The Thing That I Seek

First, I want to send everyone infinite love and blessings for the New Year.  This is Who We Are!  May all Being remember this!

"I am the goal the world is searching for." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 318

"I am that I am." -- The Bible

"I am That." -- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Reading the above quotations, the natural response of the conditioned self is, "No, I'm not."  Or if you are a bit more open to the possibility, it may lead naturally into self-inquiry... "Who am I?" Or maybe even "What am I?" Am I what I seem to be, or am I beyond the seeming?  Am I what is experiencing the seeming, or what is noticing the seeming?  And if there is both, then are there two of me?  What is the truth of all of this???

For those of us that have been reading and studying and even teaching A Course in Miracles for a while, it is apparent that every sentence and even every word is pointing to this Truth.  "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy."  I am.  I already am.  So who or what is it that is constantly trying to fix up an unholy, flawed self?  And who or what is that flawed self?  Who, what, and why?

This morning I turned in the Workbook to Lesson 47: "God is the strength in which I trusts." To the split mind, this is a dualistic statement of God and me, self and other.  But it is actually referring to God as our True Self.  

To trust in a false sense of self is to suffer, and to live in the constant fear that is the world we see every day.  But when we remember our shared God Self there is only Love, Goodness, Infinite Strength and Power and Security and Joy.  And there is no limit to the miracles that are revealed when this is truly known.  "I am the goal the world is searching for."  Try contemplating this statement between now and the new year.  Try remembering Who You Really Are throughout the new year, and always. 

"Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven.  There is a place in you where there is perfect peace.  There is a place in you where nothing is impossible.  There is a place in you where the strength of God abides." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 47:7:3-6

Only One Perceiver

"The Holy Spirit begin by perceiving you as perfect... The perfect equality of the Holy Spirit's perception is the reflection of the perfect equality of God's knowing." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 6, Section II, 5:1 and 7:1

"This Mind is unequivocal, because it hears only One Voice and answers only in One Way." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section II, 10:2

The concept of Oneness is impossible for the so-called separate mind to grasp.  It can think about Oneness, and conceptualize about Oneness.  But if you want cake, you can't eat a picture of a cake.  You can't eat the word cake.  You can't even eat the recipe!  What you can do is read about cake, and decide if you want the experience of eating it.  Similarly, there comes a time even in the most comfortable of lives, when an expansion takes place and leaves us wondering what lies beyond the known.  We want to know what Oneness is, not simply talk about it or read about it.  And we begin to realize that what we think we know is not the truth.

This begins the shedding process the Course calls forgiveness.  Over and over, we let go of everything we think we know, every judgment about how things are, every perception of differences and mistakes and flaws and lacks.  Every opinion about how things work or should work, every rule we think we have to follow or that we expect the so-called others to follow.  We give everything in our minds to the Holy Spirit, the One Mind that all perceived separate minds share.  We do it fitfully at first, but as we begin to glimpse the Peace it brings, we find that we are more and more willing to turn everything we think we know over.  Why would we want to keep what has only given us a world of seeming duality and struggle and suffering?

At this point we begin to have glimpses of Oneness.  There is One who is always aware of the shenanigans of the perceived separate mind.  This is the Holy Spirit, who sees only the Perfection that is All. One Mind, One Voice, One Perceiver Who sees only Love and radiates Only Love.  As we become anchored in this Presence, we begin to realize that there has always been only One Perceiver.  Our tunnel vision simply projected a split world, but it had no substance. When we begin to experience the miracle of the unified Presence everywhere, we become more and more willing to stop projecting.  We stop the projector by acknowledging that the projector has never known anything, while the One Perceiver has always Known EVERYTHING, and always will.

This unified Presence and Perception is the closest we can get to Reality while still walking in a world of seeming duality.  It is what the Course calls the Happy Dream... pure Joy, with the Awareness that there are no limits to this Love and Joy, this limitless Wholeness and Perfection, this Perfect Peace.  And It radiates pure appreciation of the Perfection everywhere.  This is the Kingdom of Heaven that Jeshua told us to seek first and always.  This is the unified Mind of the Miracle Worker. 

There's only One. One Perceiver of Perfection and Holiness on earth, as it is in the Pure, Unconditioned Awareness of Heaven.

