Deeper and Deeper

"I choose the joy of God instead of pain." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190

This morning while showering I had an image of a spring of water bubbling up out of the earth. Wherever springs bubble up, watercress will grow. It will only grow in the purest of spring water. The joy of God is like that... it bubbles up from deep within us, but we're only aware of it when we let go of all our stories and judgements about ourselves and the world. Happiness and fulfillment can only be known in this purest of springs. Joy bubbles up in us continually and permanently... but we become aware of it when we allow it, from deeper and deeper within our True Self.

This joyful awareness of our Oneness with All appears to deepen over time. I say appears, because the eternal is the same yesterday, today, and always... it's only our perception that's expanding and deepening, to remember what has always been. But this experience of deeper and deeper, immersed in the oceanic feeling of Spirit, filled with the bubbling bliss of joy, timeless and eternal... it feels new every day. God has been described by many as 'ever-new joy.'

What possible phenomena could attract my attention when I'm filled with such divine contentment? What possible need could there be in the midst of such divine completeness? What is there to do? Where is there to go? What is there to say? Who else is there to be? All that remains is the bliss of deeper and deeper awareness of effortless, endless, ever-new, bubbling joy. Deeper and deeper into Self. Effortless and free.

"Your Self is radiant in this holy joy; unchanged, unchanging, and unchangeable, forever and forever." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 190, 6:5

Revelation

"We love Him because He first loved us." -- The Bible; 1 John 4:19

"Revelation is literally unspeakable because it is an experience of unspeakable Love." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section II, 2:7

I had an experience of revelation this week. I do not use that word lightly. It's impossible to put this into words, but I am compelled to try.

I was hiking in the woods, climbing up to the bluffs that are a favorite meditation spot, cherishing the silence and companionship with my dogs and with God. And the passage from 1 John popped into my head, as it often does... but this time with a kind of stopping... everything slowed and stopped. And I saw the inseparability of it. God said I AM, and we came into being. He first loved us. We say I am, and affirm that Love, when we remember Who We Are.

To imply that God said, "I am Mary" and that I then say "I am God" and that's all there is to it, sounds ridiculous. God is no respecter of persons, certainly not of any ego. But there is a mystery here that transcends ego, and it has to do with God's name, I Am.

In my moments of revelation, of complete absorption in Love ItSelf, it was obvious to me that the emanation from God as I AM and the reflection of my seemingly individual I am are simultaneous and inseparable. He first loved us by BECOMING us. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting Life." The Bible; John 3:16

This has nothing to do with some personal messiah complex, or even with believing in Jesus as the Son of God. This has everything to do with who we think we are. If we realize and accept that we are the offspring of God, remembering this is our salvation. If we think we are the physical offspring of a flawed and suffering world, we are lost, self-condemned to the illusion of physical suffering and death.

God said, "I Am That I Am." He first Loved us. We say "I am," and take the name of the Lord in vain, unless we remember Who We Are. We are, collectively, the only begotten Son of God. This is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

"God has not many Sons, but only One. Who can have more, and who be given less? God gave you all there is. And to be sure you could not lose it, did He also give the same to every living thing as well. And thus is every living thing a part of you, as of HimSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VIII, 9:1-2 & 7-9

Breathless and Beautiful

There must be always remaining in every life,
some place for the singing of angels,
some place for that which in itself is
breathless and beautiful.
-- Howard Thurman

That which in itself is breathless and beautiful. In itself. Not because of someone or something. Not because of the sunset or the innocent baby. Not because of that certain person, place, or thing. Not because life is going the way we want it to. In itself.

What does it mean to experience being breathless and beautiful in ourselves? In moments of revelation, glimpses of our Oneness with God, the breath stops and there is complete joy and rest and beauty, whole and complete, breathless and beautiful beyond description. I love the very phrase 'breathless and beautiful,' because it reminds me that any holy instant I choose to be aware, I am at rest in God, the eternally breathless and beautiful. And what else is there?

"I rest in God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 109

Full Disclosure

"Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the ultimate triumph of any cause. Ignorance of the error to be eradicated oftentimes subjects you to its abuse." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 446, Lines 30-32

"I will there be Light. Let me behold the Light that reflects God's Will and mine. I will there be Light. Darkness is not my will." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 73, 10:2-3, 11:3-4

"And do I want to see what I denied because it is the Truth? This final question, which is indeed the last you need decide, still seems to hold a threat the rest have lost for you. Forget not that the choice of sin or Truth, helplessness or Power, is the choice of whether to attack or heal. For healing comes of Power, and attack of helplessness. And if you choose to see a world without an enemy, in which you are not helpless, the means to see it will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section VII, 5:14, 6:5, 7:1-2, 9:4

I woke up this morning with a vague sense of dis-ease. And I just sat with it, allowing thoughts to arise and not attaching to any of them. I find it funny that there is not one thing wrong with my life at this point, that everything is flowing and very good from a human perspective, and yet this sense of something missing still arises. A Course in Miracles repeatedly reminds us that this is what the false self is made of... the need to generate more, and it doesn't even matter more of what. This requires the need for something more. The need for something more requires a this and a that. Oneness is not conducive to desire and suffering.

So as I watched this dog and pony show unfold in my own delusional thoughts, I realized that the normal tendency is to cover up what is really going on with activity or with projection... as in, "look what he/she is doing!" So that we can dissociate from our need to be separate and feed our appetite for more. I just got a huge rush as I wrote that sentence. Herein lies the key.

Sometimes the appetite for more shows up as the need to do stuff around the house, fixing, rearranging, redecorating, feng-shui-ing... just so it's more something. Sometimes the appetite shows up as a compulsive need to hear more of other people's stories to try and get what they have, or to try and help them, acting wise as if we know something they don't. Sometimes the appetite shows up as a need to stay within the familiar (more of this, please), so that we are never really outside our comfort zones. I could go on and on here, since the ingenuity of the ego's desire for more is legion. It is especially sneaky in the so-called spiritual arena, where the appetite shows up as the desire to hear other people's stories about spiritual stuff, or to read more, or to try a new person or path. But even the desire to help others is this appetite for more in disguise... wanting to appear to be more spiritual, even to ourselves. This is truly delusional. Since God is All, who is there to be spiritual, or non-spiritual?

