First I want to let my readers know that I have a CD for sale, with proceeds going to The Claire Foundation Animal Sanctuary. All the hymns on it are Acappella, and recorded live at St. Vincent's-in-the-Vineyard. You can hear cuts from it on my YouTube channel. Thanks for supporting the animals! And FYI, you can download individual mp3s for only $1.99 each.
Now for the quote that inspired today's blog:
"God's Will is One, not many. It has no opposition, for there is none beside it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, IV, 3:5-6
It's hard to find a phrase that instills such varied reactions as 'God's Will.' For many of us, it conjures pious, judgmental comments made after natural disasters or sudden deaths. For almost everyone it raises a sense of unease and fear... because hey, who the heck knows what God's Will for us is? It could be bad, it could be something punitive so we can 'learn our lessons.' Isn't that how most human parents operate? Don't we unconsciously model our ideas of God after our human notions of authority?
So this quote can be hard to take in. We may hear it, but gloss over it. God's Will is ONE, not many. IT HAS NO OPPOSITION, because there isn't anything else. Only God. We live and move and have our being IN THIS ONENESS. So logically there isn't my will and then God's Will imposed on me from without. There is only God, only God's Will, appearing AS me, and AS you. That we have convinced ourselves and each other that we are separate bodies and lives is irrelevant, because it's not true.
This reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the movie "The Matrix." A little psychic boy is bending spoons with his mind, and offers Keanu Reeves' character the chance to try it. He isn't having much luck, and the little boy simply says, "Don't try and bend the spoon. Know that there is no spoon." And then of course, the spoon bends.
Joel Goldsmith told a similar story. He was traveling and arrived at his destination only to hear that his luggage had been lost. He spent the next couple of days practicing scientific prayer, knowing that what belonged to him could never be lost, etc. But his luggage did not show up. Finally in meditation the answer came to him... there was no lost luggage! There are no opposites or oppositions in all God's Kingdom, there is only God! Of course, his luggage then 'showed up' unexpectedly.
Jesus taught us this Truth when he said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom (the Oneness of God) and all else will be added unto you." We just have it upside down and backwards, thinking that cause and effect lie within the world, in our actions and reactions, or even in our thoughts. If there is no Will but God's, it also holds that there are no real Thoughts but God's. Everything else is the dreaming of the mind that imagines itself to be separate. And no matter what we imagine in our dreaming, we remain safe in God, eternally.
There is great peace in this awareness. "Peace has replaced the strange idea that you are torn by conflicting goals. As an expression of the Will of God, you have no goal but His." (ACIM; Workbook 74, 1:5-6) We don't have to struggle humanly to figure it all out. God's Will is always Love, Goodness, Happiness, Peace, Abundance, Joy, and endless Life. And as we trust God with each holy instant of our lives, we are led by Grace.
"He leadeth me in paths of righteousness, for His Name's sake." -- Psalm 23
"Today I will recognize that all this has not occurred. I am safe because there is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 87, 3:5-6
Showing posts with label Joel Goldsmith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Joel Goldsmith. Show all posts
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
The Willingness to Give
"To have all, give all, to all." -- A Course in Miracles
"Supply is infinite, but there must be receptivity. We can have all the supply we will give. But that is where the barrier is... we must have the willingness to give. That is where the lack and limitation is." -- Joel Goldsmith
The issue of supply, of income, is a very popular topic for all of us, and for the media. There seems to be a lack of supply for a lot of us at any given moment. So the question that arises is this: how can there be a lack of anything in what is infinite and ever-present and ONE? This apparent conflict is the age-old struggle of the illusory separate self to maintain its apparent existence through fear and self-created lack. This illusion can be illustrated by the following story:
A little boy was given a package of cookies to take to school and share with his classmates. But the little boy, fearing there wouldn't be enough for him, chose to hide them in his desk and have a few each day for himself. Was there a lack of cookies in that classroom? No, but it appeared that only one child had cookies. The reality was, they were given to him to SHARE... and if he opened his desk and shared them, all the children would have cookies. And where would more cookies come from? From the same place... because the little boy's parents loved giving, too. And many of the other children would then ask their parents for cookies or treats to share, too. Sharing is fun, and much more natural than hoarding.
So when the little boy was afraid, he hoarded. When he trusted in the love that gave him those cookies to share, he shared and experienced an abundance of cookies and other treats. And so it is with us.
Does this seem too simplistic? It's simple alright, but not easy to be willing to pour yourself out to all of life. Our egos resist, insisting that we can't, or we won't have enough. We're not talking just about money, or about anything specific. We're talking about the unwillingness to give that is the nature of the egoic, illusory self that hoards and takes in the name of I, me, mine. Our true Self gives without condition, pours out of the infinity of Being. "We must begin to pour, to start the outflow. The damming up of supply results from our failure to pour in some manner." -- Joel Goldsmith
So what is it that we are unwilling to unconditionally give? Our time? Our love? Our presence? Our attention? Our honesty? Our devotion? Our commitment? Our money? Our unwavering support? Our talents and abilities? Our acceptance and approval? Our forgiveness? Our companionship? Our diligence? A non-judgmental listening ear? If we are lacking in any of these, it is certain that it is our own unwillingness to give that is appearing as the illusion of lack. All of these are IN us... we ARE the infinity of God pouring forth in the world. We can only appear to lack what we are unwilling to give.
"The subject of supply plays a major role in our lives. Until we begin to live as if we are One with God, as if all the Father has is ours, and act that out by sharing our resources, sharing forgiveness, cooperation, understanding, patience, whatever it is... until we are willing to give in this way, spiritual consciousness has not yet touched us." -- Joel Goldsmith
"Supply is infinite, but there must be receptivity. We can have all the supply we will give. But that is where the barrier is... we must have the willingness to give. That is where the lack and limitation is." -- Joel Goldsmith
The issue of supply, of income, is a very popular topic for all of us, and for the media. There seems to be a lack of supply for a lot of us at any given moment. So the question that arises is this: how can there be a lack of anything in what is infinite and ever-present and ONE? This apparent conflict is the age-old struggle of the illusory separate self to maintain its apparent existence through fear and self-created lack. This illusion can be illustrated by the following story:
A little boy was given a package of cookies to take to school and share with his classmates. But the little boy, fearing there wouldn't be enough for him, chose to hide them in his desk and have a few each day for himself. Was there a lack of cookies in that classroom? No, but it appeared that only one child had cookies. The reality was, they were given to him to SHARE... and if he opened his desk and shared them, all the children would have cookies. And where would more cookies come from? From the same place... because the little boy's parents loved giving, too. And many of the other children would then ask their parents for cookies or treats to share, too. Sharing is fun, and much more natural than hoarding.
So when the little boy was afraid, he hoarded. When he trusted in the love that gave him those cookies to share, he shared and experienced an abundance of cookies and other treats. And so it is with us.
Does this seem too simplistic? It's simple alright, but not easy to be willing to pour yourself out to all of life. Our egos resist, insisting that we can't, or we won't have enough. We're not talking just about money, or about anything specific. We're talking about the unwillingness to give that is the nature of the egoic, illusory self that hoards and takes in the name of I, me, mine. Our true Self gives without condition, pours out of the infinity of Being. "We must begin to pour, to start the outflow. The damming up of supply results from our failure to pour in some manner." -- Joel Goldsmith
So what is it that we are unwilling to unconditionally give? Our time? Our love? Our presence? Our attention? Our honesty? Our devotion? Our commitment? Our money? Our unwavering support? Our talents and abilities? Our acceptance and approval? Our forgiveness? Our companionship? Our diligence? A non-judgmental listening ear? If we are lacking in any of these, it is certain that it is our own unwillingness to give that is appearing as the illusion of lack. All of these are IN us... we ARE the infinity of God pouring forth in the world. We can only appear to lack what we are unwilling to give.
"The subject of supply plays a major role in our lives. Until we begin to live as if we are One with God, as if all the Father has is ours, and act that out by sharing our resources, sharing forgiveness, cooperation, understanding, patience, whatever it is... until we are willing to give in this way, spiritual consciousness has not yet touched us." -- Joel Goldsmith
Thursday, December 3, 2009
The Son of God Awakes!
Joel Goldsmith was a great twentieth century Christian mystic. His writings have been companions of mine for many years now, and I return to them from time to time for their wisdom, clarity, and uncompromising honesty. So today, I want to look at three quotes from his writings, and what these words mean for us here and now.
First, what do we know about who we are?
"There is an existence, eternal in the heavens, eternal in divine consciousness, which has existed even before Abraham was. Do you see? I AM, infinite individuality, cannot be wiped out or destroyed or absorbed into another being. I AM simply IS, forever. As we find our true Self, as we come more and more into the realization of our spiritual individuality, we find a certain groove or rhythm in consciousness in which we individually 'fit'. And when so located we find ourselves in outer circumstances or places or conditions of eternal peace and harmony. This peace is not a static peace, but a vital state of spiritual being and activity. This peace is sometimes a deep stillness within, a quiet joy in worldly affairs. But sometimes it may appear temporarily as warfare, which represents the battle for the surrender, sometimes painfully, of our false sense of self with the realization of spiritual harmony and spiritual Selfhood. In meditation, in quiet contemplation of the soul, we achieve or attain this groove or spiritual rhythm. Then, and only then, do we know the government of the realm of Spirit, the recompense and activity of the Christ. Then our values are no longer based on material estimates, but rather are measured by the infinite standards of the Kingdom, which is Love."
I love the idea of a divine groove or rhythm that is uniquely ours... and I love the awareness that uniqueness and individuality are not exclusive. They are inclusive attributes, like the uniqueness of each snowflake is inclusive of the entire snow bank! Only a false sense of egoic self sees separateness and exclusivity and competition among the unique ideas of God that we are.
Next, what do we know about Who God Is?
"We must come to know the nature of God, and to do that we must experience God. We cannot go on talking about God; the time has come when we must experience God. This is the most important part of our journey. We must know God, really know God now, without waiting to know more or do more or to die. We must experience God now, and this we do directly through our periods of silence, our periods of peace... the quiet listening to the still, small Voice within that reveals Itself to us."
How willing are we to be quiet? How willing are we to set aside frequent times during each day to simply be still? Do we really want to experience God, or do we want to just talk and theorize, to look spiritual? The Bible tells us to "Be still and know that I Am God." We are all destined to directly experience God, the Truth of our Being.
And what must we do to experience God?
"We read in the gospel of John, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." There is the crux of the whole matter. No human being can see God or know God. Only the Son of God, the Christ consciousness of you and of me, can ever witness and behold the presence of God. In other words, it is not our human mind that will know God. Never with the human mind will we see or know or understand God or spiritual living. But the Son of God, the Christ consciousness, our spiritual sense, can behold the Truth that is God. This is where the human world has failed... trying to know God through thinking, trying to know God with the intellect, trying to explain God. It cannot be done. God is discerned and known only through spiritual sense."
