"Only those who have a real and lasting sense of Abundance can be truly charitable. This is obvious when you consider what is involved. To the ego, to give anything implies that you will have to do without it. When you associate giving with sacrifice, you give only because you believe that you are somehow getting something better, and can therefore do without the thing you give." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section II, 6:1-4
Whoa... this is really true, isn't it? I pay my cable bill because I think I'm getting something for it. I buy feed for the horses and dogs and cats because I think I'm getting a sense of satisfaction taking care of all these animals. I give to my children because I think it gives me a sense of satisfaction and connection.
Now the Course is not telling us to stop paying our bills or giving to our children. But it is pointing out the way the egoic mind works. Our conditioned self only gives to get. Because getting is what the ego does to maintain the illusion of separate self, and to make sure guilt stays repressed and hidden.
"The ego never gives out of abundance, because it was made as a substitute for it. That is why the concept of 'getting' arose in the ego's thought system. Appetites are 'getting' mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of body appetites as it is of the so-called 'higher ego needs'." -- ACIM; Chapter 4, II, 7:3-6
What is giving out of Abundance, then? Abundance is an attribute of God, and therefore of our true nature since we exist as extensions of the Mind of God. God has given us EVERYTHING, because God IS EVERYTHING... literally. There is no other. All means all. So what exists that could be lost, or needed? Giving out of Abundance is just being natural. The Course gives the first teaching of the Holy Spirit as "To have, give all to all." We know that we have because we have it to give. :-))
How do we make such a shift in perception? How do we change our minds to such an extent? Our self-concept, our egoic notion of a self, says we are limited, with limited resources, and only those that are careful with their resources have enough in this world. In other words, our egoic notion of self-esteem is tied up with what we think we have acquired by what the Course calls the 'getting' mechanism. "Self-esteem in ego terms means nothing more than that the ego has deluded itself into accepting its reality, and is therefore temporarily less predatory." (ACIM; II, 4, 6:8) So we think we have by getting, and temporarily think we are safe, as long as we don't have to give. Ha!
True Abundance is the Awareness of God. The overflowing of Being that is our True Self, living and moving and having being in God. By learning to listen only to the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit... by learning to walk in the Awareness of God's ever-Presence... we come to realize we are the Abundance of Spirit. Giving is the only natural extension of this realization, because all giving is mental, and of the mind. We are pure Spirit, reflecting the Mind of God.
"To have, give all to all." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section V: A
Showing posts with label Having. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Having. Show all posts
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Monday, February 14, 2011
Take Joy in It!
"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 timeless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 6:1-2
What brings you joy? Nothing and no one. Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything. Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go. Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.
The freedom this brings us is limitless. We're here to take joy in it! Whatever it is! We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.
It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality. How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God? Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience. As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE." Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation. Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite. We don't have to play it safe. We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are.
This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self. Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life. Take Joy in it!
What brings you joy? Nothing and no one. Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything. Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go. Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.
The freedom this brings us is limitless. We're here to take joy in it! Whatever it is! We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.
It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality. How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God? Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience. As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE." Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation. Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite. We don't have to play it safe. We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are.
This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self. Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life. Take Joy in it!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A Way of Being
"Quantum systems imply that undivided wholeness is not only the content, but also the manner of working." -- Physicist David Bohm
This is the longest I've gone without posting on this blog, so apologies to those of my readers who have contacted me out of love and concern. I've been consumed with writing and editing, preparing a manuscript for publication. This has me thinking about the principle of wholeness, an attribute of God. It's very true that as I edit, even when I'm working with specific words or parts or sections, I'm really working with the idea of the whole. Good editing can only happen within this awareness of wholeness. It's really a way of being.
When I cook I experience the same thing. There is a field of awareness of the dish I'm making, and within that awareness there are individual things to do, ingredients to add, substitutions to be made. But it's all done within the awareness of the dish I'm creating... the manner of working is with the wholeness of the end result as the field of awareness in which everything else takes place. This is not done in a linear, control manner... the dish, the book, whatever is being created is not defined or limited in any way. It may look or taste completely different than I initially conceived it. But the wholeness of the divine idea emerges in its completeness. The form is irrelevant. It's the content that is eternally whole.