A Course in Miracles puts it bluntly: "One illusion cherished and defended against the Truth makes all Truth meaningless, and all illusions real." (A Course in Miracles; Chapter 22, Section II, 4:4) So the question of seeing ourselves with full disclosure becomes imperative for Awakening. Where am I hiding this lust for more that keeps the illusion of a separate self spinning with abandon? In the lust for food, for new experiences, for new people, for new stories? Or the lust for isolation and safety? Or the lust for 'harmless' pleasures like movies and books? This is the last unanswered question: do I want to see? Do I really want to know?

Wanting is not bad... it's a mistake. The mistake is that something more of anything will ever satisfy and complete the ego. The mistake is that this subterfuge keeps you caught in the illusion of a life, a separate material self with a so-called spiritual side. You remain as God created you, not as you imagine yourself. And yet your dream life is lived as you imagine you. As Jeshua ben Joseph put it: "Ye are Sons of God, and yet ye die like men." We choose this illusion of separation and suffering because we want more. It's the wanting that kills us. It's the wanting that perpetuates the illusion of self that lacks something. It's the Seven Deadly Sins played out as my life, and your life, and the lives of everyone who comes into this dream world. Grandiose saga or utter tragedy, a story of earthly love or of darkest revenge, the mechanism and the end result is always the spinning of illusion, and more illusion. More. Always more.

I can Awaken in any given moment, and see myself as God created me: Perfect, Whole, Complete in every way, now and always. All that is necessary is the desire for full disclosure. In the face of discomfort, dis-ease, dis-satisfaction, be ruthlessly honest: do I want to see what I denied because it is the Truth?

"Now must you choose between your Self and an illusion of yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 22, Section II, 6:6

Thy Light IS Come

"Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." -- The Bible; Isaiah 60:1

"It is neither behind the point of perfection nor advancing towards it; it is at this point, and must be practiced therefrom." -- Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 242, Lines 5-7

"Real freedom depends on welcoming Reality... by recognizing what is here already." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section II, 7:7,8

Have you ever noticed how your thoughts are always about the past or future? What you did before, or what you're going to do then? What you didn't do, or what you should do? What seemed to happen, and what might happen? Well, I had coffee yesterday, maybe I should have tea today? Wasn't our call at 5 last week? When will it be this week? I used to be... I will be... I didn't... I should... even I can't, which seems like a present statement, reeks of past inabilities. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts. I see nothing as it is now." (ACIM; Workbook Lessons 3 & 4)

This is what our dream-stories are made of. There is no difference in attachments or aversions in these dreams, since they all are generated from one delusion... fear. Fear is the delusional projection of separated segments of time and space into past and future, falsely judged as desirable or as unacceptable, always illusory and unreal. And yet we live our lives listening always to our thoughts of past or future, and following the attachments and aversions of whatever dream we think we're in.

Thank God none of it is true. Thank God Reality is always safe and NOW. Thank God that the slightest inkling of this Reality dissolves the dream with joy and laughter. Thank God that none of it, none of it, means anything at all.

The Real World shines in perfect clarity, in the Awakened Field of Awareness that holds you NOW, as in a cocoon of blessing throughout your dreaming. We're not talking about someone else's light here. Scripture tells us that YOUR light IS come. Everything you've ever thought you wanted, every dream of love and wholeness and completion, every longing for a larger life, every prayer for safety and security IS come. Everything IS in this Awakened Field of Awareness... not as separate things in a dream of coming and going, but as Beloved aspects of Self, eternal and whole and forever free and complete.

Thy Light IS come... and your radiance outshines all stars and suns in the imagined universe. How could it be otherwise, when you live and move and have your True Being in the radiance of God? Rest in the luminous Field of Awakened awareness that enfolds you, Is You. Arise. Shine. Thy Light IS come!

"You are surrounded only by Him. What limits can there be on you whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 10:6-7

The Fullness of God

"Know the Love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." -- The Bible; Ephesians 3:19

"Jesus represented Christ, the true Idea of God. Man is idea, the image of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound Idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of Being in which man is the reflections of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 316, Line 12, & Page 475, Lines 13-22

"Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance, and limits of any kind. Through your holiness the Power of God is made manifest. There is nothing the Power of God cannot do. Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 38, 1:1-2, & 2:2-6

When we talk about God, we talk about Her/Him as a separate entity, who may be present or not. We act as though we can be apart from God. We act as though it is up to us to communicate with God or not. We act as though we are grown up children who have left our father's house and get to decide whether we want to talk to him or not. Actually, we are like cocky little fish who claim we can walk and breathe air. Who needs water?

In Reality, we live and move and have our being in God just as a fish does the water. We're not talking about physical being here... that's a misperception. We can't see clearly when we think we see with the physical eyes, because "sight is related to His Holiness, not to your ego, and therefore not to your body." What we perceive as our life on earth takes place only in our own minds and stories. Given to the Holiness that we are, our perceptions are purified and illumined... and we find the Fullness of God is literally everywhere. As ACIM puts it: "Your life is not as you imagine it."

What does it mean to know that the Fullness of God envelopes and enfolds me? What does it mean to know that I Am One with the Fullness of God? These are two questions that will transform every aspect of my life, if I will ask them with an open mind and heart. We are so willing to see ourselves as guilty and wrong and separate. But as ACIM says, "If guilt is hell, what is its opposite? My holiness is my salvation from this."

Try this just for today: Say to yourself repeatedly, "The Fullness of God envelopes and enfolds me (this person, this situation). I Am One with the Fullness of God." Again, we are not talking about the physical self or personality. We're talking about our True Self, the Self that is pure Spirit, Perfect, Whole, and Complete in every way, that has never been apart from God and All Good. "The Fullness of God envelopes and enfolds me. I Am One with the Fullness of God." This Awareness of Self corrects all errors of perception within my life dream, and returns me to sanity. "There is nothing my holiness cannot do."

"Your holiness is the answer to every question that was ever asked, is being asked now, or will be asked in the future. Your holiness means the end of guilt, and therefore the end of hell. Your holiness is the salvation of the world, and your own."

