Allowing Growth and Change

"For my ally is The Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life it creates, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel The Force around you: here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere..." -- Master Yoda in Star Wars, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage. Every day begin the task anew." -- St. Francis de Sales

As you know, a couple of weeks ago I heard the Voice direct me to rest for a bit from this blog. Yesterday, I heard to begin again. I love the above quote from St. Francis de Sales, since it reminds me of a quote from A Course in Miracles: "Only absolute patience brings immediate results." Resting requires patience. But so does busyness. I find that when there is a lot going on and a lot to do, patience is the quiet resting in the midst of it all. Patience is how we rediscover the Peace and Joy of our True Being.

I've noticed, both in myself and in the people I speak with every day, that we think it's up to us to decide when to do something or when not to. It's so easy to rationalize our own resistance as guidance. "It shouldn't be this hard," we say. Or, "I can't do that, I'm not able to do that, that's just not me, it's just not the right time, it's not meant to be..." etc., etc., etc. Who is judging that? The Holy Spirit, our True Self, never sees through such limiting eyes. To the Holy Spirit, we are limitless Beings, luminous Beings (as Master Yoda said), not this crude matter that needs to protect and defend its turf and its way of life and its body and its (fill in the blank). God is everywhere, including in the people and things we are resisting and defending against. What could there be to fear, or to resist? Only if we are cherishing our limitations can such scenarios appear fearful in our own projections.

Jeshua ben Joseph said that when someone asks us to walk a mile with them, we should walk two miles. Why would he say such a thing? It seems to our ego selves that this is co-dependent, doormat behavior. But you see, when our perceptions are steeped in the belief in sacrifice, we can't see or hear. Which Jesus knew very well. He told us that unless we lose our life, we will never find it. We have to lose our most cherished perceptions and materially valued constructs before we can hear the inner meaning of Christ's words. To the ego, there is always a yes or a no, a right or a wrong, a this or a that. It sees only in binary terms, blinking on and off, on and off. Here today, gone tomorrow.

The Truth is never this or that, never yes or no, never right or wrong. It includes it ALL, as it really is... a Unified Whole, forever One. As long as we continue to see what happens to us, or the people that pull at us, or the tasks that present themselves to us, as 'other,' we are still caught in the dream, in the ego's binary system, still believing in a split existence, separate from God, separate from our True Self. Jesus was giving us the easiest, quickest route to healing that imagined split... by seeing that when we sacrifice our body or our time or our own notion of how things should be, WE ARE NOT GIVING UP ANYTHING AT ALL. How else will we finally accept that none of it is real? We are never having patience with anyone or anything at all... we are always and only dealing with our own projections. Patience is the willingness to allow it all, and thus to allow the growth and change within the dream that expands into Awakening to the One Self that is the Truth of Being.

As long as we argue for our limitations and defend our self-limiting choices, little real growth is possible. This is the inner meaning of Jesus' statement, and the reason he said that narrow is The Path to Awakening, and few choose to walk it. We are limitless, luminous Beings, reflections of the Allness of God. When we say no to any aspect of life, we are saying no to Self.

"But there are times when it's not healthy to do whatever someone asks," we argue. Who is deciding that? Who is judging that? The point here is not whether or not we think we should do something, or even if we do it. The point is to listen to the Voice for God, the Voice of the Holy Spirit... and to know that when are told to say no, it is not because of any judgement or limitation. There are no judgements or limitations that have any meaning or effect at all. It will always be because the Holy Spirit sees the Truth about the person or situation, and knows them as limitless and luminous too. There are no real needs, and yet when we listen to the Voice, all perceived needs and limitations dissolve and resolve as effortlessly as a breathing, for everyone.

Are you arguing for your limitations? Are you looking out at the world from an imagined separate identity, trying to preserve a way of life or justify your defendedness? This is the condition of the imagined separated self. Patience means seeing this clearly, without judgement, and knowing it has no reality, no real effect on anything at all. You aren't really doing anything. Patience means being willing to drop every thought of how it should be, every thought of who did what to who, every thought of good or bad or right or wrong... every defense, every justification, every need to look good or right, every fear of exposure... and allow God, the only real Force for growth and change within the dream, to have His way with you.

"Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so. Yet you give power as the laws of this world interpret giving; as you give, you lose. It is not up to you to give power at all. Power is of God, given by Him and reawakened by the Holy Spirit, Who knows that as you give, you gain." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section IV, 1:1-4

Infinite Patience

"Now you must learn that only infinite patience produces immediate effects. This it the way in which time is exchanged for eternity. Infinite patience calls upon Infinite Love, and by producing results now it renders time unnecessary." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 5, Section VI, 12:1-3

"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." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 5, Section VII, 1:1-4

I don't know about you, but patience has never been my favorite word. I have been notoriously impatient all my life. Now that I am 57 years young, I have more tolerance and patience than before, but I would still not call myself a patient person. Of course, this is a judgment made through the world's eyes, based on actions and reactions within a story, by a fictional identity of 'me.'

The above quote from ACIM is talking about absolute patience, not patience as the world uses it. In the world, if you are not putting up with whatever is going on with a smile on your face, or at least a long-suffering sigh, you are impatient. If you want things to happen right away, you are impatient. If you aren't always pretending to be O.K. with what is going on, you are impatient. So the translation for the world's notion of patience is to be fake, inauthentic, a pretender. Hmmmm... sounds like the ego to me.