Wholeness is a manner of working, a way of being. A Course in Miracles says, "You can't have what you're not willing to be." If we return in awareness to the completeness of being that we are in God, then we have and are everything. We can lack nothing. We can't lack initiative. We can't lack inspiration. We can't lack ability. We can't lack opportunity. We can't lack fulfillment. We can't lack knowledge. We can't lack support. We can't have screwed it up. All of the areas in which we may have seen ourselves lacking are impossible... we live and move and have our being in God, in Wholeness ItSelf. We are God's Son, and we are eternally whole, as God Is One and Whole and unchanging. We are whole and beloved and provided for out of the fullness of God's Being every moment of every day.
Every perception of lack is also a manner of working and a way of being, even though it's ultimately not true. We can conceive ourselves to be lacking, and then experience it as being wholly true. Just as we can lose ourselves in a good book or good movie... and when we wake up, or simply return to the awareness of the room around us, we find we had experienced the drama as if it were true. But we know that it's not. In the same way, when we return to awareness of Self, in God, we find that we have simply been having an experience of lack based on a mere concept of self, a mere thought form... an illusion.
Awareness of God and of Self is not a concept... it's the Way of All Being, an unconditioned awareness without thought or concept. It is the Ground of All Being, and is what we are and what we know when all thoughts and concepts are forgiven and released. It's Home.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3
This is the longest I've gone without posting on this blog, so apologies to those of my readers who have contacted me out of love and concern. I've been consumed with writing and editing, preparing a manuscript for publication. This has me thinking about the principle of wholeness, an attribute of God. It's very true that as I edit, even when I'm working with specific words or parts or sections, I'm really working with the idea of the whole. Good editing can only happen within this awareness of wholeness. It's really a way of being.
When I cook I experience the same thing. There is a field of awareness of the dish I'm making, and within that awareness there are individual things to do, ingredients to add, substitutions to be made. But it's all done within the awareness of the dish I'm creating... the manner of working is with the wholeness of the end result as the field of awareness in which everything else takes place. This is not done in a linear, control manner... the dish, the book, whatever is being created is not defined or limited in any way. It may look or taste completely different than I initially conceived it. But the wholeness of the divine idea emerges in its completeness. The form is irrelevant. It's the content that is eternally whole.
Wholeness is a manner of working, a way of being. A Course in Miracles says, "You can't have what you're not willing to be." If we return in awareness to the completeness of being that we are in God, then we have and are everything. We can lack nothing. We can't lack initiative. We can't lack inspiration. We can't lack ability. We can't lack opportunity. We can't lack fulfillment. We can't lack knowledge. We can't lack support. We can't have screwed it up. All of the areas in which we may have seen ourselves lacking are impossible... we live and move and have our being in God, in Wholeness ItSelf. We are God's Son, and we are eternally whole, as God Is One and Whole and unchanging. We are whole and beloved and provided for out of the fullness of God's Being every moment of every day.
Every perception of lack is also a manner of working and a way of being, even though it's ultimately not true. We can conceive ourselves to be lacking, and then experience it as being wholly true. Just as we can lose ourselves in a good book or good movie... and when we wake up, or simply return to the awareness of the room around us, we find we had experienced the drama as if it were true. But we know that it's not. In the same way, when we return to awareness of Self, in God, we find that we have simply been having an experience of lack based on a mere concept of self, a mere thought form... an illusion.
