You Are Home

"The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted to the world's reality. A concept of self is made by you.  It bears no likeness to your Self at all.  It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V. 

Many of these blog posts have explored the question, Who am I?  And A Course in Miracles teaches us that this is the only real question we can ask.  Once we have clearly understood this, everything changes.  As the Course says, I cannot have what I am unwilling to be.

The Course reminds us over and over, in thousands of uniquely poetic ways, that our lives are not as we imagine them.  Those of us who are writing or reading this obviously have glimpsed this, and know it to be true in spite of the tenacity of the egoistic image of a self.  Why else would you be reading this blog?  Such words hold no interest to those who still believe their own self-concepts.  It is those of us whose concepts are dissolving that are drawn to such things.

Dissolving is what is going on, you know.  The false will fall away automatically when it is no longer defended.  This is a blissful process when you realize what is happening.  It is like a delicious melting away of all that is false, and a relaxing into the Self that has always been Who We Are.  Like realizing you are Home, and have always been Home.   

"Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always but reflects a wish to be a self that you are not.  And from that wish a concept arises, teaching that you are the thing you wish to be.  It will remain your concept of yourself until the wish that fathered it no longer is held dear.  Be vigilant against temptation, then, remembering that it is but a wish, insane and meaningless, to make yourself a thing that you are not.  Consider then what temptation is, and see the real alternatives you choose between." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VII.

Choose wisely today, and see all things in the Light of this one Self.  You are the Self that God created... One Self that excludes no one and no thing. You are that Self.  You are Home.

"You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see.  What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive your self defenseless and in hell.  Yield not to this, and you will see all pain in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII.

Please join our ACIM Teleclass every Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm CT.  All are welcome.

Back to the Basics

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

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

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

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