Our Only Function here

"I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me... for just as you have done this to least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me." -- The Bible, Matthew 25:35-36, 40

"Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section VII, 7:1

"Pain, illness, loss, age, and death seem to threaten me... yet perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance."-- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 56:1:3 and 5

The images that pass across the mirror of our minds every day can seem daunting.  We see others suffering as well as witnessing our own suffering.  But over 2,000 years ago Jesus gave us a radical teaching... seeing our brother as whole, healthy, fulfilled and secure and letting all the images of lack and limitation go.  Allowing the radiance of Divine Love to so fill our minds and hearts that we see only that Light reflected in all that we seem to encounter. And then discovering that as we have seen the 'other', so we have seen our Self. 

Forgiveness as given to us through A Course in Miracles means the simple act of letting the daunting  images go, 'overlooking' them, and seeing all things safe and healed and whole.  "Spirit am I, safe and healed and whole; free of all limits, free to forgive, and free to save the world." The Course assures us that this practice will give us everything we have ever dreamed of or could ever want.  So what is stopping us?

From a very early age we are taught habits of mind and thought that are supposedly normal, habits that we are told will keep us healthy and safe within the tribe of humans.  Of course, they are actually the mental chains we willingly wear day after day until we seem to age and die, worn out by the struggle to be something we are not.  These conditioned habits of thought and behavior can only be let go by a disciplined willingness to practice this new way of looking at things every minute of every day. This is forgiveness.  This is our only function here. 

"These insubstantial images will go and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive.  Such is your only function here." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 186, 10:1 and 14:5-6

The Least of These: Animals & A Course in Miracles

There are many places in A Course in Miracles where the voice of Jesus speaks to us directly.  I open and close this blog posting with two of those passages, like book-ends that echo His message.

“I assure you that I will witness for anyone who lets me, and to whatever extent he permits it.  Your witnessing demonstrates your belief, and thus strengthens it.  Those who witness for me are expressing, through their miracles, that they have abandoned the belief in deprivation in favor of the abundance they have learned belongs to them.” -- ACIM Chapter 1, Section IV, 4:6-8

“Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” -- Matthew 25:40 

Who are the least of these?  In the world of ideas and projections in which we live, the least of these refers to everything that lives, especially the ones we tend to overlook as less important.  And the reality of even the least of these is the Christ-Self that is the Truth of Being for everything that lives.  Do we extend our spiritual practice to knowing the Christ in all that lives?  Or do we overlook the least of these?

“In His Thoughts, which have no opposite, we understand there is One Life; and that Life we share with Him and with all creation, whom He created in a unity of Life that cannot separate.” – ACIM Workbook Lesson 167

When people think about practicing the principles from A Course in Miracles and bearing witness to the Christ in all, they usually don’t think about animals.  But there are many passages in the Course that clearly show that Life doesn’t mean human life.  Since we’re pure Spirit, not bodies at all, it is easy to see that the Oneness of this Spirit includes all… literally all.

“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.” -- ACIM Chapter 29, Section VIII, 9:7-8

In 2007 I founded a 501c3 animal sanctuary which is currently home to over 40 animals, large and small.  Since then this has been much of my practical application of A Course in Miracles, seeing the Christ in all of that lives, and using the Atonement principle of Oneness to care for all the animals.  Yes, I have continued to teach the Course and to take on private clients.  But the animals and farm have been my training ground.  Learning to live in a state of miracle-readiness and allowing the Divine Mind to continually reflect the means for care and support has been a real stretch for me.  Through many challenges I've learned that there can be no compromising when it comes to the actual practice of miracle principles.  As the Course frequently reminds us, we can’t live in two worlds.  So realizing that the animals aren’t bodies, that they are pure spirit, and that none of us is dependent on anything but pure Spirit for our daily care, is a continual practice that leads to joy and remembrance of Who I Am.   And as Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Consider the lilies of the field… they neither toil nor gather, yet even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”

The hardest part of this spiritual practice has been coming out of the closet.  There have been so many demonstrations of physical and financial miracles over the past six years, but I have kept them very private and not shared these stories with very many people.  I thought my reasons were humility and practicality until I heard a YouTube video by David Hoffmeister about spiritual honesty.  And I realized that my reasons were linked to my own fear of joining with others, my own judgments and fears about disapproval and criticism, which sounded something like this: "I mean, people probably won't think an animal sanctuary is too weird, but one based on the spiritual principles of A Course in Miracles?  In the Midwest?  And really, who else will be interested in this?  It’s pretty rough, certainly nothing fancy… and it’s a lot of hard work, with so many things needing to be done.  And there are so many animal organizations asking for help, people aren’t interested in another non-profit.  They’ll either think this endeavor is very naïve or extremely presumptuous, or both!"  My limiting beliefs and fear of joining in the form of judgments went on and on… and on… and on…

Thanks to that YouTube video by David, and through a lot of self-inquiry about all these judgments and beliefs (and forgiveness of those I've dredged up thus far),  I’ve realized the necessity of spiritual transparency for Awakening, and how important it is to bring our own hidden fears, judgments and beliefs to the Light.  To truly Awaken, the last thing we want to do is hold things in or hide them, because then they continue to project themselves as a world of separation, and the dream goes on and on.  So for purposes of Awakening, mental privacy is not a necessary thing, but an egoic construct that acts like a veil over our awareness.  Only a body needs privacy… the Christ Mind is One with all, and welcomes all.  Coming out publicly with the spiritual nature of this Sanctuary, welcoming the input and support of all, is direct and loving guidance from Holy Spirit.  Welcoming others and their ideas, including those who might want to visit and experience this Sanctuary and join in living the Course more deeply is also part of Holy Spirit's guidance. 

“God hides nothing from his Son, even though His Son would hide himself.” -- ACIM Chapter 11, Section III, 5:1

 “…the recognition that there is nothing you want to hide even if you could… brings escape from fear.  When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy.” – ACIM Chapter 1, Section IV, 1:3-5

So this blog is an invitation for input, participation and support to any who care to join me in witnessing to Christ in this way, through these words, in this place, in whatever capacity.  Through volunteering, through visiting, through sharing of resources, through simple phone or e-mail conversations… all are welcome.  There is no plan and no agenda.  But as David Hoffmeister points out, we all need Mighty Companions to share in this Great Awakening, as we daily listen to the Voice of the Holy Spirit and deepen our witness to the Christ in all that lives.

“The miracle is a sign that the mind has chosen to be led by me in Christ’s service.  The abundance of Christ is the natural result of choosing to follow Him.” -- ACIM Chapter 1, Section V, 6:1-2 

Click here to learn more about The Claire Foundation Animal Sanctuary.

