It Really Is That Simple

"The Law of Existence is Perfection.  Not moving toward or away from anything, not trying to add anything, but every whit Whole.  Everything else is perception, point of view, and is not the Wholeness and Perfection of Being.  Every point of view is the out-picturing of a belief in non-perfection.  If beliefs didn't get uncomfortable, I'd have no reason to give them up." -- Betty Albee

"Altars are beliefs, but God and His creations are beyond belief because they are, beyond question." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section V:C, 7:2

When I was first introduced to Betty Albee's statement a couple of years ago (that every perception is the projection of a belief in non-perfection) I glossed over it. It didn't resonate, and seemed too abstract for me at the time.  But I have come to realize it is a simple statement of Truth that I didn't want to hear.  As the Course reminds me: "You have made many ideas that you have placed between yourself and your Creator, and these beliefs are the world as you perceive it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 4:4

The Laws of God. the Laws of Truth, are Perfection, Wholeness, Abundance, Innocence, Peace, Joy, Love and All ideas of Goodness and Perfection without an opposite and without limits or possibility of change.  These Laws are not imposed from without, but are actually our very Being.  We can put I Am in front of any one of them and be telling the Truth.  And the Course reminds us that these Laws of Oneness are the only Reality there is: "I am under no laws but God's.  I am constantly tempted to make up other laws and give them power over me.  I suffer only because of my belief in them.  They have no real effect on me at all.  I am perfectly free of the effects of all laws save God's.  And His are the Laws of Freedom." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 88

Now if your eyes haven't glazed over and you are actually contemplating the Truth presented here, you are beginning to feel the joy that only a glimpse of true Freedom can bring. I am perfectly free of the effects of ALL the beliefs and concepts, the rules and limitations... they are all made up!  In other words, "Concepts are learned.  They are not natural." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 7:1-2 

So we find that we are only under the influence of our own belief in imperfection, which is the same as saying we believe God has been rendered imperfect, separated from creation, and our point of view (our perception) reflects this illusion.  It's crazy, but it's these false perceptions that make up the world as we know it. "Illusions are but beliefs in what is not there." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section III, 4:9

Please don't take my word for it.  There are so many teachers of non-duality that are more eloquent in explaining all this.  What you need is proof.  And the proof is in the pudding, as the saying goes.  If you start with "God IS" and "God is ALL"(ALL must include all) and work from there, you will always find that imperfection and all the world of projection is an impossibility. "How simple is salvation!  All it says is what was never true is not true now, and never will be.  The impossible has not occurred, and can have no effects.  And that is all." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section I, 1:1-4

There is only One Self.  God IS, and we are the Light of God... that's our Reality.  Miracles light the mind that begins to forgive and release all human concepts and beliefs and points of view. "You are a miracle, capable of creating in the likeness of your Creator.  Everything else is your own nightmare, and does not exist.  Only the creations of Light are real." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 24:2-4 

Salvation really is that simple. 

"Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is.  Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for.  We do not know.  Let every image be loosened from our minds and swept away." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section I, 12:1-4

Decisions, Decisions

In this so-called life, decisions make up every minute of every day.  Even my youngest grandson is choosing his state of mind minute by minute, second by second.  I can see the impulses arise and cross his little three-month-old face like clouds.  I can see the second he decides to smile instead of cry.  I can see him struggle to give voice (and I mean voice) to his discomfort.  Little Kai Joseph is just like us... choosing to react to external forms, or to interact with the Love that is in him and all around him, always.

We're not talking about will-power here.  That's the mistaken belief that we can exert control over our bodies and other forms in the external world.  As Mary Baker Eddy put it, "Will power is a product of belief... and is not a faculty of Soul.  Hence it cannot govern man aright."  And A Course in Miracles says it very simply: "There is no Will but God's."

So what are all the decisions we make every day?  We have to first remember that all decisions are of the mind, and have nothing to do with form.  My grandson's decisions may reflect in his face, but it's all in his mind.  Similarly, our minute-by-minute decisions are mental processes.  The illusion of a world arises from these mental projections.  "Perception is a mirror, not a fact.  And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 304, 1:3-4)

Decisions, decisions... how can we make decisions, then, if we're not in our right mind... if we think we've made a will other than God's?  Again, A Course in Miracles gives us a way out: "Let us today be truly humble, and accept what we have made as what it is.  The power of decision is our own.  Decide but to accept your rightful place as co-creator of the universe, and all you think you made will disappear.  What rises to awareness then will be all that there ever was, eternally as it is now.  And it will take the place of self-deceptions made but to usurp the altar to the Father and the Son." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 8:1-5)

Decisions are continuous, and we are always looking at only two choices, two mental states.  Our True Self, the Son of God Who is Peace and Love and Life and Reality... or an illusion of a separate self, which projects as fear and lack and limitation and death.  We know which we're choosing by our state of mind. 