"It is hard to understand what "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you" really means.  This is because it is not understandable to the ego, which interprets it as if something outside is inside, and this does not mean anything.  The word "within" is unnecessary.  The Kingdom of Heaven is You." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section III, 1:1-3

The Blessed Residue

"Every loving thought that the Son of God ever had is eternal.  The loving thoughts his mind perceives in this world are the world's only reality." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 2:1-2

"In Heaven there is no guilt, because the Kingdom is attained through the Atonement, which releases you to create.  The word 'create' is appropriate here because, once what you have made is undone by the Holy Spirit, the blessed residue is restored and therefore continues in creation.  What is truly blessed is incapable of giving rise to guilt, and must give rise to joy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section V, 2:1-3

I woke up in the wee hours last night, inspired to search my mind for unforgiveness.  I woke up with a new understanding of hidden places and grievances.  I realized that every expectation of person, place, or thing is only in my mind, is all made up, and is a grievance.  Every person or organization that I want or expect something from, every animate or inanimate form I look to for anything at all is a fictional mental veil across the face of Christ.  I experienced a flood of gratitude for each insight, and pure joy at letting it all go.  And then I heard the Voice speak the words "blessed residue."  I knew that I was to write about these words, and remembered reading them in the Course, so I asked if I should write them down or look them up.  I was told to go back to sleep, that I would remember.  And I did.

Love is the blessed residue.  When everything is forgiven, there is only the innocence of pure Love.  When everything is forgiven, even the things you thought were problems are revealed as pure, innocent Joy.  This is a spiritual alchemy that has been written about by mystics throughout time.  The irony is that we already know this, but pretend that we don't.  If we open our minds even slightly, the floodgates open and we can no longer pretend that the minutiae of our world is true or even really there.  So we practice tunnel vision on worldly problems and details, and even spiritual questions, clinging to them as if they were our safety and survival.  This is their only reality.  "I have given everything I see... all the meaning that it has for me." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 2)

An utter dependence on Love and the Holy Spirit is our true safety and security.  We can safely give our every question and care to the Holy Spirit and know that Love can only give and expand and increase in joyous intensity.  This is true creation.  "Love created me like ItSelf," we are reminded in ACIM Workbook Lesson 67.  We have only to give over (forgive) each thought, each judgment, each expectation to the Holy Spirit to be undone.  And the blessed residue, which is pure Love and our true Self, is restored to creative awareness.  It was here all along. 

"You have not lost your innocence.  It is for this you yearn.  This is your heart's desire.  This is the Voice you hear, and this the Call which cannot be denied." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 182, 12:1-4

Hoarding

"Hoarding: Amassing money or valued objects and hiding or storing it away, typically in a carefully guarded way." -- The New Oxford American Dictionary

"Hoarding: Gathering things together in the external. This is a vain effort to avert an imagined lack or shortage in the future." -- from The Revealing Word by Charles Fillmore

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." -- The Bible; Matthew 6:19-21

I didn't particularly want to write about this topic today.  It sort of chose me, as the topic of hoarding has been in my face lately, and there are no accidents in consciousness.  So I am looking more closely at the literal and metaphysical teaching here, because I know it's always pointing me to what is True.

As many of you know, I run an animal sanctuary on my farm.  I'm very careful not to take more animals than I can care for, and I've largely outgrown the notion that it's my job to save all the creatures of the world.  So I don't have the hoarding mentality of some animal rescue workers.  But recently a no-kill shelter nearby was shut down and all the animals taken because they developed a hoarding mentality... in other words, they kept taking animals even when they had no room for them.  They thought that saving their bodies meant something.  And I used to feel that it was about saving bodies, too.  

Now, I do stop for every turtle I see on the road.  And if I see an animal in need, I do my very best to find help for it.  If someone calls me with an animal that has been abandoned or abused and I don't have room, I help them find someone who does.  But the caring for these beautiful creatures has taught me that bodies don't mean so much... they come and go.  But the spirit, the divine idea of each creature is so perfect and permanent.  The divine idea of every animal that's ever lived or died here remains, in all its perfection.  Their being is my being.  Their spirit nurtures and teaches my spirit.  We are quite literally One.  I've come to realize that real Sanctuary is of and for the Spirit.  It can't be lost, nor can it ever be lacking.

