"The thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 8:4
I was just talking to a friend who commented how everything in the world is in the process of monumental change. My rather surprising and spontaneous comment was: "Not here. Everything here seems to be hardly changing at all." I think it took me by surprise as much as it did my friend! And it gave me pause. After all, there are a lot of outer changes in my life. I was just blessed with grandson number four. I just took on two new cats and a new dog here at the Sanctuary, and a new Quaker parrot may be coming, as well as another horse. I'm making changes in my websites and the content offered there. And I've started doing more public speaking appearances. So what is the source of the 'nothing's changing' comment?
People are always complaining about their lives, of course. Either everything is changing or nothing is changing... and both seem to be cause for complaint! So what is the real issue?
A Course in Miracles explains that literally everything in our daily lives, the things we think we want and the things we think we don't want, serve only one purpose: to keep us so preoccupied with the illusion of life, the constantly changing kaleidoscope of forms and events, that we don't acknowledge that it isn't real. Our true Self is eternal and unchanging, the Ground of All Being... and the changing, shifting forms that come and go are mere shadows, and are falsely perceived as substance by the egoic, conditioned mind.
The more our awareness of the eternal deepens, the more we notice that there is no real difference in content in all the constantly changing forms. The quality of all of them is nothingness... and so nothing really changes. Forms shift and change, the furniture is rearranged, but nothing in the world of illusory forms ever really happens. It doesn't matter if we move from one side of the world to the other... we find that nothing has changed. Because what is Real remains in us... unmoving, eternal, perfect, and joyously serene.
It's the Real and eternal shining in my new grandson that I celebrate. It's the Real shining through the eyes of the animals and people in our lives that we love. It doesn't change, even though our emotions may be in flux, and the forms and relationships may shift and change. The Real, the Eternal, the True, the Love... no matter what we call It, THIS is always effortlessly present, and can be attended to with our awareness in the midst of it all. This we can depend on. This will never change.
"As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with all transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feelings, alterations in conditions of the body or the mind; in all awareness and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 152, 5:1-3
Showing posts with label Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Change. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Monday, July 12, 2010
Changing Thoughts
"Think of this awhile: The world you see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind, and choose the joy of God as what you really want." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 6:1-4
One of my teachers once said, "Thought is always moving." We have the illusion of sameness from one day to the next, but there is no such thing as a day when our thoughts are identical. They are always moving, like a kaleidoscope. And this analogy is especially apt, since the restless, changing, often nonsensical pattern of our thoughts projects the world we think we see. Things pop up and come and go, in seemingly random patterns. But make no mistake: It is our own projection, the mirror of our own thoughts and nothing else.
So the hard truth that none of us really want to see is that we are never at the mercy of a changing world. We live in our own projections, reacting to our own judgments and stories. The world we think we see is made of images reflecting our own changing thoughts.
"It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing What You Are. And as you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy Will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 5:1-8
How do we recognize Who and What we are? By letting go of the insistence that we know who we are. We think we know where we were born, who our parents were, and where we were educated. We think we know what we like and what we don't like. And we think these judgments and the thoughts associated with them mean something. We think these things point to who we are. In reality, they point to the kaleidoscope of action and reaction of thought that passes for life, and that projects the world as we have known it.
If we are still just a moment... if we're willing to not know for just an instant... if we're willing to allow that who and what we are must be natural, must be effortlessly already here, that it doesn't need to be judged or explained or defined or maintained... in the stillness of an instant, the Truth dawns. The changing thoughts that project the world are stilled, and in the unconditioned awareness of the holy instant, we recognize our true Self. This Self has never been lost, has always been. Our constantly changing thoughts and projections have simply obscured our awareness for a time.
"Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 191, 7:1 & 9:1-4
One of my teachers once said, "Thought is always moving." We have the illusion of sameness from one day to the next, but there is no such thing as a day when our thoughts are identical. They are always moving, like a kaleidoscope. And this analogy is especially apt, since the restless, changing, often nonsensical pattern of our thoughts projects the world we think we see. Things pop up and come and go, in seemingly random patterns. But make no mistake: It is our own projection, the mirror of our own thoughts and nothing else.
So the hard truth that none of us really want to see is that we are never at the mercy of a changing world. We live in our own projections, reacting to our own judgments and stories. The world we think we see is made of images reflecting our own changing thoughts.
"It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing What You Are. And as you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy Will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 5:1-8
How do we recognize Who and What we are? By letting go of the insistence that we know who we are. We think we know where we were born, who our parents were, and where we were educated. We think we know what we like and what we don't like. And we think these judgments and the thoughts associated with them mean something. We think these things point to who we are. In reality, they point to the kaleidoscope of action and reaction of thought that passes for life, and that projects the world as we have known it.
If we are still just a moment... if we're willing to not know for just an instant... if we're willing to allow that who and what we are must be natural, must be effortlessly already here, that it doesn't need to be judged or explained or defined or maintained... in the stillness of an instant, the Truth dawns. The changing thoughts that project the world are stilled, and in the unconditioned awareness of the holy instant, we recognize our true Self. This Self has never been lost, has always been. Our constantly changing thoughts and projections have simply obscured our awareness for a time.