"You who perceive yourself as weak and frail, with futile hopes and devastated dreams, born but to die, to weep and suffer pain, hear this:  All power is given unto you in earth and Heaven.  There is nothing that you cannot do.  Then let the Son of God awaken from his sleep, and opening his holy eyes, return again to bless the world he made.  In error it began, but it will end in the reflection of His holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 191, 9:1-2 & 10:1-2

The Judge of What You Are

"Let Him be Judge of what you are, for He has certainty in which there is no doubt, because it rests on Certainty so great that doubt is meaningless before Its Face.  Christ cannot doubt HimSelf.  The Voice for God can only honor Him, rejoicing in His perfect, everlasting sinlessness.  Whom He has judged can only laugh at guilt, unwilling now to play with toys of sin; unheeding of the body's witnesses before the rapture of Christ's holy face.  And thus He judges YOU." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 8:1-4

Wow, in the last couple of days alone I have had five or six conversations with people who are judging themselves very harshly.  This is of course my own journey as well, so it's a wonderful opportunity to see my projections in living color. 

Who is the judge of who and what I am?  I've taken it upon myself to judge my inadequacies at every opportunity.  I've imagined I see the physical flaws, the mental limitations, the emotional vulnerability, the failures and the successes as I judge them.  These are the false perceptions that begin within and are projected without as a flawed and struggling world full of flawed and struggling people.  Whether I see them as enemies or friends is irrelevant.  I don't see them at all.  I see my projections, and nothing else.  "You cannot judge.  You merely can believe the ego's judgements, all of which are false.  It guides your senses carefully, to prove how weak you are; how helpless and afraid, how apprehensive of just punishment, how black with sin, how wretched in your guilt." -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 4:3-5

But we all know how very familiar and real this false sense of self and other seems to us.  The compulsion to live our life as this false self dictates is nearly overwhelming at times.  How do we stop this addictive and destructive behavior, this constant judging of everyone and everything, this constant assumption that we know who we are and what we're doing?  ACIM says we must learn to doubt the evidence of our senses rather than our Self.  As we cease to judge according to appearances, we "clear the way to recognize Self, and let the Voice for God alone be Judge of what is worthy of belief."

And so we come down to it, once again.  Forgiveness is our function here, not judgment.  We do not and cannot know the big picture while we walk about in this dream world.  But we can forgive and release our judgments to One Who Knows, and allow Him to lead the way.  "Let Him be Judge as well of everything that seems to happen to you in this world.  His lessons will enable you to bridge the [seeming] gap between illusions and Truth.  He will remove all faith you have placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss.  He gives you Vision which looks beyond these grim appearances and beholds the gentle face of Christ in all of them.  You will no longer doubt that only good can come to you who are beloved of God, for He will judge all happenings and teach the single lesson that they all contain." -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 9:6-7, 10:1-3

And what is the single lesson that everything contains?  "Let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind, removing the elements of dreams, and give them back again as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.  Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills His Son, as proof of His eternal Love."  -- ACIM; Workbook 151, 13:4, 14:1

The single lesson is always that the Son of God that we are remains in God, sinless and eternally perfect and beloved and loving.  And no dreams or fantasies have ever had the slightest effect on this Reality.

God is the only judge of what you are, and what I am, and what all creation is.  And the single judgment is always the Truth about the Son of God. 

"As each thought is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind which saw the Truth in it and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added.  All the threads of fantasy are gone.  And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere.  Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified.  So are you taught to teach the Son of God the holy lesson of his sanctity." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 151, 14:2-4, 15:2-3

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 Two Selves

In working with clients and with prayer requests (and with my own life) I have observed a persistent phenomenon that I will call the two selves.  This seems to be the delusion that all who walk the earth share.  We believe (and have a lot of sensory evidence to validate this belief) that we are human, weak, lacking, and subject to suffering.  At the same time, we believe we have infinite potential, that we are created in the image of the Divine.  So we all have a kind of split personality... there's the imaginary historical self that thinks we're a product of heredity and hierarchy and environment, that sees flaws in ourselves and every other living thing, that judges, criticizes, and condemns.  And there's the quiet true Self that loves and blesses, that takes joy in life, that gives of itself naturally and freely, that knows wholeness and freedom and love are all words for the same thing.

If you were suffering from multiple personalities, a good therapist would find a way to help you become unified again... because a house divided against itself cannot stand.  So spiritually, our task in healing and awakening is always a return to unified consciousness, to Oneness.  This is enlightenment... the realization that we are not two selves. 

To say we're created in the image of God is to perpetuate this split.  To say that we're a shadow, an image, a mere potential, is to put our becoming into the future, into perpetual process.  And where's the peace in that?  Where is the being?  If we are endlessly processing and becoming, we must still be incomplete, lacking in some way, still subject to suffering and failure.  This is the set-up we're born into.  It's a lose/lose proposition, and always has been.

There is good news.  We are not created in the image of a god... a mere shadowy image of some nebulous force that all are subject to.  We are living and moving and having our being in God, reflecting God, and nothing else.  Not a nebulous force that bosses us around, but the very Ground of our Being, and Source and Substance of Self.  There isn't anything but God. 

And what is God, my skeptical readers will ask?  GOD IS AN IDEA we share about the Source of all that is.  We can have false thoughts about this Source, but Source ItSelf can't be false.  We can have incorrect understanding of multiplication.  We might think that we can multiply ten thousand times a zero and still have ten thousand.  But the principle, the idea of multiplying anything with zero remains the same... it's always zero, no matter how you try to make it something else.  And anything multiplied by one always remains the same, remains itself.  Ideas are principles, and they are unchanging and true.  Thoughts are stories about ideas, they involve judgment, and can often be false, or at least only relative (two-sided, not unified).

