"There are no strange images in the Mind of God, and what is not in His Mind cannot be in yours, because you are of One Mind, and that Mind belongs to Him. It is yours because it belongs to Him, for to Him ownership is sharing. And if it is so for Him, it is so for you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 10, Section IV, 6:2-4
It's always amazing to me that after all these years, I still find sections of the Course that blow me away, as if I've never read them before. And this in spite of the heavy underlining and highlighting that shows I did indeed read it and find it important. But how could I miss the import of the statement, "It is yours because it belongs to Him, for to him ownership is sharing." There's no putting a spin on this statement. And then this morning I read in Workbook Lesson 106, "Thus does salvation start and thus it ends: when everything is yours, and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever." It doesn't say some things are given away... it states everything. And promises that because we give it away, we have it forever.
This is obviously not the way the world seems to work, and it certainly is not the way we have been taught to understand giving and receiving. It's radical and blunt... whatever we have must belong to all, because to God ownership is sharing, and so it must be for us. The Course tells us over and over in so many ways that to have, we have to give. Not giving to get, but giving because it's Who We Are... the outpouring of unconditioned and unconditional Love that simply extends for eternity.
I've always had the tendency to be idealistic and non-materialistic, as a child of the 60's and a life-long lover of the Spiritual. I remember as a youth being inspired by the book, Stranger in a Strange Land, with its message of Love without limits and sharing without boundaries. But all of my ideas and concepts through the years still centered on the notion of me in a body, and other people in the form of their bodies, attempting to share and love in a world of limitation and competition. It never works. These are the strange images the opening quotation refers to... images of discrete forms that seem to divide and limit the Oneness of Spirit. But no such strange images exist in the Real World.
The Course reminds us that we are not bodies... we are pure Spirit, the image and reflection of God: "I am as God created me." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 110) and "Spirit am I, a holy Son of God; free of all limits, safe and healed and whole; free to forgive, and free to save the world." (ACIM Workbook Lesson 97, 7:2) The dream world of strange images seems to come and go, seems to enjoy or seems to suffer. But consider all your night dreaming over the years. You have had dreams of every description, and have lived and died many times and in many ways. You have defied the seeming laws of the world, and failed and triumphed again and again. And yet, what real effects have any of those dreams had? Not one dream was ever cause of anything, and none of the seeming effects survived your waking. No dream analysis has ever done anything except give us a new story to tell. Our 'past lives' in dreams have absolutely no effect.. they are just dreams.
The really good news is that our supposed waking life is another layer of dreaming. "Hear the one answer of the Holy Spirit to all the questions the ego raises: You are a child of God, a priceless part of His Kingdom, which He created as part of Him. Nothing else exists and only this is Real. You have chosen a sleep in which you have had bad dreams, but the sleep is not real and God calls you to awake. There will be nothing left of your dream when you hear Him, because you will awaken. Your dreams contain many of the ego's symbols, and they have confused you. Yet that was only because you were asleep and did not know. When you wake you will see the Truth around you and in you, and you will no longer believe in dreams because they will have no reality for you." (ACIM Chapter 6, Section IV, 6:1-7)
Our Reality is the unified Oneness of Spirit, the unconditioned Awareness of One Self, One Mind, One Life and Love. Competition and ownership cease to have meaning in Oneness, for who would have more than another? Who in Oneness could possibly know anything other than perfect sharing with All? And what could be lacking in All? Our dreaming mind has imagined a self that is split into infinite pieces, projecting infinite dreams of competition, striving, ownership, and struggle... always in the vain attempt to reclaim for the split self the sense of wholeness and completion that seems to be lost in separation. The joke is that we never lost the Wholeness and Perfection we seek. And we regain our memory of our True Self by giving... as we give, as we share, as we no longer seek to divide and keep divided bits of life to ourselves through ownership, we re-discover the infinite Being that we are.
"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, 9:7-9
Showing posts with label Mind Asleep. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mind Asleep. Show all posts
Monday, April 22, 2013
Friday, March 11, 2011
In Our Own Image
"No one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 68, 1:7
I have been practicing self-inquiry as taught by A Course in Miracles for a long time now. It's a version of self-inquiry very similar to "Who am I,"the form given by such advaita masters as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. The drill goes that as you examine your body, you realize that if you're looking at it, it's not 'I' but a projected image. The 'I' is actually what is looking and witnessing. As you look at the senses and their subject/object relationship with the world, you realize the senses are not 'I'. As you look at your thinking mind, you realize that there is some 'I' looking even at the thoughts that come and go. And so you gradually refocus the mind to Source, the 'I Am' at the heart of all Being. As A Course in Miracles teaches it, you reverse the process of projection to return to Self with a capital 'S.' This Self is All-Inclusiveness, a Oneness or Singularity without an object.
