"Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness." -- Psalm 29
"Your purpose is to see the world through your own Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 1:2
We are taught at a very early age to see differences. These differences are quickly sorted into good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable. And as we get older,, the compulsion to avoid the so-called bad and seek the imagined good is the only thing that motivates us (and the entire world!).
Ironically, this endless seeking to avoid pain and seek pleasure doesn't work. It may appear to work for short periods of time, but all you have to do is look around. We continue to pretend it works because the alternative is too fearful to the mind. We avoid looking at the Truth, because we have carefully and methodically been living in the thought system we inherited from our parents or from our social peers. And all of it is made up. We make it up daily, as we obey the so-called rules and judgments we have so carefully constructed.
The first glimmers of hope come when we realize that everything is Mind. What you are aware of is what you experience, even when it is all made up. Who is experiencing this pain, or this pleasure? Certainly it seems to be a body, but Who is aware of this body? And certainly this awareness seems to come and go, but whenever you check, it is always here. Whenever you become aware of Awareness, it is always here. Mind Awake is pure Awareness. And the only Awareness is that of Wholeness, which is what Holiness is. And it is pure Beauty, pure Love, and pure Joy.
One of the first Bible verses I learned as a child was the famous Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is One. And you shall the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." To be in alignment with the world of differences, this is interpreted as being something we have to do. We have to work at being good, work at loving God. But after studying A Course in Miracles for many years I have gradually come to know that it is a statement of fact. God is One Mind, and that Mind is Who We Really Are. This Mind is Whole, Holy, and wholly Loving. It can only be known when the need to pretend that everything is separate and different falls away. And this need falls away when we want to know the Truth more than we want to hang on to the carefully constructed ideas and judgements of the world around us.
As the earlier quote reminds us, our purpose here is to finally see the world through our own Holiness. As we begin to see that there is only Mind, we begin to accept that this One Mind is our true vision. This begins the process of mental housecleaning that The Course calls forgiveness. And as the mirror of the mind is swept clean of the compulsion to judge and see differences, all that remains is the Beauty of Holiness.
Showing posts with label One Mind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label One Mind. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Monday, March 25, 2013
As Common as Grass
"Therefore the Master says... I let go of all desire for the common good, and the good becomes common as grass." -- Tao te Ching, p. 57; Stephen Mitchell Translation
"Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 6:1-2
What seems to come naturally in our lives is evidently not really natural. For example, babies aren't born with the ability to sing an Aria, or a pop song. But singing feels natural to me. If I inquire honestly though, it took a lot of practicing as a child and then as an adult to get to the point where it feels so automatic. Reading the above quotations has me thinking about just what is natural, what is common and ordinary? If Goodness and Miracles are actually what is common and natural, then we have done a bang-up job of obscuring the Truth with a lot of the un-natural and un-common.
A Course in Miracles explains that defenses are the costliest of habits. They obscure the ever-present Goodness and perfection of our true Self. And what are defenses? They are thoughts, perceptions, habits, projections... all to distract the awareness and attention from the perfection of Self. All with the common attribute of dividing and dissecting the awareness into multitudes of judgements about what is good, what is bad, what is me, what is them, what is here, what is there... and on and on and on. It's the original and ultimate defamation of character.
But what remains when these defenses are forgiven and released is the natural perfection of our Christ Self. The miracle is natural because the Christ is our reality. The miracle reveals what has always been effortlessly true, and so is the most natural thing in the world. All that is required of us is the willingness to let our judgements go, to forgive our false witness to the Son of God. We can twist ourselves into un-natural and un-worthy caricatures, but we can never make them true. Who we are remains holy... wholly innocent and free, eternally One in the Mind of God.
"All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother, or God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section III, 2:1
"Miracles are natural. When they do not occur, something has gone wrong." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 6:1-2
What seems to come naturally in our lives is evidently not really natural. For example, babies aren't born with the ability to sing an Aria, or a pop song. But singing feels natural to me. If I inquire honestly though, it took a lot of practicing as a child and then as an adult to get to the point where it feels so automatic. Reading the above quotations has me thinking about just what is natural, what is common and ordinary? If Goodness and Miracles are actually what is common and natural, then we have done a bang-up job of obscuring the Truth with a lot of the un-natural and un-common.