Our human attempts to know things by objectifying and intellectualizing are really egoic methods of maintaining our illusory separateness and autonomy. We think if we can grasp something intellectually we are controlling it while keeping it at a distance. These imaginary exercises are entertaining, and we have built enormous institutions and social constructs on these self-impressing edifices. But ultimately there is only one thing to be known, truly. And that is to return to our right mind, to the awareness of Oneness, the Christ consciousness that is called the Son of God. This awareness is already sleeping within us, like the Christmas story of the innocent babe lying in a manger. We have only to be quiet and gently awaken our sleeping innocence... and then, behold! The Son of God awakes! The awareness of the Allness of God dawns on us like the radiance of the Christmas star... the most natural awareness in the world. Glory to God in the highest! The awakening of the Son of God is our only real purpose in all the illusory undertakings of this weary world.
"The power of decision is our own. And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God. To recognize God's Son implies that all self-concepts have been laid aside and recognized as false. Their arrogance has been perceived. And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 10:1-5
First, what do we know about who we are?
"There is an existence, eternal in the heavens, eternal in divine consciousness, which has existed even before Abraham was. Do you see? I AM, infinite individuality, cannot be wiped out or destroyed or absorbed into another being. I AM simply IS, forever. As we find our true Self, as we come more and more into the realization of our spiritual individuality, we find a certain groove or rhythm in consciousness in which we individually 'fit'. And when so located we find ourselves in outer circumstances or places or conditions of eternal peace and harmony. This peace is not a static peace, but a vital state of spiritual being and activity. This peace is sometimes a deep stillness within, a quiet joy in worldly affairs. But sometimes it may appear temporarily as warfare, which represents the battle for the surrender, sometimes painfully, of our false sense of self with the realization of spiritual harmony and spiritual Selfhood. In meditation, in quiet contemplation of the soul, we achieve or attain this groove or spiritual rhythm. Then, and only then, do we know the government of the realm of Spirit, the recompense and activity of the Christ. Then our values are no longer based on material estimates, but rather are measured by the infinite standards of the Kingdom, which is Love."
I love the idea of a divine groove or rhythm that is uniquely ours... and I love the awareness that uniqueness and individuality are not exclusive. They are inclusive attributes, like the uniqueness of each snowflake is inclusive of the entire snow bank! Only a false sense of egoic self sees separateness and exclusivity and competition among the unique ideas of God that we are.
Next, what do we know about Who God Is?
"We must come to know the nature of God, and to do that we must experience God. We cannot go on talking about God; the time has come when we must experience God. This is the most important part of our journey. We must know God, really know God now, without waiting to know more or do more or to die. We must experience God now, and this we do directly through our periods of silence, our periods of peace... the quiet listening to the still, small Voice within that reveals Itself to us."
How willing are we to be quiet? How willing are we to set aside frequent times during each day to simply be still? Do we really want to experience God, or do we want to just talk and theorize, to look spiritual? The Bible tells us to "Be still and know that I Am God." We are all destined to directly experience God, the Truth of our Being.
And what must we do to experience God?
"We read in the gospel of John, "Not that any man hath seen the Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." There is the crux of the whole matter. No human being can see God or know God. Only the Son of God, the Christ consciousness of you and of me, can ever witness and behold the presence of God. In other words, it is not our human mind that will know God. Never with the human mind will we see or know or understand God or spiritual living. But the Son of God, the Christ consciousness, our spiritual sense, can behold the Truth that is God. This is where the human world has failed... trying to know God through thinking, trying to know God with the intellect, trying to explain God. It cannot be done. God is discerned and known only through spiritual sense."
Our human attempts to know things by objectifying and intellectualizing are really egoic methods of maintaining our illusory separateness and autonomy. We think if we can grasp something intellectually we are controlling it while keeping it at a distance. These imaginary exercises are entertaining, and we have built enormous institutions and social constructs on these self-impressing edifices. But ultimately there is only one thing to be known, truly. And that is to return to our right mind, to the awareness of Oneness, the Christ consciousness that is called the Son of God. This awareness is already sleeping within us, like the Christmas story of the innocent babe lying in a manger. We have only to be quiet and gently awaken our sleeping innocence... and then, behold! The Son of God awakes! The awareness of the Allness of God dawns on us like the radiance of the Christmas star... the most natural awareness in the world. Glory to God in the highest! The awakening of the Son of God is our only real purpose in all the illusory undertakings of this weary world.
"The power of decision is our own. And we accept of Him that which we are, and humbly recognize the Son of God. To recognize God's Son implies that all self-concepts have been laid aside and recognized as false. Their arrogance has been perceived. And in humility the radiance of God's Son, his gentleness, his perfect sinlessness, his Father's Love, his right to Heaven and release from hell, are joyously accepted as our own." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 152, 10:1-5
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Thunder of the Meaningless
"Listen, and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed Voice, which silences the thunder of the meaningless, and shows the way to peace to those who cannot see. Be still today and listen to the Truth. Be not deceived by the voices of the dead, which tell you they have found the source of life and offer it to you for your belief. Attend them not, but listen to the Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 106, 2:1-4
"All things are included in the Infinity of God, not separate and apart from God. And so it is impossible to demonstrate them. The only demonstration we have to make is the demonstration of God, and then we find all things added to us, included in us. Abundantly made manifest. So it is that the first step in this direction is to thoroughly clean out the old house. Cleanse the temple and rid it of all its desires until there is no longer a desire for anyone or anything in the outer plane; until the heart cries, "My soul thirsteth only for thee, O God." -- Joel Goldsmith
I love the phrase, "the thunder of the meaningless." It encompasses everything that passes for life in this dream world. Learning to be still in the midst of it all, to listen to what is True even in the midst of the dream... this is the challenge. Everything that goes on in us and around us on a daily basis is based on one premise: that there is something in it for us, that there is something out there in the world we need to do or be. This keeps us endlessly spinning, endlessly reacting, endlessly striving, endlessly caught up in the seemingly all-consuming meaningless details of life. It's irrelevant whether those details are supposedly physical or spiritual... if we think our good depends on how we act or what we do, then we are caught in the dream, looking for answers in the dream.
Joel Goldsmith points out that the Allness of God IS our completion. We have no need to keep looking for happiness and fulfillment. We have no need to try to change ourselves or the world. What we have a great need for is to be still and listen to the Truth. Only by doing this can we cleanse our minds of what is untrue, and remember Who We Are.
We all seem to lead different lives, with so many different stories... stories of happiness, stories of sickness, stories of stress, stories of relaxation and pleasure, stories of fear and suffering... we could go on and on, for the dream winds on and on, the wheel of samsara turning and turning. But there comes a time for all of us when we cry from our heart, and mean it: STOP! NOW!! I want to wake up!!! This true prayer is the beginning of listening. Then we are led to be still and listen to the Truth. There is no other way to hear truly.
When all the voices of the world become valueless to us, we find that pearl of great price, the treasure of the ages, within our very own Being. And as we rest in the Love that We Are, the thunder of the meaningless becomes only a cry for this Love. And we know this Love is what each and every being longs to remember. May we be still and listen to the Truth, so we can allow Truth to extend through us.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." -- The Bible; Matthew 13:45-46
"All things are included in the Infinity of God, not separate and apart from God. And so it is impossible to demonstrate them. The only demonstration we have to make is the demonstration of God, and then we find all things added to us, included in us. Abundantly made manifest. So it is that the first step in this direction is to thoroughly clean out the old house. Cleanse the temple and rid it of all its desires until there is no longer a desire for anyone or anything in the outer plane; until the heart cries, "My soul thirsteth only for thee, O God." -- Joel Goldsmith
I love the phrase, "the thunder of the meaningless." It encompasses everything that passes for life in this dream world. Learning to be still in the midst of it all, to listen to what is True even in the midst of the dream... this is the challenge. Everything that goes on in us and around us on a daily basis is based on one premise: that there is something in it for us, that there is something out there in the world we need to do or be. This keeps us endlessly spinning, endlessly reacting, endlessly striving, endlessly caught up in the seemingly all-consuming meaningless details of life. It's irrelevant whether those details are supposedly physical or spiritual... if we think our good depends on how we act or what we do, then we are caught in the dream, looking for answers in the dream.
Joel Goldsmith points out that the Allness of God IS our completion. We have no need to keep looking for happiness and fulfillment. We have no need to try to change ourselves or the world. What we have a great need for is to be still and listen to the Truth. Only by doing this can we cleanse our minds of what is untrue, and remember Who We Are.
We all seem to lead different lives, with so many different stories... stories of happiness, stories of sickness, stories of stress, stories of relaxation and pleasure, stories of fear and suffering... we could go on and on, for the dream winds on and on, the wheel of samsara turning and turning. But there comes a time for all of us when we cry from our heart, and mean it: STOP! NOW!! I want to wake up!!! This true prayer is the beginning of listening. Then we are led to be still and listen to the Truth. There is no other way to hear truly.
When all the voices of the world become valueless to us, we find that pearl of great price, the treasure of the ages, within our very own Being. And as we rest in the Love that We Are, the thunder of the meaningless becomes only a cry for this Love. And we know this Love is what each and every being longs to remember. May we be still and listen to the Truth, so we can allow Truth to extend through us.
"The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." -- The Bible; Matthew 13:45-46
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
The Only Content
"There are no powers of evil external to yourself. Discords have no external existence. Resolve them within your own consciousness." -- Joel Goldsmith
"Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 19, 5:2-4
"The kingdom of God is within you." -- The Bible; Luke 17:21
Such responsibility. To know that we're not victims of circumstances or people. To realize that we're the dreamer of our own dream. To really know that our reality has always remained untouched and perfect and pure, within our very own consciousness. The form doesn't matter... the content is always God. Remembering this is our responsibility... and when we do remember we're dreaming, there is such freedom! As Joel Goldsmith put it, "There is an insight in man that visions through all appearances."
We decide every moment of every day where our holy attention lies... where we think we are in consciousness. This affects nothing in reality, but affects everything in the dream. We are only the decider within the dream. Safe in God, all is changeless and free and eternal. So the only real choice, ever, is to remember or not. When we know we're safe in God, when we remember who we are as emanations of God, then the dream will reflect that. And that's all that really matters. That's our only purpose here.
We may be artists or teachers or factory workers... but our purpose is united and one. We're all here to reflect Heaven on earth, to remember who we are, as One in God. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we can make remembering who we really are in God our motive. Then everything is translated in the dream into a holy journey with a holy purpose. The form doesn't matter. God is the only content.