This is a very effective tool for those who really want to remember who they are. But for most of us, the desire and self-discipline is pretty much lacking. We can't focus for any length of time on who is looking because we're too distracted by what we're looking at... and that is because we don't really want to know. We're enamored of our own images... and why wouldn't we be? We projected them... they're our babies, and we're attached to our own images and thought-forms. And so we pretend they're real. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "Projection will always hurt you. It reinforces your belief in your own split mind." (ACIM; Chapter 6, Section II, 3:1-2) Our imagined separateness seems to defend and protect that separateness by forgetting, and by projecting outward the images of the sleeping mind.
The real problem, though, is also the good news. Because our sleeping minds are constantly projecting, the projected world appears as divided as our minds. We can have lovely dreams, but we also will have nightmares. The experience of one guarantees the experience of the other. Or you could say that suffering is implicit in pleasure, and pleasure is implicit in suffering. And how is this good news, you may well ask? Because the unstable nature of our projections sooner or later drives us to self-inquiry. Sooner or later our undisciplined minds seek meaning beyond the appearance of our own projections.
The real Truth is that the projected world is a collection of thought-forms in our own image. We project who we think we are, divided into a cast of thousands. The quote I used at the beginning of this blog points out that for the mind asleep, even our conception of Source is projected and experienced in our own image. This is why the God of Christianity and Islam is so often seen as violent, judgmental, vindictive, etc. It's not our Source that we're seeing, but our own sleeping minds.
The even better news is that our actual Source is not the sleeping mind, but Mind Awake. This Mind is One, All-Inclusive, All-in-All. As the Tao te Ching puts it: "There is a Being, All Inclusive, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way, and I rejoice in Its Presence." Source doesn't project... it IS. The refocusing of the mind through self-inquiry returns us to this primal Awareness. And this Awareness then is reflected in the seeming individual mind as Self, a Oneness that is reflected in the projected world as unified vision and experience. In this Awareness of Self there is only Perfection, only Love, and a Joyous Peace that includes everything.
So whose image am I projecting? As long as we live in this dream world, we will always be projecting a world and its imagined source in our own image. So the real question is: Who am I?
"The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts [images]. The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is Truth revealed exactly as it IS." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1-3, 17:1-4
I have been practicing self-inquiry as taught by A Course in Miracles for a long time now. It's a version of self-inquiry very similar to "Who am I,"the form given by such advaita masters as Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj. The drill goes that as you examine your body, you realize that if you're looking at it, it's not 'I' but a projected image. The 'I' is actually what is looking and witnessing. As you look at the senses and their subject/object relationship with the world, you realize the senses are not 'I'. As you look at your thinking mind, you realize that there is some 'I' looking even at the thoughts that come and go. And so you gradually refocus the mind to Source, the 'I Am' at the heart of all Being. As A Course in Miracles teaches it, you reverse the process of projection to return to Self with a capital 'S.' This Self is All-Inclusiveness, a Oneness or Singularity without an object.
This is a very effective tool for those who really want to remember who they are. But for most of us, the desire and self-discipline is pretty much lacking. We can't focus for any length of time on who is looking because we're too distracted by what we're looking at... and that is because we don't really want to know. We're enamored of our own images... and why wouldn't we be? We projected them... they're our babies, and we're attached to our own images and thought-forms. And so we pretend they're real. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "Projection will always hurt you. It reinforces your belief in your own split mind." (ACIM; Chapter 6, Section II, 3:1-2) Our imagined separateness seems to defend and protect that separateness by forgetting, and by projecting outward the images of the sleeping mind.
The real problem, though, is also the good news. Because our sleeping minds are constantly projecting, the projected world appears as divided as our minds. We can have lovely dreams, but we also will have nightmares. The experience of one guarantees the experience of the other. Or you could say that suffering is implicit in pleasure, and pleasure is implicit in suffering. And how is this good news, you may well ask? Because the unstable nature of our projections sooner or later drives us to self-inquiry. Sooner or later our undisciplined minds seek meaning beyond the appearance of our own projections.
The real Truth is that the projected world is a collection of thought-forms in our own image. We project who we think we are, divided into a cast of thousands. The quote I used at the beginning of this blog points out that for the mind asleep, even our conception of Source is projected and experienced in our own image. This is why the God of Christianity and Islam is so often seen as violent, judgmental, vindictive, etc. It's not our Source that we're seeing, but our own sleeping minds.
The even better news is that our actual Source is not the sleeping mind, but Mind Awake. This Mind is One, All-Inclusive, All-in-All. As the Tao te Ching puts it: "There is a Being, All Inclusive, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment. I do not know Its name, and so I call it Tao, the Way, and I rejoice in Its Presence." Source doesn't project... it IS. The refocusing of the mind through self-inquiry returns us to this primal Awareness. And this Awareness then is reflected in the seeming individual mind as Self, a Oneness that is reflected in the projected world as unified vision and experience. In this Awareness of Self there is only Perfection, only Love, and a Joyous Peace that includes everything.