Brushing Our Teeth

"Mind reaches to ItSelf.  It is not made up of different parts which reach each other... Within ItSelf It has no limits, and there is nothing outside It.  It encompasses everything... There is nothing else anywhere or ever." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 8:5-6, 8-9, & 11

While speaking to a spiritual coaching client the other day, the analogy of brushing our teeth arose.  I was explaining that all spiritual sight and spiritual understanding are in and of the Mind... everything without exception takes place in the One Mind.  There is nothing but Mind.  Body only exists within the perception of the sleeping mind that imagines itself separate and so 'projects' a separate experience in mind. 

However, there is no denying that we are all having the experience of being in a body.  And as we go about our daily experience of being in a body, there are certain things we do without exception or question.  None of us would think of going a day without brushing our teeth at least once, and usually at least twice.  Many of us brush and floss more often than that.  We don't question it or think about it... we just do it. 

In order to remember the Truth, it is necessary to practice that type of unquestioning vigilance with certain thoughts and visual images that awaken the mind.  It's sort of like mentally brushing our spiritual teeth, and we do it not because such thoughts or practices are magic, or will give us something we think we want.  We practice spiritually because it re-aligns our sleeping minds with Truth, with Mind Awake. Spiritual practices themselves are irrelevant, just as all form is irrelevant.  It's their purpose, their mental content, that matters.  And the only purpose of any spiritual practice is to align the sleeping mind with Truth, which is always already here, fully present and all-encompassing.  Only the sleeping mind could imagine otherwise.

A Course in Miracles is a system of mind training that has blessed my life for over twenty years.  The Course teaches us to how to practice forgiveness in a way that releases our mind from all the projected images we have accumlated, and allows the unconditioned Mind (pure Spirit, Joy, and Love) to return to Awareness.  There are many other spiritual practices, and all have validity because of their ultimate shared purpose.  What I love about the Course is that it clearly returns all power to the Source, the One Mind, and reminds us that we are One with that Source.  Not as individuals (that's the imaginary part), but as pure Spirit/Mind.  All we have to do to remember and awaken is practice faithfully, just like brushing our teeth.  It really is that simple, and that hard.  What are you practicing faithfully today?

"This is a Course in mind training.  All learning involves attention and study at some level." (ACIM, Chapter 1, Section VII, 4:1-2)

Never Alone

"This world is but the dream that you can be alone, and think without affecting those apart from you.  To be alone must mean you are apart.  It is like the house set upon straw.  It seems to be quite solid and substantial in itself.  Yet its stability cannot be judged apart from its foundation.  If it rests on straw, there is no need to bar the door and lock the windows and make fast the bolts.  The wind will topple it, and rain will come and carry it into oblivion.  What can be safe that rests upon a shadow?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section VII, 5:2-3, 7-11, 6:3

It's interesting that the above passage from A Course in Miracles points to the concept of aloneness as a house built on straw.  The idea of being alone is the belief that all things are separate, because we imagine ourselves to be separate from our Source.  This tiny false idea is the basis of a whole world of prodigal sons, trying to make their way home to what they never left.

On the other hand, ACIM reminds us that a solid foundation is based on our relationship with every living thing, for as we acknowledge the innocence and perfection of our brothers and sisters, we remember our own.  "Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him.  The winds will blow upon it and the rain will beat against it, but with no effect.  The world will wash away, and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone.  It is an ark of safety, resting on God's promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself."  Not alone. 

We can no more be separate from the rest of life than we could ever be separated from our Source, from God.  We are literally reflections of the Light shining in God's Mind, and have no being or will or qualities apart from God.  We are God in expression, innocent and free as God created us... all of us together.  This Principle of Oneness is the Ground of Being... our Home built upon the unshakable foundation of Truth.  For we are One with God and with each other.  And we are never alone.

"There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent.  There is nothing to be feared.  There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His.  God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing.  For there is no lack in him." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section I, 1:1-3, and Chapter 28, Section VII, 1:1-2

The Narrow Gate

I have been in correspondence with a lovely soul who is about to lose her home, and is desperately worried about her two dogs.  She contacted me hoping to send them to my animal sanctuary (http://www.clairefoundation.ws/) if the foreclosure goes forward.  My first concern is helping her to keep her family (including her animals) together, so I offered to help them look at possibilities.  Her answer was very sweet and honest... she doesn't really think it's possible, and after looking at my website (http://www.sundarya.com/) she very politely and sweetly told me that her beliefs are very different than mine.  She doesn't believe there are many paths to God... and she believes that the narrow gate mentioned in Matthew 7:14 is literally Jesus Christ.  I replied thanking her for the honesty and kindness with which she framed her words.  And then I said that I have been an inclusive Christian all my life, and that I don't imagine there is that much different about us.  And I told her that in my experience, that narrow gate is the practice of inclusivity, seeing as God sees without judgment, excluding no one and no thing.

I haven't heard back from her yet, but I'm sure I will.  She is a sweet soul following her spiritual guidance as she is led.  But I started thinking about how cultural and institutional collective beliefs can act as blinders to Truth.  So let's start by looking at a couple of the verses she quoted, and talk about them without blinders.

First of all, the quote from Matthew 7:13-16: "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there:  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits."  O.K., this narrow gate thing... how many Christians are there in the world?  And how many of those actually believe in the Allness and Inclusivity of God?  So which gate is narrower... the exclusive, my way or the highway theology... or loving and embracing all that is, as God does?  No contest here what these words imply.  And the false prophets, the ravening wolves, seem to be those individuals and institutions which wish to grasp power and control of people's minds and hearts by peddling fear and exclusivity.

The narrow gate, the razor's edge, the eye that is single, the path that is no path... these are a few of the ways different spiritual teachings have talked about the expanded state of awareness that leads to the direct experience of God and Self.  It's not easy to have a unified mind and heart in this duplicitous and fragmented world.  But we only fit through the narrow gate by shedding every thought and concept and identity, and returning our minds and hearts to the unified perception of Self... of the Christ, the Allness of God, and our inseparable Oneness with the Divine.

One Son

"It should especially be noted that God has only one Son.  If all His creations are His Sons, every one must be an integral part of the whole Sonship.  Any part of the Sonship can believe in error or incompleteness if he so chooses.  However, if he does so, he is believing in the existence of nothingness.  The correction of this error is the Atonement." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section VII, 6:1-2, 7-9

"Our emphasis is now on healing [God's Son].  The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section IV, 1:1-2

As a coach and spiritual director, every single client I have ever worked with has mirrored this one error... and according to every spiritual tradition, it's our only error.  The split mind that results from believing ourselves to be separate from God and each other and all creation... this fragmented perception is the source and sum of all the problems we think we have.  We're always focused on the fragments, on what is irreparable... "and all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again."  It's not possible to 'fix' what amounts to fictional perceptions.  Just as it's not possible to 'fix' the delusional perceptions of the mentally ill.  What heals them is the dawning awareness that they are delusional. 