Awareness of God and of Self is not a concept... it's the Way of All Being, an unconditioned awareness without thought or concept. It is the Ground of All Being, and is what we are and what we know when all thoughts and concepts are forgiven and released. It's Home.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3
Saturday, October 18, 2008
The End of Longing
"The ego sees all dependency as threatening, and has twisted even your longing for God into a means of establishing itself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 6:8
All definitions of longing agree that it is the strong desire for something unavailable or distant. It could be defined as "I want..." rather than, "I am." Whether the longing is for some experience, some person, some place, or some thing in the world, it is always something separate, not immediately available, and distant. Some have sublimated all such longings into the longing for God... but this is ego, insisting that it is separate and distant and distinct from God. Some have celebrated human longing, and followed it as far as it will lead. This too is ego, feeding a contracted sense of self that imagines its own autonomy and demands its desires be fulfilled.
All longing is the attempt to fill a need or resolve a difference... and only the imagined self has needs or sees differences. The real Self is whole and complete, a state of awareness where "differences have disappeared, and Love looks on ItSelf." (A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 28, 5:2) ACIM reminds us again and again that in reality, having and being are one and the same. You can't have what you're not willing to be. So the experience of longing, "I want..." has no meaning in reality. As God said to Moses, "I Am that I Am."
In our Awareness of perfect Oneness, there is nothing missing. Here in the dreamworld we call life, even when we love there is something missing, and the inevitable longing for completion is a constant companion. Longing can never be fulfilled in the dream. The end of longing is remembering God. Remembering our Oneness with God is remembering our eternal Self. The end of longing is the acceptance that (always and forever), I Am.
"Let all things be exactly as they are. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 268, 2:2-4
All definitions of longing agree that it is the strong desire for something unavailable or distant. It could be defined as "I want..." rather than, "I am." Whether the longing is for some experience, some person, some place, or some thing in the world, it is always something separate, not immediately available, and distant. Some have sublimated all such longings into the longing for God... but this is ego, insisting that it is separate and distant and distinct from God. Some have celebrated human longing, and followed it as far as it will lead. This too is ego, feeding a contracted sense of self that imagines its own autonomy and demands its desires be fulfilled.
All longing is the attempt to fill a need or resolve a difference... and only the imagined self has needs or sees differences. The real Self is whole and complete, a state of awareness where "differences have disappeared, and Love looks on ItSelf." (A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 28, 5:2) ACIM reminds us again and again that in reality, having and being are one and the same. You can't have what you're not willing to be. So the experience of longing, "I want..." has no meaning in reality. As God said to Moses, "I Am that I Am."
In our Awareness of perfect Oneness, there is nothing missing. Here in the dreamworld we call life, even when we love there is something missing, and the inevitable longing for completion is a constant companion. Longing can never be fulfilled in the dream. The end of longing is remembering God. Remembering our Oneness with God is remembering our eternal Self. The end of longing is the acceptance that (always and forever), I Am.
"Let all things be exactly as they are. Only reality is free of pain. Only reality is free of loss. Only reality is wholly safe." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 268, 2:2-4
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Our Riches in Glory
"Those who would see the witnesses to Truth instead of to illusion merely ask that they might see a purpose in the world that gives it sense and makes it meaningful. Without your special function [forgiveness] has this world no meaning for you. Yet it can become a treasure house as rich and limitless as Heaven ItSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section I, 5:1-3
"But I have all, and abound; I am full... my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory." -- The Bible; Philippians 4:18-19
Like everything else in this upside down and backwards world, the notion of wealth and riches has been co opted by the ego, the imagined autonomous self. Wealth and riches have become a symbol of greed and separate, special interests. We have to work, fight, struggle, and grab to get what is ours. And sharing with another separate ego means there is less for us. Do you see how this aberrant idea is mirrored in every aspect of the ego's story? Separate interests, separate lives, separate assets... it's mirrored everywhere.
Nothing could be further from the Truth of God's Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is "an awareness of Perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:6) But as long as we are caught in the ego story of separate interests, there is never enough. We can't know the Wealth of Our Being, when who we think we're being is a fragment, a little sliver of our True Self.