So whose image am I projecting? As long as we live in this dream world, we will always be projecting a world and its imagined source in our own image. So the real question is: Who am I?
"The concept of the self has always been the great preoccupation of the world. And everyone believes that he must find the answer to the riddle of himself. Salvation can be seen as nothing more than the escape from concepts [images]. The world can teach no images of you unless you want to learn them. There will come a time when images have all gone by, and you will see you know not what you are. It is to this unsealed and open mind that Truth returns, unhindered and unbound. Where concepts of the self have been laid by is Truth revealed exactly as it IS." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V, 14:1-3, 17:1-4
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Fireflies
First, an apology to all who have tried to purchase the CD or individual mp3s and discovered the links don't work! Thank you for letting me know... it will be corrected by tomorrow evening at the latest... and now the lyrics that inspired today's blog:
I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems.
-- from the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City
I give piano lessons to my 10 year old grandson, Drew. And because he loves the above song "Fireflies," I created a chord chart for him and taught him about chords and inversions this afternoon. He was really excited to be applying what he's learning to songs he knows. And quite frankly, the song is really catchy and clever... and at times profound. I love it.
It reminds me of the metaphysics of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and its "Life is but a dream" message. We would all like to make ourselves believe that we are safe on a slowly turning planet, and that we are awake... but as the song says, it's hard to keep convincing ourselves of that when we so obviously live in a world of dreams where nothing is what is seems. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Our life is not as we imagine it."
As I write this, fireflies are winking on and off under my 150 year old oak and hickory trees. Fireflies are dreamlike creatures any way you look at them, floating high up in the branches or down in the moist grass, like fairies or tiny angels. They remind me that we dream beautiful dreams together, too. And that the more beautiful, the more loving, the more innocent our dreams, the closer our minds come to remembering Who We Really Are. "You are surrounded only by Him [God]. What limits can there be on You whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, VI, 10:6-7
It's up to us, always up to us to return our dreaming minds to God, where we have always been in Truth. And as we do we know that "These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene." (ACIM; WB 186, 10:1) Each moment we're focusing our perception either on the good and the perfect that reflects the Truth of God, or on the lies of the false separate self which always claims lack and limitation. And each brother and sister, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, gives us an opportunity to remember. And to forgive our willingness to succumb again and again to the seduction of the flawed, the limited, the suffering... the dream of pain and death.
The song "Fireflies" reminds us that beauty reflects the real, but is not the real... nothing in the world of dreams can do more than reflect the mind that's dreaming. And do we really want to awaken?
"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
-- from the song "Fireflies" by Owl City
I'd like to make myself believe that planet earth turns slowly.
It's hard to say I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep.
'Cause everything is never as it seems.
-- from the song, "Fireflies" by Owl City
I give piano lessons to my 10 year old grandson, Drew. And because he loves the above song "Fireflies," I created a chord chart for him and taught him about chords and inversions this afternoon. He was really excited to be applying what he's learning to songs he knows. And quite frankly, the song is really catchy and clever... and at times profound. I love it.
It reminds me of the metaphysics of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" and its "Life is but a dream" message. We would all like to make ourselves believe that we are safe on a slowly turning planet, and that we are awake... but as the song says, it's hard to keep convincing ourselves of that when we so obviously live in a world of dreams where nothing is what is seems. A Course in Miracles puts it this way: "Our life is not as we imagine it."
As I write this, fireflies are winking on and off under my 150 year old oak and hickory trees. Fireflies are dreamlike creatures any way you look at them, floating high up in the branches or down in the moist grass, like fairies or tiny angels. They remind me that we dream beautiful dreams together, too. And that the more beautiful, the more loving, the more innocent our dreams, the closer our minds come to remembering Who We Really Are. "You are surrounded only by Him [God]. What limits can there be on You whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, VI, 10:6-7
It's up to us, always up to us to return our dreaming minds to God, where we have always been in Truth. And as we do we know that "These unsubstantial images will go, and leave your mind unclouded and serene." (ACIM; WB 186, 10:1) Each moment we're focusing our perception either on the good and the perfect that reflects the Truth of God, or on the lies of the false separate self which always claims lack and limitation. And each brother and sister, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, gives us an opportunity to remember. And to forgive our willingness to succumb again and again to the seduction of the flawed, the limited, the suffering... the dream of pain and death.
The song "Fireflies" reminds us that beauty reflects the real, but is not the real... nothing in the world of dreams can do more than reflect the mind that's dreaming. And do we really want to awaken?
"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep."
-- from the song "Fireflies" by Owl City
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