Hoarding shows up in so many ways.  We are a culture of hoarders.  Our medical communities hoard bodies... keeping a body alive becomes more important than the Reality of Being, the Spirit that is the essence of each person.  It's easy to see this kind of hoarding in nursing homes and hospitals.  

Our financial communities hoard money, of course.  But not just money.  What is hoarded is the destructive idea of competition and winning, of having or being more because of what is accumulated.  Again, the form of hoarding is pretty secondary... it's the thought that I am more, or validated, or better because I've collected some paper or metal or some iou's.  We're like a culture of little children playing a really bad game of Monopoly.  And our sports and media cultures hoard everything from celebrity to information.

Even those of us without much money manage to hoard.  We may hoard friends or relationships, memorabilia from our families, old photographs, old books or writing or ideas that we think we might want to look at 'later.' We may hoard old musical instruments or guns or tea cups or anything in the name of 'collecting.'  I've seen street people with shopping carts full of hoarded junk that they think they might need sometime.  And those of us with clutter have to acknowledge that clutter is a form of hoarding.  If we're not hanging on to the clutter for some reason, why haven't we cleaned it up?  What is it for?  What is any of it for?

A Course in Miracles says that 'more' is the motto of the human ego... and that it doesn't even matter more of what.  Hoarding is the nature of the self that thinks it is a body.  And I've come to discover that the worst form of hoarding is the hoarding of concepts, because we don't see ourselves doing it.  We tell the same stories, using the same concepts of self, over and over and over... and these concepts we hoard are always false ideas about a self that's in a body.  We're carefully taught these stories, these concepts, by parents and teachers and media.  But we're willing slaves to this hoarding... we eagerly accumlate the false sense of identity it gives us, even when that identity is tied to a seemingly miserable or flawed self.  We hoard these false self-concepts because we think it's who and what we are, and that we would somehow be lacking existence and life without them.  That this fear is largely unconscious makes it the most insidious form of hoarding.

So by now we've all reached the same conclusion... that simply living in this world means we're hoarders.  We're all trying to accumlate a sense of self that is safe, healthy, financially sound, and autonomous... and in our efforting, we'll settle for a self that is fairly safe, sort of healthy, getting by financially, and isolated from other scary people.  It's this very efforting that Jesus referred to in the above quote from Matthew.  It's this very efforting that hides the Presence of the Kingdom from our Awareness, right here and right now.

A safe and autonomous self can never be.  Only bodies appear separate, and we are not our bodies.  Where would a separate self be, in Oneness?  Nothing and nowhere.  But our Self, our infinitely unique and varied Self, is always safe and whole and uniquely expressing, in and as each of us.  We are Spirit, and we are One, and we are individually unique and precious in this Oneness.  Animals can be animals and still be One with me.  You can be uniquely you and still be my Self.  I can let go of literally everyone and everything and still be One with it All.  Nothing is lost or lacking in Oneness, ever.  This is the nature of our God-Self, and of the Kingdom.  And this awareness is the end of hoarding, and the beginning of our Real Life in and as Spirit.  

"Take no thought, saying, 'What shall we 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." -- Matthew 6:31-33

The Illusion of Time

"Each day should be devoted to miracles.  The purpose of time is to enable you to learn how to use time constructively.  It is thus a teaching device and a means to an end.  Time will cease when it is no longer useful in facilitating learning." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 15:2-4

"Time is a belief of the ego, so the lower mind, which is the ego's domain, accepts it without question.  The only aspect of time that is eternal [real] is now." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section III, 6:4-5

The illusion of time seems to be the thickest veil we project across reality, to obscure the eternal.  We may question a lot of the world's thinking, but my kids still appeared to grow up, my hair still appeared to turn white, and the seasons still appear to come and go... along with these bodies we seem to live in.  We still seem to have deadlines and appointments to keep.  How can we say this is not real, when our very lives appear to be slaves to time and its seeming power over us? 

This morning I had a very interesting learning experience.  I thought I had somewhere that I had committed to be, and it involved getting up very early (5 a.m.) and taking care of all the animals here at the Sanctuary so that I could leave the house by 7 a.m.  No problem, usually.  But this morning I woke up and felt like I shouldn't go.  I prayed about it... in other words, I forgave and released my belief in time and the part of me that didn't want to go... but still couldn't get a clear 'go' or 'don't go'.  I knew that in reality it didn't matter what I do... it matters only what the whole situation symbolizes, since that's all it really is.  So I gave it to the Holy Spirit, my true Self, and forgave the whole notion of time and space and went back to bed.