"I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven." -- The Bible; Matthew 16:19
"Perception can make whatever picture the mind desires to see. Remember this. In this lies either Heaven or hell, as you elect." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 19, 5:2-4
"The kingdom of God is within you." -- The Bible; Luke 17:21
Such responsibility. To know that we're not victims of circumstances or people. To realize that we're the dreamer of our own dream. To really know that our reality has always remained untouched and perfect and pure, within our very own consciousness. The form doesn't matter... the content is always God. Remembering this is our responsibility... and when we do remember we're dreaming, there is such freedom! As Joel Goldsmith put it, "There is an insight in man that visions through all appearances."
We decide every moment of every day where our holy attention lies... where we think we are in consciousness. This affects nothing in reality, but affects everything in the dream. We are only the decider within the dream. Safe in God, all is changeless and free and eternal. So the only real choice, ever, is to remember or not. When we know we're safe in God, when we remember who we are as emanations of God, then the dream will reflect that. And that's all that really matters. That's our only purpose here.
We may be artists or teachers or factory workers... but our purpose is united and one. We're all here to reflect Heaven on earth, to remember who we are, as One in God. Whatever we do, wherever we go, we can make remembering who we really are in God our motive. Then everything is translated in the dream into a holy journey with a holy purpose. The form doesn't matter. God is the only content.
"I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven." -- The Bible; Matthew 16:19
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Life Eternal
"Do not perceive anything God did not create or you are denying Him. If you would remember eternity, you must look only on the eternal. If you allow yourself to become preoccupied with the temporal, you are living in time. As always, your choice is determined by what you value. Time and eternity cannot both be real, because they contradict each other. If you will accept only what is timeless as real, you will begin to understand eternity and make it yours." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 10, Section V, 13:1 & 14:5-9
"This is a spiritual universe, an eternal universe which God made and which He found Good. The discords, the inharmonies, and the injustices are not in the world; they are in our misperception of the world, in what we think we are seeing and hearing with our human senses. One of the deepest truths of the Bible is that to know God aright is life eternal." -- Joel Goldsmith
I love how our minds just shut down when we think about the word eternity. Maybe when we're star gazing at night we have glimpses, but it's too overwhelming... in no time at all we find our mind has popped on to other things, like what we're having for dinner, or who we need to call, or what he or she did or said.
Our preoccupation with the temporal, the changing, the unreal is pretty much deliberate. We obsess about the trivial and unreal because the vastness of the Truth scares us. Our own eternal reality, the limitless reality that we reflect and are, scares us. It scares us because we know we can't have it both ways. In order to even begin to perceive a reflection of limitless God as flawed and limited and small, we have to close our eyes to Reality and fall asleep and dream. We know we're making an illusory choice, over and over, but we can't seem to help ourselves. We're addicted to this dream, to our imagined limits and pain... it's like an addiction to a bad relationship... we know it's not what we're pretending it is, that it's not really love, but we can't seem to help ourselves. As a matter of fact, the relationships in the dream we call life simply reflect this relationship of denial we have with Reality.
There is no easy answer on how to start valuing the Real again; it's simple (only two choices!), but definitely not easy, since we are addicted to fantasy and illusion. We want what we want, not what is. So the first step in returning to sanity is to begin to want only the Truth in every situation, not what we want to be the truth. Valuing the Truth above all human desire and beyond imagined emotional investment is how we come to know God aright.
The long and the short of it is that we can't know Life Eternal while obsessing about the details of this temporal life. That's why Jesus told us very succinctly to 'take no thought' for the things of the world. He told us instead to 'seek first the Kingdom.' Everything that is Real exists in eternity, and has no limits and no end. By remembering our Eternal Self in God, we begin to reflect only the eternal here in the dream, 'on earth as it is in Heaven.'
So how do we see only what God created, see only what is true and real? We empty ourselves of the trivial and and the unreal. We empty our hands and hearts of the false loves we have cherished. We come with open minds and hearts to God, and ask for the miracle of healed perception, that we might see the world as God sees. This is the only miracle there is. And this is Life Eternal.
"Take no thought for your life, saying, what we shall eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:31 & 33
"This is a spiritual universe, an eternal universe which God made and which He found Good. The discords, the inharmonies, and the injustices are not in the world; they are in our misperception of the world, in what we think we are seeing and hearing with our human senses. One of the deepest truths of the Bible is that to know God aright is life eternal." -- Joel Goldsmith
I love how our minds just shut down when we think about the word eternity. Maybe when we're star gazing at night we have glimpses, but it's too overwhelming... in no time at all we find our mind has popped on to other things, like what we're having for dinner, or who we need to call, or what he or she did or said.
Our preoccupation with the temporal, the changing, the unreal is pretty much deliberate. We obsess about the trivial and unreal because the vastness of the Truth scares us. Our own eternal reality, the limitless reality that we reflect and are, scares us. It scares us because we know we can't have it both ways. In order to even begin to perceive a reflection of limitless God as flawed and limited and small, we have to close our eyes to Reality and fall asleep and dream. We know we're making an illusory choice, over and over, but we can't seem to help ourselves. We're addicted to this dream, to our imagined limits and pain... it's like an addiction to a bad relationship... we know it's not what we're pretending it is, that it's not really love, but we can't seem to help ourselves. As a matter of fact, the relationships in the dream we call life simply reflect this relationship of denial we have with Reality.
There is no easy answer on how to start valuing the Real again; it's simple (only two choices!), but definitely not easy, since we are addicted to fantasy and illusion. We want what we want, not what is. So the first step in returning to sanity is to begin to want only the Truth in every situation, not what we want to be the truth. Valuing the Truth above all human desire and beyond imagined emotional investment is how we come to know God aright.
The long and the short of it is that we can't know Life Eternal while obsessing about the details of this temporal life. That's why Jesus told us very succinctly to 'take no thought' for the things of the world. He told us instead to 'seek first the Kingdom.' Everything that is Real exists in eternity, and has no limits and no end. By remembering our Eternal Self in God, we begin to reflect only the eternal here in the dream, 'on earth as it is in Heaven.'
So how do we see only what God created, see only what is true and real? We empty ourselves of the trivial and and the unreal. We empty our hands and hearts of the false loves we have cherished. We come with open minds and hearts to God, and ask for the miracle of healed perception, that we might see the world as God sees. This is the only miracle there is. And this is Life Eternal.
"Take no thought for your life, saying, what we shall eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:31 & 33
Monday, October 13, 2008
Temptation
"All temptation is nothing more than the attempt to substitute another will for God's. When all such magic is recognized as merely nothing, the teacher of God has reached the most advanced state." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16:9:2&5
"The temptation is to demonstrate an effect, to demonstrate bread, to perform a miracle in the outer world, to centre the thought and attention on the people and things of this world, that is, on the outer need. If I try to perform a miracle, if I try to make a demonstration, I am setting up an 'I' apart from God, a self-hood apart from God. God does not need me to demonstrate anything. God is forever maintaining its own." -- from Consciousness Unfolding, by Joel Goldsmith
In the very first chapter of A Course in Miracles there are these words of wisdom: "Consciously selected miracles can be misguided." Jesus put it this way: "Take no thought for what you will say, or what you will do, or what you will wear... but seek first the Kingdom and all else will be added." The Kingdom is what Jesus called Heaven, the consciousness of our perfect Oneness with God.
We may think we will always fall short of this at-one-ment. We may feel that we have to struggle to align our thoughts, to read and think the 'right' way. We insist on doing it, on trying to take control and credit for what we do. Just another spiritual ego trip: "The human mind set up the prodigal, who went out into the world. He was not satisfied to live on the inheritance of his father, but wanted to go out and make his way in the world. And you know where he ended up." (from Consciousness Unfolding by Joel Goldsmith)
As St. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians: "For I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (The Bible; Philippians 4:11-13) The process of living in this world of polarities is that we eventually experience every combination of illusory experiences, in one form or another. These polarities have nothing to do with our reality; experienced with a material consciousness of either/or, they are the ultimate distraction and sidetrack. We lose our way when we try to experience only one side of things... these are the misguided efforts of consciously selected miracles.
The temptation to try to manipulate and control life and other people according to our spiritual agendas can be very subtle. There is only one way to calm these stormy waters... Peace, Be Still. Mary Baker Eddy puts it this way: "Mind [God] demonstrates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves on a spiritual axis, and its power is displayed and its presence felt in eternal stillness and immovable Love... stationary power, stillness, and strength..." (Retrospection and Introspection; Page 88, Lines 28-1; Page 93, Lines 14-15)
"Stationary power, stillness, and strength..." This says it all. The temptation is always to be doing rather than Being. All power and harmony lies in the stillness at the heart of Being. In this stillness, we Remember Who We Are and radiate purely the Love of God.
"To say, "Of myself I can do nothing" is to gain all Power. And yet it is but a seeming paradox. As God created you, you have all Power. The image you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the Truth about you. The image you made does not." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 29:4:2-7
"The temptation is to demonstrate an effect, to demonstrate bread, to perform a miracle in the outer world, to centre the thought and attention on the people and things of this world, that is, on the outer need. If I try to perform a miracle, if I try to make a demonstration, I am setting up an 'I' apart from God, a self-hood apart from God. God does not need me to demonstrate anything. God is forever maintaining its own." -- from Consciousness Unfolding, by Joel Goldsmith
In the very first chapter of A Course in Miracles there are these words of wisdom: "Consciously selected miracles can be misguided." Jesus put it this way: "Take no thought for what you will say, or what you will do, or what you will wear... but seek first the Kingdom and all else will be added." The Kingdom is what Jesus called Heaven, the consciousness of our perfect Oneness with God.
We may think we will always fall short of this at-one-ment. We may feel that we have to struggle to align our thoughts, to read and think the 'right' way. We insist on doing it, on trying to take control and credit for what we do. Just another spiritual ego trip: "The human mind set up the prodigal, who went out into the world. He was not satisfied to live on the inheritance of his father, but wanted to go out and make his way in the world. And you know where he ended up." (from Consciousness Unfolding by Joel Goldsmith)
As St. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians: "For I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (The Bible; Philippians 4:11-13) The process of living in this world of polarities is that we eventually experience every combination of illusory experiences, in one form or another. These polarities have nothing to do with our reality; experienced with a material consciousness of either/or, they are the ultimate distraction and sidetrack. We lose our way when we try to experience only one side of things... these are the misguided efforts of consciously selected miracles.
The temptation to try to manipulate and control life and other people according to our spiritual agendas can be very subtle. There is only one way to calm these stormy waters... Peace, Be Still. Mary Baker Eddy puts it this way: "Mind [God] demonstrates omnipresence and omnipotence, but Mind revolves on a spiritual axis, and its power is displayed and its presence felt in eternal stillness and immovable Love... stationary power, stillness, and strength..." (Retrospection and Introspection; Page 88, Lines 28-1; Page 93, Lines 14-15)
"Stationary power, stillness, and strength..." This says it all. The temptation is always to be doing rather than Being. All power and harmony lies in the stillness at the heart of Being. In this stillness, we Remember Who We Are and radiate purely the Love of God.
