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

The Key to Happiness

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Light of Strength

"The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself.  No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 92, 8:1-2

Constant, sure, abiding... these are the shining attributes of the ever-present, unchanging Christ Self that is our Reality.  Vacillating, uncertain, always in flux... these are the attributes of the conditioned self, the egoic self-concept.  Sometimes in the midst of the egoic delusion, the only way to give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and return to sanity is to gently remind ourselves that what is true doesn't shift and change, and so this (whatever version of egoic stuff is arising) must not be true.  It's like Ramana Maharshi asking, "Who am I?", and going through the process of elimination... "Not this, not this..."  All of 'this' that the mind can conceive is simply concept, not reality.  When the mind is wiped clean of all its concepts, what remains is the effortless light and strength of Mind Awake, which is pure Love.

Forgiveness is the process of washing the mind of concepts.  As we give over every thought, emotion, judgment, and experience to the Holy Spirit for healing, the mind becomes quiet.  In the Introduction to the Course, we are told that, "The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of Love, for that is beyond what can be taught.  It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of Love's Presence, which is your natural inheritance." (ACIM; Introduction, 1:6-7)  Every single apparent block to awareness is a mental construct, a concept held as true in the sleeping mind.  "Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts." (ACIM; Chapter 31, V, 14:3)

As we forgive all concepts of a world and of a self, the mind becomes still, radiating only the light of strength and that is the ever-present reality of our true Self. 

"The power of decision is our own.  And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God.  To recognize God's Son implies as well that all self-concepts have been laid aside, and recognized as false.  Their arrogance has been perceived.  And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 10:1-5

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

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. 

Nothing But My Thoughts

"Father, Your Son is perfect.  When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten Who I Am, and that I am as You created me.  Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness.  If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are.  I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.  The Thoughts I think with You can only bless.  The Thoughts I think with You alone are true." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 281

It's all literally made up... nothing but thought-stuff... there is nothing I'm interacting with but my own thoughts.  There's no one to fight with, no one to blame, no one to look up to or to save me.  There's no one who knows more or less, or who has more or less than I do.  Reality is here, now, whole, and complete.  And it's always loving. 

This reminds me of an old Outer Limits episode, where this woman wakes up to her normal world with its normal shapes and forms, with one big exception... there's nobody there but her!  So she spends the entire time freaking out and panicking and trying to find the 'others' that must be 'out there' too.  This is particularly funny when you think about how our egos are always trying to get others to think and be like we want them to.  And they are!  They are! 

Does this mean that we are alone in all the universe?  Does this mean that I am just this isolated ego, imagining and dreaming over and over and over?  No... we live and move and have our being in God, in the One, in the Infinite and All-Good.  It's the dream of isolation and separation that is false, that is a projected misconception in a million different forms. 

In the dream of separation from each other and God, there is nothing real.  But there is Reality... and the one measure of the Real is that it is eternal, unchanging, infinite, boundless, all-embracing Love.  There is no place or time or living thing that is separate, wrong, flawed, lacking, or in need of change or adjustment.  What appears to be so is the false projected as if it were true.

There is only one lie:  that we are separate from the All.  And this is simply an error about who and where we are, a misconception.  And conceptions can be changed, to align more nearly to what is true.  Nothing but my misconceptions, my thoughts, can hurt me.  Nothing but my thoughts of separation and autonomy could project this illusion of a world that God did not create. 

The Thoughts of God remain in the Mind of God.  This is where we are, and where we will always be... One God, One World, One Beloved Self, perfect and holy and forever.

Begin Again in 2010

Here we are, beginning again in the circle of time.  I invite anyone who is interested to join in the ongoing study of A Course in Miracles which begins again on Wednesday, January 6, 2010.  You can always get updated information about the calls on my website, at http://www.sundarya.com/ACIMteleclasses.htm.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.  And so we begin again.

Beginners mind is a mind that has released its need to know.  Beginners mind is a mind that has emptied itself of past associations, so it can see Reality as it is.  Beginners mind, the innocent mind, is the return to zero, to nothing... and then everything that emerges from this sacred space is pure Inspiration from Source, from our True Self, from God.  As we are willing to let go of everything, of all our human constructs and identities, they are translated and transformed into instruments of Light.

A Course in Miracles begins with these statements of Principle: "There is no order of difficulty in miracles.  One is not 'harder' or 'bigger' than another."  (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 1:1-2) This means there is no human identity or concept that cannot be released and therefore translated, no human experience that will not become a miracle when it is forgiven and all past meanings released.  There is no order of difficulty, and therefore there are no exceptions.  "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." (The Bible; Isaiah 1:18)  This is reasonable; this is rational; this is Principle.

"Miracles are part of an interlocking chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement.  Atonement works all the time and in all dimensions of time." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 25:1-2)  No exceptions, and omni-directional, omni-dimensional.  No exclusions.  And so this completed chain of forgiveness leaves us washed clean, erased of human concepts, white as snow.  Beginners mind.

"Miracles represent freedom from fear.  'Atoning' means 'undoing.'  The undoing of fear is an essential part of the Atonement value of miracles." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 26:1-3)  And so the miracle is the undoing of what never was... the erasing of illusory and transient memories and concepts from the mind... and we find in the sacred space the miracle of beginners mind, and the Freedom and Love of our True Self.