All Good

"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." -- The Bible; Genesis 1:31, 2:1

"Everyone will ultimately look upon his own creations and choose to preserve only what is good, just as God HimSelf looked upon what He had created and knew that it was good." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section VIII, 4:3

"All things work together for good. There are no exceptions, except in the ego's judgement." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section V, 1:1-2

"In the Saxon and twenty other tongues, Good is the term for God. The Scriptures declare all that He made to be good, like HimSelf... good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects God as He IS. God, Good, Being ever-present, it follows in Divine logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of Good, is never present." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 286, Lines 16-20, & Page 72, Lines 21-23

Infinite, Omnipresent, Ever-Present Good. Our imagined human selves think that we have to somehow be able to conceive of such a thing before we can experience it. As if we are making it up or making it happen. Our limited ego selves emphatically refuse to believe that our litany of sorrows and failures have anything to do with good. Our stories of badness or goodness are firmly entrenched in our personal worldview of self and other. Most of the time, we have no interest in seriously questioning the nature of these stories. After all, we reason, everyone knows there is evil in the world. What about starving children? What about war and famine? What about serial murderers?

And so we continue our sorry way of duality, and the cycle of imagined birth and death seems to be all that is sure. There is not One God, One Power in this story. There is also the power to be other than good, other than God. Hmmmm... doesn't anyone else wonder where the power to be other than Good came from? If God created All, and It Is All Good (and finished, Whole, complete)... then what else even exists? Could it really be as simple as waking up to the fact that we live and move and have our being in this Good, and nothing else but Good? Are our life stories the equivalent of malicious and false gossip? We are telling lies. And we eagerly spread them like a virus, as if they were the truth, and as if our opinions and judgments have any real effects. We are determined to live by our lies or die trying. We truly are insane and delusional in this imagined separation from All That Is, from the Awareness of Our Oneness with All Good.

To live an effortless life seems personally insulting or demeaning to the ego judgment of self. The separated self thrives on stories of struggle and competition. And yet beneath every struggle, underneath every story no matter how hurtful, is the Eternal Love and Good that are Our Very Self. When the stories are dropped like the veil of forgetfulness that they are, the Radiance of Self is revealed. Don't take my word for it. Let go now.

Of course, it's not enough to say, "stop telling the story." You have to stop looking for a new story, too. You have to stop trying to be the one who decides, who speaks, who tells the story, who controls and manipulates. You have to be willing to let go of all you have made up, all you have judged as less than Whole and Good. None of it is real, and none of it has ever touched Who You Are. You imagine that some of your stories are necessary for survival in the world. Nothing could be further from the Truth.

Who You Are is Life and Love and Intelligence ItSelf. Who You Are always Knows, whatever and wherever you think you are, exactly what is needful and what will bring you peace and joy and perfect fulfillment. Your little story self doesn't really do anything, nor did it ever, except in your fiction. Stop the stories now, and fulfillment and joy are HERE. Stop the stories, and All Good is revealed, right here, right now, where It has always been.

"What is All-Encompassing can have no opposite." -- A Course in Miracles; Introduction, 1:8

Stand Still

"Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." -- The Bible; Exodus 14:13

"Stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the Word of God." -- The Bible; 1 Samuel 9:27

"Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord." -- The Bible; 2 Chronicles, 20:17

I love walking in the woods. I've noticed that most people who hike do it with a body consciousness... they approach it as exercise and work. I walk a bit, but I spend a great deal of time standing still. I'll stop in the middle of the path and listen to the wind in the trees. I'll stop by the stream and listen to the trickling sound of water, and the rustle of leaves, breathing in the scents of the forest, and noticing how the light filters through the canopy of the trees. I'll laugh and appreciate the antics of my dogs as they run with sheer joy and abandon. All of these words are describing the five senses of the body. And if I was thinking in those moments (which I'm not), I would say that my body is serving its true function... a tool for communication within the dream. I am hearing and tasting and breathing and seeing Self in all Its glory.

My walks in the woods are metaphors for standing still. Wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we can stand still and rest in Awareness ItSelf. These are moments of expanded awareness, where everything simply IS, and at the same time, it is all One, an interwoven tapestry of immeasurable beauty. It's easy to do this and see this in the silence of nature. We may have opinions that make us think that standing still in the middle of a noisy city is harder or impossible, but it is just the same. And standing still in the middle of a mental or emotional or physical battle is also no different. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "All that a hierarchy of illusions can show is preference, not reality. What relevance has preference to the Truth? Illusions are illusions and are false. Your preference gives them no reality. Not one is true in any way, and all must yield with equal ease to what God gave as answer to them all. God's Will is One." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section VII, 6:5-10)

Standing still has nothing to do with the physical self. It doesn't mean we have to literally stop the body. It is all about an inner stillness and alertness, the expanded Awareness of Wholeness. We stop thinking and doing from the consciousness of a separated self, and experience firsthand the salvation of the Awareness of the Oneness and Allness of God. There are an incredible number of passages in The Bible about standing still. As Jeshua ben Joseph said, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will hear the inner meaning. It's not about bodies or illusory stories about battles and personalities. It's about the inner war we have set up between the illusory separated consciousness and the inevitable Awareness of Our True Self, forever and forever One with the Allness and Completeness that is God.

"The word "inevitable" is fearful to the ego, but joyous to the Spirit. God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him anymore than He can avoid you. The ego is afraid of the Spirit's Joy, because once you have experienced It you will withdraw all protection from the ego, and become totally without investment in fear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section I, 9:10-11, 10:1

Intentions or Willingness

"Trust not your good intentions. They are not enough. But trust implicitly your willingness, whatever else may enter. Concentrate only on this, and be not disturbed that shadows surround it. That is why you came. If you could come without them you would not need the Holy Instant. The miracle of the Holy Instant lies in your willingness to let it be what it is. And in your willingness for this lies also your acceptance of yourself as you were meant to be." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section IV, 2:1-6, 8-9

"The Holy Instant is the result of your determination to be Holy. It is the answer." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section IV, 1:1-2

There is a lot of hype about intentions in contemporary spiritual books. From Wayne Dyer to Lynn McTaggert to Harry Palmer, there is a collective belief (which is not new) that we decide the course of the dream through supposedly conscious intention. Like most persistent lies within the dream, there is a kernel of truth in it, though well-hidden because it's upside down and backwards. All our intentions show us is our ego-agendas. But the one power of decision that we do have as the dreamer of a dream is to align ourselves with what IS, beyond all dreaming. This is the determination and willingness to BE as God created us, without interference from our very human, illusory agendas.