Webster defines idea as "a transcendent entity that is a real pattern, of which existing things are imperfect representations."  Thought is defined as "the action or process of thinking, or something that is thought."  So we can say, as did Mary Baker Eddy, that GOD IS PRINCIPLE... the Idea that is the Ground of All Being, in Truth and in Love.  A Course in Miracles tells us that "God is Idea" and "Ideas leave not their Source." When we allow this transcendent Idea to take root, we realize that we cannot and have never left our Source.  We remain rooted and grounded in God.  And then our thoughts, our judgments and stories about the world begin to reflect the Truth of Being, rather than the weak and imperfect (and insubstantial!) image of self our stories have perpetuated up until now.   

We are not two selves.  This is the root of all our struggles.  No matter how we attempt to prove that our weak and human image of self is real, it's still multiplying by zero.  So take some time listen to the Real, the True, the God-Self that we all share.  It is very quiet, because It doesn't need to defend ItSelf, being wholly true and forever our Reality.  Thank God!

Begin Again in 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sailing on Light

 "Light carries not just energy but also momentum -- a story told by every comet tail, which consists of dust blown by sunlight from a comet's core." -- Setting Sail into Space, Propelled by Sunshine; by Dennis Overbye for the NY Times, November 10, 2009

"Being must be extended.  The Kingdom is forever extending because it is in the Mind of God.  Your Self-fulness is as boundless as God's.  Like His, It extends forever and in perfect peace.  Its radiance is so intense that It creates in perfect joy, and only the whole can be born of Its Wholeness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IX, 2:6, 4:1, & 6:7-9

Sometimes I read a phrase or even a word, and I'm transported or returned.  Sometimes it will be a passage of music or the eyes of a friend.  Whatever the symbol, whatever the reminder, it returns me momentarily to my Self.  It can be anyone, anywhere.  It IS everyone, everywhere.  And the awareness of expansion, of inclusive vision, IS our natural state.  So when I read the above quote in the NY Times this morning, it worked in consciousness like yeast in a loaf of bread... 

We are such expansive Beings, living and moving and having our Being in the Mind of God.  We are emanations of that Light, in relationship with It like the sunbeam is to the sun.  The notion that light has not just energy but momentum is pregnant with meaning for us.  It means that just by being what it is, light creates.  It means that the simplicity of Being is our vital and essential function, and that function has energy and momentum.  We are.  We radiate.  We extend.  Just like our Source.

Unlike our material experience with its limited life spans, ideas expand and extend without limit when they're shared.  We're spiritual creations, ideas in the Mind of God, and are blessed with each other to allow the Love and Light that is the core of our Being to extend and emanate forever.  As it says in Christian liturgy, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever.  Amen."  We're still always and only talking about the Oneness and Allness of God.  The Son emanates from the Source, and Spirit extends, expands, communicates and expresses.  To paraphrase the quote from the NY Times, the Allness of Being (God) extends ItSelf through energy and momentum that are forever One with their Source.

What does this mean for us?  Or is this just a beautiful abstraction?  Oh, it's so much more than that.  It's an affirmation of the simplicitiy of Being, a reminder that all our human machinations are beside the point.  That whatever we do, wherever we find ourselves in our human drama, Who we are is untouched and eternal and forever emanating the Light of God.  It's not ours to decide.  It's not ours to do.  It's simply ours to BE.

Let there be Light.  I Am as God created me.  I Am Being, sailing on Light, extending as the Light and Love of God.  No other prayer is needed.

"God is All in all in a very literal sense.  All being is in Him Who IS all Being." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section IV, 7:4-5

     

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 Choiceless Path

I just read a book about the idea that everything is already decided, predestined. It posits that choice is just an illusion. Of course, it was based on the assumption that material life is our reality, and that it has life and substance and meaning. But what if predestination simply refers to our spiritual Reality?

While walking in this dream we call life, we seem to move in endless reaction to the world around us. Sir Isaac Newton described it with his Third Law of Motion: "Whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force -F on the first body. F and -F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction." This endless action and reaction, whether physical or emotional or mental, is what constitutes the sowing and reaping Jesus talked about, or the wheel of samsara referred to in Eastern philosophy, the wheel of karma. In this endless spinning of action and reaction, it seems the only real choice is the choice to get off the wheel. But how do we do that? This has been the quest of wise women and men throughout time.

I like to think about it this way: even a wheel has to be spinning in space. What is the space that contains the wheel? What is the "I" that contains all my ideas about the world? Moving our attention to the unchanging, limitless Self that holds it all, we realize what Lao Tzu meant by these words: "There is a Being, whose name I do not know. It surrounds everything with Its Love, like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way... and I rejoice in Its Presence."

I call this Presence God, or our True Self... but you can use whatever name is big enough, inclusive enough for you. Names and symbols shift and change, but God remains unchanging, as do we. Consider the following quote from A Course in Miracles: "As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feeling, alterations in conditions of the body and the mind; in all awareness and in all response." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 5:1-3) This is not the action and reaction of Newton or karma, but is the unchanging, choiceless Reality that holds everything in Its embrace.