In the Allness of God our true wealth lies. In the Allness of God there is nothing missing, nothing absent... that's the meaning of Omnipresence. Since we are One with God, the Omnipresent, Omniscient Awareness of Being is IN us in a very real sense... not in an illusory separate body, or in our imagined sense perceptions... but in the Spirit of God that is Our True Self. Being Omnipresent and Omniscient, this Awareness sees everyone and everything as they are, a part of the One Self, and not what they appear to be in the dream of sense perception. In other words, the Awareness of Self sees FROM Being Oneness, AS Oneness.
All-encompassing Love and Goodness without measure is Our True Wealth. As we forgive each separate dream, our awareness returns to Christ, the Oneness that has always been. The living Wealth of God has never left us. Our Riches in Glory are eternal and free.
"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest... God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this mystery... Christ in you, the hope of Glory." -- The Bible; Colossians 1:26-28
"In God's Own Justice does He recognize all you deserve. It is His special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to Him as well as you. He knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as His Son receives what loving justice knows to be his due. For Love and Justice are not different. Because they are the same does Mercy stand at God's right Hand, and gives the Son of God the Power to forgive himself of sin." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section VIII, 9:5-11
"But I have all, and abound; I am full... my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory." -- The Bible; Philippians 4:18-19
Like everything else in this upside down and backwards world, the notion of wealth and riches has been co opted by the ego, the imagined autonomous self. Wealth and riches have become a symbol of greed and separate, special interests. We have to work, fight, struggle, and grab to get what is ours. And sharing with another separate ego means there is less for us. Do you see how this aberrant idea is mirrored in every aspect of the ego's story? Separate interests, separate lives, separate assets... it's mirrored everywhere.
Nothing could be further from the Truth of God's Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is "an awareness of Perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:6) But as long as we are caught in the ego story of separate interests, there is never enough. We can't know the Wealth of Our Being, when who we think we're being is a fragment, a little sliver of our True Self.
In the Allness of God our true wealth lies. In the Allness of God there is nothing missing, nothing absent... that's the meaning of Omnipresence. Since we are One with God, the Omnipresent, Omniscient Awareness of Being is IN us in a very real sense... not in an illusory separate body, or in our imagined sense perceptions... but in the Spirit of God that is Our True Self. Being Omnipresent and Omniscient, this Awareness sees everyone and everything as they are, a part of the One Self, and not what they appear to be in the dream of sense perception. In other words, the Awareness of Self sees FROM Being Oneness, AS Oneness.
All-encompassing Love and Goodness without measure is Our True Wealth. As we forgive each separate dream, our awareness returns to Christ, the Oneness that has always been. The living Wealth of God has never left us. Our Riches in Glory are eternal and free.
"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest... God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this mystery... Christ in you, the hope of Glory." -- The Bible; Colossians 1:26-28
"In God's Own Justice does He recognize all you deserve. It is His special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to Him as well as you. He knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as His Son receives what loving justice knows to be his due. For Love and Justice are not different. Because they are the same does Mercy stand at God's right Hand, and gives the Son of God the Power to forgive himself of sin." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section VIII, 9:5-11
Friday, February 8, 2008
The Unanswered Question
"Your questions have no answer, being made to still God's Voice, which asks of everyone one question only: "Are you ready yet to help me save the world?" Ask this instead of what the ego is, and you will see a sudden brightness cover up the world the ego made. No miracle is now withheld from anyone. The world is saved from what you thought it was. And what it is is wholly uncondemned and wholly pure." -- A Course in Miracles
"Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me? Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless? Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin? And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" -- A Course in Miracles
The universal smokescreen of the unanswered question is one we all know very well. Why is the world the way it is? Why me? Why did this happen when I have done everything right? Why did they treat me that way, when I have been so good to them? Or why did I say or do that, when I knew better? Why was I so stupid? Why did I, why did they... blah, blah, blah... the wheel of samsara continues to turn, turn, turn. Questions like these have no answer. They are not real questions, but rather a way of seeing the world. A way of being. When we ask such questions, we are being victims, reactive effects of some other cause. We are being powerless.