"Be glad today how very easily is hell undone. You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this: All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven. There is nothing that you cannot do. You play the game of death, of being helpless, pitifully tied to dissolution in a world which shows no mercy to you. Yet when you accord it mercy, will its mercy shine on you. Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made. In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of his holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 191, 7:1 & 9:1-4
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Beginning Again
"Behold, I make all things new." -- Revelation 21:5
Beginning again each day, each newborn day, we carry with us an entire world of past associations. We know how to brush our teeth, how to shower, how to make our tea, from memories of our childhood, or from our dentist, or from our parents or grandparents. Everything we do carries ghosts of the past. We're not really beginning again. We're repeating the past, with twists and turns, day after day. We're reacting to our own conditioned beliefs and ideas, our own mental constructs about how the day should be, what we should be doing, and who we should be doing it with. It's the wheel of endless action and reaction. We may resolve something today, but tomorrow it will rise again in a slightly different form. The grass will need cutting again. The dishes always need washing. And our teeth always need brushing.
How do we find peace in a world that is an endless chain of reaction to form and belief and thought? How do we begin again?
Over 2000 years ago Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3) How are we born again? How do we begin again? Let's read more of this same passage: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit." (John:5-6) It's clear that we are talking about consciousness here... being born again in consciousness. The spirit is invisible, and unattended to by the physical, material man. Being born again, really beginning anew is an act forgiveness and release of the past, an act of consciousness. It doesn't have anything to do with the forms that seem to populate our world, although the forms will reflect these shifts in awareness.
A Course in Miracles teaches that all such shifts in perception come through forgiveness, through letting go of all past referral. The miracles that result are actually perceptual shifts that occur as our mind is changed. ACIM puts it this way: "To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation on the present. If you would have it past and gone, you must not see it now." How the heck do we do that??? ACIM goes on: "Time can release as well as imprison, depending on whose interpretation of it you use. Past, present, and future are not continuous, unless you force continuity on them. You can perceive them as continuous, and make them so for you. But do not be deceived, and then believe that this is how it is. You would anticipate the future on the basis of your past experience, and plan for it accordingly. Yet by doing so you are aligning past and future, and not allowing the miracle, which could intervene between them, to free you to be born again. The miracle enables you to see your brother [and thus yourself] without his past, and so perceive him [and yourself] as born again." - ACIM Chapter 13, Section VI, 3:5-6 and 4:1-7, 5:1
Beginning again is a conscious act of forgiveness... but the release and perceptual shifts that result from our conscious acts of forgiveness are effortless and free.
"Judgment and condemnation are behind you, and unless you bring them with you, you will see that you are free of them. Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true." - ACIM Chapter 13, Section VI, 6:1
Beginning again each day, each newborn day, we carry with us an entire world of past associations. We know how to brush our teeth, how to shower, how to make our tea, from memories of our childhood, or from our dentist, or from our parents or grandparents. Everything we do carries ghosts of the past. We're not really beginning again. We're repeating the past, with twists and turns, day after day. We're reacting to our own conditioned beliefs and ideas, our own mental constructs about how the day should be, what we should be doing, and who we should be doing it with. It's the wheel of endless action and reaction. We may resolve something today, but tomorrow it will rise again in a slightly different form. The grass will need cutting again. The dishes always need washing. And our teeth always need brushing.
How do we find peace in a world that is an endless chain of reaction to form and belief and thought? How do we begin again?
Over 2000 years ago Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." (John 3:3) How are we born again? How do we begin again? Let's read more of this same passage: "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; that which is born of the Spirit, is Spirit." (John:5-6) It's clear that we are talking about consciousness here... being born again in consciousness. The spirit is invisible, and unattended to by the physical, material man. Being born again, really beginning anew is an act forgiveness and release of the past, an act of consciousness. It doesn't have anything to do with the forms that seem to populate our world, although the forms will reflect these shifts in awareness.
A Course in Miracles teaches that all such shifts in perception come through forgiveness, through letting go of all past referral. The miracles that result are actually perceptual shifts that occur as our mind is changed. ACIM puts it this way: "To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation on the present. If you would have it past and gone, you must not see it now." How the heck do we do that??? ACIM goes on: "Time can release as well as imprison, depending on whose interpretation of it you use. Past, present, and future are not continuous, unless you force continuity on them. You can perceive them as continuous, and make them so for you. But do not be deceived, and then believe that this is how it is. You would anticipate the future on the basis of your past experience, and plan for it accordingly. Yet by doing so you are aligning past and future, and not allowing the miracle, which could intervene between them, to free you to be born again. The miracle enables you to see your brother [and thus yourself] without his past, and so perceive him [and yourself] as born again." - ACIM Chapter 13, Section VI, 3:5-6 and 4:1-7, 5:1
Beginning again is a conscious act of forgiveness... but the release and perceptual shifts that result from our conscious acts of forgiveness are effortless and free.
"Judgment and condemnation are behind you, and unless you bring them with you, you will see that you are free of them. Look lovingly upon the present, for it holds the only things that are forever true." - ACIM Chapter 13, Section VI, 6:1
Friday, July 17, 2009
Breaking the Shell
"If you want the kernel you must break the shell." -- Meister Eckhardt
We don't much like to talk about what's uncomfortable in our lives. Or if we do like to complain about it, it's to project it outward and blame it on others. It usually never occurs to us that these uncomfortable places are the shells that hide the Truth in us. And we certainly don't want to admit that these shells are our own creations, or that our greatest fear is the loss of them.