Like everything that is True, this makes no sense to our list-making ego-selves. If we don't do it, who will? If I don't choose to do something, nothing will get done! Right? Well, it's amazing but true that if one ant in the anthill stops or dies, the anthill still goes on. It's the same in all aspects of this dream we call life. Forms of people, places, animals, and things all come, only to pass. Everything and everyone is expendable in the dream. Haven't you ever asked yourselves why we work so hard to be somebody, to be important, to have money, to have security, when all those who have gone before us and achieved supposedly 'great' things have one thing in common: they are all dead, and all their great achievements go the way of all things within the dream. Even if we still tell stories about certain of these people, that is only to justify our own insane search for meaning within the dream. Talk about your no-win situation.

The mystery is that when we let go of planning and intending and goal-setting, and forgive all our illusions, the dream unfolds as if we had done a great deal of planning and intending. It's so funny to see yourself being completely fulfilled and happy in unexpected and blessed ways. Who would have thought? A Course in Miracles tells us that "humility will never ask that you remain content with littleness. But it does require that you be not content with less than greatness that comes not of you." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section IV, 3:1-2) And Jesus said that "of myself I do nothing." The effortless life is not one in which we do no work and sit gazing at our navels. It's one in which we don't decide from our false ego-perspectives. Instead, we are willing to stop, to listen, and to follow. We are willing to be nothing, so that we can remember we are Everything.

"Do not attempt to give the Holy Spirit what He does not ask, or you will add the ego to Him and confuse the two. He asks but little. It is He Who adds the greatness and the might. He joins with you to make the Holy Instant far greater than you can understand. It is your realization that your need do so little that enables Him to give so much." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section IV, 1:6-10

Love

"There is no Love but God's, and ALL of Love is His. There is no other principle that rules where Love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its Wholeness is the Power holding everything as One. If you achieve the faintest glimmering of what Love means today, you have advanced in distance without measure and in time beyond the count of years to your release. He HimSelf will place a spark of Truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the Truth of Love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach Love's meaning to your clean and open mind." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 127, 3:5-8, 7:1, 9:3-5

"There is no material truth. The physical senses can take no cognizance of God and Spiritual Truth. The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demonstrate Truth and Life. Divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that is real." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page273, Lines 2-4; Page 274, Lines 12-13; Page 286, Lines14-15

How do we even begin to speak about what is All-Encompassing and so Beautiful that I weep as I write this? Imagine a time when your experience of love was so intense that there was no containing it. You may have thought it was because of a certain person or experience. It wasn't. In those moments we simply relax our defenses of mind and heart enough to glimpse the breathtaking Reality of Love. In any moment, in any experience when our undefended heart opens, the unimaginable experience of ever-present Love rushes in.

In the Tao te Ching, Lao Tsu wrote, "There is a Being, whose name I do not know, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment." The overwhelming experience of Divine Love leaves no story unchanged. All that previously looked like pain or limitation is transformed, radiant with blessing. Every drop of blood, every experience of failure, every hateful experience becomes a source of gratitude and wonder. How is it possible? What mystery is this?

Our human stories about love really have very little to do with Love. They distract us from what IS. "Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is One. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like ItSelf, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son." (ACIM; Workbook 127, 1:1-7)

Love is not what we think it is. It is completely impersonal, without a story... and yet It is more intimate than any emotional or sexual encounter, more deeply fulfilling than any human relationship or attachment. There is no describing It in words, and yet It spills over into words, into this blog, into imagined time and space... It cannot and will not be contained. Forever ItSelf, It is Our Home and Our Self.

"No law the world obeys can help you grasp Love's meaning. What the world believes was made to hide Love's meaning, and to keep it dark and secret. There is not one principle the world upholds but violates the Truth of what Love IS, and what you are as well. Seek not within the world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet it is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and ears that hear Love's Voice." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 127, 5:1-3, 6:1-3

"Accept the Truth about your Self, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. It is but this we are asked to do." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 139, 10:2-3

Home

"Living as human beings has cut us off from the Kingdom of God which is within us, and what we are doing in our periods of silence and quiet is maintaining a contact with this Withinness in which our entire Good is already established. The Kingdom of God is within us. It is within us in all its fullness, completeness, and perfection. This means that the fullness of life, its completeness and perfection, is already established within us from everlasting to everlasting. If we were to live a thousand year on earth, our completeness for that length of time is within us: fulfillment, infinite supply, infinite wisdom, infinite Grace; Infinity ItSelf." -- Joel Goldsmith, from Parenthesis in Eternity

"Let me remember I am One with God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 124

How do we remember what is the antithesis of everything we have been taught and exposed to since being born into this world? How do we remember Who We Are, and find our true Home?

Every thought and every action within the world is aimed at demonstrating that we are limited beings fighting for dominion over other limited beings, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. Even our interpretations of scripture are spun to justify this erroneous perception. All scripture everywhere is a map of consciousness, a road map Home. But we can't read the map when we think the map itself is the territory. Or when we are so intent on hearing and seeing through the interpretations that have been spun, that we can no longer hear or see at all.

How do we remember in the midst of this? How do we open our eyes and ears and come to Truth newborn and open? How can we directly experience Truth, not through study, not through interpretation, not through figuring it out, not someday, but now?

Some have said that long periods of meditation are necessary to still the mind. Others have said that forgiveness is the key. Still others insist that the study of Truth alone will bring the mind back into alignment with what Is. But if not one thing the world believes is true, then we must question even the spiritual beliefs. Because aren't they, too, saying that we are limited beings trying to work our way home? If I am One with God... not someday, not when I am quiet enough, not when my errors are corrected, but NOW... if I am One with the Allness of God, what more can be needed?

It has been said that a good teacher is one that quickly becomes unnecessary. Our spiritual beliefs and practices, though comforting and absolutely necessary at certain stages of unfoldment, become limitations if we see them as the point. The map is not the territory. The Kingdom is within you... not within a limited body or personality, not within some teaching or practice, but within your Awareness of Being. Returning Home is the acceptance of where Home IS. It is not 'out there', even in the most beautiful of experiences. Even in the most beautiful and comforting spiritual practices. Everything in the external dream is simply a projection of what is Known Within.

The Kingdom within is what every map of scripture or practice of Truth points to. The direct experience of Home is closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. And all that is required to Be Home is to let go of all the stories and techniques and limits that you have mistaken for yourself.

