"Only Love is strong, because it is undivided." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section V, 1:1
The current atmosphere in the world can only be described as fragmented, divisive, and competitive. How can we even conceive of a world where there is One Mind, One Purpose, where Love and Joy and Peace are our shared and constant state of Being?
A Course in Miracles tells us that our purpose becomes unified when we share a common goal. And when the goal is undivided, the means and end are in complete accord. "You need offer only undivided attention" to that goal, it reminds us. There's that word again... 'undivided.' The Course points out over and over again that this unification of purpose, regardless of seeming circumstances, is what allows our mind to return to sanity, to awareness of Oneness. Undivided.
So everything is returned to holiness and Wholeness by this simple unification of Purpose. No longer is the purpose of fixing dinner to feed a body. It is to remember that our true Self is pure, undivided Love, eternally Whole and Complete, and we participate in this world to joyously remember the Love that we are. This is our only Purpose. No longer do we interact with others to get something. Our holy Purpose is always to see the One Love that we are in all things and all Beings. Our holy Purpose is to let the Love that we are be the guiding Force in our lives, because only Love is strong in Oneness. Only Love is undivided.
In a world where unity has different meanings to different people in vastly differing cultures, Unity is still possible. But not out there. Only in the heart of each of us can Love be Love. Only by making this return to Oneness our only Purpose can we experience Oneness in the midst of seeming insanity.
So every time we are tempted to judge the world as it appears, let's remember to ask, "What is it for?" This reminds us that, in Truth, everything shares one purpose, without exception. This returns our undivided attention to the One Goal that all things share, and lets the undivided strength of Love be reflected in the most unlikely of places. Every time we remember to ask, "What is it for?" we always receive the same answer. Our unified Purpose is to remember that God, Love, is All. There is only God, only Love, no matter how it appears. Which means that right where I seem to be, as a separate self with separate agendas and purposes, there is only the One Self that we share in God. One Self, One Light, One Love, reflected everywhere. Undivided.
"You need offer only undivided attention. Everything else will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section V, 9:4-5
Showing posts with label Unified Mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Unified Mind. Show all posts
Saturday, July 30, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
The Guilty Identity
"Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 1:1-2
Do you regularly find things about yourself or your surroundings that are lacking, or should be different? Are you ashamed of things you have done or even are doing? Are you judgmental of what others are doing, mentally shaming them? All of these mental attitudes and actions are part and parcel of the guilty identity we learn as part of a separate self, living in a separate body in this world. Do you know anyone who is free of this?
Even very happy people react and become apologetic if someone else is upset. This is the conditioned guilty response. "I am so sorry," we say, as if we could do something about it. Or as if we should.
A Course in Miracles helps us understand that guilt is how a sense of body awareness and a separate self is maintained. Without the judgment and guilt, there is only the unified Mind, where all things exist in the Light of Awareness and Love, pure transparencies for God. Without judgment and guilt, there is an Awareness of Oneness, which is All Good and only Good. Perfect Oneness is our natural state, which is always and only God, reflecting and radiating the Light of Goodness and Love.
It's interesting, don't you think, that a small upset or affront to our egoic identity can send us into a seeming tail spin, can make us so agitated and fearful that it seems as if a huge thing has really occurred. When in such a state, it's impossible to conceive of a unified Mind that radiates peace and joy. And yet we are always and only reacting to our own judgments and guilty verdicts, the story of a separate body-self and the fearful 'others'. And even in the midst of this story of separation and loss, all we have to do is forgive our judgments and let them go. Right where all seems hopeless or angry or sad or lost or any other version of guilt, there is pure joy and perfect love. Right where the problem seems to be, there is only Love, which is the only Law of God.
"There are no laws but God's... there is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 76, 9:1, 3-6
The story of the crucifixion and resurrection of God's Son is the story of everyone's life. The guilty identity that we have carefully protected for so long is not real. It can only seem fearful and shameful and wrong when we hang on to our 'laws' of judgment and refuse to forgive. A Course in Miracles gives us many ways to approach forgiveness, and all of them involve letting go of human laws of judgment and thus realizing what has always been true. The guilty identify was all made up, and has never been at all. This realization is the resurrection of the Son of God.
"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words: I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son. 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 yourself 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, VIII, 5:1-4, and 6:1-3
Do you regularly find things about yourself or your surroundings that are lacking, or should be different? Are you ashamed of things you have done or even are doing? Are you judgmental of what others are doing, mentally shaming them? All of these mental attitudes and actions are part and parcel of the guilty identity we learn as part of a separate self, living in a separate body in this world. Do you know anyone who is free of this?
Even very happy people react and become apologetic if someone else is upset. This is the conditioned guilty response. "I am so sorry," we say, as if we could do something about it. Or as if we should.
A Course in Miracles helps us understand that guilt is how a sense of body awareness and a separate self is maintained. Without the judgment and guilt, there is only the unified Mind, where all things exist in the Light of Awareness and Love, pure transparencies for God. Without judgment and guilt, there is an Awareness of Oneness, which is All Good and only Good. Perfect Oneness is our natural state, which is always and only God, reflecting and radiating the Light of Goodness and Love.