When I woke up, two interesting things happened.  One, I checked my e-mail and discovered that I 'miraculously' wasn't supposed to be there today, even though I clearly had it down in my calendar!  And second, the wind had blown the barnyard gate off its latches... but only one horse was out, and she came right back in when I went out to feed them... no chasing involved.  Now all of the horses could have run... but they didn't.  And I could have driven to St. Louis and not been there when the gate blew off, and all the horses could have run off and been who knows where when I got home this evening.  But I was here.  So all I said was, "Thank you, Holy Spirit."  

Now I don't think it matters at all whether it's about appointments or horses.  They are symbols in the dream, and what they stand for in my dream is the awakening of the Son of God.  By releasing it all to the Holy Spirit, by making no decisions by my egoic self, the meaning of all of it is changed.  Now they are learning symbols, pointing to the timeless and eternal, the unchanging and Real.  "Thank you, Holy Spirit, that only God is the meaning of everything."  And God is everywhere, everything, always, and forever... wholeness, fulfillment, joy, love, and peace, this very now.

Jeshua ben Joseph gave us many ways to see past the illusion of time and impermanence.  He said, "Verily I say unto you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven." (The Bible; Matthew 18:3)  The complete dependence of a child, without any thought of yesterday or tomorrow.  They simply know that they are loved and cared for NOW.

A Course in Miracles tells us that, "Except ye become as little children" means that unless you fully recognize your complete dependence on God, you cannot know the real power of the Son in his true relationship with the Father.  The specialness of God's Sons does not stem from exclusion, but from inclusion." (A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section V, 3:4-5)

We live and move and have our Being in God, and live as currents of thought and Being within the Mind of God.  This Being is eternal and infinite and ALL, as God Is.  Our Being is not exclusive, but inclusive of the entire Kingdom that is the Mind of God.  The Sons of God are ONE, and without limit... whether appearing as horses, gates, or people.  And the illusion of time has no meaning or power or reality in the Infinity of God.

"You cannot understand yourself alone.  This is because you have no meaning apart from your rightful place in the Sonship, and the rightful place of the Sonship is God.  This is your life, your eternity, and your Self.  It is of this that the Holy Spirit [always] reminds you.  It is this that the Holy Spirit [always] sees." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section III, 8:1-5

God's Will

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

Sailing on Light

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     

Personal Investment

"No one with a personal investment is a reliable witness, for truth to him has become what he wants it to be." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section I, 5:2

"One thought, completely unified, will serve to unify all thought. This is the same as saying one correction will suffice for all correction, or that to forgive one brother wholly is enough to bring salvation to all minds." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 108, 5:1-2

I've been an impatient person much of my life, with a personal investment in hurrying conversations along. On top of that, I like to be right. So I've learned that I'm not a reliable witness to anything at all. Trusting my personal self to judge a person or a situation is totally ridiculous. Thank God there is One in me who has no personal investment. There is One Self in us all that will judge truly and inclusively, with love and forgiveness of every error, if we only release our personal investment and ask. That is how salvation works. That is how our thought becomes impersonal and unified.

The impersonal, inclusive, all-encompassing perspective of Our True Self doesn't require us to become zombies or robots. We still have an apparent life-stream, an apparent persona, who will continue to make apparent mistakes. But since none of this is ever true, nor has ever been true, forgiveness becomes the way we walk in the world. Forgiveness becomes what everything is for. This makes our personal experiences a heck of a lot more enjoyable, and releases us from the narcissistic tendencies that plague us all... to tell our own stories our way, to judge others as the enemy, to always be right, to be on top, to be seen by others the way we want to be seen... the list of narcissistic tendencies is quite long. Ask any mental health professional. What most of us don't realize is that all of us have a personal investment in how we see things. And so all of us are caught in a narcissistic dream. We see ourselves as separate from others and from God. We are lost in dreaming.

Forgiveness is all about realizing that our perceptions are simply false. Period. And as we ask the Holy Spirit, the Voice of Our True Self within each of our minds, to help us awaken by releasing our personal investments, we find a new world rising before us. In this world there are no separate interests. There are no competitions. There is only Love, and sometimes a cry for Love. And nothing else.

"Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6

"Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the Kingdom of Heaven; the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 208, Line 19

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

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

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

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

Forever One

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Tree of Knowledge

"KNOWLEDGE: Evidence obtained from the five corporeal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not Divine and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the opposite of spiritual Truth and understanding." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 590, Lines 4-8

"Question: What is Substance? Answer: Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are Substance. The Spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the Divine Substance of Spirit." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 468, Lines 17-18, 23-24

Have you ever heard someone say that a book or a dissertation has no substance? We look at knowledge as having substance if it is new or novel, or if it presents 'acceptable' theories in a new light, with tons of physical and theoretical evidence. There is a saying in academe that we must do research to 'add to the body of knowledge.' Hmmmm... as Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "There is no Life, Truth Intelligence, nor Substance in matter." And we might add, no knowledge in the affairs of matter, nor in the ideas that swirl around and around in the dream we call life.

We dedicate ourselves to gaining knowledge. Even if you're someone who never picks up a book, you try to gain street smarts or skills that will serve you in the world. We literally worship what we call education. But what exactly are we educating ourselves for? What are we trying to gain? Jesus said, "What profit is it to gain the world if you lose your soul?" A Course in Miracles says that all appetites, whether for food or love or knowledge (temporal or spiritual) are "appetites [which] are 'getting' mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of bodily appetites as it is of the so-called higher order needs." (ACIM Chapter 4, Section II, 7:5-6)

So we come to the crux of it. What are we gaining knowledge for? In The Bible allegory of the Garden of Eden, God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) We think that the more we know the more we can keep ourselves autonomous, separate, and safe. We think that we can gain the ability to call certain things good, certain things bad, certain things right, and certain things wrong. In other words, we think we can KNOW something, anything, apart from the whole. What nonsense! What happens to a hand that is cut off of the body that is its life? What happens to a leaf pulled off of a tree branch, or a flower pulled from its stem? These are all projections within the dream of death, projections of our insistence on an imaginary existence apart from God, separated from Omnipresent Goodness and Love. And so we experience, over and over in the dream, the death and suffering of the separated illusory self.

Did you notice that in the allegory, God said that EVERY tree in the garden was O.K.? And then God said not to mess with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Which implies that this tree, the tree of knowledge wasn't in the garden. The alleged tree of knowledge is the symbol of the crazy notion that we can think and dream apart from God, and judge what is what. It's an illusion, and as soon as we begin to think we know and judge, we fall from the garden all over again. That's the dream of samsara, the wheel of suffering. As ACIM says, "How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement. So must he judge not, and he will awaken." (ACIM Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:2-5)

We can return to innocence any day, any time. And it has nothing to do with knowing anything at all. Judgement, the need to see projected separation and differences wherever we look, can be released. This is called forgiveness, and is the happy dream that the Holy Spirit holds out to us continually. We forgive and let go of all need to know... and we are restored to the garden. The need for differences and drama is again the illusory self clamoring for existence. And it was doomed before it started. The Holy Spirit will translate every dream of knowledge into a happy dream of Awakening to the Oneness of Self. We have only to ask.

"You will not remember change and shift in Heaven. You have need of contrast only here. Contrast and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them you learn what to avoid and what to seek. When you have learned this, you will find the Answer that makes the need for any differences disappear. Truth comes of Its Own Will unto Its Own." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section XI, 6:1-5

"Heaven is not a place, nor a condition. It is an awareness of perfect Oneness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6

Our Riches in Glory

"Those who would see the witnesses to Truth instead of to illusion merely ask that they might see a purpose in the world that gives it sense and makes it meaningful. Without your special function [forgiveness] has this world no meaning for you. Yet it can become a treasure house as rich and limitless as Heaven ItSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 26, Section I, 5:1-3

"But I have all, and abound; I am full... my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in Glory." -- The Bible; Philippians 4:18-19

Like everything else in this upside down and backwards world, the notion of wealth and riches has been co opted by the ego, the imagined autonomous self. Wealth and riches have become a symbol of greed and separate, special interests. We have to work, fight, struggle, and grab to get what is ours. And sharing with another separate ego means there is less for us. Do you see how this aberrant idea is mirrored in every aspect of the ego's story? Separate interests, separate lives, separate assets... it's mirrored everywhere.