"This is the miracle of creation; that it is One forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until your see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same Light and therefore One. They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness. There is one miracle, as there is One Reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section VIII, 5:1-3, 6:1,3

A Hostage to Love

"The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. This course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Introduction 1:8 & 2:1-4

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." -- The Bible, Matthew 7:5-7

"What we do not forgive we are destined to relive." -- Anonymous

The Allness of the Love of God is so immeasurably sweet, so all-encompassing. We are created Self-Complete, in the Image of God. The Allness of God is the Divine Completeness of Love that we all search for within the dream. And that makes it all the more ironic that we continually sacrifice ourselves to the illusion of love. ACIM says that "The body is itself a sacrifice; a giving up of power in the name of saving just a little for yourself. The world you see is based on 'sacrifice' of Oneness. The little that the body fences off becomes the self, preserved through sacrifice of all the rest. The body is a loss, and can be made to sacrifice. The memory of God must be denied if sacrifice is asked of anyone. What witness to the Wholeness of God's Son is seen within a world of separate bodies, however much he witnesses to truth? You can lose sight of Oneness, but can not make sacrifice of its reality. Nor can you lose what you would sacrifice, nor keep the Holy Spirit from His task of showing you that it has not been lost. Every instant can you be reborn, and given life again."

We have the power to be reborn every instant. This means simply that Love, which is everyone and everywhere, can be remembered every instant. When this happens, the illusion of sacrifice that we call love vanishes like the illusion it is. But meanwhile, most of us are hostages to a warped ego game that has co-opted the name of love. Love takes no hostages, and cannot be recognized in the fog of sacrifice and guilt that cloud the hearts of those who dwell in the fragmented, separated mind, who want to believe in this psychotic parody of love. And we wonder why we feel depressed, anxious, restless, and unfulfilled.

There is no giving and receiving in Divine Love. There is only BEING. There is no need or obligate in Divine Love. There is only WHOLENESS. There is no question and no answer in Divine Love. There is only KNOWING. There is no past or future in Divine Love, no grievances or failures. There is only the Completeness of NOW. Not now as the ego would define now, as in imaginary time and space. But the eternity of the Presence, the Holy Instant that reveals Love's Presence in the midst of everything. So in the Presence of the Reality of Love, there is only GRACE.

We are not hostages to love, and love is not fear or guilt. These are the lies that keep us in knots of drama and dysfunction, that keep us endlessly preoccupied with imaginary relationships and stories. Your real relationships in Divine Love are always safely Whole. They have never been otherwise. And once we stop struggling to improve the dream, to fix the illusion of relationship (whose only purpose is ever and always to hold your story of separation firmly in your mind and attention), we find the Oneness of Love that is our REALITY, the only Real Relationship. No longer a hostage to the lie of special love, we find ourselves safely HOME, where we have always been. Thank God.

"Nothing in boundless Love could need forgiveness... forgiveness thus becomes the means by which he learns he has done nothing to forgive." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section IV 1:3, 6

The Different Way

"The Way is not hard, but it is very different. Yours is the way of pain, of which God knows nothing. That way is hard indeed, and very lonely. Fear and grief are your guests, and they go with you and abide with you on the way. But the dark journey is not the Way of God's Son. Walk in Light and do not see the dark companions, for they are not fit companions for the Son of God, Who was created of Light and in Light. The Great Light always surrounds you and shines out from you. How can you see the dark companions in a Light such as this? If you see them, it is only because you are denying the Light. But deny them instead, for the Light is here and the Way is clear." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 11, Section III, 4:1-10

"All inharmony of mortal mind or body is illusion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming to be real and identical... God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 473, Lines 1-3, 8-10

The nature of our fragmented mind, and thus our fragmented perception, is that it is very hard to see through our own projections. It is very hard to reverse yourself by yourself. Impossible really. Because the Truth is, we are not by ourselves. We are not alone. We are, collectively, the fragmented mind that is hallucinating this world. As seeming individuals, we are lost. That's why the search for enlightenment is so futile. It's an endless search, a set-up with no real outcome, just dreams of spiritual teachers who know more than we do, books or movies or people that hold the answers, the keys to the prize of enlightenment. Maybe the next one will be the real thing! The spiritual search is just another twist on the endlessly selfish, ego-centered search for completion and fulfillment. Even in spiritual clothing, this is walking with the dark companions of self-seeking and illusory autonomy. The more we withdraw into our own story and see it in competition with other stories, spiritual or not, the more we sink into the darkness of story, dreams within dreams. And the ego will justify itself regardless of appearance, will rationalize so loudly and convincingly that the still, small Voice of God that is your Reality is ignored and unheard.

The answer to all of this is returning to our Right Mind, our Oneness with God. Forgiveness is the key to the reversal of projection, the great undoing of what never was. This is why we need each other within the dream. The appearance of illusory others as projections is designed to keep our spiritual amnesia firmly in place. Only by forgiving our own projections and forgiving ourselves for wanting to be separate can we truly join in Mind and Spirit with the Self that we have always been. We are All the Son of God, and can only Re-Member our Self and know Completion by realizing this.

As ACIM says, the way is not hard, but it is very different. Whenever we are tempted to withdraw into isolation, to judge the illusions we see outside ourselves to be in competition with the Truth we seek, it's time to forgive our own projections. Our stories and projections about ourselves and others and the world around us are all what ACIM calls the dark companions. They are imaginary substitutes, dark because they are a negation, non-being. Darkness doesn't exist... it's the seeming absence of light, only a seeming. Time to turn toward the Light in all, and let IT tell us what is True. No meaning we give to things will ever lead us anywhere but deeper into illusion... all stories lead to other stories. The different way is walking in Light... the end of story, the end of a separate self, the complete Remembrance of Oneness in the Love that We Are. Love doesn't need a story. It Shines forever as the clear Light of Truth.

"Real freedom depends on welcoming Reality, and of your guests only the Holy Spirit is Real. Know, then, Who abides with you merely by recognizing what is here already, and do not be satisfied with imaginary comforters [your stories and projections], for the Comforter of God is in you." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 11, Section II, 8:7-8

No Other Gods

"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." -- The Bible, Exodus 20:3

“And what agreement hath the Temple of God with idols? For ye are the Temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” -- The Bible, 2 Corinthians 6:16

"My House shall be called of all nations a House of Prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves." -- The Bible, Mark 11:17

"All idols of this world were made to keep the Truth within from being known to you, and to maintain allegiance to the dream that you must find what is outside yourself to be complete and happy. It is vain to worship idols in the hope of peace. God dwells within, and your completion lies in Him. No idol takes His place. Look not to idols. Do not seek outside yourself." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section VI, 6:1-4

First, one more reminder: The weekly ACIM conference call every Saturday morning begins at 9 a.m. central time. All are welcome. The call-in number is 605-475-4333, and the access Code is 101546.