Sometimes we call these shells identities. Sometimes we call them stories. Sometimes we call them viewpoints, or perspectives. Usually we call it all ego. But we never, ever take full responsibility for it. We'll grasp for other opinions and viewpoints, look for other ways to talk about it and escape our discomfort... but we don't really want to break the shells. We don't really want to change. We don't really want to know the Truth.
Accepting our own attachment to the shell we call self is one of the final steps in Awakening. To really see the depth of our own compulsion to identify with a fiction and cling to it... this is the cracking of the shell. Often a dark night of the soul can follow this, which is simply a last-ditch effort to remain identified with what isn't real, to continue to pretend to be finite and lacking, or lost and misunderstood. It's all made up. There is no self that has ever been separate or lost. There is no sinner, no victim. Ever. And the ocean of infinite Awareness that is revealed as the shell breaks open is the Allness of God, Truth ItSelf. What is revealed is our very own Self... eternal, perfect, and forever free.
So if you find yourself telling the same stories with different trappings, engaging the same types of people with different names or faces, having the same experiences with different surroundings, it's simply because it's your fiction, your creation... it's the projection and reflection of your ego identity, your shell. Who you think you are is reflected in your projected experiences. This may be experienced as good, or it may be painful. There isn't any difference. Because if you think you are anything less than One with God, if you are identifying yourself as needing to be or become anything other than Self, then you are simply fantasizing and building a harder shell and defending against the Truth of Being. And that is always, and will always be, uncomfortable.
So the uncomfortable places, the things and people we avoid, the fears of loss or lack or abandonment we run from, the changes we refuse to make, the relationships we cling to, the truth we avoid telling... these are our own ego-tools for self-enhancement, the illusory substance of our fictional shell-selves. They are the defenses we use to keep spinning, spinning, spinning in the shell without becoming aware of it. Because once we become aware of the depth of our own self-deception, the imaginary shell simply vanishes.
"The choice you fear to lose you never had." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section III, 7:4
We don't much like to talk about what's uncomfortable in our lives. Or if we do like to complain about it, it's to project it outward and blame it on others. It usually never occurs to us that these uncomfortable places are the shells that hide the Truth in us. And we certainly don't want to admit that these shells are our own creations, or that our greatest fear is the loss of them.
Sometimes we call these shells identities. Sometimes we call them stories. Sometimes we call them viewpoints, or perspectives. Usually we call it all ego. But we never, ever take full responsibility for it. We'll grasp for other opinions and viewpoints, look for other ways to talk about it and escape our discomfort... but we don't really want to break the shells. We don't really want to change. We don't really want to know the Truth.
Accepting our own attachment to the shell we call self is one of the final steps in Awakening. To really see the depth of our own compulsion to identify with a fiction and cling to it... this is the cracking of the shell. Often a dark night of the soul can follow this, which is simply a last-ditch effort to remain identified with what isn't real, to continue to pretend to be finite and lacking, or lost and misunderstood. It's all made up. There is no self that has ever been separate or lost. There is no sinner, no victim. Ever. And the ocean of infinite Awareness that is revealed as the shell breaks open is the Allness of God, Truth ItSelf. What is revealed is our very own Self... eternal, perfect, and forever free.
So if you find yourself telling the same stories with different trappings, engaging the same types of people with different names or faces, having the same experiences with different surroundings, it's simply because it's your fiction, your creation... it's the projection and reflection of your ego identity, your shell. Who you think you are is reflected in your projected experiences. This may be experienced as good, or it may be painful. There isn't any difference. Because if you think you are anything less than One with God, if you are identifying yourself as needing to be or become anything other than Self, then you are simply fantasizing and building a harder shell and defending against the Truth of Being. And that is always, and will always be, uncomfortable.
So the uncomfortable places, the things and people we avoid, the fears of loss or lack or abandonment we run from, the changes we refuse to make, the relationships we cling to, the truth we avoid telling... these are our own ego-tools for self-enhancement, the illusory substance of our fictional shell-selves. They are the defenses we use to keep spinning, spinning, spinning in the shell without becoming aware of it. Because once we become aware of the depth of our own self-deception, the imaginary shell simply vanishes.
"The choice you fear to lose you never had." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section III, 7:4
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Allowing Growth and Change
"For my ally is The Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life it creates, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel The Force around you: here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere..." -- Master Yoda in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage. Every day begin the task anew." -- St. Francis de Sales
As you know, a couple of weeks ago I heard the Voice direct me to rest for a bit from this blog. Yesterday, I heard to begin again. I love the above quote from St. Francis de Sales, since it reminds me of a quote from A Course in Miracles: "Only absolute patience brings immediate results." Resting requires patience. But so does busyness. I find that when there is a lot going on and a lot to do, patience is the quiet resting in the midst of it all. Patience is how we rediscover the Peace and Joy of our True Being.
I've noticed, both in myself and in the people I speak with every day, that we think it's up to us to decide when to do something or when not to. It's so easy to rationalize our own resistance as guidance. "It shouldn't be this hard," we say. Or, "I can't do that, I'm not able to do that, that's just not me, it's just not the right time, it's not meant to be..." etc., etc., etc. Who is judging that? The Holy Spirit, our True Self, never sees through such limiting eyes. To the Holy Spirit, we are limitless Beings, luminous Beings (as Master Yoda said), not this crude matter that needs to protect and defend its turf and its way of life and its body and its (fill in the blank). God is everywhere, including in the people and things we are resisting and defending against. What could there be to fear, or to resist? Only if we are cherishing our limitations can such scenarios appear fearful in our own projections.