A Course in Miracles tells us that there is only one real question in any circumstance: "Is this what I would see? Do I want this?" This is usually immediately and impatiently answered by the ego... of course I don't want this! But there is another question, and one that remains unanswered behind the smokescreen of many seemingly unanswered questions that are not really questions: "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?"
Be vigilant now, because it's easy to get lost in the maze of words. As ACIM puts it, we can never have what we are not willing to BE. We are always experiencing exactly what we are being. Not what we are pretending to be, as in the identities of the ego. It's not about being a nice person or being right. It's the core of it. Who are you being when you ask a question? And as we know, there are always and forever only two choices in this world, no matter how many there appear to be. And only one of them is true. Thank God.
We are always either being One with God, being our True Self... or we are being an illusory, victimized, limited fiction within the dream. This decision is seemingly complicated in the world by all of our unanswered questions. Why would we not want to know the Truth? Why, indeed.
In order to answer what ACIM calls the last unanswered question, "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" we have to see that the world itself is meaningless. We give it all the meaning it has for us. We are the dreamer. And regardless of what we decide to do and no matter how we shift roles, it remains a world of illusions. It will never give us what we want. Because, "Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision."
We come here to dream awhile, always with the false hope that yet another dream will satisfy the endless desires that arise out of the dream itself. It never ends. Nothing will ever fill or satisfy our imagined lacks and empty places. And yet, within this very dream, another Voice calls us. Do you want to know the Truth? Are you willing to be ruthlessly honest with yourself? Are you ready yet to help Me save the world? The last unanswered question: "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" is the call to freedom and sanity and peace. And what more could we ever want?
"The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the Love of God for His creation." -- A Course in Miracles
"Do I desire a world I rule instead of one that rules me? Do I desire a world where I am powerful instead of helpless? Do I desire a world in which I have no enemies and cannot sin? And do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" -- A Course in Miracles
The universal smokescreen of the unanswered question is one we all know very well. Why is the world the way it is? Why me? Why did this happen when I have done everything right? Why did they treat me that way, when I have been so good to them? Or why did I say or do that, when I knew better? Why was I so stupid? Why did I, why did they... blah, blah, blah... the wheel of samsara continues to turn, turn, turn. Questions like these have no answer. They are not real questions, but rather a way of seeing the world. A way of being. When we ask such questions, we are being victims, reactive effects of some other cause. We are being powerless.
A Course in Miracles tells us that there is only one real question in any circumstance: "Is this what I would see? Do I want this?" This is usually immediately and impatiently answered by the ego... of course I don't want this! But there is another question, and one that remains unanswered behind the smokescreen of many seemingly unanswered questions that are not really questions: "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?"
Be vigilant now, because it's easy to get lost in the maze of words. As ACIM puts it, we can never have what we are not willing to BE. We are always experiencing exactly what we are being. Not what we are pretending to be, as in the identities of the ego. It's not about being a nice person or being right. It's the core of it. Who are you being when you ask a question? And as we know, there are always and forever only two choices in this world, no matter how many there appear to be. And only one of them is true. Thank God.
We are always either being One with God, being our True Self... or we are being an illusory, victimized, limited fiction within the dream. This decision is seemingly complicated in the world by all of our unanswered questions. Why would we not want to know the Truth? Why, indeed.
In order to answer what ACIM calls the last unanswered question, "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" we have to see that the world itself is meaningless. We give it all the meaning it has for us. We are the dreamer. And regardless of what we decide to do and no matter how we shift roles, it remains a world of illusions. It will never give us what we want. Because, "Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision."
We come here to dream awhile, always with the false hope that yet another dream will satisfy the endless desires that arise out of the dream itself. It never ends. Nothing will ever fill or satisfy our imagined lacks and empty places. And yet, within this very dream, another Voice calls us. Do you want to know the Truth? Are you willing to be ruthlessly honest with yourself? Are you ready yet to help Me save the world? The last unanswered question: "Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?" is the call to freedom and sanity and peace. And what more could we ever want?