It's sometimes hard to see, let alone agree, that every belief in a power or motivation outside of oneself is an idol, a god whose graven image we worship; and this includes the people and things we think are good and those we think are evil, and everything in-between. They are idols, false gods, because we have invested what has no reality or life, our own dream, with the power to control or motivate the Son of God. This can never be. We have given it all the meaning it appears to have, and it is all made up. That's why, as ACIM reminds us, "You will weep each time an idol falls."

ACIM also asks us, "What is an idol? Do you think you know? For idols are unrecognized as such, and never seen for what they really are. That is the only power they have." And what does the Temple of God, your BEING, have to do with idols? Nothing. Whether it's the belief that a particular person is good for you or bad for you or meant for you or wrong for you; or that money can buy peace of mind or cause you suffering or bring you anything at all; or that drugs can kill or hurt or cure or heal; or that a certain way of eating and exercise can create life and health... every false idea is an idol, a god that you live with daily and invest with great meaning and importance... and it's all made up. It's your belief in the BEING of a person or thing or activity, and not the person or thing itself, that seems to hurt or help. In Truth, it does nothing... except delay your return to your Father's House.

You are the Temple of God, the House of God. Not your body, which is just another idol... your BEING. And we have made of God's House a den of thieves by welcoming false ideas and encouraging them to set up booths for exchange of other false ideas throughout the Temple. When Jeshua ben Joseph threw the money-changers out of the Temple, he was throwing out false ideas of BEING. The thieves and money-changers are our own false beliefs, the idols and false gods that populate what A Course in Miracles calls "the great projection." The world that we see and invest with such power and importance is nothing but projection, and is all smoke and mirrors.

Of course, every Biblical and scriptural passage, without exception, is talking about ways of BEING. And we have even made scripture an idol, when we make it something outside of us that is literal and necessary for our 'salvation.' We might as well cast it in gold and prostrate ourselves before it. THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE OF US, BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING OUTSIDE OF GOD. And we are the Temple. We are IT.

We live and move and have our BEING in GOD. In the Oneness and Allness of Being, there is no outside. As I have said before, it's an inside job. :-))

"There can be no salvation in the dream as you are dreaming it." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section IX, 4:1

The Temptation of Christ

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’" -- The Bible, Matthew 4:1-2

"Man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual." -- Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 326, lines 9-11

"To say, "Of myself I can do nothing" is to gain all Power. And yet it is but a seeming paradox. As God created you, you have all Power. The image you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the Truth about you. The image you made does not." -- A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers, 29:4:2-7

Regular readers of this blog will notice that I am actually citing specific passages, rather than simply quoting them as usual. This is at the request of some readers who wish to go deeper into the passages that are referenced.

I love the Biblical story of the Temptation of Christ. It has symbolic meaning on so many levels. When working with a mentor of mine a while back, she pointed out that this story has deep personal significance for each of us. We have been fed thus far with teachings and the experiences around these teachings. There is a deeper, more spiritual answer. Reality is so much more than any teaching. We are all being guided and pushed into the land of the Allness of Spirit.

Jesus was tempted before he began his ministry. All of the solutions he was tempted with were material answers. His reply was, "Get thee behind me, Satan, for you are a liar and the father of all lies." Satan is the material sense, the great projection that is the world. As Mary Baker Eddy points out in the reference above, as long as the material sense holds the majority of our love and loyalty and fear, we cannot know the Christ as Self. We then live and move and have our being in the false gods of mortal bodies, and lack and limitation and illusions of every sort.

Who are we, really? Who do we trust and serve? A Course in Miracles says, "Remember, you are His completion and His Love. Remember your weakness is His Strength. But do not read this hastily or wrongly. If His Strength is in you, what you perceive as your weakness is but illusion. And He has given you the means to prove it so. Ask all things of His Teacher, and all things are given you. Not in the future, but immediately; now. God does not wait, for waiting implies time and He is timeless. Forget your foolish images, your sense of frailty and your fear of harm, your dreams of danger and selected 'wrongs.' God knows but his Son, and as He was created so He Is."

The Temptation of Christ is relived every day that we continue in the dream. We are tempted always with the material sense and material solutions to what appear to be our problems or our goals. Same mistake. Looking outside Self for anything at all is the devil itself.

We are told in all scripture, whether The Bible or Science and Health or A Course in Miracles, that all of our perceived needs are met instantly and effortlessly as we Remember Who We Are. Not as reward for doing anything. Not because we had an insight, as in "oh, now I get it." There's nothing to get. Who We Are is Whole and Complete, and can only reflect and mirror completion. Form is completely irrelevant. We are the Light of Awareness, the Radiance of the One, shining and radiating the Truth. We simply have to put down the illusions we generate to block this Awareness. And the instant we ask, the Light shines and the darkness of illusions is simply not.

The Temptation of Christ is the allegory of your Awakening, and mine. Our hunger is for the Truth, as we Awaken to our True Self.

"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." -- The Bible, Matthew 5:6

"You need only recognize that everything you learned you do not want. Ask to be taught, and do not use your experiences to confirm what you have learned." -- A Course in Miracles, Text, Chapter 14, Section XI, 6:4-5

For the Love of God

"In the Kingdom, there is great appreciation for everything that God created, because of the calm knowledge that each one is part of Him. God's Son knows no idols, but he does know his Father. Health in this world is the counterpart of value in Heaven. It is not my merit that I contribute to you, but my love, for you do not value your Self. When you do not value your Self you become sick, but my value of you can heal you, because the value of God's Son is One." -- A Course in Miracles

"Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an Awareness of perfect Oneness, and the Knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." -- A Course in Miracles

"For the Love of God, no longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage!" -- A Course in Miracles

This is a blog on special relationships, at the request of a dear friend and sister. In this world, it's hard to tell the forest for the trees. But ACIM tells us that, "Love is not an illusion. It is a fact. Where disillusionment is possible, there was not love but hate. It is sure that those who select certain ones as partners in any aspect of living, and use them for any purpose which they would not share with others, are trying to live with guilt rather than die of it."