ACIM reminds us that all of this belief in our own fragmented perception is the belief in magic.  "The whole distortion that made magic rests on the belief that there is a creative ability in matter which the mind cannot control.  This error can take two forms; it can be believed that the mind can miscreate in the body, or that the body can miscreate in the mind.  When it is understood that the mind, the only level of creation, cannot create beyond itself, neither type of confusion need occur." (ACIM; Chapter 2, Section IV, 2:8-10)  The Course calls the correction of these errors the miracle, and the principle on which all this is based is the Atonement, our Oneness with our Source.  This Oneness is principle, unchanging, the rock on which the healing of all our holy minds depends.

There is a Light in each of us that can be seen and remembered.  The way to return to this wholeness of perception is through the regular, habitual forgiveness and release of our false perceptions, and the habitual asking for the miracle of true perception instead.  This is the willingness to see through the eyes of Christ.  It's through seeing the Light in each other, and in every aspect of creation, that we again see the face of Christ, the One Son of God, in all things.  "The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner Light." (ACIM; Chapter 2, Section III, 1:1)

We are One Son... the very Light of God, pure Spirit, safe in the Mind of God, as are all things.  

"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

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

"Metaphysics is above physics, and matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions.  The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the Divine Mind.  Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 269, Lines 11-15

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.  It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16.6:1-2

Joy to the World!  It's the time of year that we hear that phrase (and the word joy) a lot.  To most people, though, it seems like just a word.  Ask yourself, what is joy?  Don't most of us think about personal gratification, about getting something we want?  We think of enjoyment, good consumers that we are.  But joy is a metaphysical reality, and has nothing to do with physical enjoyment or gratification.  Joy is pure BEING... or to quote Paramahansa Yogananda, "God is ever-new Joy."  So Joy is an attribute of God, and of our Being as we reflect our Source.

I lost a beloved canine companion this week... Claire, my soul-friend for nearly 15 years (http://www.clairefoundation.ws/).  As her transition drew near, the cats and other dogs would check on her frequently, and lay quietly nearby.  I noticed that the sadness I felt at seeming to lose her was transformed shortly before she passed.  The very air felt lighter and freer.  The Divine Idea that Claire IS had expanded and was free... and I could FEEL the joy she felt, that she feels.  The Christmas Carol sings: "While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy!"  That's what it felt like... that all of creation was a little lighter, a little brighter, through her passing.  The joy of remembering Who We Are... and the Christ is born again.

Thank God for all of creation, to remind us... the rocks and hills and plains, the animals, and each other... repeat the sounding Joy! 

"God's Will for you is perfect happiness, because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless.  Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101, 6:1-2

The Webs We Weave

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Human Concept

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 201

"I warn students against falling into the error of anti-Christ. The consciousness of corporeality, and whatever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal falsities include all obstacles to health, holiness, and heaven. Man's individual life is infinitely above a bodily form of existence, and the human concept antagonizes the Divine." Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 309, Lines 18-24

The alleged human self is really just a concept, a projection and amalgam of belief. We have always been living and moving and having our Being in God, Who is Spirit and Life... which means that we are pure Spirit, too... and as Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He wasn't talking about a body.

Christ is the word for Emmanuel, God with us. Each of us is the baby Christ, unknown to the seemingly physical self encasing it. The belief that we are physical, that there is physical cause and effect and that we are subject to it, is the anti-Christ. We can't know Who we are as long as we insist on embracing the human concept. The baby Christ cannot mature and be fully re-membered while we embrace and defend our physicalness. As Mrs. Eddy said, the human concept antagonizes the Divine.

In my own life, I would describe this as spiritual warfare. Mrs. Eddy spoke a lot about this in her own life. Saint Paul spoke of spiritual warfare in high places, and that is exactly what this is... and the high place is our very consciousness. What and Who are we conscious of Being? Physical or Spiritual? Many separate ones, or the One? This cannot be a passive knowing, but must be consciously embraced. Passivity leads to the seeming reality of the physical, again and again. The physical illusion is what we have chosen up until now, and the momentum is with the familiar and the collectively agreed reality of the physical. The conscious Awareness of Truth is the only antidote for our habitually chosen illusions.

The human concept is not true. True humanity, the Christ, the Holy One of God, eternally exists in the Mind of God, and only here, only now. We reflect only what is true of God, our true Self, always. There is nothing else.

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

The Appeal of Guilt

"There is no order of difficulty in miracles, for they are all the same. Each is a gentle winning over from the appeal of guilt to the appeal of Love. Every miracle is but the end of an illusion." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, Section IV, 5:3-4, 6:8

"No real relationship can rest on guilt, or even hold one spot of it to mar its purity. For all relationships that guilt has touched are used but to avoid the person and the guilt. You forget that real relationships are holy, and cannot be used by you at all. They are used only by the Holy Spirit, and it is that which makes them pure. If you displace your guilt upon them, the Holy Spirit cannot use them. For by pre-empting for your own ends what you should have given Him, He cannot use it for your release." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section X, 2:2-3, 5-8

"Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 567, Line 31

Do you realize the dark appeal that guilt has in your life? Do you see that in every situation where you think something is wrong, you will find someone or something guilty of 'causing' it? Do you see that this confusion of cause and effect, this belief in your ability to screw things up, is the very essence of the imagined separation from God, from All Good, from your True Self?

A Course in Miracles tells us that "The attraction of guilt produces fear of Love, for Love would never look on guilt at all. It is the nature of Love to look upon on the Truth, for there it sees itself. Love is attracted only to Love. Overlooking guilt completely, it sees no fear." (ACIM; Chapter 19, Section IV,i, 10:1-2, 5-6) While we maintain that we are separate from the One, from God, we have split vision. We can look from the eyes of Love and Wholeness, or from the fragmenting vision of fear and guilt. But never can we see both, just as we can never be in the Light and experience darkness. Darkness is simply a nothingness, an absence of... in this same way, guilt and fear are truly nothingness, simply an absence of the Light of Love that is our True Self.

When we fear life or others for any reason... perhaps they seem to be unkind to us, or they seem to be judging us, or they seem to be invading our space, or they seem to be angry and accusatory, maybe we think we have failed or disappointed them in some way... regardless of the seeming basis for our fear, we are looking through a fragmenting lens, the lens of fear that makes someone guilty. This is the projection of the imagined fragmenting of Self into many selves. There is only One. The thing is, as we begin to learn these truths, we think that this One is 'me.' But the 'me' we refer to is a fiction. There is only One, but it is not personal, and it looks on 'you' and 'me' as One. So as long as we are defending a personal 'me', with personal space and personal interests and a body to protect, we are lost in the illusion of a separate self. Who are you being when you feel the attraction of guilt and fear? Are you being One, or many?

Sometimes the appeal of guilt is huge. I started this blog early this morning, but heard to wait to finish it until later. Then, this evening, on my way to pick up my elderly mother for a dinner at my daughter's house, I ran over and killed a neighbor's dog. This is unthinkable for me, the savior of animals big and small. I was numb with shock. It came out of nowhere, just shot under my wheel... and it was a big dog. There was nothing I could do... and yet, the litany of guilt was, "I should have done this, if only I had done that..." I noticed the owner, a young woman who was obviously heart-broken, was blaming herself... she should have not let him out, she should have watched more closely, etc., etc. It was one big wall of misery and guilt.