"The constancy of happiness has no exceptions; no change of any kind. It is unshakable as is the Love of God for His creation." -- A Course in Miracles
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
An Act of Will
"There is no one who does not feel that he is imprisoned in some way. I f this is the result of his own free will he must regard his will as not free, or the circular reasoning in this position would be quite apparent. Free will must lead to freedom. Judgment always imprisons because it separates segments of reality by the unstable scales of desire. Wishes are not facts. To wish is to imply that willing is not sufficient. Instead of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," say, "Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I accept my own inheritance." -- A Course in Miracles
"There is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles
"The beliefs of the human mind rob and enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive personification..." -- Mary Baker Eddy
I love the understanding that judgment imprisons the will, because it requires separating oneself from what is judged... it requires a subject and an object. So the One is no longer seen or experienced as whole. This is of course wholly illusory (judgment is illusory). But we have been taught from childhood that we have to evaluate and judge so that we will make good decisions and live a good, free life. Hmmm... how has that worked so far? Let's look at it another way: if there is only one Will, then making judgments is an exercise in futility and seems to remove our Will from our awareness. This is of course a smokescreen, too.
It makes absolutely no difference if the judgment is toward a person, place, thing, or experience. It makes absolutely no difference if we are evaluating 'spiritually' or 'from the ego.' It makes absolutely no difference if we are trying to decide between people, places, things, or situations. None of these things exist as we imagine them, and so we cannot judge. ACIM explains that judgment is not our function here, because we use it to maintain the illusion and so it will always, always bring us suffering. Forgiveness is our only true function in the world, because as we let go of the smokescreens of our judgments, our true Will is restored to our Awareness.
As long as we are judging, we are slave to the beliefs and evaluations behind the judgments. These are always some version of lack and separation from our good (or the fear of lack and separation from our good). As One with the Allness of God, where is this somewhere that is separate from the All and Everywhere?
As there is no will but God's, what aspects of our puny judgments could possibly have any reality? I for one am ready to give up the need to evaluate and understand any of it. I am ready to BE as God created me, the only real thing I can do anyway. This involves the only right use of Will in this world. I WILL to BE as I AM.
What is true of God is true of me. ACIM tells us, "He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect." I live and move and have my Being in Him. Does a drop of water differ in quality from the river or the ocean? It shares the attributes of its being with its source. So do we.
The one true use of my Will is to consciously remember. To remember in this world of dreams is an act of Will.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles
"There is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles
"The beliefs of the human mind rob and enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive personification..." -- Mary Baker Eddy
I love the understanding that judgment imprisons the will, because it requires separating oneself from what is judged... it requires a subject and an object. So the One is no longer seen or experienced as whole. This is of course wholly illusory (judgment is illusory). But we have been taught from childhood that we have to evaluate and judge so that we will make good decisions and live a good, free life. Hmmm... how has that worked so far? Let's look at it another way: if there is only one Will, then making judgments is an exercise in futility and seems to remove our Will from our awareness. This is of course a smokescreen, too.
It makes absolutely no difference if the judgment is toward a person, place, thing, or experience. It makes absolutely no difference if we are evaluating 'spiritually' or 'from the ego.' It makes absolutely no difference if we are trying to decide between people, places, things, or situations. None of these things exist as we imagine them, and so we cannot judge. ACIM explains that judgment is not our function here, because we use it to maintain the illusion and so it will always, always bring us suffering. Forgiveness is our only true function in the world, because as we let go of the smokescreens of our judgments, our true Will is restored to our Awareness.
As long as we are judging, we are slave to the beliefs and evaluations behind the judgments. These are always some version of lack and separation from our good (or the fear of lack and separation from our good). As One with the Allness of God, where is this somewhere that is separate from the All and Everywhere?
As there is no will but God's, what aspects of our puny judgments could possibly have any reality? I for one am ready to give up the need to evaluate and understand any of it. I am ready to BE as God created me, the only real thing I can do anyway. This involves the only right use of Will in this world. I WILL to BE as I AM.