Woh, that's harsh. It is said that when Jeshua ben Joseph told his disciples such things, most of them left... all that remained were the twelve. And when he asked them, "Will you too go away?" they replied, "Where would we go? You have the Word of Life." This is what ACIM means in the exclamatory statement, "For the Love of God, no longer seek for union in separation, nor for freedom in bondage!" The Truth is not OUT there. Where else would we go, indeed? A special relationship with a person, a place, an animal, a house, a car, or any imaginary form will only delay Awakening to this Truth.

Obviously, in this world and in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Awareness of Perfect Oneness, we know ourselves through relationships. The thing is, in Reality those relationships take place WITHIN our One Self, like currents within the Ocean of Self, and every relationship has equal meaning and equal Love and is a part of Our Completeness. In illusions, all relationships are about form and bodies and are special... this one gives me what I want, and keeps me safe within the fear and suffering that seem to be out there in the world. This 'love' is special. And this can never be. For what is special is seen as separate and different from the One... and how could anything be separate or autonomous when God is All?

Even in this world we can know our Real Relationships. As we forgive our illusions and give them day by day to the Holy Spirit to be healed, we find the miracle, that even our relationships with our most feared illusions have been transformed. There is no truth to any of the stories of specialness we have been told, and that we have cherished as the truth. No special bodies or forms, no special stories or abilities, no special fear or hate, and certainly no special love or attachment. It's so much better. Endless, ever-new Love and Joy and Bliss, with the Peace of Contentment holding All within Its Embrace. For the Love of God, let's forgive and remember.

"Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it takes. And the attempt to escape from one illusion into another must fail. If you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it. And peace will never come from the illusion of love, but only from its Reality. Recognize this, for it is true, and Truth must be recognized if it is to be distinguished from illusion: The special love relationship is an attempt to bring love into separation. The special love relationship is but a shabby substitute for what makes you Whole in Truth, not in illusion. There is no veil the Love of God in us together cannot lift. The Way to Truth is open. Follow it with me." -- A Course in Miracles

Our Perfect Holiness

"This is the way salvation works. As you step back, the Light in you steps forward and encompasses the world. The past is gone, with all its fantasies. They keep you bound no longer. And in the little interval of doubt that still remains, you may perhaps lose sight of your Companion, and mistake Him for the senseless, ancient dream that now is past. "Who walks with me?" This question should be asked a thousand times a day, till certainty has ended doubting and established peace." -- A Course in Miracles

"I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world, I light my mind and all minds which God created One with me." -- A Course in Miracles

"Let this Mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." -- The Bible, Philippians 21:5

We are so mesmerized by the shifting, changing kaleidoscope of our lives that we have forgotten our own Perfection. Our stories are all so fascinating and so they must somehow be important and meaningful. Isn't this what gives life meaning? And so counsels the not-so-subtle voice of the ego, the part of us that longs for autonomy and specialness. We want to be complete, safe, cared for, and affirmed just as we are in all our dysfunctional ego grandiosity. We even call it love. But calling a skunk a rose doesn't make it so. As Jeshua ben Joseph told us, "Ye shall know them by their fruits." We can recognize the unreal by the way its logic stinks.

Let's start from what we DO know to be true. Even from a quantum physics perspective, there is only ONE, which in popular jargon is called Einstein's Field. And out of the ONE, consciousness arises... or does it? First it's a wave, now it's a particle, then... oops, now you see it, now you don't. Not one thing, not one person (including this one!) has any objective reality. All that appears to be is merely a projection of the observer who is imagining him or her self to be separate and creating other imaginary thought forms. End of scientific story.

So what we do know to be true is that there is One Self. The rest of it is all made up, all story, all dreaming. Our Perfection lies in remembering our True Self, and allowing It to run the show. Then we all wake up and live happily ever after. Only this time it is not a fairy tale... it is the Truth of Our Being.

"Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you." -- The Bible, II Corinthians 13:11

"There is a Light in you which cannot die; whose presence is so Holy that the world is sanctified because of you. All things that live bring gifts to you, and offer them in gratitude and gladness at your feet. The scent of flowers is their gift to you. The waves bow down before you, and the trees extend their arms to shield you from the heat, and lay their leaves before you on the ground that you may walk in softness, while the wind sinks to a whisper round your holy head." -- A Course in Miracles

The Stillness of Perfection

"The stillness of your Self remains unmoved, untouched... and unaware of any condemnation that could need forgiveness." -- A Course in Miracles

"Completely unaffected by the turmoil and the terror of the world, the dreams of birth and death that here are dreamed, the myriad of forms that fear can take; quite undisturbed, the Thought God holds of You remains exactly as it always was. Surrounded by a stillness so complete no sound of battle comes remotely near, it rests in certainty and perfect peace." -- A Course in Miracles

"Neither God nor the perfect Man can be discerned by the material senses." -- Mary Baker Eddy

I almost didn't write this blog today. It is a morning of such quiet busy-ness, such pristine contentment, that nothing arose. And then, as I was putting another load of laundry in to wash, I heard, "The Stillness of Perfection." And here we are.

We tend to think that spiritual silence and stillness have something to do with the physical senses. Nothing could be further from the Truth. As Mary Baker Eddy is fond of saying, there is no place where Truth (Spiritual Being) and matter (the material world of the senses and the belief that there is life and intelligence in the material and mortal), ever meet. How can something ever meet or be touched by nothing? Another way of saying it would be that the Allness of God has never known limitation or change in any form. Perfection and Allness are synonymous when applied to God and our Spiritual Reality.

Perfection is not something to be attained, any more than stillness can be achieved. Perfection is the infinite and continuous state of completeness that is our True Self. Silence, stillness is the omnipresent state of resting in this completeness, the Awareness of Self, limitless in Peace and Joy. Another way of saying this is that although there is a blanket of sleet shining in silence on the world outside my window, I cannot be aware of it and appreciate it unless I look out the window and include this in my perception. As long as my perception is preoccupied with other things, I will not look up and notice it. Once I do see it, I realize it was right here all along, but I simply didn't see it. Your Self is always present, the Ground of Being, Perfect and unchanging in its Stillness and expansive Joy. Not dependent on anyone or anything. Effortlessly YOU.