Later, on my way home, I did what I have often done for my own lost pets... I bought her a rosebush to plant on his grave, to remember him in beauty. She was surprised to see me again, and grateful for my love and concern. Oddly, she was still blaming herself and feeling guilty, when I am the one who ran over the dog! Isn't this a mystery? Someone has to be guilty in this warped and fragmented vision, and we especially love to blame ourselves. We are not worthy of love and forgiveness in this warped view. She feels she failed to keep her beloved pet safe. I feel I failed to watch closely enough. Have we failed Love? Has Love failed us? Who are we being when we feel guilty and miserable... One, or the fragmented perception of many selves? The appeal of guilt is the fear of Love... because as long as we believe love has anything to do with separate selves with separate bodies, and believe those bodies can give us pleasure (even the bodies of pets), we also believe they can give us pain when they grow sick or when they are injured or when they die, when they leave us.

The dream of guilt and separation plays on, with twists and turns that have no meaning and no justification. If we look for meaning and salvation in the dream, we are lost in the fragments of self that splinter and multiply daily. But even here, in the midst of a guilty dream, One Voice speaks. It speaks the Truth... that I neither create life nor destroy it. How could I? The Mind of God is our Creator and our Life, and God is Omnipresent and Eternal. I cannot change the eternal. I can simply dream nightmares of separation and guilt, or I can gently awaken and dream happy dreams of Oneness that remind me Who I Am. But never has what is True and Loving and Eternal been touched by any of my dreaming, or by the imagined appeal of guilt.

"Love and guilt cannot coexist, and to accept one is to deny the other." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section I, 1:4

Betrayal

"You have probably reacted for years as if you were being crucified. This is a marked tendency of the separated, who always refuse to consider what they have done to themselves. Projection means anger, anger fosters assault, and assault promotes fear. As you teach so shall you learn. If you react as if you are persecuted, you are teaching persecution. Rather, teach your own perfect immunity, which is the Truth in you, and realize that it cannot be assailed. Do not try and protect it yourself, or you are believing that it is assailable." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section I, 3:1-3, 6:1-2, 6:4-5

"The power of the Sons of God is present all the time. Their influence on each other is without limit, and must be used for their joint salvation. Each one must learn to teach that all forms of rejection are meaningless. The separation is the notion of rejection. As long as you teach this you will believe it. If you will listen instead to His Voice you will know that you cannot either hurt or be hurt, and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for themselves." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section I, 18:1-5, 19:2

Rejected, hurt, crucified... these are all familiar themes in our lives. If you will be ruthlessly honest, and look without story at your so-called human relationships, you will find that there are none that have been immune from these themes and little dramas. Some were seemingly really big... others were so small as to seem petty. And yet they share the feeling of betrayal by love itself. As if love cannot be trusted. In our imagined separation from God, we believe we can choose to love or not to love... and so of course this means that others can choose to love or not to love us. Scary stuff.

Of course, all of this is based on the belief that we are somewhere separate from Love ItSelf. Some alien landscape where the opposite of love seems to hold sway. A Course in Miracles reminds us: "How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realizing that you are not there? You cannot be anywhere God did not put you, and God created you as part of Him. That is both where you are and what you are. It is completely unalterable. It is total inclusion. You cannot change it now or ever. It is forever true. It is not a belief, but a Fact." (ACIM; Chapter 6, Section II, 6:1-8) Can't get much clearer than that!

"God created His Sons by extending His Thought and retaining the extensions of His Thought in His Mind. All His Thoughts are thus perfectly united within themselves and with each other. The Holy Spirit enables you to perceive this wholeness now." The nightmare stories of war and struggle and betrayal, on personal and global levels, are the projections of tormented and deluded minds. We believe we are alone, lacking love, and so we seek it in a million different forms and people and substances. We believe we have to fill a lack, defend against theft and betrayal. We are the separated ones, believing our own insane thoughts in isolation. Thank God none of it is true. We remain eternally in the Mind of God, our True Self.

"Why should you listen to the endless insane calls you think are made upon you, when you can know the Voice for God is in you? Excluding yourself from Oneness is the ego's last-ditch defense of its own existence. It reflects both the ego's need to separate, and your willingness to side with its separateness. This willingness means that you do not want to be healed. But the time is now." (ACIM; Chapter 5, Section VII, 3: 1, 4-6, 4:1) Yes, we love tragedy. We love stories about sacrifice and betrayal. And this is all our desire to maintain our illusory and non-existent separateness from God. This is the ultimate betrayal... the attempt to somehow cast ourselves from the Allness of Love, to excluded ourselves from the Oneness that is Who We Are.

"Whenever you feel fear in any form, -- and you are fearful if you do not feel a deep content, a certainty of help, a calm assurance Heaven goes with you, -- be sure you made an idol, and believe it will betray you. For beneath your hope that it will save you lie the guilt and pain of self-betrayal and uncertainty, so deep and bitter that the dream cannot conceal completely all your sense of doom. Forgiving dreams remind you that in Truth you live in safety and have not attacked yourself. So do your childish terrors melt away, and dreams become a sign that you have made a new beginning, not another try to worship idols and attack." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section IX, 9:1-2, 10:1-2

Divine Ideas

"Let then, your dedication be to the eternal, and learn how not to interfere with it and make it slave to time. For what you think you do to the eternal you to you. Whom God created as His Son is slave to nothing, being lord of all, along with his Creator. You can enslave a body, but an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it. For it remains joined to its source, which is its jailer or its liberator, according to which it chooses as its purpose for itself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, Section I, 16:1-5

"God is the Creator of man, and the Divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the Divine Idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's Being." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 470, Lines 21-24

"God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." -- The Bible; John 4:24

We live in the Garden of Eden, the Mind of God... the garden of Divine Ideas. But we dream we live in a desert, where ideas and their unfoldment are scarce and have to be purchased through toil and suffering. Divine Ideas are Omnipresent, as God is Omnipresent... and we, as perfect reflections in the Mind of God, share in this infinite nature. Each Divine Idea is also Omnipotent, with full power and fulfillment within itself. Like the seeds we plant in our dream of a life, the reality of Divine Ideas have within themselves complete fulfillment and unfoldment, each seed-idea expanding and unfolding according to its idea-nature. Each is complete, as each holographic aspect of the One Divine Mind is complete and whole in reflection. We are each Divine Ideas, completely whole and free. We are completely One with God and with each other, each unique reflections of our One Self.

The challenge to our false sense of self, our supposed human nature, is to not interfere... our task is to simply let each Divine Idea be itself, to sprout and unfold according to its unique reflection of God. The temptation is to weave stories and illusory meanings around Divine Ideas, superimposing false images and limited, untrue ideas. This is like dumping caustic chemicals on the sprouting seeds in our garden. We have to let the seeds unfold according to their Divine Design.