Our true Life is not as we imagine it to be when we're bouncing around like ping pong balls in endless reaction to the people and circumstances of our lives. The choiceless, effortless Path is revealed as we come to realize that "The choice you fear to lose you never had." (ACIM; Chapter 27, Section III, 7:4) Only through forgiveness do we find release from the imagined cause and effect of the material dream, from the wheel of samsara. And in the quiet light of forgiveness we see the eternal, choiceless Love that is our true Life.

"In quietness are all things answered, and is every problem quietly resolved." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 27, Section IV, 1:1

Constant Comfort

"The miracle establishes you dream a dream, and that its content is not true. This is a crucial step in dealing with illusions. No one is afraid of them when he perceives he made them up." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section II, 7:1-3

"The world is full of miracles. They stand in shining silence next to every dream of pain and suffering, of sin and guilt. They are the dream's alternative, the choice to be the dreamer, rather than deny the active role in making up the dream. Beginning here, salvation will proceed to change the course of every step in the descent to separation, until all the steps have been retraced, the ladder gone, and all the dreaming of the world undone." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section II, 12:1-3, 7

When I was very small, comfort was hanging out under the trees, or in the barn with the animals. There was no pressure to be or do anything there... just the constant comfort of natural rhythms and living in the moment. Now I realize that the comfort I experienced was the miracle of the holy instant... a glimpse of reality that is always available to us. Miracles show us the constant comfort of reality behind every appearance.

What we consider our normal, everyday perceptions and activities are the dreams we choose to immerse ourselves in, to absorb our attention so completely that we aren't aware of our true Self. It's like immersing yourself in a good book, a good story (or a scary one); you become so involved you're no longer conscious or aware of who or where you really are. It's interesting, isn't it, that we live in a world that so values the ability to lose oneself in a book or a movie? Dreams beget dreams... worlds within worlds...

There is constant comfort in knowing that none of it is true. There is constant comfort in resting in what IS. There is constant comfort in knowing Who We Are: "You are One Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. You are God's Son, One Self, with One Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this Oneness to all minds." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 95, 12:1-2) To remember this, and to make it primary in our lives... this IS the miracle. And it extends beyond our imagining.

"You are One Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the One Mind that is this Self, the holy Truth in you." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 95, 13:3

The Script is Written

"Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them." -- The Bible; Genesis 2:1

"Christ's vision has one law. It does not look upon a body, and mistake it for the Son whom God created. It beholds a light beyond the body; an idea beyond what can be touched, a purity undimmed by errors, pitiful mistakes, and fearful thoughts of guilt from dreams of sin. It sees no separation. And it looks on everyone, on every circumstance, all happenings and all events, without the slightest fading of the light it sees. This can be taught; and must be taught by all who would achieve it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 158, 7:1-5 & 8:1

Creation is finished. The script is written. We are complete. Our reality is a perfect Idea, a Light that can't be touched or changed or screwed up. Whew.

Alright, so most days it really doesn't feel like it. Most days we're caught up in the serial adventures of seeming... we seem to be limited by our body, by our circumstances, by life itself. None of this seeming is true at all, and is our own projection, cleverly designed by our longing for autonomy to distract and defend against the Truth. We want to be separate and special, and we want to stay that way, to defend our little scrap of nothing... even at the cost of Everything.

A Course in Miracles asks us this pertinent question: "How long can it take to be where God would have you be? For you are where you have forever been and will forever be. All that you have, you have forever." (ACIM; Chapter 15, Section II, 3:1-3) To relax and remember and BE takes no time and no effort at all. We remain, eternally, as God created us. Creation is finished. The script is already written!

We spend our days giving time and attention and resources to valueless habits and relationships. Through forgiveness, we sort the wheat from the chaff. And each of us begins to realize that "many, if not most of the things he valued before will merely hinder his ability to transfer what he has learned to new situations as they arise. Because he has valued the valueless, he will not generalize the lesson for fear of loss and sacrifice." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 4.I.A. 4:3-4) We don't allow ourselves to remember what we already know, what we already are, because we don't want to 'lose' any of our cherished illusions. We fear the loss of nothing. So we exclude huge chunks of our life and relationships from Truth. We try to keep them separate.

The decision to use time only for Awakening is a monumental one. Are we willing to walk our talk? Are we willing to give our time and attention, our abilities and our relationships, and yes, even our money to the Holy Spirit to use solely for Truth? Everything has to be translated, since this is a world of illusion, a world of distorted perception of what we really are. Dissolving all illusion to reveal what has always been remains the only purpose of everything in this dream we call life. Because there really is nothing else. We remain perfect, as God created us, an idea beyond what can be touched. Creation is finished. The script is already written!