Jeshua ben Joseph said that when someone asks us to walk a mile with them, we should walk two miles. Why would he say such a thing? It seems to our ego selves that this is co-dependent, doormat behavior. But you see, when our perceptions are steeped in the belief in sacrifice, we can't see or hear. Which Jesus knew very well. He told us that unless we lose our life, we will never find it. We have to lose our most cherished perceptions and materially valued constructs before we can hear the inner meaning of Christ's words. To the ego, there is always a yes or a no, a right or a wrong, a this or a that. It sees only in binary terms, blinking on and off, on and off. Here today, gone tomorrow.
The Truth is never this or that, never yes or no, never right or wrong. It includes it ALL, as it really is... a Unified Whole, forever One. As long as we continue to see what happens to us, or the people that pull at us, or the tasks that present themselves to us, as 'other,' we are still caught in the dream, in the ego's binary system, still believing in a split existence, separate from God, separate from our True Self. Jesus was giving us the easiest, quickest route to healing that imagined split... by seeing that when we sacrifice our body or our time or our own notion of how things should be, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ANYTHING AT ALL. How else will we finally accept that none of it is real? We are never having patience with anyone or anything at all... we are always and only dealing with our own projections. Patience is the willingness to allow it all, and thus to allow the growth and change within the dream that expands into Awakening to the One Self that is the Truth of Being.
As long as we argue for our limitations and defend our self-limiting choices, little real growth is possible. This is the inner meaning of Jesus' statement, and the reason he said that narrow is The Path to Awakening, and few choose to walk it. We are limitless, luminous Beings, reflections of the Allness of God. When we say no to any aspect of life, we are saying no to Self.
"But there are times when it's not healthy to do whatever someone asks," we argue. Who is deciding that? Who is judging that? The point here is not whether or not we think we should do something, or even if we do it. The point is to listen to the Voice for God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit... and to know that when are told to say no, it is not because of any judgement or limitation. There are no judgements or limitations that have any meaning or effect at all. It will always be because the Holy Spirit sees the Truth about the person or situation, and knows them as limitless and luminous too. There are no real needs, and yet when we listen to the Voice, all perceived needs and limitations dissolve and resolve as effortlessly as a breathing, for everyone.
Are you arguing for your limitations? Are you looking out at the world from an imagined separate identity, trying to preserve a way of life or justify your defendedness? This is the condition of the imagined separated self. Patience means seeing this clearly, without judgement, and knowing it has no reality, no real effect on anything at all. You aren't really doing anything. Patience means being willing to drop every thought of how it should be, every thought of who did what to who, every thought of good or bad or right or wrong... every defense, every justification, every need to look good or right, every fear of exposure... and allow God, the only real Force for growth and change within the dream, to have His way with you.
"Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so. Yet you give power as the laws of this world interpret giving; as you give, you lose. It is not up to you to give power at all. Power is of God, given by Him and reawakened by the Holy Spirit, Who knows that as you give, you gain." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section IV, 1:1-4
"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage. Every day begin the task anew." -- St. Francis de Sales
As you know, a couple of weeks ago I heard the Voice direct me to rest for a bit from this blog. Yesterday, I heard to begin again. I love the above quote from St. Francis de Sales, since it reminds me of a quote from A Course in Miracles: "Only absolute patience brings immediate results." Resting requires patience. But so does busyness. I find that when there is a lot going on and a lot to do, patience is the quiet resting in the midst of it all. Patience is how we rediscover the Peace and Joy of our True Being.
I've noticed, both in myself and in the people I speak with every day, that we think it's up to us to decide when to do something or when not to. It's so easy to rationalize our own resistance as guidance. "It shouldn't be this hard," we say. Or, "I can't do that, I'm not able to do that, that's just not me, it's just not the right time, it's not meant to be..." etc., etc., etc. Who is judging that? The Holy Spirit, our True Self, never sees through such limiting eyes. To the Holy Spirit, we are limitless Beings, luminous Beings (as Master Yoda said), not this crude matter that needs to protect and defend its turf and its way of life and its body and its (fill in the blank). God is everywhere, including in the people and things we are resisting and defending against. What could there be to fear, or to resist? Only if we are cherishing our limitations can such scenarios appear fearful in our own projections.
Jeshua ben Joseph said that when someone asks us to walk a mile with them, we should walk two miles. Why would he say such a thing? It seems to our ego selves that this is co-dependent, doormat behavior. But you see, when our perceptions are steeped in the belief in sacrifice, we can't see or hear. Which Jesus knew very well. He told us that unless we lose our life, we will never find it. We have to lose our most cherished perceptions and materially valued constructs before we can hear the inner meaning of Christ's words. To the ego, there is always a yes or a no, a right or a wrong, a this or a that. It sees only in binary terms, blinking on and off, on and off. Here today, gone tomorrow.