As radiant emanations of the One Mind that is God, we are pure Idea, pure Spirit. When we attempt to super-impose human concepts and images onto our seed-selves, there are always seemingly unwelcome and unexpected consequences reflected within the dream "on earth as it is in Heaven." Our job is to not interfere with what is One with God, and forever perfect as God. When we see ourselves as less than this, we are only seeing the super-imposed false images and untrue ideas we insist on seeing. Like a double-exposed negative of a 35 mm photograph, these false images have no truth and no substance... they are simply blurred images of what we think we are, and what we fear we must always be. Imagining ourselves to be separate from God and from each other, our images remain blurred and fearful.

As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it." Who is the Mind that is the Source of All, as Divine Ideas, Divine Reflections? And can the Mind of the Infinite be limited or distorted by illusory finite ideas and images? Ideas leave not their source. We are Divine Ideas emanating from the Infinite and Eternal Mind of God... we have never left this Mind, and we have never been apart from it. We are the Divine Ideas that populate the untouched and unchanged, eternal Garden of Eden.

"God and the real man are inseparable as Divine Principle and idea. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 476, Lines 4-5, & 9-11

Inconsistency

"It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation so as to bring about certain evil results, and then punishing the helpless victims of His volition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God, Good, can no more produce sickness than Goodness can cause evil and Health occasion disease." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 230, Lines 11-

"The Holy Spirit does not work by chance, and healing that is of Him always works. Unless the healer always heals by Him the results will vary. Yet healing itself is consistent, since only consistency is conflict -free, and only the conflict-free are Whole. By accepting exceptions and acknowledging that he can sometimes heal and sometimes not, the healer is obviously accepting inconsistency. He is therefore in conflict, and is teaching conflict. Can anything of God not be for all and for always? Love is incapable of any exceptions." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section V, 5:1-7

"The ego focuses on error and overlooks truth. It makes real every mistake it perceives, and with characteristically circular reasoning concludes that because of the mistake, consistent truth must be meaningless. If consistent truth is meaningless, inconsistency must be true. Holding error clearly in mind, and protecting what it has made real, the ego proceeds to the next step in its thought system: Error is real and truth is error. The ego makes no attempt to understand this, and it is clearly not understandable, but the ego does make every attempt to demonstrate it, and this it does constantly." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 14:2-8, 15:1

We, the people of this dream we call the world, value inconsistency. We are inconsistent about pretty much every single aspect of our lives. Division and separation are seen as normal, and therefore we don't have singleness of thought about anything. The only thing we do constantly, as referenced in the above quotation, is to find evidence that something is wrong. Except for brief and delusional moments when we pretend this is not so, this is our life. Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." Well, we treasure inconsistency.

Think about our favorite aphorisms, like "Change is the only constant," and "This too shall pass." We use such statements to make sense of this insane world, in our own warped way. And they seem true in the dream... we find evidence for inconsistency everywhere, proving to ourselves that only inconsistency is true.

It's impossible for the human, ego mind to conceive of the eternal and constant. Because the ego mind is itself a fiction, it cannot conceive of Reality. It can only scramble for evidence of its own existence. As it says in Scripture, "The things of God are foolishness to man."

The Good News is that we have never been separate from God, Good, and so our True Mind is always available to us. ACIM calls this the Voice for God, or the Holy Spirit. This True Voice of our Holy Mind knows and values only the eternal, and this it sees and knows everywhere and always, with perfect constancy and consistency.

We can always tell which voice we are listening to by the way we feel. Are we at peace? Are we valuing the eternal and constant? Are we consistent in which Voice we turn to immediately, always, for healing for ourselves and others? Or do we find ourselves restless, anxious, or wanting to change someone or something? This is the wish for inconsistency, a not-so-subtle desire to make the ego and its insanity true. "Analyzing to attack meaning, the ego succeeds in overlooking it and is left with a series of fragmented perceptions which it unifies on behalf of itself. This, then, becomes the universe it perceives. And it is this universe which, in turn, becomes its demonstration of its own reality. Do not underestimate the appeal of the ego's demonstrations to those who would listen. Selective perception chooses its witnesses carefully. The case for insanity is strong to the insane." (ACIM, Chapter 11, Section V, 15:2-4, & 16:1-3)

Healing is healed perception. Every miracle is healed perception. Allowing our fragmented perceptions to be given a new meaning, a meaning consistent with Reality, is the function of forgiveness and is accomplished by the Holy Spirit whenever we are willing. Willingness to let go and allow our perceptions to be translated and unified is our only function here. This is the ongoing function of forgiveness. How consistently are we willing to practice our function? Until it becomes 24/7, we are still valuing inconsistency and the fictions of the human dream. This is ultimately what must be forgiven, and let go.

"The Holy Spirit will never teach you that you are sinful. Errors He will correct, but this makes no one fearful. Your faith that sin is within you but witnesses to your desire that it be there to see. There is no inconsistency in what the Holy Spirit teaches. This is the reasoning of the sane. You have realized that all the gifts the ego would withdraw from you, in rage at your 'presumptuous' wish to look within, you do not want." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section IV, 1:1-2, 9, 6:1-2,6

Awakened Imagination

"Watch the images your imagination presents to your awareness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 32, 3:4

"You are not the victim of the world you see because you invented it. You can give it up as easily as you made it up. You will see it or not see it, as you wish. While you want it you will see it; when you no longer want it, it will not be there for you to see. This applies to your inner and outer worlds, which are actually the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 32, 1:2-5, 2:1

"God is in everything I see because God is in my mind." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 30

"According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from Divine Mind. Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. God's Thoughts are perfect and eternal, are Substance and Life." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 284, Lines 28-32, & Page 286, Lines 21-22

Oh my, this is a rich topic! Have you noticed how we minimize and ridicule the imagination as something that must be just for children... once we grow up, we are told, we have to accept the 'real' world. How funny! There is no real world... only the worlds within worlds that arise out of the thought that we could be separate from God, Who is our Source. God is Pure Spirit, the Clear Mind of Awareness in which everything lives and moves and has its being. God is very literally in everything I see, because even my false sense of a separate mind cannot possibly leave its Source.

Everything emanates from God. We are Perfect Ideas radiating from the Mind of God. Yet by imagining ourselves as separate, we see our error reflected, like refracted (bent or distorted) light. It's as if a beam of sunlight decided it knew how to be the sun. As radiance from its source, it is perfect and complete, but when separated from its source, where is its radiance? It either distorts the radiance of its source through refraction, or it no longer appears to be at all. That pretty much describes the world we dream, when we imagine ourselves separate from God.

Like all things in this distorted world, imagination has a higher purpose. It can radiate the Light of God, Our Source, within the dream. As Awakened Imagination, we know that the images we see are not separate from our own mind, but simply projections and extensions of the mind who dreams. Awakened Imagination aligns itself so completely to Source that it receives its images directly from Source, instead of from the fragmented and distorted images of the separated self. These Perfect Ideas, the Thoughts of God, are always here and available, as a part of the Radiance that emanates from God through us. We simply aren't aware of them in the contracted state of mind that thinks it's separate.