A Course in Miracles explains that defenses are the costliest of habits. They obscure the ever-present Goodness and perfection of our true Self. And what are defenses? They are thoughts, perceptions, habits, projections... all to distract the awareness and attention from the perfection of Self. All with the common attribute of dividing and dissecting the awareness into multitudes of judgements about what is good, what is bad, what is me, what is them, what is here, what is there... and on and on and on. It's the original and ultimate defamation of character.
But what remains when these defenses are forgiven and released is the natural perfection of our Christ Self. The miracle is natural because the Christ is our reality. The miracle reveals what has always been effortlessly true, and so is the most natural thing in the world. All that is required of us is the willingness to let our judgements go, to forgive our false witness to the Son of God. We can twist ourselves into un-natural and un-worthy caricatures, but we can never make them true. Who we are remains holy... wholly innocent and free, eternally One in the Mind of God.
"All your difficulties stem from the fact that you do not recognize yourself, your brother, or God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 3, Section III, 2:1
Monday, February 25, 2013
Poverty
"Projection occurs when you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can fill it with your own ideas instead of Truth... you believe that what is perfect can be rendered imperfect or lacking." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section I, 1:7, 10
Poverty is defined as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. It implies scantiness and insufficiency in worldly terms. And there has long been a notion that taking a vow of poverty in the world helps one more easily attain heavenly riches or enlightenment, oneness with God. Since it doesn't seem to work (religious orders are not known for their enlightened teachers or members), we might do well to question the whole premise, don't you think?
As the above quote from A Course in Miracles reminds us, the appearance of lack in all its disguises is the projection of a belief about ourselves... that we are apart from God, our True Self, and all of creation, and that we have and do lack wholeness because of it. We deeply cling to the belief that we can and do regularly make wrong choices and screw things up. And so this is projected over and over in the world as apparent poverty of mind, body, and spirit... in ourselves, and in the world around us. There simply isn't any difference. There's only one Son of God dreaming of separation and lack and crucifixion over and over and over again, in millions of seemingly different forms and personas.
There is One Mind, One Self, and so the way we see ourselves is how we out-picture the apparent world. And how we see the world and those who populate our phenomenal world is clearly a mirror of the beliefs we hold dear. Since those beliefs are untruths, it's a hell of a mirror.
"Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe, even for an instant, that there is another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come. To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. He does not realize that he makes this world, for there is no world outside of him." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section III, 5:1-2, 4-5, 6:1, 7
The Truth is we are One with everything we think we lack. And what could be missing from Oneness, which is Whole and Complete in every way?
"Perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 56; 1:5
Poverty is defined as the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support. It implies scantiness and insufficiency in worldly terms. And there has long been a notion that taking a vow of poverty in the world helps one more easily attain heavenly riches or enlightenment, oneness with God. Since it doesn't seem to work (religious orders are not known for their enlightened teachers or members), we might do well to question the whole premise, don't you think?
As the above quote from A Course in Miracles reminds us, the appearance of lack in all its disguises is the projection of a belief about ourselves... that we are apart from God, our True Self, and all of creation, and that we have and do lack wholeness because of it. We deeply cling to the belief that we can and do regularly make wrong choices and screw things up. And so this is projected over and over in the world as apparent poverty of mind, body, and spirit... in ourselves, and in the world around us. There simply isn't any difference. There's only one Son of God dreaming of separation and lack and crucifixion over and over and over again, in millions of seemingly different forms and personas.
There is One Mind, One Self, and so the way we see ourselves is how we out-picture the apparent world. And how we see the world and those who populate our phenomenal world is clearly a mirror of the beliefs we hold dear. Since those beliefs are untruths, it's a hell of a mirror.
"Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe, even for an instant, that there is another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come. To identify with the ego is to attack yourself and make yourself poor. That is why everyone who identifies with the ego feels deprived. He does not realize that he makes this world, for there is no world outside of him." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section III, 5:1-2, 4-5, 6:1, 7
The Truth is we are One with everything we think we lack. And what could be missing from Oneness, which is Whole and Complete in every way?
"Perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 56; 1:5
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