Nothing could be further from the Truth of God's Kingdom. The Kingdom of Heaven is "an awareness of Perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:6) But as long as we are caught in the ego story of separate interests, there is never enough. We can't know the Wealth of Our Being, when who we think we're being is a fragment, a little sliver of our True Self.

In the Allness of God our true wealth lies. In the Allness of God there is nothing missing, nothing absent... that's the meaning of Omnipresence. Since we are One with God, the Omnipresent, Omniscient Awareness of Being is IN us in a very real sense... not in an illusory separate body, or in our imagined sense perceptions... but in the Spirit of God that is Our True Self. Being Omnipresent and Omniscient, this Awareness sees everyone and everything as they are, a part of the One Self, and not what they appear to be in the dream of sense perception. In other words, the Awareness of Self sees FROM Being Oneness, AS Oneness.

All-encompassing Love and Goodness without measure is Our True Wealth. As we forgive each separate dream, our awareness returns to Christ, the Oneness that has always been. The living Wealth of God has never left us. Our Riches in Glory are eternal and free.

"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest... God would make known what is the Riches of the Glory of this mystery... Christ in you, the hope of Glory." -- The Bible; Colossians 1:26-28

"In God's Own Justice does He recognize all you deserve. It is His special function to hold out to you the gifts the innocent deserve. And every one that you accept brings joy to Him as well as you. He knows that Heaven is richer made by each one you accept. And God rejoices as His Son receives what loving justice knows to be his due. For Love and Justice are not different. Because they are the same does Mercy stand at God's right Hand, and gives the Son of God the Power to forgive himself of sin." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section VIII, 9:5-11

Money and Sacrifice

"It takes great learning both to realize and to accept the fact that the world has nothing to give. What can the sacrifice of nothing mean? There is no sacrifice in the world's terms that does not involve the body. Think a while about what the world calls sacrifice. Power, fame, money, physical pleasure; who is the "hero" to whom all these things belong? Could they mean anything except to a body? Yet a body cannot evaluate. By seeking after such things the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what It really is." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 13, 2:1-9

"Money is not evil. It is nothing... The right to live is something no one need fight for. It is promised him, and guaranteed by God." -- Psychotherapy: Purpose, Process, and Practice (An Extension of the Principles of A Course in Miracles); Chapter 3, Section III, 1:5-6, 4:1-2

"Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek)) For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. -- The Bible; Matthew 6:27-34

There is not one thought within the world, not one strategy or method, not one way of being that has an ounce of truth in it... it's all based on a fictional world of matter and supposedly real bodies walking around in it. It's all based on a fiction. All of it, all of it is some version of the lie that Oneness must be sacrificed to protect and defend a limited, separate, autonomous (real) self. What we are unwilling to see is that this self that we cherish and defend (in all its flawed glory) is completely fictional. We give a fiction all our time and attention and belief, and sacrifice the treasure of our true Joy and Peace to keep this fictional puff of smoke in circulation. We are addicted to pain and suffering because they give our fictional selves the illusion of reality. We are intent on being right if it kills us...and it does eventually, in the dream.

Money is a like everything else in the dream... nothing at all. It symbolizes the sacrifice of wholeness for specialness and debt (pseudonyms for fear and guilt). The good news is that the Holy Spirit within us retains the Awareness of Oneness, and when we bring our perceptions and symbols to the Truth in us, all is forgiven and released, re-interpreted and used for Awakening.
Everything in the dream is simply symbol... and our only choice in a world of dreams is what we choose to have it symbolize. What is it for? There are only two choices, ever. Truth or illusions, Awakening or endless dreams. Though it looks like hundreds of decisions and choices lie before us, there is always only this one decision in our imagined prison of the Son of God, a separate body in a world of dreams.

Jeshua ben Joseph taught us to not give allegiance to a single thought, to a single imagined need in the dream. He said to take no thought for anything in the world. "Seek first the Kingdom," he said, "and all these things shall be added unto you." He also taught us to pray in this manner: "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." In other words, let us reflect only the Truth of Being even as we walk in the dream... we know we always have whatever is needed as we serve only Awakening... and we forgive ourselves the thought of separation and lack, as we forgive our projections of separation and lack all around us. We know that as we release the so-called others in the dream, we are released. We can always only meet our own projections. It's the nature of the dream.