The Truth is never this or that, never yes or no, never right or wrong. It includes it ALL, as it really is... a Unified Whole, forever One. As long as we continue to see what happens to us, or the people that pull at us, or the tasks that present themselves to us, as 'other,' we are still caught in the dream, in the ego's binary system, still believing in a split existence, separate from God, separate from our True Self. Jesus was giving us the easiest, quickest route to healing that imagined split... by seeing that when we sacrifice our body or our time or our own notion of how things should be, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ANYTHING AT ALL. How else will we finally accept that none of it is real? We are never having patience with anyone or anything at all... we are always and only dealing with our own projections. Patience is the willingness to allow it all, and thus to allow the growth and change within the dream that expands into Awakening to the One Self that is the Truth of Being.
As long as we argue for our limitations and defend our self-limiting choices, little real growth is possible. This is the inner meaning of Jesus' statement, and the reason he said that narrow is The Path to Awakening, and few choose to walk it. We are limitless, luminous Beings, reflections of the Allness of God. When we say no to any aspect of life, we are saying no to Self.
"But there are times when it's not healthy to do whatever someone asks," we argue. Who is deciding that? Who is judging that? The point here is not whether or not we think we should do something, or even if we do it. The point is to listen to the Voice for God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit... and to know that when are told to say no, it is not because of any judgement or limitation. There are no judgements or limitations that have any meaning or effect at all. It will always be because the Holy Spirit sees the Truth about the person or situation, and knows them as limitless and luminous too. There are no real needs, and yet when we listen to the Voice, all perceived needs and limitations dissolve and resolve as effortlessly as a breathing, for everyone.
Are you arguing for your limitations? Are you looking out at the world from an imagined separate identity, trying to preserve a way of life or justify your defendedness? This is the condition of the imagined separated self. Patience means seeing this clearly, without judgement, and knowing it has no reality, no real effect on anything at all. You aren't really doing anything. Patience means being willing to drop every thought of how it should be, every thought of who did what to who, every thought of good or bad or right or wrong... every defense, every justification, every need to look good or right, every fear of exposure... and allow God, the only real Force for growth and change within the dream, to have His way with you.
"Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so. Yet you give power as the laws of this world interpret giving; as you give, you lose. It is not up to you to give power at all. Power is of God, given by Him and reawakened by the Holy Spirit, Who knows that as you give, you gain." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section IV, 1:1-4
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Reverse Your Self
"Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. The issues of pain and pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through Divine help we can forbid this entrance." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 392, Lines 24-27, & Page 393, Lines 1-3
"If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to Me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section I, 4:7
These two quotes go hand in hand. We do indeed have to take responsibility for our own thoughts. Yet if we try to do this from the same old separate, illusory identity that we have mistaken for self, we will ultimately not be able to make real changes. Only the mind that knows its Oneness with God is even open to this kind of vigilance and change. When we are Aware of Being One with the Allness and Oneness of God, with All Good, we are allowing our True Self to stand porter at the door of thought... not our contracted ego identity.
"If you are willing to renounce the role of guardian of your thought system and open it to Me, I will correct it very gently and lead you back to God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section I, 4:7
These two quotes go hand in hand. We do indeed have to take responsibility for our own thoughts. Yet if we try to do this from the same old separate, illusory identity that we have mistaken for self, we will ultimately not be able to make real changes. Only the mind that knows its Oneness with God is even open to this kind of vigilance and change. When we are Aware of Being One with the Allness and Oneness of God, with All Good, we are allowing our True Self to stand porter at the door of thought... not our contracted ego identity.
It's through the Divine that we reverse our thinking and return to sanity. The problem with positive thinking and affirmations and all mental attempts at change is that they are not dealing with cause. The thoughts that make up the dream are not cause... they are always effects, reactions within the dream, witnesses to what we are doing and seeing and believing. The Thoughts of God are the only Real Cause... and these we can turn to at any moment, and return to the Peace and Love and Joy that are Who We Really Are. This has nothing to do with the dream and its seeming physical evidence. When we return to our Right Mind, everything changes. Whether it looks any different to the physical sense or not is irrelevant and not a true measure.
Let's talk a moment about the evidence of the physical senses. If you were presenting a legal case, would you trust a witness who would say whatever they were told? That's pretty much what the five senses do... they present evidence for the thoughts we have aligned ourselves with. When we align ourselves with the seeming reality of the world, our physical senses show us over and over that we are right. And yet, when we give our allegiance to God, and allow the Thoughts of God to have ascendance in our minds and hearts, we gradually reverse ourselves, and eventually even our sight and hearing and taste and touch and smell and emotions become witnesses only to Reality and Oneness. But never are these evidence of change. These are simply what Jeshua ben Joseph called 'the added things.' "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His Righteousness," he told us, "and all these things will be added unto you." Does the heart need evidence to know ItSelf? Does the Light need a mirror to know it Radiates?
Reversing the direction of our thoughts seems a daunting and overwhelming task to the ego self, and so it is. But to the Self aligned with God, it is as easy and natural as breathing seems to be in this dream world. The reorganization of thoughts and motivations takes place spontaneously when our only intention is Awakening to Our True Self.
"Your Holiness reverses all the 'laws' of the world." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 38, 1:1
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Do You Want to Be Healed?
