 2012
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)
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)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