"Miracles honor you because you are loveable.  They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the Light in you.  They thus atone for [undo] your errors by freeing you from your nightmares.  By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 33:1-4)  Released from past associations, from the many memories and stories that populate our split mind... released from all self-concepts, we find our Self again.  This is my prayer for us all as we begin again in 2010. 

"Spirit is in a state of Grace forever.  Your reality is only Spirit.  Therefore you are in a state of Grace forever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section III, 5:4-6

The Webs We Weave

"Truth is by nature self-evident. As soon as you remove the cobwebs of ignorance that surround it, it shines clear." -- Mahatma Gandhi

"If the mind, which is the instrument of projection and is the basis of all activity, subsides, then the perception of the world as an objective reality ceases. On scrutiny as to what remains after eliminating all thoughts, it will be found that there is no such thing as mind or physical world apart from thought. Just as the spider draws out the thread of the cobweb from within itself and withdraws it again into itself, in the same way the mind projects the world out of itself and absorbs it back into itself." -- Ramana Maharshi

There are a lot of beautiful spiders around right now. They are spinning huge, elaborate webs everywhere, in the woods and by the barn, anywhere they can connect the dots. I love watching them, especially early in the morning with dew or frost on them, when they sparkle like something precious and brilliant. Ironic that they are really for the capturing of prey and the feeding of a predator... a symbol of our human belief that someone or something must lose in order for another to gain. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "There is but one mistake; the whole idea that loss is possible, and could result in gain for anyone."

That two wise and brilliant spiritual minds used webs to illustrate the human mind, and that I just happened to read both quotes on the same day is such a delicious synchronicity. The image of our human projection being like a spider spinning its web and then withdrawing it back into itself is a perfect illustration of what happens when we fall asleep at night. Where are all the images, people, sounds, etc.? They cease to exist when the mind is at rest. This is the experience and testimony of wise women and men throughout the ages. But it frightens us when we awaken without thought or identity. We fear losing... whether it's our name, our ideas about life, or our sanity, the loss of human memory is a big cultural demon. The dread word Alzheimer's is everywhere. What would Carl Jung have to say about that?

Some blessed souls, like Byron Katie, Gangaji, Eckhert Tolle and a host of others, have awakened without identity and without fear. Though they sometimes take on new identities in order to serve, they remain awake to Self. The key to seems to be the absence of fear.

My mother has dementia... she remembers very little, and what remains is like an old recording worn thin. The characteristic of her disease is constant fear. That is the real disease... a fear so great that there is complete withdrawal from self-awareness, and therefore from the possibility of awakening. The only gift I have to give her is my silent and continual awareness that every imagined fear and loss that she is running from has been forgiven and released, gradually withdrawing into the belly of the spider of fear in her gut, a web of her own creation. I see her innocence. I see beyond the web.

What webs of fear are you weaving in your life? Where do you fear lack and loss? Where are you hiding from Love and its Light? What good news that the webs we weave are simply our own cobwebs, and can be withdrawn and released at any time! The Truth remains self-evident without the cobwebs. Love remains, unchanging and sure, the only justice God knows.

"The miracle of justice can correct all errors." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section II, 4:1

A Way of Being

"Quantum systems imply that undivided wholeness is not only the content, but also the manner of working." -- Physicist David Bohm

This is the longest I've gone without posting on this blog, so apologies to those of my readers who have contacted me out of love and concern. I've been consumed with writing and editing, preparing a manuscript for publication. This has me thinking about the principle of wholeness, an attribute of God. It's very true that as I edit, even when I'm working with specific words or parts or sections, I'm really working with the idea of the whole. Good editing can only happen within this awareness of wholeness. It's really a way of being.

When I cook I experience the same thing. There is a field of awareness of the dish I'm making, and within that awareness there are individual things to do, ingredients to add, substitutions to be made. But it's all done within the awareness of the dish I'm creating... the manner of working is with the wholeness of the end result as the field of awareness in which everything else takes place. This is not done in a linear, control manner... the dish, the book, whatever is being created is not defined or limited in any way. It may look or taste completely different than I initially conceived it. But the wholeness of the divine idea emerges in its completeness. The form is irrelevant. It's the content that is eternally whole.

Wholeness is a manner of working, a way of being. A Course in Miracles says, "You can't have what you're not willing to be." If we return in awareness to the completeness of being that we are in God, then we have and are everything. We can lack nothing. We can't lack initiative. We can't lack inspiration. We can't lack ability. We can't lack opportunity. We can't lack fulfillment. We can't lack knowledge. We can't lack support. We can't have screwed it up. All of the areas in which we may have seen ourselves lacking are impossible... we live and move and have our being in God, in Wholeness ItSelf. We are God's Son, and we are eternally whole, as God Is One and Whole and unchanging. We are whole and beloved and provided for out of the fullness of God's Being every moment of every day.

Every perception of lack is also a manner of working and a way of being, even though it's ultimately not true. We can conceive ourselves to be lacking, and then experience it as being wholly true. Just as we can lose ourselves in a good book or good movie... and when we wake up, or simply return to the awareness of the room around us, we find we had experienced the drama as if it were true. But we know that it's not. In the same way, when we return to awareness of Self, in God, we find that we have simply been having an experience of lack based on a mere concept of self, a mere thought form... an illusion.

Awareness of God and of Self is not a concept... it's the Way of All Being, an unconditioned awareness without thought or concept. It is the Ground of All Being, and is what we are and what we know when all thoughts and concepts are forgiven and released. It's Home.

"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3