"Time is a trick, a sleight of hand, a vast illusion in which figures come and go as if by magic. Yet there is a plan behind appearances that does not change. The script is written." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 158, 4:1-3

Understanding Forgiveness

"Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form. These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness ItSelf. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 186, 13:5, & 14: 1-6

"Do as God's Voice directs. And if It asks a thing of you which seems impossible, remember Who It Is that asks, and who would make denial. Then consider this; which is more likely to be right?" -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 186, 12:1-3

Forgiveness is primary to being able to hear the Voice for God, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit, the part of our Mind that remains Awake and Aware of the Allness of God and our Oneness with God. Whatever images and stories are claiming time and attention have to be forgiven and released, to leave the mind clear and open to remembering. Understanding the importance of forgiveness is the biggest challenge, since our human self is always all about 'me'. Forgiveness cleans the slate, and returns the mind to natural, organic Self, which is formless and all-inclusive. From this unconditioned Awareness, we are able to hear the Voice. Why is this important? Because the Holy Spirit is our Translator and Guide through the maze of the dream we call life. The Voice of the Holy Spirit will encourage and inspire and guide us to forgive every aspect of the world. We have to be willing to forgive, and turn to the Holy Spirit for help. But it is the Holy Spirit who translates and removes the hurtful perceptions that have blocked our Awareness of God.

Removing all the obstacles to Awareness (true forgiveness) is our only function within the dream. We have to let go of all the thousands of ideas and stories that populate our separated minds, and return our minds to Oneness. These illusory ideas, with no more substance than a mist that blurs our vision, still give rise to the experience of illusion and to all the illusory world of separate bodies with separate interests.

Understanding forgiveness isn't about an academic or intellectual understanding. We're talking a qualitative shift here, not a quantitative one. We begin to truly understand as we experience the quality of release that true forgiveness brings. We are always letting go of limits, which are all illusions. God is our Life without limits. God is our Reality, and the Ground of Being.

True forgiveness is the purest form of Love that this world offers. It gives away all the obstacles to remembering Who We Are, all the illusions of separateness, and returns us whole-heartedly to innocence and peace. Understanding forgiveness is an experience, and it comes as we practice it, day in and day out releasing all that is not true... and revealing the Love at the heart of All.

"If God's Will for you is complete peace and joy, unless you experience only this you must be refusing to acknowledge His Will. His Will does not vacillate, being changeless forever. When you are not at peace it can only be because you do not believe you are in Him. Yet He is All in All. His peace is complete, and you must be included in it. His laws govern you because they govern everything." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 8, Section IV, 1:1-6

Beauty and Truth

"Beauty is Truth, Truth Beauty... that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know." -- Ode on a Grecian Urn; by John Keats

I made a commitment when I started this blog, to only post when guided to do so, only when inspiration moves me. So over a month has gone by since my last post, and I was beginning to think (as egos do) that maybe I'm not supposed to do this anymore, and that's O.K. And then this morning I heard the title for today's blog. That's how it happens. I hear the title, or a quote, and understand more truly each time how Idea and its fulfillment are One. Every idea is like a seed... it has its own blueprint built in. And when we allow it to unfold organically, it always reveals more of Truth.

Beauty is an aspect of God that is dear to us. But like Truth and Love, we have distorted and confused it with human notions and projections. As an aspect of God, Beauty is an eternal quality, not subject to form or to the comings and goings of illusory time. Beauty is a quality, not a form. And because it's an aspect of God, it's everywhere, and for all.

Our human concept of beauty is based (like all ego concepts) on the scarcity principle. In other words, if it were everywhere, it would be common, and therefore not beautiful or special. If everyone had money, then no one would be rich (or special). If everyone had (fill in the blank), then no one would be special. You can see a pattern here.

But I grew up in rural Missouri in this dream we call life. And I knew at an early age that Beauty is abundant, and everywhere. In the barn, in the chicken house, in the garden, in the cornfield, in the hammock, in the yard, in the kitchen, in the bathtub... my early life flowed with a harmony and beauty that radiated not from form, but from Being. It was only with great human effort that I was civilized (ha!) enough to see that I must surely lack something, and that something could only come by wanting what everyone else seemed to want... an education (ha!), boyfriends (ha!), recognition and fame for my 'special' talent (ha!), and lots and lots of money which would set me apart from everyone else. What a crock. But who was I to argue with the rest of my seeming world? And how was I to know (yet) that I had created all of it? I did not want to know that my own thoughts and feelings and beliefs about who I am seemed to create incarnation after incarnation, story after story, serial adventures where I was first victim and then victimizer... and all of them, all of them, based on the belief in separation from God, on scarcity and specialness.

All of that is obviously very entertaining, since it has kept my attention and allegiance for countless incarnations. And yet... here I am. And my memory of Truth and Beauty are as clear in my quiet moments now as they were in the beginning, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the Sons of God shouted for joy." (The Bible; Job 38:7) It is obvious in moments of quiet Oneness that nothing has ever happened. Nothing has ever been more or less. Nothing has ever been less than Perfect and Beautiful.

Awareness of Beauty awakens us to the Truth and Love of God within the dream. The brushstrokes of Beauty have nothing to do with what is done, or who does them. The brushstrokes of Beauty are tangible Truth...reminders of Who We Are, as the Truth of Being is remembered. We can follow the brushstrokes back to remembrance... that Who We Are remains One with God, flawless and perfect, eternal and whole, harmonious and secure.