It's interesting, don't you think, that a small upset or affront to our egoic identity can send us into a seeming tail spin, can make us so agitated and fearful that it seems as if a huge thing has really occurred. When in such a state, it's impossible to conceive of a unified Mind that radiates peace and joy. And yet we are always and only reacting to our own judgments and guilty verdicts, the story of a separate body-self and the fearful 'others'. And even in the midst of this story of separation and loss, all we have to do is forgive our judgments and let them go. Right where all seems hopeless or angry or sad or lost or any other version of guilt, there is pure joy and perfect love. Right where the problem seems to be, there is only Love, which is the only Law of God.
"There are no laws but God's... there is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 76, 9:1, 3-6
The story of the crucifixion and resurrection of God's Son is the story of everyone's life. The guilty identity that we have carefully protected for so long is not real. It can only seem fearful and shameful and wrong when we hang on to our 'laws' of judgment and refuse to forgive. A Course in Miracles gives us many ways to approach forgiveness, and all of them involve letting go of human laws of judgment and thus realizing what has always been true. The guilty identify was all made up, and has never been at all. This realization is the resurrection of the Son of God.
"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words: I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son. 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 yourself 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, VIII, 5:1-4, and 6:1-3
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
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
"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
Saturday, August 2, 2014
The Illusion of Differences
"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
I have had several conversations with friends in the past week about wanting something different in their lives. Of course, this is a familiar feeling and story for all of us. Something is perceived as wrong or lacking or uncomfortable or simply unsatisfying, and so we think that something different is the answer. Not this, but that. Not here, but there. Not now, but someday. Not that person, but this person, or no person. Something different, which will hopefully be something better.
The illusion of differences is the ego's maintenance plan. This body is different from that body, that car is different from this car, that job is definitely different than this job! And on and on and on and on... there's no end to the ego's litany of needed improvements (translation: differences).
A Course in Miracles gives us many simple and direct ways of seeing through this chaos. One of my favorites is: "Make this year different by making it all the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 10:11
And how can we make it all the same, when the very nature of our lives seems to be the constant focus on shifting challenges and victories, failures and successes, pleasures and pains? I had a glimpse of this yesterday while filling the water tank for the horses. I only had a few minutes between coaching calls, and went out to make sure the water tank was full. It was a summer mid-afternoon, with rain clouds in the distance, but no air stirring. My focus on the details and differences dropped, and there was crystalline, All-Inclusive Awareness. Silent but Alive. Still but including all movement. Awareness ItSelf. Then the water tank began overflowing and my awareness contracted to take care of business. This is the way of it as we practice letting go of differences. I can focus on the water tank, knowing that The Self that I Am is the Reality of even this seeming. I have only to drop the contracted focus, and my True Self that is Everything, and knows ItSelf as the All where all differences fall away. No matter, just pure Awareness, pure Spirit, pure Mind that includes All.
To the Unified Mind, there are no differences! Perception is a contracted point of view, happening IN you, not TO you. YOU ARE THE SEER AND THE SEEN. There are no differences. And forgiveness, the dropping of the addictive need to project differences, is our unified purpose. A Unified Mind with Unified Purpose returns us to the Awareness of Perfect Oneness (Heaven!) that is Our Reality.
"I will forgive, and this will disappear." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 193, 13:3
I have had several conversations with friends in the past week about wanting something different in their lives. Of course, this is a familiar feeling and story for all of us. Something is perceived as wrong or lacking or uncomfortable or simply unsatisfying, and so we think that something different is the answer. Not this, but that. Not here, but there. Not now, but someday. Not that person, but this person, or no person. Something different, which will hopefully be something better.
The illusion of differences is the ego's maintenance plan. This body is different from that body, that car is different from this car, that job is definitely different than this job! And on and on and on and on... there's no end to the ego's litany of needed improvements (translation: differences).
A Course in Miracles gives us many simple and direct ways of seeing through this chaos. One of my favorites is: "Make this year different by making it all the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 10:11
And how can we make it all the same, when the very nature of our lives seems to be the constant focus on shifting challenges and victories, failures and successes, pleasures and pains? I had a glimpse of this yesterday while filling the water tank for the horses. I only had a few minutes between coaching calls, and went out to make sure the water tank was full. It was a summer mid-afternoon, with rain clouds in the distance, but no air stirring. My focus on the details and differences dropped, and there was crystalline, All-Inclusive Awareness. Silent but Alive. Still but including all movement. Awareness ItSelf. Then the water tank began overflowing and my awareness contracted to take care of business. This is the way of it as we practice letting go of differences. I can focus on the water tank, knowing that The Self that I Am is the Reality of even this seeming. I have only to drop the contracted focus, and my True Self that is Everything, and knows ItSelf as the All where all differences fall away. No matter, just pure Awareness, pure Spirit, pure Mind that includes All.
To the Unified Mind, there are no differences! Perception is a contracted point of view, happening IN you, not TO you. YOU ARE THE SEER AND THE SEEN. There are no differences. And forgiveness, the dropping of the addictive need to project differences, is our unified purpose. A Unified Mind with Unified Purpose returns us to the Awareness of Perfect Oneness (Heaven!) that is Our Reality.
"I will forgive, and this will disappear." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 193, 13:3
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