"Wilt thou be made whole?" -- The Bible; John 5:6
"And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole." -- The Bible; Mark 6:56
"Forgiveness is not real unless it brings a healing to your brother and yourself. You must attest his sins have no effect on you to demonstrate they are not real... A miracle of healing proves that separation is without effect... Thus does the miracle undo all things the world attests can never be undone." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section II, 4:1-2, 5:2, and 6:4
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." -- The Bible; Matthew 9:2
Do you want to be healed? The need for healing takes so many different forms. It can appear to be physical, like so many of the healings in The Bible. It can appear to be relationships that need healing. It can appear to be emotional, or mental, or financial, or simply a vague feeling of disquiet and discontent. It can even show up as the longing for special relationships or as ambition and lust for power and control. A Course in Miracles says that it takes great spiritual maturity to realize that there is absolutely no difference in any of these. Form is irrelevant and essentially unreal and therefore untrue. The content of all seeking (even spiritual seeking) and all problems is the same. The content is always the belief in separation from God, the belief that we are separate from Goodness itself, and therefore have to make our own way. This fragmented perception projects a wounded self and a wounded world.
This fragmented perception that I have named 'me' has a vested interest in not being healed, not being whole. This autonomous fiction uses fear, which is also a fiction, to avoid, resist, obscure, and generally maintain the illusion of separateness and pain, suffering, lack, and every other imaginable form of separation from Good. An illusion isn't capable of truly doing anything, so it relies on projection, very much like a movie relies on the projection of images to suck us into story. We like it. It's our illusion.
So do we want to be healed? Jeshua ben Joseph always asked this first. Because when we do truly want to remember our wholeness more than our fragmented perceptions, we will. As Jesus said, "For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" (The Bible; Matthew 9:5) ACIM says it this way: "Forgiveness offers everything I want." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 122) When we let go of insisting we are separate, all the imagined, projected sins (our 'own' and everybody else's) are simply not. They never were.
I love that in the biblical stories about Jesus' healings, all anybody had to do was touch the hem of his garment. In other words, all we have to do is want to Remember Who We Are. If we turn ever so slightly, if we mentally reach out and barely touch the Truth, then the dream simply vanishes, the illusion dissolves. In the Light of Truth there is no darkness, sin, suffering, or death. This is the true forgiveness of sins that offers everything we want.
So do you want to be healed? Do you want to remember your Wholeness, your Infinite Beingness, your unchanging Love, and your endless Joy? Can you handle it? The little separated self says no. It says that just this little separated piece is all I want... just this imaginary form, without real content. Infinite Being is unimaginable. It's too much. It's delusional. Look around you with your body's eyes, and behold the great projection. This is your everyday reality. Be content with the little you think you have. If you let go of it, you'll be sorry. Everything will change. You'll be sorry. What do you think you're doing?
I love to think about the great courage it took for the sick and outcast to reach out to Jesus. They were subjected to scorn and disbelief afterwards, and some part of them knew that would happen... how could there not be a lot of hoopla when someone who has been deformed and crippled from birth suddenly gets up and walks? No wonder they all said, "He did it!" To acknowledge their own choice within themselves would have been the real healing (which is why Jesus said, "Go and tell no one")... but even though they had the courage to reach out for an end to their apparent suffering, they did not have the courage to be truly healed. And true healing through forgiveness is what Jesus still teaches today.
Do you want to be healed? Do you want to see the split within your own mind that is projected as body and as world? Do you want to forgive and Remember?
"Who forgives is healed. And in his healing lies the proof that he has truly pardoned, and retains no trace of condemnation that he still would hold against himself or any living thing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section II, 3:10-11
"And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole." -- The Bible; Mark 6:56
"Forgiveness is not real unless it brings a healing to your brother and yourself. You must attest his sins have no effect on you to demonstrate they are not real... A miracle of healing proves that separation is without effect... Thus does the miracle undo all things the world attests can never be undone." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section II, 4:1-2, 5:2, and 6:4
"Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee." -- The Bible; Matthew 9:2
Do you want to be healed? The need for healing takes so many different forms. It can appear to be physical, like so many of the healings in The Bible. It can appear to be relationships that need healing. It can appear to be emotional, or mental, or financial, or simply a vague feeling of disquiet and discontent. It can even show up as the longing for special relationships or as ambition and lust for power and control. A Course in Miracles says that it takes great spiritual maturity to realize that there is absolutely no difference in any of these. Form is irrelevant and essentially unreal and therefore untrue. The content of all seeking (even spiritual seeking) and all problems is the same. The content is always the belief in separation from God, the belief that we are separate from Goodness itself, and therefore have to make our own way. This fragmented perception projects a wounded self and a wounded world.
This fragmented perception that I have named 'me' has a vested interest in not being healed, not being whole. This autonomous fiction uses fear, which is also a fiction, to avoid, resist, obscure, and generally maintain the illusion of separateness and pain, suffering, lack, and every other imaginable form of separation from Good. An illusion isn't capable of truly doing anything, so it relies on projection, very much like a movie relies on the projection of images to suck us into story. We like it. It's our illusion.
So do we want to be healed? Jeshua ben Joseph always asked this first. Because when we do truly want to remember our wholeness more than our fragmented perceptions, we will. As Jesus said, "For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?" (The Bible; Matthew 9:5) ACIM says it this way: "Forgiveness offers everything I want." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 122) When we let go of insisting we are separate, all the imagined, projected sins (our 'own' and everybody else's) are simply not. They never were.