"This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the Truth. This small 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; Chapter 17, Section II, 2:1-3, 6

Inquiry: The Philosopher's Stone

"Our life is not as we imagine it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 167, 10:2

"The transfer value of one true idea has no end or limit." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 5, II, 4:5

"The Truth is true, and nothing else is true. Truth cannot have an opposite." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 152, 3:1, 5

Webster defines inquiry as "an examination into facts or principles." Inquiry-based learning advocates define inquiry as "a seeking for truth." Both definitions are apt... for only the inquiring mind can find its way out of the maze of its own making. Only inquiry can shed light on the fact that all concepts are invented, relative, and therefore neither true nor false. Concepts are all simply stories. Only inquiry can lead us past all mental constructs to the Truth behind it all.

You can state the basis for all inquiry very simply... that if Truth exists, it exists as Principle, and is the Ground of Being. So that means that we can inquire and question literally everything that comes and goes... and what remains is what is True. The ancient alchemists used the metaphor of pure gold for Truth, and the philosopher's stone represented the ability to turn base metal into gold. This is what inquiry will do with any situation or concept. If we're willing to question, and to forgive and release what is clearly relative judgement, we sooner or later experience the pure gold of direct Awareness of Truth, the direct experience of our changeless Self. As the poet Rumi put it so beautifully, "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about."

Why is inquiry so discouraged in our world? Our educational system discourages inquiry and extols indoctrination and memorization of pre-packaged ideology and concepts. Our cultures and religions, all of them, are based on the normalization of indoctrination. Questioning is regarded, at best, as weird and reserved for intellectuals. At worst it's seen as blasphemous or unpatriotic or just plain evil. For obvious reasons. Remember the story of the Emperor's New Clothes? All the stories and myths and traditions and beliefs of culture depend on not questioning.

When Jesus walked in the dream we call the world, he walked and lived as other people do. The difference is he knew none of it was true. He felt no compulsion to wash his hands at certain times, or eat only certain things... and this threatened many people who believed those ways of thinking and doing things were sacred. He moved in the world, but he was most definitely questioning every mental construct and human belief all the time. He showed us that God is the real meaning of everything. And this he came to teach us.

If God is the real meaning of everything, what is there to fear in questioning everything that seems limited or unlike God? If you strip away every illusion, what remains must be the Truth. This is the purpose of true inquiry... and like the ancient alchemists with their philosopher's stone, when we practice inquiry faithfully we are rewarded with the gold of pure Truth.

"Nothing the world believes is true." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 139, 7:1

Giving Up Regret

"The little problems that you keep and hide become your secret sins, because you did not choose to let them be removed for you. And so they gather dust and grow, until they cover everything that you perceive and leave you fair to no one. Not one right do you believe you have. And bitterness, with vengeance justified and mercy lost, condemns you as unworthy of forgiveness. The unforgiven have no mercy to bestow upon another. That is why your sole responsibility must be to take forgiveness for yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section IX, 9:1-6

Regret may seem a strange topic to write about during this festive and joyous season. But in conversations with friends and clients, and in examining my own mind and heart, I see that regret is the chief tool of the imagined, separate self to maintain guilt and separation. By maintaining our screw-ups and our unworthiness, we get to stay 'safely' separate. What a crock.

Forgiveness is our only function here. We're not here to make the dream look like we want it to look. We're here to reflect the Love and Beauty that we are, as emanations of the One Mind of God. We have no separate function. Because we think we do, forgiveness 'repairs' that false perception. And the miracle of healed perception then reflects a forgiven world, which doesn't look anything like the old world of guilt and endless regret. We're free to follow the Voice of God without resistance, to shine wherever we're led, knowing it's all One in the Allness of God.

You may find that you resist the thought that you have anything to do with your ongoing guilt and regret. You may have been taught that they're the natural result of sinning against God. Let me ask you something. If God is All, meaning All Power, All Knowledge, All Substance, All Loving, the Only Mind and All That IS... then where exactly did this something wrong take place, and who exactly was it who did it? Only in our dreams can unreality seem substantial and real. Only in our inflated ego dreams could we have a power that opposed God, an ability to mess up what God created Whole.

Just as the past never was, just as guilt is just a story of separation from God that never was, regret is purposeless. It's only imagined function is to maintain an illusory separation from your True Self, your Oneness with God. Giving it up, releasing it to the Holy Spirit to be forgiven and released is actually the easiest and most natural thing you've ever done. You just have to do it.

Remember... God's Will for us is perfect happiness. It's a done deal. But while we're still dreaming, allowing the Holy Spirit to correct the errors in our mind through forgiveness is the way to remember the Truth. Self-forgiveness makes giving up regret easy, because we finally see that it never happened at all. We have always been innocent and free. And by our own release, we have forgiven and released the world.

