"The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 92, 8:1-2
Constant, sure, abiding... these are the shining attributes of the ever-present, unchanging Christ Self that is our Reality. Vacillating, uncertain, always in flux... these are the attributes of the conditioned self, the egoic self-concept. Sometimes in the midst of the egoic delusion, the only way to give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit and return to sanity is to gently remind ourselves that what is true doesn't shift and change, and so this (whatever version of egoic stuff is arising) must not be true. It's like Ramana Maharshi asking, "Who am I?", and going through the process of elimination... "Not this, not this..." All of 'this' that the mind can conceive is simply concept, not reality. When the mind is wiped clean of all its concepts, what remains is the effortless light and strength of Mind Awake, which is pure Love.
Forgiveness is the process of washing the mind of concepts. As we give over every thought, emotion, judgment, and experience to the Holy Spirit for healing, the mind becomes quiet. In the Introduction to the Course, we are told that, "The Course does not aim at teaching the meaning of Love, for that is beyond what can be taught. It does aim, however, at removing the blocks to the awareness of Love's Presence, which is your natural inheritance." (ACIM; Introduction, 1:6-7) Every single apparent block to awareness is a mental construct, a concept held as true in the sleeping mind. "Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts." (ACIM; Chapter 31, V, 14:3)
As we forgive all concepts of a world and of a self, the mind becomes still, radiating only the light of strength and that is the ever-present reality of our true Self.
"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 as well 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 Lesson 152, 10:1-5
Showing posts with label Letting Go. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Letting Go. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
The Other
I remember years ago when I attended Loving Relationships Training with Sondra Ray. She had us all looking for our personal lies. If we could let that one lie go, she insisted, then all our false beliefs about ourselves and the world would fall away. She used the image of a hand (the personal lie) holding a bunch of balloons (our beliefs about ourselves and the world). If the hand is released, the balloons are too. It's a great image. However, the reason it didn't appear to work for anyone for any length of time might be because it was based on belief. A belief about beliefs is still belief. What lies behind all beliefs? What is the original lie?
What I mean is that Truth, being True, just IS. It doesn't need belief to BE. Who We Are in Reality must be True, because when every thought and belief is released, I Am. The only accurate statement I could make about this is that I Am Awareness ItSelf. So are you. What has been termed the Christ of Our Being is Whole, with no other. Oneness, Aware of ItSelf as I Am.
The original belief, the original lie that projects all other lies is that I am Other. I am other than God. I am other than you, or them, or it. The Other belief is then projected onto the screen of the mind as a host of others, with a host of issues and problems and longings and sorrows. The Other is never complete... how could Completeness be experienced in such a fragmented state? When I am the Other, then everything is experienced as other. Nothing is ever whole, never here, never complete.
A Course in Miracles tells us, "My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made." This is a way of taking back the responsibility for all the otherness we seem to experience, instead of the projected pretense that it's happening to us. Once released, it's possible to return to the awareness of I Am, instead of I am with an otherly object. In the Great I Am, there is no other.
When I recognize the Other in my life, I need only forgive and release. Behind every seeming lies the perfection and holiness and beauty that we are... that I Am. This is the Miracle.
"...Say, 'Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven' and you have said, 'I know what I Am'... " -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section VI, 11:8
What I mean is that Truth, being True, just IS. It doesn't need belief to BE. Who We Are in Reality must be True, because when every thought and belief is released, I Am. The only accurate statement I could make about this is that I Am Awareness ItSelf. So are you. What has been termed the Christ of Our Being is Whole, with no other. Oneness, Aware of ItSelf as I Am.
The original belief, the original lie that projects all other lies is that I am Other. I am other than God. I am other than you, or them, or it. The Other belief is then projected onto the screen of the mind as a host of others, with a host of issues and problems and longings and sorrows. The Other is never complete... how could Completeness be experienced in such a fragmented state? When I am the Other, then everything is experienced as other. Nothing is ever whole, never here, never complete.
A Course in Miracles tells us, "My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made." This is a way of taking back the responsibility for all the otherness we seem to experience, instead of the projected pretense that it's happening to us. Once released, it's possible to return to the awareness of I Am, instead of I am with an otherly object. In the Great I Am, there is no other.