I love that in the biblical stories about Jesus' healings, all anybody had to do was touch the hem of his garment. In other words, all we have to do is want to Remember Who We Are. If we turn ever so slightly, if we mentally reach out and barely touch the Truth, then the dream simply vanishes, the illusion dissolves. In the Light of Truth there is no darkness, sin, suffering, or death. This is the true forgiveness of sins that offers everything we want.
So do you want to be healed? Do you want to remember your Wholeness, your Infinite Beingness, your unchanging Love, and your endless Joy? Can you handle it? The little separated self says no. It says that just this little separated piece is all I want... just this imaginary form, without real content. Infinite Being is unimaginable. It's too much. It's delusional. Look around you with your body's eyes, and behold the great projection. This is your everyday reality. Be content with the little you think you have. If you let go of it, you'll be sorry. Everything will change. You'll be sorry. What do you think you're doing?
I love to think about the great courage it took for the sick and outcast to reach out to Jesus. They were subjected to scorn and disbelief afterwards, and some part of them knew that would happen... how could there not be a lot of hoopla when someone who has been deformed and crippled from birth suddenly gets up and walks? No wonder they all said, "He did it!" To acknowledge their own choice within themselves would have been the real healing (which is why Jesus said, "Go and tell no one")... but even though they had the courage to reach out for an end to their apparent suffering, they did not have the courage to be truly healed. And true healing through forgiveness is what Jesus still teaches today.
Do you want to be healed? Do you want to see the split within your own mind that is projected as body and as world? Do you want to forgive and Remember?
"Who forgives is healed. And in his healing lies the proof that he has truly pardoned, and retains no trace of condemnation that he still would hold against himself or any living thing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section II, 3:10-11
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Subjective States
"You are a mirror of Truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego's dark glass you need but say, "I will not look there because I know these images are not true." Then let the Holy One shine on you in Peace, knowing that this and only this must be." -- A Course in Miracles
"Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder Peace, and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment." -- A Course in Miracles
I had someone ask me why I write this blog every day. It's a legitimate question. ACIM says the most important question you can ask about any endeavor is, "What is it for?" If I think I will get anything out of it or convince anyone of anything, it is all ego and so much hot air. My answer to them is: I have no idea why I'm writing the blog. But I can tell you what it is for. The Voice said write, and so I write. When nothing comes from that Awareness, I don't write. I refuse to force myself to do it, or to write just to fulfill a role. It either comes from Self or not at all. So occasionally I will miss a day or two, until I hear to write again. At some point the blog will stop, like all things in the world do. Until then, I am following and writing.
This is a different experience than the subjective states of mind that have plagued me as a writer in the past. Feeling up or down, on or off, with it or out of it... these subjective states determined my focus and productivity. Interestingly, writing this blog has none of that... whatever is up for the day, whatever emotions might arise, whatever situations occur, they are all just part of what is written about, used as compost for the organic process of awakening that is taking place. The Voice always leads us in this way. Whether it says to garden or write or run or simply to sit, it will always lead us back to an awareness of our true Self.
ACIM says that all the emotions that come and go are just judgments on what we are projecting... change our minds about what it is all for and the insubstantial emotions pass pretty effortlessly. Feelings, on the other hand, are our gage of Who we are listening to and following. Peace is the litmus test. Where there is Peace, regardless of how you tell the story, regardless of what emotions come and go, you are following the One. Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place nor a condition, but merely an Awareness of perfect Oneness... and Peace is the condition of this Awareness.
I remember one of the poems by Robert Louis Stevenson that my mother used to quote to me: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." But the thing is, no number of things ever does make us happy. The subjective states that come and go even when we get what we think we want are the way of it. How many times have you been lulled into complacency by thinking that this time everything is different? That this time you will be happy forever? How long did that last?
This is not a bad thing. If our illusions didn't shift and change as they do, we would never bother to wake up, and would wander the dream of subjective illusions for eternity. So our job is simply to forgive our illusions and be happy and at peace with whatever is arising. Have fun when it's fun. Cry when you need to. Be real and honest with yourself and others. And know that none of it is a measure of Who You Are or has anything to do with your Real Self, anymore than dreaming you are a street person or a king during your night dreams has any real effect when you wake up.
Subjective states come and go. You don't.
"Let nothing disturb thee. Let nothing dismay thee. All things pass. God never changes. Patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing. God alone suffices." -- Theresa of Avila
"Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder Peace, and step away from them. Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment." -- A Course in Miracles
I had someone ask me why I write this blog every day. It's a legitimate question. ACIM says the most important question you can ask about any endeavor is, "What is it for?" If I think I will get anything out of it or convince anyone of anything, it is all ego and so much hot air. My answer to them is: I have no idea why I'm writing the blog. But I can tell you what it is for. The Voice said write, and so I write. When nothing comes from that Awareness, I don't write. I refuse to force myself to do it, or to write just to fulfill a role. It either comes from Self or not at all. So occasionally I will miss a day or two, until I hear to write again. At some point the blog will stop, like all things in the world do. Until then, I am following and writing.
This is a different experience than the subjective states of mind that have plagued me as a writer in the past. Feeling up or down, on or off, with it or out of it... these subjective states determined my focus and productivity. Interestingly, writing this blog has none of that... whatever is up for the day, whatever emotions might arise, whatever situations occur, they are all just part of what is written about, used as compost for the organic process of awakening that is taking place. The Voice always leads us in this way. Whether it says to garden or write or run or simply to sit, it will always lead us back to an awareness of our true Self.