"To give a problem to the Holy Spirit to solve for you means that you want it solved. To keep it for yourself to solve without His help is to decide it should remain unsettled, unresolved, and lasting in its power of injustice and attack." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section IX, 7:5-6

Mistaken Identity

"The whole separation fallacy lies in the belief that the ego has the power to do anything. The ego is fearful to you because you believe this. Yet the truth is very simple: All power is of God. What is not of Him has no power to do anything." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 3:3-7

"Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and the unreal. This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the Reality of all things, brought to Light. God's ideas reflect the immortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, erring, and finite are human beliefs. Therefore matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real entity. Understanding is a quality of God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Pages 505-506, Lines 21, 26-30, & 3-5

On one of the many e-mail lists I subscribe to, I encountered this thought: that all seeming tests in the external world are actually simply mistaken identity, or self-doubt. This simple statement condenses the essence of all our struggles and ills in the world... we are not who we think we are. How delusional we are... and how mistaken to entertain the imaginary fears of a delusional thought system. As A Course in Miracles puts it, "When we look at the ego, we are not considering dynamics but delusions. You can surely regard a delusional system without fear, for it cannot have any effects if its source is not real." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 4:1-2)

Self-doubt is a big part of this delusional thought system. We are never sure of ourselves, because the sane part of our true Mind knows we are not a separate, ego self. The attempt to split our Self into self and other is the source of the entire delusional world. "The ego's goal is quite explicitly ego autonomy. Its purpose is to be separate, sufficient unto itself, and independent of any power except its own." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 4:4-5) And because there really isn't any power apart from God, this is a very doubt inducing predicament, no matter how delusional the mind, no matter how enamoured of illusory power and ego-control one becomes. It's an endless bad dream, with many detours and false perceptions that we choose over and over again. Such is the world of individual false identities.

So how do we Awaken from the dream of a false and separate self? How do we remember Who We Are? ACIM says that the way to undo the illusion of a separate ego is merely to recognize that it is not natural. "Yours is the independence of creation, not of autonomy. Your whole creative function lies in your complete dependence on God, Whose function He shares with you. By His willingness to share it, He became as dependent on you as you are on Him. Do not ascribe the ego's arrogance to Him Who wills not to be independent of you. He has included you in His Autonomy. Can you believe that autonomy is meaningful apart from Him? The belief in ego autonomy is costing you the knowledge of your dependence on God, in which your freedom lies. The ego sees all dependency as threatening, and has twisted even your longing for God into a means of establishing itself. But do not be deceived by its interpretation of your conflict." (ACIM; Chapter 11, Section V, 6:1-9)

Mistaken identity and self-doubt. The dynamic duo that produces a dream-world of seeming suffering and separation. You can easily see then that all of this stems from mentally dissociating from Self, from not loving Self. Whatever seems to separate us from God is always and only this dissociation, which masquerades as fear in one form or another. "Whatever seems to separate you from God is only fear, regardless of the form it takes and quite apart from how the ego wants you to experience it." As we admit to ourselves how alien and unnatural this state of consciousness is, we discover that "if you overlook love you are overlooking your Self, and you fear Reality because you have denied your Self." The suffering, the struggles, the pain... all the delusion of false identity and self-doubt.

The good news is that there is no power in Reality to do any of this. It's all a story, all made up... who you think you are is just a constellation of concepts and judgements held loosely together by the desire to experience the story. It's a bad dream, and has no real power to change anything Real. "If the ego's goal of autonomy could be accomplished, God's purpose could be defeated, and this is impossible. Only God's purpose can be accomplished, and it is accomplished already." It IS. We Are as God created us, forever One, Whole and United in purpose and in peace. No dream of mistaken identity can change what Is.

"You will awaken to your own call, for the Call to Awaken is within you. The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VI, 9:1 & 10:6-7

Building a Bridge

"Recognition is the power, and every state that you have ever recognized you have embodied. That which you are recognizing as true of yourself today is that which you are experiencing." -- Neville Goddard

"To your most holy Self all praise is due for what you are, and for what He is Who created you as you are. Sooner or later must everyone bridge the gap he imagines exists between his selves. Each one builds this bridge, which carries him across the gap as soon as he is willing to expend some little effort on behalf of bridging it. His little efforts are powerfully supplemented by the strength of Heaven, and by the united will of all who make Heaven what it is, being joined within it. And so the one who would cross over is literally transported there. Your bridge is builded, stronger than you think, and your foot is planted firmly on it. Have no fear that the attraction of those who stand on the other side and wait for you will not draw you safely across. For you will come where you would be, and where your Self awaits you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 16, Section III, 8:1-5, 9:1-3

Building a bridge between the self I imagine myself to be and the true Self that I really am... recognizing that I am imagining that I embody the state of who I think I am... this is huge. In new thought circles, people often speak of the power of imagination... but what we are really talking about is the imagined self, the imagined gap, the imagined state of being separate from our God-Self. And this is the dead end that all of us must sooner or later turn back from. Sooner or later we all must see that we are looking at our own consciousness, always and only our own imagined self projected outward.

The bridge we are building is really the willingness to see that we made it all up. We have never been separate from God, our True Self, nor could we ever do anything to separate ourselves. It's all made up.

So in this virtual world of virtual experiences, we make decisions over and over that are based on outer experiences and aimed at outer results. We keep trying to change, pandering to the reflection in the mirror, which has no life of its own. It's just a projected reflection. Like hamsters on wheels we spin and spin, choosing this way of spinning now and then we try that way of spinning, always trying to develop a better way to spin. But sooner or later we grow weary of spinning, and want to see what would happen if we just stopped. Who or what would we be without the spinning that our imaginary world seems to require?