One of the experiences that is common as we awaken is the tendency to not trust ourselves. We have lost our way in egoic desires and delusions so many times that we won't let ourselves imagine anything! This is simply another ego defense. What passes for imagination in the ego's dream is a set-up to keep us forever seeking and never finding. Always on the journey, always imagining that some other place, some other person, some other way will give us what we imagine we want. Truly, there is nothing to trust in a separated mind. On the other hand, Awakened Imagination is completely Trustworthy. It never excludes or avoids anything. It is an expansive state that sees literally everything as a part of its fulfillment. The ideas that flow from Awakened Imagination flow directly from God, and are the intercommunication with our Source, a vital part of our happiness and fulfillment. The expansive ideas of Source simply embrace and dissolve whatever distorted ideas and images appear to be in the mind, transfiguring them into True Ideas.

Awakened Imagination is the reflection of our complete dependence on God, our True Self. The imagination of the egoic self is "false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spiritual identity or foundation, and it has no real substance." (Science and Health; Page 287, Lines 22-23) Both are reflections, not source... yet One reflects its Source without distortion or separation, while the other is fragmented and completely distorted... and so, completely false.

It's up to us how we dream this dream. Will we stop pretending we are doing it autonomously, with our fragmented images of suffering and sorrow? Will we realize, like Jeshua ben Joseph, that God is the only Source and Radiance of All Light, in the dream and beyond? As we forgive our willful and imaginary autonomy, we return the awareness in our holy minds to the One Mind of Awakened Imagination. And so is Heaven reflected on earth at last.

"You are holy because your mind is part of God's. And because you are holy, your sight must be holy as well. Your sight is related to His Holiness, not to your ego, and therefore not to your body." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 36, 1:2, 3,

Giving It Up

"If I say to you, "I am ill; give me help," there isn't any truth that you can declare about it that would be Truth, because there isn't any Truth about error. There is no way to correct error, because error doesn't exist. All there is, is the realization within you... and that's the healing agency. The healing agency is the realization within you of God. If you haven't a realization of God, there is not spiritual healing." -- Joel Goldsmith

"Mind is the Divine Principle, Love, and can produce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God. Mind never enters the finite. Good never enters into evil, the unlimited into the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the immortal into mortality." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 335, Line 25-26, & Page 336, Lines 2-5

"The seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is joy in separation, and that its giving up would be a sacrifice." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section IV, 10:6

The very phrase 'giving it up' is a statement of belief in value. Whatever we 'give up' must have reality and value to us in the first place. Whatever we 'give up' must have been something we valued. Whatever we 'give up' must have been let go of pretty grudgingly. Because otherwise the phrase wouldn't be used at all. For example, we don't say we are 'giving up' the dirt when we sweep the floor and throw those dust bunnies out the door. We don't say we are 'giving up' anything when we throw away garbage. There is nothing we value there. It's nothing to us. But try throwing out things that you still attach some value to, and you will definitely see yourself 'giving up' something in your own mind. And that's where it all takes place. In your mind.

Seeing the unreality of the material dream is a prerequisite for healing... kind of like a course in Awakening 101. To paraphrase Joel Goldsmith, there is no correcting or giving up of anything, because nothing but God even exists. And as Mary Baker Eddy said, "Man was and is God's image or idea, even the infinite expression of Infinite Mind, and immortal man is coexistent and coeternal with that Mind. He has been forever in the Eternal Mind, God; but Infinite Mind can never be in man, but is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness and individuality are reflections of God." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Page 336, Lines 9-15)

That the limited can never house or contain the limitless seems obvious. What is less obvious is that the limited CAN reflect the limitless. Since the world we see is smoke and mirrors, projections of projections, we are always reflecting and mirroring. By seeing the essential unreality of the dream, what we are giving up is the need to value anything in the dream... and instead we begin to reflect the Real Value that lies behind all dreaming. We begin to be spotless mirrors for God. Then the real healing begins.

Giving it up means we still see some value in the world... but we are willing to be wrong. Giving it up means we may take our time in letting go... but we are noticing that we suffer when we hang on. Giving it up means that we still believe in the sacrifice of illusions, and have not yet seen that we are giving up nothing. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "To sacrifice is to give up, and thus to be without and to have suffered loss. For you believe that you can suffer lack, and lack is death." The death of illusions, to be sure... and it is nothing at all.

So today we practice giving it up, whatever illusion confronts us. For they are all the same. And when we let the false go, only what is Eternal and True remains. And what else, Beloved of God, could we possibly want?

"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, 7-9

The Alleged Conflict

"There is no conflict in the choice between Truth and illusion. Seen in these terms, no one would hesitate. But conflict enters the instant the choice seems to be one between illusions; but this choice does not matter. Where one choice is as dangerous as the other, the decision must be one of despair." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section IV, 5:6-9

"The suppositional warfare between Truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this [alleged] warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of Divine Love." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 288, Lines 3-8

"No one at one with himself can even conceive of conflict. Conflict is the inevitable result of self-deception, and self-deception is dishonesty." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 4:II, 2:3-4

"An unrecognized belief is a decision to war in secret, where the results of conflict are kept unknown and never brought to reason." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 24, Section I, 2:2

"Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be evaded, set aside, denied, disguised, seen somewhere else, called by another name, or hidden by deceit of any kind, if it would be escaped. It must be seen exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it. For only then are its defenses lifted, and the Truth can shine upon it as it disappears." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 333, 1:1-4

I know I am using a lot of quotes to begin, but this topic is so tricksy, as Tolkien would say. As long as we experience conflict in any form, including confusion, we are warring with phantoms in our own mind. As long as we experience conflict in any form, including confusion, we are avoiding and rebelling against God and therefore against our Self. As long as we experience conflict in any form, including confusion, we are deluding ourselves, and so we cannot know the Peace of God that is our Home. And since the Kingdom of Heaven, the Awareness of Perfect Oneness and Harmony, the state of Being in which we know our Self, is Peace, this is a very important topic.

Doubt, confusion, anxiety, judgment, fear, irritation, withdrawal, sadness, depression, exhaustion, ambition, determination, planning, organization, achievement, precision, perfectionism, pride, human love and attachment, lust, hunger, envy, hero worship, nationalism, ideology of every sort, the list goes on and on and one, as endless as the world of dreams. All human goals and emotions share the fact that they are all forms of conflict. Without exception. They all mentally separate out some aspect of the One and attempt to make it bad or good within a dream, a mental story. So although some forms are thinly veiled, all are forms of conflict; all are an attack upon the One, an attempt to fragment what is eternally Whole and Innocent. And all are impossible, and so untrue. Conflict is only possible in illusion, between illusions. There are no real conflicts.