So what could possibly prevent our knowing of Self, of what is effortlessly True, not just a story like everything else? ACIM tells us that, "The unforgiving mind is torn with doubt, confused about itself and all it sees; afraid and angry, weak and blustering, afraid to go ahead, afraid to stay, afraid to waken or to go to sleep, afraid of every sound, yet more afraid of stillness." The unforgiving mind with its unexamined stories and mental constructs, is the source of all suffering. The Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering. And every story of unforgiveness has at its heart the desire to be other than we are, or for some person or situation to be other than it is. Always, the wheel of suffering spins on fulfilled or unfulfilled desires. No difference, really.

As ACIM puts it, "Forgiveness is the key to happiness," just as desire is the source of suffering and is always some form of grievance against ourselves or the world, some form of unforgiveness. "Why would you seek an answer other than the answer that will answer everything? Here is the perfect answer, given to imperfect questions, meaningless requests, halfhearted willingness to hear, and less than halfway diligence and partial trust. Here is the answer! Seek for it no more. Would you stand outside while all of Heaven waits for you within? Forgive and be forgiven."

The forgiven world rests safely within you, in the midst of all the busyness that comes and goes within this dream of a world. Your Reality is always safe and sound, within your own heart... in the Stillness of Perfection.

"You Who were created by Love like ItSelf can hold no grievances and know your Self." -- A Course in Miracles

Distorted Love

"You who were created by Love like ItSelf can hold no grievances and know your Self. To hold a grievance is to forget Who You Are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death. Perhaps you do not fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind. It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike Him. It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself. Shut off from your Self, which remains aware of Its Likeness to Its Creator, your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake. Can all this arise from holding grievances? Oh, yes! For he who holds grievances denies he was created by Love, and his Creator has become fearful to him in his dream of hate. Who can dream of hatred and not fear God? It is as sure that those who hold grievances will redefine God in their own image, as it is certain that God created them like Himself, and defined them as part of Him. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will suffer guilt, as it is certain that those who forgive will find peace. It is as sure that those who hold grievances will forget Who They Are, as it is certain that those who forgive will remember." -- A Course in Miracles

How interesting this passage from ACIM is... and of course, grievances have nothing to do with who, what, or where. It is all and always in our own dream, in our own mind, that we distort the very face of God and so distort our experience of the Love that we are.

The simple message here is that whenever we see any aspect of our lives as other than our Self, we have chosen the dream of separation and suffering. Whenever we see people, bodies, experiences, and situations and insist that they should be other than they are, we have chosen to remain asleep and dreaming of separation from the Love that is our One Self. And so we experience what seems to be an inability to experience love without grievances. Why wouldn't we be afraid of love like this... love that chooses this one over that one, love that wants to possess, love that wants its own way, love that judges and manipulates, love that is here today and gone tomorrow, love that embroils us in constant dramas and guilt and shame and suffering, love that demands we pretend to be what we are not in order to keep it? If such love really existed, it would be fearful indeed.

The good news is that what we have described is not love. It is simply the fear and guilt of the separated self masquerading as love. Distorted love is not fearful. It's simply not true.

Real Love, Divine Love, has never been absent. Real Love is Who You Are. When your personal distorted stories of love and relationship are dropped, even for an instant, what is revealed at the core of your Being is the ultimate Joy of Divine Love. It is complete, and has nothing to do with 'other' and everything to do with the Allness of Self. It is whole, and has never lost or been separated from any aspect of Wholeness. It is unrelated to bodies or egoic identities. It is untouched and innocent, the Face of God HerSelf. It needs no other because there is no other.

Divine Love created us like ItSelf. And never could there be in reality a place or time or situation or body or personality unlike or separated from what is True and Eternal. What could possibly exist outside of All? As ACIM puts it, "Nothing and Everything cannot coexist. To believe in one is to deny the other. Fear is really nothing and Love is everything."

Distorted love has been our experience up until now simply because our vision has been distorted. Our imagined separation from Love has been very fearful in our feverish imagination. But Beloved, distorted love is not now, and has never been, true. The Truth of Your Being is not now, and has never been, dependent on people, places, or things for love and approval. Only Divine Love is real. Only Divine Love is Who You Are.

"The opposite of Love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite." -- A Course in Miracles

Real Peace

"Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." -- A Course in Miracles

"You who want peace can find it only by complete forgiveness." -- A Course in Miracles

"Experience the peace to which your reality entitles you. There may be some temptation to mistake these attempts for withdrawal, but the difference is easily detected. If you are succeeding, you will feel a deep sense of joy and an increased alertness, rather than a feeling of drowsiness and enervation." -- A Course in Miracles

Today is the first Sunday in Lent, following Ash Wednesday. It is traditionally a time in the Christian Church for penitence and inner reflection. In the true spirit of this day, let's look at what forgiveness is and how we can remember Who We Are... an altogether lovely and perfect Idea in the Mind of God, complete and holy in every way.

I forgive myself daily for my illusions about the world and most of all about myself. I forgive myself for creating a world that seems to be apart from God, that appears to show up as other than Good. I forgive myself for seeing the Allness of God in distorted and unloving fragments, and for judging those fragments as other, and for projecting my own sins and fears and doubts onto these fragments of the One. I forgive myself daily for the specific ways in which I forget that I am Love. I forgive myself daily for ever wanting anything to be other than God, Good. I forgive myself daily for the appearance of lack and limitation in the world, for I know that, as ACIM says, "Lack implies that you would be better off in a state somehow different from the one you are in." And what state even exists that could be other or apart from the Allness of God, Good?

Forgiveness reveals the clean and open vistas of the Divine Mind we share. It opens the heart to know and remember the Oneness and Joy that are our innate beingness. This state of infinite, endless Peace and Joy never went anywhere... we only thought it was not here when we were lost in our own mental constructs and stories about the world and our imagined personal life. Without the stories, what IS shines clearly and brightly.

And how do we know when we have forgiven ourselves and the world? The awareness of Being Peace is the sign. Peace not as the world thought imagines it and defines it. Peace not as an absence or contraction, but as infinite expansion and endless Joy.

Real Peace requires nothing, and gives everything. And this is our true nature. Real Peace is Who We Are.

"Peace is a natural heritage of Spirit. Everyone is free to refuse to accept his inheritance, but he is not free to establish what his inheritance is. To deny God's Authorship is to deny your Self the reason for your Peace, so that you see yourself only in segments." -- A Course in Miracles