"To say, "Of myself I can do nothing" is to gain all Power. And yet it is but a seeming paradox. As God created you, you have all Power. The image you made of yourself has none. The Holy Spirit knows the Truth about you. The image you made does not." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers, 29:4:2-7
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Path Home
"What we see is not what is really there. We see only our concept of what is there." -- Joel Goldsmith
"You have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 24, 1:2-3
"I see nothing as it is now." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 9
Now can always and only mean one thing. God. God is omnipresent, forever, and Now. So whatever our conceptual sense of things in the moment, it is never true. Good, bad, right, wrong, all concepts. Not truth. The subtler our egos get, the more we hide our ego machinations behind spiritual concepts, the more true this is.
How willing are we to question our every concept? As A Course in Miracles reminds us, the only question we need to ask ourselves is 'What is it for?' In other words, why am I saying this, doing this, wanting this? The ego can only be exposed by such self-inquiry. Self-discomfort is all ego. And it is easy to let go of, once we see it for what it is.
Beneath the grandiosity of the ego lies our true being, forever One with God, forever at peace and needing no ego-gratification. This is the narrow path Jesus spoke of... the path Home. In truth, we never left.
"I will be still an instant and go Home." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 182
"You have no guide to appropriate action, and no way of judging the result. What you do is determined by your perception of the situation, and that perception is wrong." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 24, 1:2-3
"I see nothing as it is now." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 9
Now can always and only mean one thing. God. God is omnipresent, forever, and Now. So whatever our conceptual sense of things in the moment, it is never true. Good, bad, right, wrong, all concepts. Not truth. The subtler our egos get, the more we hide our ego machinations behind spiritual concepts, the more true this is.
How willing are we to question our every concept? As A Course in Miracles reminds us, the only question we need to ask ourselves is 'What is it for?' In other words, why am I saying this, doing this, wanting this? The ego can only be exposed by such self-inquiry. Self-discomfort is all ego. And it is easy to let go of, once we see it for what it is.
Beneath the grandiosity of the ego lies our true being, forever One with God, forever at peace and needing no ego-gratification. This is the narrow path Jesus spoke of... the path Home. In truth, we never left.
"I will be still an instant and go Home." -- A Course in Miracles, Workbook Lesson 182
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Comfort and Joy
"The fulfillment of spiritual selfhood takes place within, not without, although it becomes apparent without. There is no mistaking the man or woman who has found inner joy and satisfaction, who is at peace with himself and the world. Even though such a person might come to a place where some outer circumstance throws him off balance for a time, he quickly recovers from it because he realizes that the outer is not of too much importance." -- from God, the Substance of All Form, by Joel Goldsmith
"God's Will for me is perfect happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 101
Hello to all of you... it has been a little over a month since I last posted... a busy month indeed. The appearance of busyness, at any rate. Beneath it all is a current of quiet joy and an invisible comfort that is always here. When I get caught up in the current of life, there is a discontentedness that alerts me... I'm not happy when I go unconscious and forget. This little mechanism is invaluable to me. Restlessness and discontent no longer means that the outer world needs to be changed. It means that I need to go within and remember Who I Am. When I do, all is indeed very well. And the outer story becomes completely irrelevant and completely precious at the same time.
Where are you looking for comfort and joy? There is only one place that it will ever be found... and that is within your very own consciousness. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "... You can't have what you're not willing to be." You are the embodiment of spirit, of the very Being of Spirit. And when you forget that, you look for comfort and fulfillment, for joy and happiness in the people and circumstances around you. It is not there.
So whenever that lovely alert system tells you that you are feeling discontented, whenever you think someone or something else needs to change, reverse yourself. Be still, and become Aware of what is always here. You remain as God created you, and will forever be living and moving and having your very Being in God. Comfort and Joy and Goodness and Mercy, all the days of our lives.
"Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where is must be found." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, VII, 1:6-7
"God's Will for me is perfect happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 101
Hello to all of you... it has been a little over a month since I last posted... a busy month indeed. The appearance of busyness, at any rate. Beneath it all is a current of quiet joy and an invisible comfort that is always here. When I get caught up in the current of life, there is a discontentedness that alerts me... I'm not happy when I go unconscious and forget. This little mechanism is invaluable to me. Restlessness and discontent no longer means that the outer world needs to be changed. It means that I need to go within and remember Who I Am. When I do, all is indeed very well. And the outer story becomes completely irrelevant and completely precious at the same time.
Where are you looking for comfort and joy? There is only one place that it will ever be found... and that is within your very own consciousness. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "... You can't have what you're not willing to be." You are the embodiment of spirit, of the very Being of Spirit. And when you forget that, you look for comfort and fulfillment, for joy and happiness in the people and circumstances around you. It is not there.
So whenever that lovely alert system tells you that you are feeling discontented, whenever you think someone or something else needs to change, reverse yourself. Be still, and become Aware of what is always here. You remain as God created you, and will forever be living and moving and having your very Being in God. Comfort and Joy and Goodness and Mercy, all the days of our lives.
"Seek not outside yourself. For all your pain comes simply from a futile search for what you want, insisting where is must be found." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, VII, 1:6-7
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Neutrality
"Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides." -- Margaret Thatcher
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" -- The Bible; Romans 8:31
There are many myths about neutrality in this world. We see neutrality on the one hand as a wise perspective, a wait-and-see attitude. On the other hand, we see sitting on the fence as a form of voyeurism, watching other people do stuff while sitting in detached judgment on it all. Of course, neither our myths about neutrality nor the act itself has any meaning. It's all made up.
"I have no neutral thoughts. I see no neutral things." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 16, 17) We are always generating illusions with our thoughts or inquiring to dissolve them. And what we see in the world around us is simply our own projection, testifying to what we think. The myth of neutrality is simply another form of self-deception. We like to look like we're not judging, to look like we're not really involved or responsible. But no matter how you look at it, inquiry will lead you to the fact that only you are responsible.
The you that is responsible is the made-up you. The false sense of an individual self that imagines it can make separate decisions and be unaffected by the world around it. The false desire that prefers the illusion of autonomy to the dissolving of its flawed little fantasy kingdom. So stop for a moment. A fictional you is responsible. A fictional you wants to be autonomous. A fictional you wants a life of your own. Yet what possible REAL effects can a fiction have?
You will have a very good laugh when you glimpse this Truth. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Who, indeed? God is One, and All, Omnipresent and Omniscient. What we are fighting with, struggling with, and fearing is only a sense of duality, not really duality, because there is no duality. There is only Oneness in Reality. Just as no part of the One can be in conflict with any other part, no aspect of the One can remain aloof or neutral or unmoved by any other part. Same mistake! What we call neutrality is actually an illusory attempt to separate from the One. Which is impossible.
So we spend all of our time fighting with our own illusions. Even the seeming good times are consumed with the busyness of maintaining our current illusions. Whether that's a house or a pet or a relationship or a body makes little difference. The point is that God is One, and All... and what in the Allness of God could need maintenance or defense?
There is a way of living in the world that is not neutral, but is Peace incarnate. No more war with illusions. No more insistence on this way or that way. Think about it: even our restlessness and vague unease is caused by subterranean belief that we should be maintaining our illusions. There is a way of living that does not have a vested interest in any illusion. A way of being that allows all dreams to be, and yet has no investment in any of them. This is not neutrality, this is Peace. It is not neutral, it is for God, the only Reality.
You may think you find safety in appearing to be neutral... neutral in family feuds, neutral in politics, neutral in discussions with friends. There are no neutral thoughts! All you do is show your judgments loud and clear! I judge you not worthy of talking to or really listening to, I judge your opinions to be worthless, I am superior and so I will look down on all of this without engaging. Of course, when there is conflict between illusions, neither is true. But GOD IS. Right here, in the midst of whatever is occurring, GOD IS. In the friend, in the family member, in the political fray, GOD IS. Either we are remembering God or we are judging illusions and engaging in more misery. There is no neutrality.
"God is the creative principle, the Source, the activity, and the Law of our Being... and our Being is God in expression." -- Practicing the Presence by Joel Goldsmith; Page 57
"If God be for us, who can be against us?" -- The Bible; Romans 8:31
There are many myths about neutrality in this world. We see neutrality on the one hand as a wise perspective, a wait-and-see attitude. On the other hand, we see sitting on the fence as a form of voyeurism, watching other people do stuff while sitting in detached judgment on it all. Of course, neither our myths about neutrality nor the act itself has any meaning. It's all made up.
"I have no neutral thoughts. I see no neutral things." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 16, 17) We are always generating illusions with our thoughts or inquiring to dissolve them. And what we see in the world around us is simply our own projection, testifying to what we think. The myth of neutrality is simply another form of self-deception. We like to look like we're not judging, to look like we're not really involved or responsible. But no matter how you look at it, inquiry will lead you to the fact that only you are responsible.
The you that is responsible is the made-up you. The false sense of an individual self that imagines it can make separate decisions and be unaffected by the world around it. The false desire that prefers the illusion of autonomy to the dissolving of its flawed little fantasy kingdom. So stop for a moment. A fictional you is responsible. A fictional you wants to be autonomous. A fictional you wants a life of your own. Yet what possible REAL effects can a fiction have?
You will have a very good laugh when you glimpse this Truth. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Who, indeed? God is One, and All, Omnipresent and Omniscient. What we are fighting with, struggling with, and fearing is only a sense of duality, not really duality, because there is no duality. There is only Oneness in Reality. Just as no part of the One can be in conflict with any other part, no aspect of the One can remain aloof or neutral or unmoved by any other part. Same mistake! What we call neutrality is actually an illusory attempt to separate from the One. Which is impossible.
So we spend all of our time fighting with our own illusions. Even the seeming good times are consumed with the busyness of maintaining our current illusions. Whether that's a house or a pet or a relationship or a body makes little difference. The point is that God is One, and All... and what in the Allness of God could need maintenance or defense?
There is a way of living in the world that is not neutral, but is Peace incarnate. No more war with illusions. No more insistence on this way or that way. Think about it: even our restlessness and vague unease is caused by subterranean belief that we should be maintaining our illusions. There is a way of living that does not have a vested interest in any illusion. A way of being that allows all dreams to be, and yet has no investment in any of them. This is not neutrality, this is Peace. It is not neutral, it is for God, the only Reality.