Building this bridge between our imagined, separate self and our True Self requires, as ACIM reminds us, some effort. This is simply because we made it all up and maintained the illusion through enormous expenditures of time and attention... and it's going to take some refocusing of our holy mind and attention to build our virtual bridge home. And returning our whole heart and mind to God is the way the bridge is built.

"Having no other gods, turning to no other but the One Perfect Mind... man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 467, Lines 13-16

Allness, Oneness, Nothingness

"There is no fear in perfect Love because It knows no sin, and It must look on others as on ItSelf. Here there is only holiness and joining without limit. For what is Heaven but union, direct and perfect, and without the veil of fear upon it? Here we are One, looking with perfect gentleness upon each other and on ourselves. Here all thoughts of any separation between us become impossible." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section III, 10:2-5, 11:3

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

I had a reader e-mail with some great questions. How, the reader wanted to know, do we know what is real and what is not? How do we know that God is? All of us have asked these questions... and if we are honest, we continue to ask them in times of challenge and personal anguish. Even Mother Theresa had her dark nights of the soul.

So let's look at three questions that lead us to the Truth:

1. What is God? Every scripture and every spiritual teacher throughout time agrees on one very important description of God... Allness. What does this mean to me? If God is All in All to me and in my life, then everything I do and everything I say and everything I think about is God... there can be no escaping this Allness or being separate from it, no going unconscious, no fear of what it All means. "And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your mind and with all your soul and with all your strength." All. This means that when times are apparently challenging, the Allness of God includes the opposite. Allness includes all Divine Ideas and their expressions... all ideas in harmony with every other idea. There is no competition in Allness. My judgements about what appears are made up, illusory stories about appearances. But every idea that appears in the Mind of God is self-complete, is ALL. As I rest in this, I do whatever needs to be done in any given situation in harmony with All, as a transparency for this Divine harmony, without resistance or judgment.

2. What does it mean that I am One with God, the image and likeness of God? What does this tell me about my spiritual nature and the Truth of my Being? What does it tell me about the situation in which I find myself now? Oneness with God means that there is no attribute of God that I do not share, and share equally. "Beloved, All that I have is thine." Oneness with God means that there is nothing in me that is not perfect and good and in Divine harmony with everything else, which is also my Self. Oneness with God means eternal love and companionship and sufficiency and ever-new joy. Oneness with God means that I can only ever find my Self in God, and that there can be no other situation. Only the Allness and Oneness of Self, of God, of the One.

3. What is my actual relationship with and to God? What does it mean? What is this Oneness we share with God, and how does it help in this situation? How does this relationship bring healing even when faced with seemingly insurmountable circumstances? If you stop and think about it, how can the Allness and Oneness that I am in God be anything other than self-complete and harmonious? Nothingness is the word that spiritual teachers and scriptures have used to describe all situations that seem to be problematic, insufficient, lacking, or full of fear and loss. How can that which is forever One and Whole be anything other than in Divine Order and Self-Loving? Nothingness is the only word to describe the nightmare stories we believe about ourselves and the world. Just as the stories about who I thought I was as a teenager had no real effect on Who I Am (as a matter of fact, I can now look at them and laugh, knowing it was all made up and ridiculous), in the same way, all stories of fear and loss and lack and limitation (whether of the body or finances or relationships or personal identity in any form) are all make believe, hurtful images that we have made. And that is all they ever are, images with no real substance. Nothing at all.

There is one other thing to remember... we reflect the Allness of God, and our Oneness with God assures that we Love and express that Love as God does. Everything else is the Nothingness of the dream. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, only that Love is real.

"The meaning of the Son of God lies solely in his relationship with his Creator." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VI, 1:1

Forever One

"This is the miracle of creation; that it is one forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until you see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same Light and therefore One." -- A Course in Miracles T.13.VIII.5:1-3

Our everyday experience of the world is one of multiplicity. Multiple bodies, multiple personalities, multiple gifts, multiple problems. We're fascinated by this. We love to collect new experiences, new stories, new people to tell stories about, new sensations, new ideas... as ACIM puts it, we want more and still more, and it doesn't even matter more of what. We are addicted to stimulus and response.

The mistake we so often make in our spiritual journey is to try to make sense of this dream that continues to morph, as all dreams do. It will always divide and sub-divide, like the cells that seem to make up the creatures and people in the dream. It's what dreams do. We will never find the Truth in the dream. Like Mary looking for Jesus in the tomb, we look for salvation in the dream, over and over. It is not there. It will never be found in what comes and goes, what is essentially unreal. How could the eternal and unchanging be found in what is constantly morphing?

A Course in Miracles tells us that the healing of this dream lies in release from a belief in the past. "All healing is release from the past. That is why the Holy Spirit is the only Healer. He teaches that the past does not exist." It's hard to collect stories when there is no past to tell a story about. As we gently forgive and release all our complicated notions about what has been or what must be, about what did or did not happen, we settle into the radiant Truth of Being. None of it ever happened... none of it ever existed.

We always have been and always will be One, whole and complete, in the Mind of God. Every complicated scenario that confronts us in the dream that calls itself life is simply another opportunity to offer the miracle of forgiveness, and what is True and forever One is revealed in the midst of it all.

"They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness. There is one miracle, as there is One Reality." -- A Course in Miracles T.13.VIII.6:1,3