What is true of God is true of me. ACIM tells us, "He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect." I live and move and have my Being in Him. Does a drop of water differ in quality from the river or the ocean? It shares the attributes of its being with its source. So do we.
The one true use of my Will is to consciously remember. To remember in this world of dreams is an act of Will.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles
Friday, January 25, 2008
Having and Being
"In your own mind, though denied by the ego, is the declaration of your release. God has given you everything. This one fact means the ego does not exist, and this makes it profoundly afraid. In the ego's language, "to have" and "to be" are different, but they are identical to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows that you both have everything and are everything. Any distinction in this respect is meaningful only when the idea of "getting," which implies a lack, has already been accepted. That is why we make no distinction between having the Kingdom of God and being the Kingdom of God." -- A Course in Miracles
Being is the principle of creation. Even in this world, you cannot HAVE what you are not willing to BE. True creation, when we know our Self as One, is the radiant extension of Being. The Light of Being effortlessly shines and extends throughout its Allness. In the dream we call life, this principle shows up in varying forms and experiences, because we are asleep and have forgotten who we are. Our being seems conflicted and confused in this dreaming that we are separate, and so the dream will never be anything other than an ever-changing kaleidoscope of projections of our forgetting and confusion.
Jeshua ben Joseph taught very clearly that out of remembering comes the restoration of our Will to Be as God created us. And so he could change water into wine, multiply the loaves and fishes, heal the sick, raise the dead, and find money for taxes in a fish’s mouth. He could shed the Light of His unified Vision on any aspect of the dream, and it would effortlessly reveal the Truth and Life and Completeness of Being. The darkness and lack and confusion of the seeming nightmares were illuminated and shown to be nothing at all.
A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. In this you are as free as God, and must remain so forever. It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you ever had that opposes this knowledge. You retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering. Consider how much vigilance you have been willing to exert to protect your ego, and how little to protect your right mind. Who but the insane would undertake to believe what is not true, and then protect this belief at the cost of Truth? If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings, and your behavior. Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save."
The restoration of our will to HAVE and BE as God created us is the remembering of Self.
"Instead of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven" say, "Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I accept my own inheritance." The Kingdom of Heaven is you." -- A Course in Miracles.
Being is the principle of creation. Even in this world, you cannot HAVE what you are not willing to BE. True creation, when we know our Self as One, is the radiant extension of Being. The Light of Being effortlessly shines and extends throughout its Allness. In the dream we call life, this principle shows up in varying forms and experiences, because we are asleep and have forgotten who we are. Our being seems conflicted and confused in this dreaming that we are separate, and so the dream will never be anything other than an ever-changing kaleidoscope of projections of our forgetting and confusion.
Jeshua ben Joseph taught very clearly that out of remembering comes the restoration of our Will to Be as God created us. And so he could change water into wine, multiply the loaves and fishes, heal the sick, raise the dead, and find money for taxes in a fish’s mouth. He could shed the Light of His unified Vision on any aspect of the dream, and it would effortlessly reveal the Truth and Life and Completeness of Being. The darkness and lack and confusion of the seeming nightmares were illuminated and shown to be nothing at all.
A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "No force except your own will is strong enough or worthy enough to guide you. In this you are as free as God, and must remain so forever. It has never really entered your mind to give up every idea you ever had that opposes this knowledge. You retain thousands of little scraps of fear that prevent the Holy One from entering. Consider how much vigilance you have been willing to exert to protect your ego, and how little to protect your right mind. Who but the insane would undertake to believe what is not true, and then protect this belief at the cost of Truth? If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings, and your behavior. Yet this is what you want. This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save."
The restoration of our will to HAVE and BE as God created us is the remembering of Self.
"Instead of "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven" say, "Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven," and you have said, "I know what I am and I accept my own inheritance." The Kingdom of Heaven is you." -- A Course in Miracles.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