You may think you find safety in appearing to be neutral... neutral in family feuds, neutral in politics, neutral in discussions with friends. There are no neutral thoughts! All you do is show your judgments loud and clear! I judge you not worthy of talking to or really listening to, I judge your opinions to be worthless, I am superior and so I will look down on all of this without engaging. Of course, when there is conflict between illusions, neither is true. But GOD IS. Right here, in the midst of whatever is occurring, GOD IS. In the friend, in the family member, in the political fray, GOD IS. Either we are remembering God or we are judging illusions and engaging in more misery. There is no neutrality.
"God is the creative principle, the Source, the activity, and the Law of our Being... and our Being is God in expression." -- Practicing the Presence by Joel Goldsmith; Page 57
Friday, July 25, 2008
The Substance of All That Is
"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 Lesson 268, 2:2-4
"Be alert to catch this next point, because it is the secret of healing work, although of course it is not really a secret. We have said that God is the substance of all form, that God is the reality of all that is. Are we then to understand God as the substance of the body, trees, flowers, sun, moon, stars, and all that we cognize with the material senses? No; this is a spiritual universe. It is true that God is the substance of all that is; but remember, when I see you or your body or a tree or a flower, I am not seeing God's creation. I am not seeing the spiritual reality, the spiritual universe. I am seeing only a finite material concept of it. This concept is referred to as the Adam-dream, the illusion which Jesus referred to when he said, "My kingdom is not of this world." (The Bible; John 18:36) This does not mean there are two universes, the real and the unreal. It means that the only universe there is, is the spiritual universe... but what I am seeing is only my concept of it. Therefore its unreality lies in my misperception, in my false concept of it." -- God, the Substance of All Form by Joel Goldsmith; Pages 53-54
"God being Spirit, His language and meaning are wholly spiritual." -- Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 238, Lines 9-12
In dealing with an apparent problem this morning, I realized that all apparent problems are simply mistaken identity. I dream a dream, conceive of a separate self that can be limited and suffer in ways that don't even exist in the Reality of Spirit. In Reality, there is only Oneness, Omnipresence, and endless Love that shines forever. Mrs. Eddy said, "You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so." (Miscellany; Page 242, Lines 3-5) There IS nothing but the Allness of God! A Course in Miracles reminds us that "He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect." (Workbook 186, 9:3-4)
I sometimes dream at night, but when I wake up in the morning I don't usually try to fall back asleep to change or improve on the dream, or even to continue it. It feels good to shake the cobwebs from my mind, and become aware of the birds, the smell of fresh-mown grass, and the beauty of my summer flowers. All this takes place in my waking from the fog of sleeping dreams to the apparent reality of the five sensory world. What we haven't fully accepted is that we are simply dreaming a different type of dream... a dream of concepts and projections, that keeps us trapped in our ideas and beliefs, our self-limiting labels and imaginary relationships within the waking dream. The mind weaves a story of separation and meaning in this illusion, and has a sick investment in not wanting to awaken. The mind knows it is not even necessary. "The father of illusions is the belief that they have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as purposeless, they are no longer seen." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 14, 1:6-7)
We don't have to drop our concepts and stories. We just have to admit to ourselves that they are nonsense, not one any truer or more noble than any other one. As we see that everything, including our self-concepts, are fiction, we have no need for them anymore. We can continue in the dream, "in the world but not of it," as Jesus said. "The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts." (ACIM; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1,3) Or, as the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi taught, ask, "Who am I?"
Please always remember that we've done nothing wrong... we simply suffer the torment of the imaginary separate self when we believe our own stories and get lost in the sensory dream. We long for Home... the state of Awakened Awareness that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven: "Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an Awareness of Perfect Oneness, and the knowledge [not the concept, but the experience of aware knowing!] that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6) Since God, Spirit, is One and All-in-All, this knowing of Self as One is the only Spiritual Reality there is.
So whenever problems appear to arise in my waking dream, I remember that God is Spirit, and is the Substance of All that Is. That means the only thing I need to do is forgive my false concepts, beliefs, and perceptions and not take them so seriously... and to remember that whenever I'm willing to inquire, the Truth of Being is Self-evident. And what more could there be to know than the Substance of All that IS?
"All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize your Self." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section III, 2:1
"Be alert to catch this next point, because it is the secret of healing work, although of course it is not really a secret. We have said that God is the substance of all form, that God is the reality of all that is. Are we then to understand God as the substance of the body, trees, flowers, sun, moon, stars, and all that we cognize with the material senses? No; this is a spiritual universe. It is true that God is the substance of all that is; but remember, when I see you or your body or a tree or a flower, I am not seeing God's creation. I am not seeing the spiritual reality, the spiritual universe. I am seeing only a finite material concept of it. This concept is referred to as the Adam-dream, the illusion which Jesus referred to when he said, "My kingdom is not of this world." (The Bible; John 18:36) This does not mean there are two universes, the real and the unreal. It means that the only universe there is, is the spiritual universe... but what I am seeing is only my concept of it. Therefore its unreality lies in my misperception, in my false concept of it." -- God, the Substance of All Form by Joel Goldsmith; Pages 53-54
"God being Spirit, His language and meaning are wholly spiritual." -- Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 238, Lines 9-12
In dealing with an apparent problem this morning, I realized that all apparent problems are simply mistaken identity. I dream a dream, conceive of a separate self that can be limited and suffer in ways that don't even exist in the Reality of Spirit. In Reality, there is only Oneness, Omnipresence, and endless Love that shines forever. Mrs. Eddy said, "You can never demonstrate spirituality until you declare yourself to be immortal and understand that you are so." (Miscellany; Page 242, Lines 3-5) There IS nothing but the Allness of God! A Course in Miracles reminds us that "He Who is changeless shares His attributes with His creation. All the images His Son appears to make have no effect." (Workbook 186, 9:3-4)
I sometimes dream at night, but when I wake up in the morning I don't usually try to fall back asleep to change or improve on the dream, or even to continue it. It feels good to shake the cobwebs from my mind, and become aware of the birds, the smell of fresh-mown grass, and the beauty of my summer flowers. All this takes place in my waking from the fog of sleeping dreams to the apparent reality of the five sensory world. What we haven't fully accepted is that we are simply dreaming a different type of dream... a dream of concepts and projections, that keeps us trapped in our ideas and beliefs, our self-limiting labels and imaginary relationships within the waking dream. The mind weaves a story of separation and meaning in this illusion, and has a sick investment in not wanting to awaken. The mind knows it is not even necessary. "The father of illusions is the belief that they have a purpose; that they serve a need or gratify a want. Perceived as purposeless, they are no longer seen." (ACIM; Manual for Teachers 14, 1:6-7)
We don't have to drop our concepts and stories. We just have to admit to ourselves that they are nonsense, not one any truer or more noble than any other one. As we see that everything, including our self-concepts, are fiction, we have no need for them anymore. We can continue in the dream, "in the world but not of it," as Jesus said. "The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts." (ACIM; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1,3) Or, as the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi taught, ask, "Who am I?"
Please always remember that we've done nothing wrong... we simply suffer the torment of the imaginary separate self when we believe our own stories and get lost in the sensory dream. We long for Home... the state of Awakened Awareness that Jesus called the Kingdom of Heaven: "Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an Awareness of Perfect Oneness, and the knowledge [not the concept, but the experience of aware knowing!] that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6) Since God, Spirit, is One and All-in-All, this knowing of Self as One is the only Spiritual Reality there is.
So whenever problems appear to arise in my waking dream, I remember that God is Spirit, and is the Substance of All that Is. That means the only thing I need to do is forgive my false concepts, beliefs, and perceptions and not take them so seriously... and to remember that whenever I'm willing to inquire, the Truth of Being is Self-evident. And what more could there be to know than the Substance of All that IS?
"All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize your Self." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section III, 2:1
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Inner Voice
"The experiences that come to us when we live in obedience to the inner Voice are miracles of beauty and joy. Let us not be afraid to follow that Voice even if at first we are so poorly attuned to it that we do not hear it correctly. There is no need to be afraid of mistakes or even of failures. Any mistakes which may be made by a person who is obedient to the still, small Voice will be few, and he can quickly pick himself up again and soon be wholly immersed in the Spirit of God. Mistakes of the personal sense are not fatal; not one is forever. Success in God is forever, but human failure is only the illusion of a day." -- Joel Goldsmith
"The 'Divine Ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to Whom each need of man is always known and by Whom it will be supplied." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 7, Lines 23-26
Oh, what a misunderstood and abused phrase: the Inner Voice. It is a made-to-order tool for the ego, a perfect way to do what we want by 'following guidance.' We can follow our fears and say, "I heard a 'no,' so I am not doing it." Or we can indulge in fantasy and say we are following our hearts. The personal self is a maze of vested interest and self-justification. Which voice are you listening to? How can you know?
The Inner Voice is not personal. It is closer than personal. It never indulges the personal self, yet it always leads us in ways of utter fulfillment. Yes, this seems like a paradox. But if we can even for a moment release all need to define or justify or weave a story about whatever the Voice says, the transmission is clear and we can simply trust that within the big picture, even the little self is fulfilled.
One way to know which voice you are following is this: how much of your time and attention goes into the comfort and indulgence of the personal self? In other words, how much time and attention goes into taking care of the physical body (this includes your 'personal' environment, care of the home, gardens, and yard, your car, your family, your animals, your stuff), of the emotional body (intimate relationships, talking on the phone to friends, e-mails, escapist reading or watching movies, recreational eating and drinking, even playing music and other artistic endeavors, wanting to be humanly good or successful, etc.), or of the mental body (our work, our so-called spiritual reading, study, thinking, trying to figure it out, rationalizing, etc.)? All of these are feeding aspects of the illusory notion of a personal self. All of these take up pretty much 100% of the time in our dream, even those of us who are supposedly on 'spiritual' paths.
So how is it possible in this world to hear a different Voice? We are so accustomed to the strident demands of the illusory self, the contrived fears and lusts and indulgences, the fragmented and split allegiance and attention, that we mistake them for the real. In A Course in Miracles Jeshua ben Joseph tells us: "The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Joy. He is the Call to Return with which God blessed the minds of His separated Sons. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn this. Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you. The Holy Spirit is the call to Awaken and be glad." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section II
You see, the alleged personal self is never glad. It is reactively pleased when it gets something it wants, and reactively displeased when it doesn't. But it is incapable of joy. Joy has no edges, no boundaries. It's not attached to anything. It IS. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Joy, is the Voice that is your True Self. It is not personal because YOU are not personal. Who you are has no edges, and no personal interests. Who you are is not limited to the vested interests of one tiny speck of creation. Who you are is Infinite, Limitless, Omnipresent Love.
So which voice are you following today? The illusory personal, which always weaves deeper illusion as it goes, until we don't know where we are or how we got there? Or the only real Voice, the Voice for God, which brings Peace and quiet Joy and utter certainty of Self? The choice is not hard; but as Jesus said, it takes effort and great willingness to reverse ourselves in this way. The momentum has been in the direction of illusions for so long. The Inner Voice leads us in a new direction, and is the only trustworthy guide out of the pain and forgetfulness of the personal dream.