The thought of lack can only arise when we dream we are separate from God Who is our Source. When we forgive this we see that in reality we are forever Whole in the Allness of God, living and moving and having our Being only in God. There is nothing more or less than Allness. We always reflect only the Allness and Wholeness and Abundance that Is God.

Like all special relationships within the dream, our relationship with money is all made up. It's nothing at all. The laws and rituals that seem to govern are simply what we have agreed to. They are nothing. They have no cause, and no real effects. It is the fear of our own illusions that gives them seeming reality. We are like little children afraid to look under the bed. And so we sacrifice our Self to fear and bondage in a world of dreams.

Money and the sacrifice it appears to demand of us does not need to be a big deal. There is a miracle of healing for every appearance of lack and limitation within the dream. And the Miracle is always Remembering Who We Are, a return to sanity for the Holy Son of God.

"It is as needful that you recognize you made the world you see, as that you recognize that you did not create your Self. They are the same mistake. Nothing created not by your Creator has any influence on you. And if you think what you have made can tell you what you see and feel, and place your faith in its ability to do so, you are denying your Creator and believing that you made yourself. For if you think the world you made has power to make you what it wills, you are confusing Son and Father, effect and Source." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 11:1-5

"But grant that everything that seems to be, you made in secret, and the instant of release has come to you. All its effects are gone, because its source has been uncovered. It is its seeming independence of its source that keeps you prisoner. This is the same mistake as thinking you are independent of the Source by which You were created, and have never left." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 13:3-6

"All Power is of God. What is not of Him has no power to do anything." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section V, 3:6-7

Health and Wealth and Wholeness

"Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the Divine Power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, Divine Love supplies all good." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 494, Lines 10-14

"He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form. These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness ItSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 186, 13:2-5, 14:1

We are told by Scripture that we are made in the image and likeness of God, Who is pure Spirit and All-in-All. We are reflections of eternity, radiating the Infinite Love that is Our Source. The very definition of infinity is that it cannot be limited or defined in any way, in any direction. Omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent... these are all words we use to attempt to describe and define what is undefinable.

As radiant images of the One, we are limitless Spirit. Just as the ray of sunlight is one with the sun which is its source, we are One with the Allness of God Who Is Our Source. And just as the sun, by being what it is, radiates sunlight, God, Being the Allness of Life, Truth, and Love, radiates US. We are the Divine radiance.

ALL that the Father has is ours by right of spiritual reflection, here and now and always. A conscious awareness of Being One with God is its own gift... awareness of the Grace of Being is beyond any earthly experience. And yet, we are promised by Scripture and by Jesus and by all those who have lived the experience of Oneness that Awareness of Being One with God IS our health and wealth. That the Glory of True Being is reflected even in the dream, on earth as it is in Heaven.

As radiant images of God, we are everything and have everything. What more than ALL could we want or need? Can we ever have more than ALL? It is the tunnel vision of the false, limited self that reflects distorted images of lack and sickness. Limited perception is simply the distorted, false reflection of a limited, contracted awareness. Returning our minds and hearts to God, we return to our true Self, and our true function as radiant reflections of our Source.

As the Divine Radiance, we know the Allness of Good, individually and collectively. Mary Baker Eddy wrote that the Divine Mind of God continually supplies us with beautiful and refreshing images of thought to meet every imagined need. As the Divine Radiance, health and wealth and wholeness of every sort become Divine Ideas that are our heritage as Radiant Images of God.

"The Will of God is One, and ALL there Is. This is your heritage. The universe beyond the sun and stars and all the Thoughts of which you can conceive belong to you." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 20, 6:9-11

"Do you really believe you can make a voice that can drown out God's? Do you really believe you can devise a thought system that can separate you from Him? Do you really believe you can plan for your safety and joy better than He can? You need be neither careful nor careless; you need merely cast your cares upon Him because He careth for you. You are His care because He Loves you. His Voice reminds you always that all hope is yours because of His care. You cannot choose to escape His care because that is not His Will, but you can choose to accept His care and use the Infinite Power of His care for all those He created by it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 5, Section VII, 1:1-7

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

The Alleged Conflict

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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