The tricksy problem arises because we think there are conflicts and that the solutions to these problems are in us. But we look to another form of conflict, the fragmented self, for solutions, and so we are constantly in some stage of battle. Now it's a physical problem, now it's emotional, now it's financial, now it's a relationship, now it's a death, now it's a birth, now it's an opportunity, now it's a success, now it's a failure. As ACIM tells us, it takes great learning to realize that there is absolutely no difference in any human thought forms. There is no hierarchy of illusions. What we see as success and pleasure from a worldly point of view is still conflict and a constant striving to attain and maintain. There is no Peace in illusions, no matter how seemingly beautiful, no matter how seemingly (and temporarily) glorious.

ACIM says that Remembering Self "requires willingness to question every value that you hold. Not one can be kept hidden and obscure but it will jeopardize your learning. No belief is neutral. Every one has the power to dictate each decision you make. For a decision is a conclusion based on everything that you believe." (A Course in Miracles; Chapter 24, Intro, 2:1-5) As long as we believe our peace lies in illusions, we are lost. As long as we believe we are separate from God, from Good, we are lost. As long as we believe we can find safety in hiding our conflicts and our fears, in hiding from ourselves, we are lost. But as soon as we are willing to bring them all, as One, to the Light, the shadows of all our alleged conflict and striving and despair and confusion are simply not. And the Light is in YOU. The Light is in ME. We are the Light.

All alleged conflict seems to be only in the darkness of the unexamined life. As soon as you begin to question, to bring your illusions to Truth, the unreality of conflict is simply obvious. As Mary Baker Eddy writes, it is all resolved in the understanding of Divine Love, which is ever-present and available to all. And as long as we walk in this illusion of life, within this dream of a world, we can mirror Truth instead of illusion, Love instead of fear, Peace instead of conflict. The willingness to question every value of the fragmented mind and return it to Peace is the willingness to reflect Heaven on earth. And what alleged conflict could be worth the sacrifice of Heaven?

"Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 296, Lines 6-13

Somebody's Story

"The Thought of God created you. It left you not, nor have you ever been apart from it an instant. It belongs to you. By it you live. It is your Source of Life, holding you One with it, and everything is One with you because it left you not. The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. Eternity and everlasting Life shine in your mind, because the Thought of God has left you not, and still abides with you." A Course in Miracles, Workbook 165, 2:1-7

"The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here. To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions. Very few have realized what is actually entailed in picturing the past or in anticipating the future. The mind is actually blank when it does this, because it is not really thinking about anything." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 8, 2:1-4

"Your mind is really a blank. To recognize this is to recognize nothingness when you think you see it." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 10, 3:3-4

"What God did not create does not exist. And everything that does exist exists as He created it. The world you see has nothing to do with Reality. It is of your own making, and it does not exist." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 14, 1:2-5

"Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion. This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not sensible. The One Mind, God, contains no mortal opinions. All that is Real is included in this Immortal Mind." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 399, Lines 23-28

As you know, we live in a world of story. We listen to our own stories with the greatest interest, but we also love to give great meaning to other people's stories, either by empathizing or by judging. And we dearly love books and movies, which are simply projected versions of our own stories. We're always in somebody's story.

It can be a shock to really notice this. The fact that there is absolutely no difference in any story because it's all made up... this is hard for most people to swallow. We think there are good stories that are worth living. But tell me, dear reader, what real difference can exist in what is unreal? If the mind is actually blank when we're in our own or somebody else's story, if there really isn't a me and a you as we imagine it... then what story could be worth living when it is the equivalent of a spiritual lobotomy? When immersed in our private world we have complete spiritual amnesia, the endless forgetting of the Son of God. We ride Samsara, the wheel of suffering. Around and around and around we go... like a sick parody, the amusement park from hell.

The Truth is, not one story told from the perspective of the world is true. Not one. ACIM says bluntly,"There is no world!" (ACIM, Workbook 132, 6:2) So who the hell is talking? Who is questioning? Who is wondering about all of this? Who, indeed?

Let's widen our awareness, letting it all breathe for a moment. Rest and breathe. We're not talking physical breath here... we're using a metaphor for allowing Spiritual memory to return, like opening a bottle of good wine and letting it breathe to allow its true flavor to emerge. The good thing about the dream we live is that the Holy Spirit, our True Self that always remembers our Oneness with God, can use every story as metaphor, can translate every illusion for Awakening. How could it be otherwise? Our Reality has always been safely in the Allness of God, Who is All Light and Love and Good... in Whom there is no darkness, no lie, no illusion, no lack, no mistake at all. We are Real. Our stories are not.

It is so funny when you really think about it. We Who Are One with All, Who ARE Everything, spend our dreaming lives imagining we're NOT. Either we imagine we're not and we struggle to achieve, or we imagine we're not and we loathe ourselves for our inadequacy, or we imagine we're not and they are, or we imagine they're not and we are, or we imagine we're not and so it means this and that and whatever... it really doesn't matter what version of not, whose story of not. We're always dreaming somebody's story. And in everybody's story, somebody is not.

God created us by extending His Being... and so we live and move and have our Being in and As Divine Mind. There can be no separation from this True and Only Reality. Again, don't take my word for this. Be still, and listen to the Voice that is always with you. It is very quiet, because there is no conflict in Reality. So we are advised in all spiritual traditions to be still, to breathe, to listen. Only illusions need constant stories. The Truth is quiet and perfectly clear. And our Real Thoughts, the Miracles of Love and Oneness that heal every perceived illusion, dawn on our clear and open minds.

In this world, we are always in somebody's story. So let's give all stories to the One Who knows how to translate them for Awakening.

"Be still and know that I Am God." -- The Bible, Psalm 46:10

"My mind is part of God's. I am very Holy." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 35

"Keep distinctly in thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 396, Lines 26-28

God's Law in Three Words

“Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” -- The Bible, Mark 11:8-9

"God's Law is in three words, I Am All;" and this perfect Law is ever present to rebuke any claim of another law." -- No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy, page 30, lines 11-13

"There are no laws but God's. Dismiss all foolish magical beliefs today, and hold your mind in silent readiness to hear the Voice that speaks the Truth to you. You will be listening to One Who says there is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 76, 9:1-6

"And God said unto Moses, "I Am That I Am." -- The Bible, Exodus 3:14

Today is Palm Sunday, a time I have loved since I was a very little girl. I love the feeling of spring in the air and the celebration with palm branches, so symbolic of eternal life and growth. And I love the passages from The Bible, that tell us about Jesus, in the midst of all the hoopla, calming riding his donkey, making a statement even in this that the Truth has nothing to do with external pomp and circumstance. The crowd said he came in the name of the Lord. He brought a new understanding that the Laws of God had nothing at all to do with externals, the arbitrary and often senseless laws that men devise. The Laws of God are all Good, all Limitless Love, and endless, ever-new Joy. Hosanna in the Highest, indeed!