"Our meditation is a quietness, a stillness, a state of receptivity, in which we open our consciousness to the impartation of the Spirit. Then, when the Spirit answers--when we receive the impulse that gives us that sense or awareness that God is present--the Spirit which we have touched, lives our lives." -- Joel Goldsmith
"The 'Divine Ear' is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to Whom each need of man is always known and by Whom it will be supplied." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 7, Lines 23-26
Oh, what a misunderstood and abused phrase: the Inner Voice. It is a made-to-order tool for the ego, a perfect way to do what we want by 'following guidance.' We can follow our fears and say, "I heard a 'no,' so I am not doing it." Or we can indulge in fantasy and say we are following our hearts. The personal self is a maze of vested interest and self-justification. Which voice are you listening to? How can you know?
The Inner Voice is not personal. It is closer than personal. It never indulges the personal self, yet it always leads us in ways of utter fulfillment. Yes, this seems like a paradox. But if we can even for a moment release all need to define or justify or weave a story about whatever the Voice says, the transmission is clear and we can simply trust that within the big picture, even the little self is fulfilled.
One way to know which voice you are following is this: how much of your time and attention goes into the comfort and indulgence of the personal self? In other words, how much time and attention goes into taking care of the physical body (this includes your 'personal' environment, care of the home, gardens, and yard, your car, your family, your animals, your stuff), of the emotional body (intimate relationships, talking on the phone to friends, e-mails, escapist reading or watching movies, recreational eating and drinking, even playing music and other artistic endeavors, wanting to be humanly good or successful, etc.), or of the mental body (our work, our so-called spiritual reading, study, thinking, trying to figure it out, rationalizing, etc.)? All of these are feeding aspects of the illusory notion of a personal self. All of these take up pretty much 100% of the time in our dream, even those of us who are supposedly on 'spiritual' paths.
So how is it possible in this world to hear a different Voice? We are so accustomed to the strident demands of the illusory self, the contrived fears and lusts and indulgences, the fragmented and split allegiance and attention, that we mistake them for the real. In A Course in Miracles Jeshua ben Joseph tells us: "The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Joy. He is the Call to Return with which God blessed the minds of His separated Sons. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn this. Hear only this through the Holy Spirit within you, and teach your brothers to listen as I am teaching you. The Holy Spirit is the call to Awaken and be glad." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section II
You see, the alleged personal self is never glad. It is reactively pleased when it gets something it wants, and reactively displeased when it doesn't. But it is incapable of joy. Joy has no edges, no boundaries. It's not attached to anything. It IS. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Joy, is the Voice that is your True Self. It is not personal because YOU are not personal. Who you are has no edges, and no personal interests. Who you are is not limited to the vested interests of one tiny speck of creation. Who you are is Infinite, Limitless, Omnipresent Love.
So which voice are you following today? The illusory personal, which always weaves deeper illusion as it goes, until we don't know where we are or how we got there? Or the only real Voice, the Voice for God, which brings Peace and quiet Joy and utter certainty of Self? The choice is not hard; but as Jesus said, it takes effort and great willingness to reverse ourselves in this way. The momentum has been in the direction of illusions for so long. The Inner Voice leads us in a new direction, and is the only trustworthy guide out of the pain and forgetfulness of the personal dream.
"Our meditation is a quietness, a stillness, a state of receptivity, in which we open our consciousness to the impartation of the Spirit. Then, when the Spirit answers--when we receive the impulse that gives us that sense or awareness that God is present--the Spirit which we have touched, lives our lives." -- Joel Goldsmith
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Vigilance
"Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:33
"When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 495, Lines 14-16
"The question is: are we willing to put in the hours of devotion; are we willing to make the effort required to train ourselves to be conscious of the Presence of God, instead of seeking some form in which God is to appear? There is the whole secret. It is up to us." -- Joel Goldsmith
"Belief does not require vigilance unless it is conflicted. If it is, there are conflicting components within it that have led to a state of war, and vigilance has therefore become essential. Vigilance has no place in Peace. It is necessary against beliefs that are not true, and would never have been called upon by the Holy Spirit if you had not believed the untrue. When you believe something, you have made it true for you. When you believe what God does not know, your thought seems to contradict His, and this makes it appear as if you are attacking Him. While you believe two totally contradictory thought systems share truth, your need for vigilance is apparent." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section VI, 7:3-8, 8:11
It has taken a lot of seeming time and apparent attention, i.e. a lot of vigilance, to experience the lie of the world as fragmented and lacking and suffering. It takes a lot of vigilance to keep up the illusion of this fictional world that is the opposite of God, the antithesis of Good. What is this supposed power made of, if not God? And when we drop our guard for even a moment, where is it? Isn't it funny how moments of Peace and Reality sneak up on us in spite of ourselves? They are the ground of our True Being all along, always the Truth. What comes and goes and comes to pass is the fiction, the sleight of hand. Let it go.
To be vigilant only for God requires an act of will at first, simply because we have worked so long and hard to NOT be aware of the Truth. As the old Rodgers and Hammerstein song goes, we have been 'carefully taught' to believe and value the cultural fictions of the world. So even though resting in God and our Awareness of the Kingdom of Self is the most natural, effortless thing in the world, the closest we come to Reality while in the world... still, in order to reverse ourselves within the dream it requires not only willingness, but vigilance and commitment.
So what do we really want? As Joel Goldsmith's quote asks, what are we devoted to? Whatever gets the lion's share of our time and attention is where we believe the power is... these are the idols that populate our personal pantheon of false gods. Idols are illusions that we are devoted to. Devotion is time and attention. So what do we really want? And are we willing to reverse ourselves?
No one else can make this decision for us. We may be long-time veterans of spiritual paths and still be primarily devoted to physical forms and results. We may be very intellectually aware of the 'truth', and yet we use it only to re-enforce our human identities, to make ourselves more comfortable. It's not that this is bad or wrong. It's that, except for short term illusions, it's not possible. The nature of illusions are that they are unstable and temporary.
The reason Jesus and Joel and Mrs. Eddy all tell us to 'seek first the Kingdom,' to have no other gods or devotions, is of the utmost practicality. By giving our mind and heart only to God and the Divine Ideas that continually radiate through us as His children, we reflect only the Good and Eternal even in this world of illusion. Only God is Real, only Divine Love is the currency of Life and so it is the currency of our True Devotion. This devotion and commitment means that we have no other gods, no other needs but to know God, and thus our True Self, aright. And the Good that is then reflected in our life and world is the icing on the cake... the added things spoken of in Scripture. But the shadow or reflection can never be mistaken for Reality.
"Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section V, C
"When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 495, Lines 14-16
"The question is: are we willing to put in the hours of devotion; are we willing to make the effort required to train ourselves to be conscious of the Presence of God, instead of seeking some form in which God is to appear? There is the whole secret. It is up to us." -- Joel Goldsmith
"Belief does not require vigilance unless it is conflicted. If it is, there are conflicting components within it that have led to a state of war, and vigilance has therefore become essential. Vigilance has no place in Peace. It is necessary against beliefs that are not true, and would never have been called upon by the Holy Spirit if you had not believed the untrue. When you believe something, you have made it true for you. When you believe what God does not know, your thought seems to contradict His, and this makes it appear as if you are attacking Him. While you believe two totally contradictory thought systems share truth, your need for vigilance is apparent." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 7, Section VI, 7:3-8, 8:11
It has taken a lot of seeming time and apparent attention, i.e. a lot of vigilance, to experience the lie of the world as fragmented and lacking and suffering. It takes a lot of vigilance to keep up the illusion of this fictional world that is the opposite of God, the antithesis of Good. What is this supposed power made of, if not God? And when we drop our guard for even a moment, where is it? Isn't it funny how moments of Peace and Reality sneak up on us in spite of ourselves? They are the ground of our True Being all along, always the Truth. What comes and goes and comes to pass is the fiction, the sleight of hand. Let it go.
To be vigilant only for God requires an act of will at first, simply because we have worked so long and hard to NOT be aware of the Truth. As the old Rodgers and Hammerstein song goes, we have been 'carefully taught' to believe and value the cultural fictions of the world. So even though resting in God and our Awareness of the Kingdom of Self is the most natural, effortless thing in the world, the closest we come to Reality while in the world... still, in order to reverse ourselves within the dream it requires not only willingness, but vigilance and commitment.
So what do we really want? As Joel Goldsmith's quote asks, what are we devoted to? Whatever gets the lion's share of our time and attention is where we believe the power is... these are the idols that populate our personal pantheon of false gods. Idols are illusions that we are devoted to. Devotion is time and attention. So what do we really want? And are we willing to reverse ourselves?
No one else can make this decision for us. We may be long-time veterans of spiritual paths and still be primarily devoted to physical forms and results. We may be very intellectually aware of the 'truth', and yet we use it only to re-enforce our human identities, to make ourselves more comfortable. It's not that this is bad or wrong. It's that, except for short term illusions, it's not possible. The nature of illusions are that they are unstable and temporary.
The reason Jesus and Joel and Mrs. Eddy all tell us to 'seek first the Kingdom,' to have no other gods or devotions, is of the utmost practicality. By giving our mind and heart only to God and the Divine Ideas that continually radiate through us as His children, we reflect only the Good and Eternal even in this world of illusion. Only God is Real, only Divine Love is the currency of Life and so it is the currency of our True Devotion. This devotion and commitment means that we have no other gods, no other needs but to know God, and thus our True Self, aright. And the Good that is then reflected in our life and world is the icing on the cake... the added things spoken of in Scripture. But the shadow or reflection can never be mistaken for Reality.
"Be vigilant only for God and His Kingdom." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section V, C
Friday, June 6, 2008
Sweet Adversity
"Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity: "Sweet are the uses of adversity; which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, wears yet a precious jewel in his head." Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proof of God's care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of Divine Goodness and Love." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 66, Lines 1-16
"We must understand that God is Infinite in Its Individuality. Because that is true, you can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' or 'I and my Father are One'... anything that will give you this sense of 'I' in the midst of you, and that will, at the same time, subordinate human selfhood, not glorify or gratify it." -- Joel Goldsmith
Because words are symbols of symbols, and have no objective reality, they are tricky. Writing about what is Eternal and Unchanging with symbols that shift and change according to who's writing and who's reading means that only a few will ever see and hear the inner meaning. Mary Baker Eddy knew that. Joel Goldsmith knew that. And this means that our egos will always hear what they want to hear in any given passage, given half a chance. This is why Joel said to seek the state of mind that dwells in the awareness of God within, yet that does not gratify or glorify the human sense of selfhood. And why Mary Baker Eddy wrote that adversity is sweet... it does not gratify the human sense, nor does it glorify it. It humbles our human selves at every turn, burning away false desires and illusions of every description, leaving only what is Real and Eternal and True.