ACIM says that all the emotions that come and go are just judgments on what we are projecting... change our minds about what it is all for and the insubstantial emotions pass pretty effortlessly. Feelings, on the other hand, are our gage of Who we are listening to and following. Peace is the litmus test. Where there is Peace, regardless of how you tell the story, regardless of what emotions come and go, you are following the One. Remember, the Kingdom of Heaven is not a place nor a condition, but merely an Awareness of perfect Oneness... and Peace is the condition of this Awareness.
I remember one of the poems by Robert Louis Stevenson that my mother used to quote to me: "The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." But the thing is, no number of things ever does make us happy. The subjective states that come and go even when we get what we think we want are the way of it. How many times have you been lulled into complacency by thinking that this time everything is different? That this time you will be happy forever? How long did that last?
This is not a bad thing. If our illusions didn't shift and change as they do, we would never bother to wake up, and would wander the dream of subjective illusions for eternity. So our job is simply to forgive our illusions and be happy and at peace with whatever is arising. Have fun when it's fun. Cry when you need to. Be real and honest with yourself and others. And know that none of it is a measure of Who You Are or has anything to do with your Real Self, anymore than dreaming you are a street person or a king during your night dreams has any real effect when you wake up.
Subjective states come and go. You don't.
"Let nothing disturb thee. Let nothing dismay thee. All things pass. God never changes. Patience attains all that it strives for. He who has God finds he lacks nothing. God alone suffices." -- Theresa of Avila
Friday, February 15, 2008
The Holy Work of Change
"God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, can never impoverish, the Divine Mind. The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work." -- Mary Baker Eddy
"Change is always fearful to the separated, because they cannot conceive of it as a move towards healing the separation." -- A Course in Miracles
"All things pass. God never changes." -- Theresa of Avila
A Course in Miracles says we are not capable of being tired, but that we are very capable of wearying ourselves. This is in alignment with the above quote from Mary Baker Eddy. We exhaust ourselves resisting change, resisting the flow of Spirit that emanates from our very core. It's exhausting trying so hard to be what we are not. Like trying to fit into clothes that are many sizes too small. Who We Are is Infinite. How could we feel at ease in such imagined limitations? Resisting change is to limit our infinite Mind.
The holy work of change in this dream world is that it ultimately shows the unreal nature of all material form... but the bonus is that it shows that nothing is limited by form. Forms morph and shift and change, and nothing is ever really lost. Coming to know and remember this is what we call Awakening. The core of Infinite Changelessness is the heart of All That Is. God, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Allness, Oneness, is at the heart of all and yet untouched by change.
The Tao te Ching says: "You can't know It, but you can be It, at ease in your own life." This is the holy work of change. In the midst of what comes and goes, in the core of stillness that is always effortlessly present, is the True Self, the Beloved that We Are. So allow change to have its way with you... allow it to do its holy work.
"The miracle attests salvation from appearances by showing they can change. Your brother has a changelessness in him beyond appearance and deception, both. It is obscured by changing views of him that you perceive as his reality. The happy dream about him takes the form of the appearance of his perfect health, his perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and safety from disaster of all kinds. The miracle is proof he is not bound by loss or suffering in any form, because it can so easily be changed. This demonstrates that it was never real, and could not stem from his reality. For that is changeless, and has no effects that anything in Heaven or on earth could ever alter. But appearances are shown to be unreal because they change." -- A Course in Miracles
"Change is always fearful to the separated, because they cannot conceive of it as a move towards healing the separation." -- A Course in Miracles
"All things pass. God never changes." -- Theresa of Avila
A Course in Miracles says we are not capable of being tired, but that we are very capable of wearying ourselves. This is in alignment with the above quote from Mary Baker Eddy. We exhaust ourselves resisting change, resisting the flow of Spirit that emanates from our very core. It's exhausting trying so hard to be what we are not. Like trying to fit into clothes that are many sizes too small. Who We Are is Infinite. How could we feel at ease in such imagined limitations? Resisting change is to limit our infinite Mind.
The holy work of change in this dream world is that it ultimately shows the unreal nature of all material form... but the bonus is that it shows that nothing is limited by form. Forms morph and shift and change, and nothing is ever really lost. Coming to know and remember this is what we call Awakening. The core of Infinite Changelessness is the heart of All That Is. God, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Allness, Oneness, is at the heart of all and yet untouched by change.
The Tao te Ching says: "You can't know It, but you can be It, at ease in your own life." This is the holy work of change. In the midst of what comes and goes, in the core of stillness that is always effortlessly present, is the True Self, the Beloved that We Are. So allow change to have its way with you... allow it to do its holy work.
"The miracle attests salvation from appearances by showing they can change. Your brother has a changelessness in him beyond appearance and deception, both. It is obscured by changing views of him that you perceive as his reality. The happy dream about him takes the form of the appearance of his perfect health, his perfect freedom from all forms of lack, and safety from disaster of all kinds. The miracle is proof he is not bound by loss or suffering in any form, because it can so easily be changed. This demonstrates that it was never real, and could not stem from his reality. For that is changeless, and has no effects that anything in Heaven or on earth could ever alter. But appearances are shown to be unreal because they change." -- A Course in Miracles
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