I love the thought that the Omnisciencent, Omnipresent, Omnipotent Spirit of God, the only Power and the only Presence that IS, can be expressed in three words: I Am All. The Infinite Being of God, which expresses through us and as us, is incomprehensible to the normal, fragmented thinking mind. We chase words like a dog chases its tail, always reading new books, looking for more understanding through the very thing which can never know the Truth. We formulate ideas and theories and create nice little boxes of thoughts where we feel temporarily safe and limited. These are our imaginary laws, based on the fragmented vision of separation from God, our myths about our bodies and our relationships and how the world works and what we must do to survive in it.

The Laws of God cannot be seen or known by the fragmented thinking mind, nor by the physical senses, because God's Laws are not exclusive or limited. And since we know from Jeshua ben Joseph that God alone is the Doer and that God's Love is All, that means our normal ways of doing and knowing are not real, have no more reality and substance than smoke. There is One Mind and that Mind is God and that Mind is All in All, and so the only Real Thoughts are those that are All-Inclusive, Universal, Omnipresent, and Limitless. These true Thoughts, what Mary Baker Eddy called Principles, are Omnipresent and always available as the Truth of any situation or condition. A Course in Miracles calls these true Thoughts Miracles... shifts in awareness from the delusional, fragmented, limited self to the All-Inclusive, Limitless Vision of Self. These Miracles, Thoughts, Principles are the Laws of God, the Attributes of God... and so they are our True Self and the only Laws that govern existence.

There are no anomalies here. There are no exceptions or substitutes, no appeals to a higher court. And none are needed. Because the Principles that govern our world in Reality are All-Inclusive, Limitless Being... endless Love, ever-new Joy, the Limitless Abundance of Being, the Wholeness and Oneness of Self. When these Truths about God are even glimpsed, the world as we have imagined it simply fades away like a bad dream.

Where is darkness when the Light has dawned? Where is suffering when endless Joy is glimpsed? Where is lack or loss when the Limitless Wholeness of Being is experienced? Where is war and conflict in the Light of Infinite, All-Inclusive Love? We have never been subject to the limits and conflicts of the senseless laws of an illusory, separated world. God's Law in Three Words is our return to sanity and Peace: I Am All.

"Your claim to miracles does not lie in your illusions about yourself. It does not depend on any magical powers you have ascribed to yourself, nor on any of the rituals you have devised. It is inherent in the Truth of what You Are. It is implicit in what God Your Father IS. It was ensured in your creation, and is guaranteed by the Laws of God." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook 77, 2:1-5

"God reigns forever, and His Laws alone prevail upon you and upon the world. His Love remains the only thing there is." -- A Course in Miracles, Manual for Teachers, Section 18, 3:10-11

Warped and Uncorrected

"When you maintain that there must be an order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from Truth. You believe Truth cannot deal with them only because you would keep them from Truth. Very simply, your lack of faith in the Power that heals all pain arises from your wish to retain some aspects of reality for fantasy. If you but realized what this must do to your appreciation of the whole! What you reserve for yourself, you take away from Him Who would release you. Unless you give it back, it is inevitable that your perspective on Reality will be warped and uncorrected." -- A Course in Miracles

I remember reading in Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi back in the early 1970's, that everything we see in this world is like a movie, and we are playing all the parts... including the director, producer, and the projector. We are it. And all we have to do is look at the nature of the whole movie and we can see that we make Tim Burton look warm and fuzzy. Our vision and perspective is definitely warped and uncorrected.

Even if we are currently enjoying a comfortable existence, safe and secure, all we have to do is watch the news to be aware that huge portions of this movie are really awful. We can project it out there and pretend that we are blessed and protected, and the other poor schmucks are just living out bad karma, or they haven't learned the Law of Attraction, or some other such nonsense. We make ourselves feel better because they have it so bad. Woh.

What kind of God would create a set-up like this, we ask? Well, a god we projected, made in our own image. Made up, illusory power. Like everything we have projected, it's all smoke and mirrors. In Reality, ACIM says, "I Am the Holy Son of God Himself. His Son can suffer nothing, and I am His Son." God did not create the world we think we see. Thank Goodness. But God did create All That Is. And in order to see Reality, we have to give up the smoke and mirrors. We have to give up our stubborn insistence on giving our tinker toy world the status of reality, and welcome the Truth. "Truth will correct all errors in my mind."

How long will we insist on seeing a painful and dying world? How long will we stick out heads in the sand of imaginary comforters and ignore the Truth? How long will we insist on suffering in our sleep, when all along we live and move and have our Being in unimaginable Love and Bliss? ACIM tell us to, "Be willing then, to give all you have held outside the Truth to Him Who knows the Truth, and in Whom all is brought to Truth. He will accomplish it, not you." Are we willing?

This day, and every day, I give my warped and uncorrected perceptions to the Holy Spirit, the part of my mind that remains in eternal Awareness of Who I Am. And as I am willing to give it, all is forgiven and healed.

"Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely... Nothing that you remember here that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the Beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon... This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling in the open sun... This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into Beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its Perfection." -- A Course in Miracles

One Answer

"To give up all problems to One Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely." -- A Course in Miracles

"When this Power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust one's own petty strength again. Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him?" -- A Course in Miracles

One problem, one solution. A Course in Miracles makes it so clear and so simple that only the deliberately delusional could call it confusing. Our problem is always some version of a separated self, exiled from God, surrounded by the idols that are our individual projections and illusions, in the deceptive forms of people, places, and things. Our One Answer is always remembering that God is One, not many... and that there is no place or time or situation where God is NOT. One Power, All Power... One Intelligence, All Intelligence... One Love, All Love... and everything that appears as 'other' is simply, well, NOT.

So what are you certain of? We may think we are certain our bodies are real, for example... but where is the body you were so sure of when you were a teenager? Where is the body you were so sure of yesterday? If it dissolves and vanishes like a dream, as if it never existed... then how can you call it real? Where are the 'great' civilizations of the past? All that remain of them are the stories we tell... no reality in stories. All stories are simply, well, STORIES.

What is True is always True. It is a principle on which we can stand. ACIM says, "The Truth is True, and nothing else is true." Can't get much clearer than 'nothing else.' Nothing means, well, NOTHING.

Bodies are not true. Personalities are not true. Feelings come and go like weather and so are not true. Judgments are simply mental constructs and so not true. Possessions are not true. Time and space come and go and are not true. What comes and goes and dissolves like smoke and mirrors is simply, well, NOT.

The One Answer to whatever confronts us today and all days is this knowing. "Hear O Israel, the Lord Your God is ONE." This Truth lights the Way, corrects all projections and errors, and escorts us safely through every fire and every challenge within the world of dreams. There is nothing else.

"All this complexity is but a desperate attempt not to recognize the problem. If you could recognize that your only problem is separation from God, no matter what form it takes, you could accept the answer because you would see its relevance. There is only one problem, and One Answer." -- A Course in Miracles