Both Joel Goldsmith and Mary Baker Eddy eschewed organization. Yes, they both left behind active organizations, but both took whatever steps they could to limit them. Why? Not because organizations are good or bad... they are neither. They do, however, take on a life of their own; once that happens, all the energy of any entity will go into the preservation of self, not the knowing of Self.
We can use this wisdom in our own lives. We can welcome whatever asks us to step out of our human sense of self, to move beyond the perceived limitations of our personal self. We can welcome the challenges and problems as sweet adversity, with the jewel of Self-Realization as the only purpose for all of it. And we can practice self-awareness, noticing when defensiveness and defendedness signal the posturing of the illusory personal.
In the human story, we are always looking for answers to problems. From an Awakened perspective, there are no problems. God is All. So every imagined problem is our best friend, our ticket to see what lies behind the illusion. What fun! As A Course in Miracles puts it, "Your life is not as you imagine it." The very problems and challenges we avoid and run from are simply veils that hide the face of The Beloved... they are to be welcomed and known fully as Goodness ItSelf. There is not one problem or situation, no matter how seemingly painful, that will not simply melt to reveal the Truth when you no longer judge and resist. Forgiveness gives us the Peace of Mind to be able to rest in and welcome whatever is in our face, today and every day.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, indeed. Don't be fooled by old judgements about problematic situations... they are the ego vying for attention and reality that it can never have in Reality. When we argue for our limitations and problems, insisting on fighting them and thus pretending they are real, we are simply arguing for the illusory self. This is what Mary Baker Eddy calls 'evil,' missing the mark. Our problems are no problem at all. For behind the veil of every encounter there is revealed the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient Presence of God... All Good, Always Available, and Always Our True Self.
"Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of Truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil. Evil is self-assertive. It says, "I am a real entity, over-mastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of Good." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 186, Lines 11-20
"We must understand that God is Infinite in Its Individuality. Because that is true, you can say, 'I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me,' or 'I and my Father are One'... anything that will give you this sense of 'I' in the midst of you, and that will, at the same time, subordinate human selfhood, not glorify or gratify it." -- Joel Goldsmith
Because words are symbols of symbols, and have no objective reality, they are tricky. Writing about what is Eternal and Unchanging with symbols that shift and change according to who's writing and who's reading means that only a few will ever see and hear the inner meaning. Mary Baker Eddy knew that. Joel Goldsmith knew that. And this means that our egos will always hear what they want to hear in any given passage, given half a chance. This is why Joel said to seek the state of mind that dwells in the awareness of God within, yet that does not gratify or glorify the human sense of selfhood. And why Mary Baker Eddy wrote that adversity is sweet... it does not gratify the human sense, nor does it glorify it. It humbles our human selves at every turn, burning away false desires and illusions of every description, leaving only what is Real and Eternal and True.
Both Joel Goldsmith and Mary Baker Eddy eschewed organization. Yes, they both left behind active organizations, but both took whatever steps they could to limit them. Why? Not because organizations are good or bad... they are neither. They do, however, take on a life of their own; once that happens, all the energy of any entity will go into the preservation of self, not the knowing of Self.
We can use this wisdom in our own lives. We can welcome whatever asks us to step out of our human sense of self, to move beyond the perceived limitations of our personal self. We can welcome the challenges and problems as sweet adversity, with the jewel of Self-Realization as the only purpose for all of it. And we can practice self-awareness, noticing when defensiveness and defendedness signal the posturing of the illusory personal.
In the human story, we are always looking for answers to problems. From an Awakened perspective, there are no problems. God is All. So every imagined problem is our best friend, our ticket to see what lies behind the illusion. What fun! As A Course in Miracles puts it, "Your life is not as you imagine it." The very problems and challenges we avoid and run from are simply veils that hide the face of The Beloved... they are to be welcomed and known fully as Goodness ItSelf. There is not one problem or situation, no matter how seemingly painful, that will not simply melt to reveal the Truth when you no longer judge and resist. Forgiveness gives us the Peace of Mind to be able to rest in and welcome whatever is in our face, today and every day.
Sweet are the uses of adversity, indeed. Don't be fooled by old judgements about problematic situations... they are the ego vying for attention and reality that it can never have in Reality. When we argue for our limitations and problems, insisting on fighting them and thus pretending they are real, we are simply arguing for the illusory self. This is what Mary Baker Eddy calls 'evil,' missing the mark. Our problems are no problem at all. For behind the veil of every encounter there is revealed the Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient Presence of God... All Good, Always Available, and Always Our True Self.
"Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of Truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil. Evil is self-assertive. It says, "I am a real entity, over-mastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of Good." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 186, Lines 11-20
Monday, April 7, 2008
Home
"Living as human beings has cut us off from the Kingdom of God which is within us, and what we are doing in our periods of silence and quiet is maintaining a contact with this Withinness in which our entire Good is already established. The Kingdom of God is within us. It is within us in all its fullness, completeness, and perfection. This means that the fullness of life, its completeness and perfection, is already established within us from everlasting to everlasting. If we were to live a thousand year on earth, our completeness for that length of time is within us: fulfillment, infinite supply, infinite wisdom, infinite Grace; Infinity ItSelf." -- Joel Goldsmith, from Parenthesis in Eternity
"Let me remember I am One with God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 124
How do we remember what is the antithesis of everything we have been taught and exposed to since being born into this world? How do we remember Who We Are, and find our true Home?
Every thought and every action within the world is aimed at demonstrating that we are limited beings fighting for dominion over other limited beings, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. Even our interpretations of scripture are spun to justify this erroneous perception. All scripture everywhere is a map of consciousness, a road map Home. But we can't read the map when we think the map itself is the territory. Or when we are so intent on hearing and seeing through the interpretations that have been spun, that we can no longer hear or see at all.
How do we remember in the midst of this? How do we open our eyes and ears and come to Truth newborn and open? How can we directly experience Truth, not through study, not through interpretation, not through figuring it out, not someday, but now?
Some have said that long periods of meditation are necessary to still the mind. Others have said that forgiveness is the key. Still others insist that the study of Truth alone will bring the mind back into alignment with what Is. But if not one thing the world believes is true, then we must question even the spiritual beliefs. Because aren't they, too, saying that we are limited beings trying to work our way home? If I am One with God... not someday, not when I am quiet enough, not when my errors are corrected, but NOW... if I am One with the Allness of God, what more can be needed?
It has been said that a good teacher is one that quickly becomes unnecessary. Our spiritual beliefs and practices, though comforting and absolutely necessary at certain stages of unfoldment, become limitations if we see them as the point. The map is not the territory. The Kingdom is within you... not within a limited body or personality, not within some teaching or practice, but within your Awareness of Being. Returning Home is the acceptance of where Home IS. It is not 'out there', even in the most beautiful of experiences. Even in the most beautiful and comforting spiritual practices. Everything in the external dream is simply a projection of what is Known Within.
The Kingdom within is what every map of scripture or practice of Truth points to. The direct experience of Home is closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. And all that is required to Be Home is to let go of all the stories and techniques and limits that you have mistaken for yourself.
"This is the miracle of creation; that it is One forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until your see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same Light and therefore One. They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness. There is one miracle, as there is One Reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section VIII, 5:1-3, 6:1,3
"Let me remember I am One with God." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 124
How do we remember what is the antithesis of everything we have been taught and exposed to since being born into this world? How do we remember Who We Are, and find our true Home?
Every thought and every action within the world is aimed at demonstrating that we are limited beings fighting for dominion over other limited beings, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral. Even our interpretations of scripture are spun to justify this erroneous perception. All scripture everywhere is a map of consciousness, a road map Home. But we can't read the map when we think the map itself is the territory. Or when we are so intent on hearing and seeing through the interpretations that have been spun, that we can no longer hear or see at all.
How do we remember in the midst of this? How do we open our eyes and ears and come to Truth newborn and open? How can we directly experience Truth, not through study, not through interpretation, not through figuring it out, not someday, but now?
Some have said that long periods of meditation are necessary to still the mind. Others have said that forgiveness is the key. Still others insist that the study of Truth alone will bring the mind back into alignment with what Is. But if not one thing the world believes is true, then we must question even the spiritual beliefs. Because aren't they, too, saying that we are limited beings trying to work our way home? If I am One with God... not someday, not when I am quiet enough, not when my errors are corrected, but NOW... if I am One with the Allness of God, what more can be needed?
It has been said that a good teacher is one that quickly becomes unnecessary. Our spiritual beliefs and practices, though comforting and absolutely necessary at certain stages of unfoldment, become limitations if we see them as the point. The map is not the territory. The Kingdom is within you... not within a limited body or personality, not within some teaching or practice, but within your Awareness of Being. Returning Home is the acceptance of where Home IS. It is not 'out there', even in the most beautiful of experiences. Even in the most beautiful and comforting spiritual practices. Everything in the external dream is simply a projection of what is Known Within.
The Kingdom within is what every map of scripture or practice of Truth points to. The direct experience of Home is closer than breathing, nearer than hands and feet. And all that is required to Be Home is to let go of all the stories and techniques and limits that you have mistaken for yourself.
"This is the miracle of creation; that it is One forever. Every miracle you offer to the Son of God is but the true perception of one aspect of the whole. Though every aspect is the whole, you cannot know this until your see that every aspect is the same, perceived in the same Light and therefore One. They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness. There is one miracle, as there is One Reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section VIII, 5:1-3, 6:1,3
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Giving It Up
"If I say to you, "I am ill; give me help," there isn't any truth that you can declare about it that would be Truth, because there isn't any Truth about error. There is no way to correct error, because error doesn't exist. All there is, is the realization within you... and that's the healing agency. The healing agency is the realization within you of God. If you haven't a realization of God, there is not spiritual healing." -- Joel Goldsmith
"Mind is the Divine Principle, Love, and can produce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God. Mind never enters the finite. Good never enters into evil, the unlimited into the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the immortal into mortality." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 335, Line 25-26, & Page 336, Lines 2-5
"The seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is joy in separation, and that its giving up would be a sacrifice." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section IV, 10:6
"Mind is the Divine Principle, Love, and can produce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God. Mind never enters the finite. Good never enters into evil, the unlimited into the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the immortal into mortality." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 335, Line 25-26, & Page 336, Lines 2-5
"The seeds of sickness come from the belief that there is joy in separation, and that its giving up would be a sacrifice." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section IV, 10:6
The very phrase 'giving it up' is a statement of belief in value. Whatever we 'give up' must have reality and value to us in the first place. Whatever we 'give up' must have been something we valued. Whatever we 'give up' must have been let go of pretty grudgingly. Because otherwise the phrase wouldn't be used at all. For example, we don't say we are 'giving up' the dirt when we sweep the floor and throw those dust bunnies out the door. We don't say we are 'giving up' anything when we throw away garbage. There is nothing we value there. It's nothing to us. But try throwing out things that you still attach some value to, and you will definitely see yourself 'giving up' something in your own mind. And that's where it all takes place. In your mind.