When I recognize the Other in my life, I need only forgive and release. Behind every seeming lies the perfection and holiness and beauty that we are... that I Am. This is the Miracle.
"...Say, 'Will ye first the Kingdom of Heaven' and you have said, 'I know what I Am'... " -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section VI, 11:8
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Begin Again
"Routines as such are dangerous, because they easily becom gods in their own right, threatening the very goals for which they were set up. Broadly speaking it can be said that it is well to start the day right [i.e., giving the day to God]. But it is ALWAYS possible to begin again, should the day begin with error." [emphasis mine] -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 2:5-7
We're pretty hard on ourselves. We set unrealistic expectations for our bodies and our minds, all of which are based on goals and actions out there, with the world as we imagine it. The problem is, they're unrealistic because they're not true, not because we didn't do it right. Even the goals and actions we seem to acheive or approve of will disappoint sooner or later, because they're based on the false gods referenced in the above quote... earthly rituals to the gods of diet, relationships, pleasure, or finance. But we can begin again. Any instant.
One way we remain in bondage to egoic pursuit is the lie that it's not possible to begin again, so we might as well make the best of what we've got. We'd better make this body work well, because we won't get another one. We'd better subsume ourselves to this dysfunctional relationship or we'll be alone. We'd better be frugal and only spend on necessities for ourselves, because the economy shows no mercy. It's every man (or woman) for themselves.
How might this perspective soften and change if we felt innocent? If we knew that every holy instant we are born anew? If we really stopped for an instant... really allowed the Real to shine from everyone and everything? If we stopped writing the script of unrealistic and false expectations? All we're giving up is the illusion of protecting illusions about ourselves and the world we think we see.
I've come to realize that the only task I have before me every day, no matter what it looks like, is to let go of everything I think I know, to let the Real shine through every appearance. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy: "... depart from the material sense, into the spiritual sense of Being." A Course in Miracles calls this process 'forgiveness', the shedding of the false self. What does that mean? It means letting go of the evidence of the thinking mind, the evidence of the physical senses, and being fully present and aware NOW. In the midst of that awareness is our true knowing, our Spiritual Self. Everything that seems to be happening out there is actually a play of consciousness within the One Mind, the Self, the Allness of what we sometimes call God. Fully present awareness, without condition, is key.
So we begin again, every holy instant, by forgiving, by releasing, by letting go of every routine and conditioned response, every bit of sensory data. What remains is pure Awareness, and the Grace of our true Self.
We're pretty hard on ourselves. We set unrealistic expectations for our bodies and our minds, all of which are based on goals and actions out there, with the world as we imagine it. The problem is, they're unrealistic because they're not true, not because we didn't do it right. Even the goals and actions we seem to acheive or approve of will disappoint sooner or later, because they're based on the false gods referenced in the above quote... earthly rituals to the gods of diet, relationships, pleasure, or finance. But we can begin again. Any instant.
One way we remain in bondage to egoic pursuit is the lie that it's not possible to begin again, so we might as well make the best of what we've got. We'd better make this body work well, because we won't get another one. We'd better subsume ourselves to this dysfunctional relationship or we'll be alone. We'd better be frugal and only spend on necessities for ourselves, because the economy shows no mercy. It's every man (or woman) for themselves.
How might this perspective soften and change if we felt innocent? If we knew that every holy instant we are born anew? If we really stopped for an instant... really allowed the Real to shine from everyone and everything? If we stopped writing the script of unrealistic and false expectations? All we're giving up is the illusion of protecting illusions about ourselves and the world we think we see.
I've come to realize that the only task I have before me every day, no matter what it looks like, is to let go of everything I think I know, to let the Real shine through every appearance. In the words of Mary Baker Eddy: "... depart from the material sense, into the spiritual sense of Being." A Course in Miracles calls this process 'forgiveness', the shedding of the false self. What does that mean? It means letting go of the evidence of the thinking mind, the evidence of the physical senses, and being fully present and aware NOW. In the midst of that awareness is our true knowing, our Spiritual Self. Everything that seems to be happening out there is actually a play of consciousness within the One Mind, the Self, the Allness of what we sometimes call God. Fully present awareness, without condition, is key.
So we begin again, every holy instant, by forgiving, by releasing, by letting go of every routine and conditioned response, every bit of sensory data. What remains is pure Awareness, and the Grace of our true Self.
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