Seeing the unreality of the material dream is a prerequisite for healing... kind of like a course in Awakening 101. To paraphrase Joel Goldsmith, there is no correcting or giving up of anything, because nothing but God even exists. And as Mary Baker Eddy said, "Man was and is God's image or idea, even the infinite expression of Infinite Mind, and immortal man is coexistent and coeternal with that Mind. He has been forever in the Eternal Mind, God; but Infinite Mind can never be in man, but is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness and individuality are reflections of God." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Page 336, Lines 9-15)
That the limited can never house or contain the limitless seems obvious. What is less obvious is that the limited CAN reflect the limitless. Since the world we see is smoke and mirrors, projections of projections, we are always reflecting and mirroring. By seeing the essential unreality of the dream, what we are giving up is the need to value anything in the dream... and instead we begin to reflect the Real Value that lies behind all dreaming. We begin to be spotless mirrors for God. Then the real healing begins.
Giving it up means we still see some value in the world... but we are willing to be wrong. Giving it up means we may take our time in letting go... but we are noticing that we suffer when we hang on. Giving it up means that we still believe in the sacrifice of illusions, and have not yet seen that we are giving up nothing. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "To sacrifice is to give up, and thus to be without and to have suffered loss. For you believe that you can suffer lack, and lack is death." The death of illusions, to be sure... and it is nothing at all.
So today we practice giving it up, whatever illusion confronts us. For they are all the same. And when we let the false go, only what is Eternal and True remains. And what else, Beloved of God, could we possibly want?
"God has not many Sons, but only One. Who can have more and Who be given less? God gave You all there is. And to be sure You could not lose it, did He also give the same to every living thing as well. And thus is every living thing a part of You, as of HimSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section VIII, 9:1, 7-9
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Spiritual Sense
"Looking outside yourself for the Source of Love and Grace, you lose the real Presence within. That which you receive through spiritual sense comes as the Grace of God, and only this is important." -- Joel Goldsmith
"'I am as God created me.' This idea is all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the Truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be a substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. The healing power of this idea is limitless." -- A Course in Miracles
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." -- The Bible
Spiritual sense is the only sense we need. We have been badly taught to listen to the material senses, which are not instruments of detection, but of fiction. The physical, material sense always and only tells us what we want to hear. We are proving, like all delusional minds, that our illusions are true and that we are right. Even in the midst of our suffering, damn it, we are right. This is the way it is.
Spiritual sense is the only sense we really have. Joel Goldsmith was fond of saying that unless we can hear what can't be heard by the physical ears and see what can't be seen by the physical eyes, we will never know the Kingdom of God that is in the midst of us. Jeshua ben Joseph shortened that to, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see." Short and to the point... and unintelligible to the human sense of things.
Spiritual sense is how we honor the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Material sense is the evidence of gods many, with the imaginary power to change and manipulate and control the Son of God. How could this be true or even exist at all within the Allness of God?
The First Commandment is not an ultimatum... it's a roadmap Home. As ACIM says, "I am under no laws but God's." The sights and sounds that seem to show us many powers and many laws are the evidence gathering machine of the illusory, material dream. Believe in them, and you are lost in the dream for now. Believe in even one of them, and it is as if you believed in all of them. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and you cannot be a little bit asleep. You either wander in the dream, lost and alone in spite of the illusion of many bodies... or you Awaken to Awareness of Who You Are, and in Whom You Live and Move and Have Your Being. There is nothing in between these two choices. It really is All or nothing.
As long as we prefer one illusion to the Truth, we sleep and suffer and die within the dream, over and over and over. Our spiritual sense cannot awaken unless we value it above all else. As long as one twinge of attachment and emotion holds you to the old allegiances, you sleep and suffer and die, over and over and over. There is no compromise nor meeting place between illusions and Truth. One IS. The other simply isn't, and so there is nothing to do but wander within the nonsense of the dream. Sometimes it looks like life, sometimes like death, but there is no real difference. Sometimes it looks like love, sometimes like hate, but there is no difference. What isn't true simply doesn't exist, and no new stories or attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable will every change it into Truth.
Our spiritual sense cannot be lost. But as long as we look outside ourselves for evidence with the material senses, we cannot see or hear what is Real and True. As long as we look to person, place, or thing for love, approval, validation, or survival, we are lost. The good news is that the spiritual sense of Our True Self is available to us any instant we let go of the illusions that have fascinated us for so very long. The First Commandment is couched in uncompromising tone because this act of surrender and commitment is truly our first and only need, our first and only Love, and the only sense we ever need to pay attention to.
"Hear O Israel: the Lord your God is One. 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." -- The Bible
"'I am as God created me.' This idea is all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the Truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be a substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. The healing power of this idea is limitless." -- A Course in Miracles
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." -- The Bible
Spiritual sense is the only sense we need. We have been badly taught to listen to the material senses, which are not instruments of detection, but of fiction. The physical, material sense always and only tells us what we want to hear. We are proving, like all delusional minds, that our illusions are true and that we are right. Even in the midst of our suffering, damn it, we are right. This is the way it is.
Spiritual sense is the only sense we really have. Joel Goldsmith was fond of saying that unless we can hear what can't be heard by the physical ears and see what can't be seen by the physical eyes, we will never know the Kingdom of God that is in the midst of us. Jeshua ben Joseph shortened that to, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see." Short and to the point... and unintelligible to the human sense of things.
Spiritual sense is how we honor the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Material sense is the evidence of gods many, with the imaginary power to change and manipulate and control the Son of God. How could this be true or even exist at all within the Allness of God?
The First Commandment is not an ultimatum... it's a roadmap Home. As ACIM says, "I am under no laws but God's." The sights and sounds that seem to show us many powers and many laws are the evidence gathering machine of the illusory, material dream. Believe in them, and you are lost in the dream for now. Believe in even one of them, and it is as if you believed in all of them. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and you cannot be a little bit asleep. You either wander in the dream, lost and alone in spite of the illusion of many bodies... or you Awaken to Awareness of Who You Are, and in Whom You Live and Move and Have Your Being. There is nothing in between these two choices. It really is All or nothing.
As long as we prefer one illusion to the Truth, we sleep and suffer and die within the dream, over and over and over. Our spiritual sense cannot awaken unless we value it above all else. As long as one twinge of attachment and emotion holds you to the old allegiances, you sleep and suffer and die, over and over and over. There is no compromise nor meeting place between illusions and Truth. One IS. The other simply isn't, and so there is nothing to do but wander within the nonsense of the dream. Sometimes it looks like life, sometimes like death, but there is no real difference. Sometimes it looks like love, sometimes like hate, but there is no difference. What isn't true simply doesn't exist, and no new stories or attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable will every change it into Truth.
Our spiritual sense cannot be lost. But as long as we look outside ourselves for evidence with the material senses, we cannot see or hear what is Real and True. As long as we look to person, place, or thing for love, approval, validation, or survival, we are lost. The good news is that the spiritual sense of Our True Self is available to us any instant we let go of the illusions that have fascinated us for so very long. The First Commandment is couched in uncompromising tone because this act of surrender and commitment is truly our first and only need, our first and only Love, and the only sense we ever need to pay attention to.
"Hear O Israel: the Lord your God is One. 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." -- The Bible
Monday, January 28, 2008
Atonement
"There is but One Life, and that Life is infinite and eternal. There is only One Soul, your Soul, which is 'closer than breathing, nearer than hands or feet.' You are that place where God shines. You are infinite. In realizing your true identity, you have no longer a selfish motive. You have nothing to get. Your purpose is simply to Be the Light." -- Joel Goldsmith
"The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner light." -- A Course in Miracles
The concept of atonement has been misused in the world, like everything else the separated mind imagines. It has become a symbol of sacrifice and suffering. No wonder so many of us fear both the word and the concept behind it.
As ACIM explains it, the Atonement is the return of our right mind, the mind that lives and moves and has its Being only in God, and has never been anywhere else. The Atonement principle is the returning of our attention and devotion and will and imagination to their true Source within, so that whatever extends or projects from our Being reflects and radiates only the Truth, even in the midst of illusions. Our purpose is to BE this Light. Not to have it or become it... we already are it. Our purpose is to remember and BE as God created us.
To simplify this even more, ACIM says, "The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result." The miracle is accomplished always and only by the forgiving of all illusions, good, bad, beautiful, ugly... all. This is done through the principle of the Atonement, which is that we have always been and always will be One with God, All-in-All. The remembering of this Truth and the letting go of everything else is the healing, and will always reflect within the illusion of life as what ACIM calls the Happy Dream of the Holy Spirit. Which has nothing to do with who, what, or where.
The Happy Dream is the state of Oneness that is our true Home... and whatever seems to appear is gravy. As Jeshua ben Joseph puts it, "Seek first the Kingdom, and all else will be added unto you." I love the humor in this. And what else would there be?
"The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal." -- A Course in Miracles
"The Atonement can only be accepted within you by releasing the inner light." -- A Course in Miracles
The concept of atonement has been misused in the world, like everything else the separated mind imagines. It has become a symbol of sacrifice and suffering. No wonder so many of us fear both the word and the concept behind it.
As ACIM explains it, the Atonement is the return of our right mind, the mind that lives and moves and has its Being only in God, and has never been anywhere else. The Atonement principle is the returning of our attention and devotion and will and imagination to their true Source within, so that whatever extends or projects from our Being reflects and radiates only the Truth, even in the midst of illusions. Our purpose is to BE this Light. Not to have it or become it... we already are it. Our purpose is to remember and BE as God created us.
To simplify this even more, ACIM says, "The miracle is the means, the Atonement is the principle, and healing is the result." The miracle is accomplished always and only by the forgiving of all illusions, good, bad, beautiful, ugly... all. This is done through the principle of the Atonement, which is that we have always been and always will be One with God, All-in-All. The remembering of this Truth and the letting go of everything else is the healing, and will always reflect within the illusion of life as what ACIM calls the Happy Dream of the Holy Spirit. Which has nothing to do with who, what, or where.
The Happy Dream is the state of Oneness that is our true Home... and whatever seems to appear is gravy. As Jeshua ben Joseph puts it, "Seek first the Kingdom, and all else will be added unto you." I love the humor in this. And what else would there be?
"The sole responsibility of the miracle worker is to accept the Atonement for himself. This means you recognize that mind is the only creative level, and that its errors are healed by the Atonement. Once you accept this, your mind can only heal." -- A Course in Miracles
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