Absolute patience, on the other hand, is the recognition that there is no time and space, no world as we imagine it. ACIM tells us, "The Holy Spirit, who speaks for God in time, also knows that time is meaningless. He reminds you of this in every passing moment of time, because it is His special function to return you to eternity." We are never asked to be anything but real. We are never asked to be anything at all... we simply BE as God created us. This requires no effort, and is why absolute patience has immediate effects. There is no pretending, no false identities and stories between us and Who We Are.

Do we actually imagine that all our posturing and pretending and putting on of identities has any real effect? No wonder we feel guilty all the time and project this out into an imaginary world. It's all so exhausting and intolerable. ACIM says that "Guilt feelings are the preservers of time. They induce fears of retaliation or abandonment, and thus ensure that the future will be like the past. This is the ego's continuity." In the bad dream we call the world, we feel guilty every time we don't act according to the judgments of our family, our friends, or the world as we imagine it. This is THE smokescreen of the ego. And it will go on and on and on, like the energizer bunny, until we decide to forgive our illusions and return to sanity.

We are offered complete release from our delusion, every moment. In ACIM, the Voice for God tells us that "God offers you the continuity of eternity... When you choose to make this exchange, you will simultaneously exchange guilt for Joy, viciousness for Love, and pain for Peace. My role is to unchain your will and set it free. Your ego cannot accept this freedom, and will oppose it at every possible moment in every possible way."

Infinite patience is always available to us, and it has nothing to do with how we act within the world. Because we are Spirit, everything takes place in consciousness. It has everything to do with forgiving and letting go of our projections, the so-called good and the so-called bad. It has everything to do with forgiving and letting go of our projected identities and relationships. Infinite patience is the willingness to let it all go, so Reality can dawn once again on our unclouded and open minds.

"I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him. I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 5, Section VII, 6:10-11

Faithfulness

"To give up all problems to One Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely. And that alone is faithfulness. Nothing but that really deserves the name. Yet each degree, however small, is worth achieving. True faithfulness, however, does not deviate." -- A Course in Miracles

One answer to all perceived problems, whatever the appearance, whatever the issue, whatever the person, place, or thing involved? In this world of complexity and conundrums, this seems more than impossible... it seems naive and totally removed from reality at best, and downright idiotic at worst. We respect complicated, interesting people and music and books... we respect jobs and tasks that are difficult and demanding. We feel like we've really done something when we face a challenge successfully. We build muscle by applying progressive resistance. So how can the above definition of true faithfulness be applicable to anything other than a fantasy existence, a kind of pseudo-spirituality that is totally removed from reality?

I love that A Course in Miracles is so clear and unequivocal. There is no mistaking what it says. You either give everything, your Whole Mind and Heart to Truth, or you give nothing. It's all of a piece. Commitment is not wishy-washy... it's totality. Without this Wholeness of Mind, hearing the Voice and resting in God is impossible. And so true faithfulness is the clarity that choice is always total. The appearance of delaying a choice is already a choice for the illusion of a divided mind and soul. The real and only answer to every situation is One.

Faithfulness is remembering with one's whole Being that All things are echoes of the Voice of God. Remembering that we cannot judge... we can merely believe our made-up stories about it all. Faithfulness is seeing through God's eyes, hearing only His Voice. Faithfulness is listening only to God's Voice.

"Let Him be Judge of everything that seems to happen to you in this world. His lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between illusions and the Truth. He will remove all faith that you have placed in pain, disaster, suffering, and loss. You will no longer doubt that only good can come to you who are Beloved of God, for He will judge all happenings and teach the single lesson that they all contain. He will reinterpret all you see, and all occurrences, each circumstance, and every happening that seems to touch on you in any way from His One frame of reference, wholly unified and sure. For your life is not a part of anything you see. It stands beyond the body and the world, past every witness for unholiness, within the Holy, Holy as ItSelf. In everyone and everything His Voice would speak to you of nothing but your Self and your Creator, Who is One with Him."

Hearing One Voice

"The Holy Spirit is the Communication Link between God the Father and His separated Sons. If you will listen to His Voice you will know that you cannot either hurt or be hurt, and that many need your blessing to help them hear this for themselves." -- A Course in Miracles

"When you hear only One Voice you are never called on to sacrifice... the Holy Spirit is One, and anyone who listens is inevitably led to demonstrate His way for all." -- A Course in Miracles

What are the voices we listen to and follow every day? There are the voices of our parents, living or dead. The voices of our children are with us, whether we speak with them today or not. The voices of those we have disagreed with, argued with, judged in any way. The voices we hear in line at the store, the voices we hear on television or radio, the voices of revered teachers or mentors... the list goes on and on. Within the dream we call life, there is no unity in the voices we hear. They each seem to represent a unique and separate point of view. We listen with a sense of compulsion to the voices from the past, as if we owe them loyalty and our very lives. We listen with fascination to each new voice, especially the new ones... maybe this voice knows the way. Maybe this voice will give me something more.

Actually, there is absolutely no real difference in any of the voices we follow through the maze every day. Some dreams are more entertaining than others, some give us a temporary sense of power or vanity, some give us the illusion of love and acceptance, stories of specialness and exclusion, some give us feelings of powerlessness and need... but there is no real difference. A dream voice is still a dream voice, and not anything or anyone at all. Does this sound like a stretch to you? Then let's look at it another way, to see that it really is the way of it. Not one voice we hear in the world is true.

If you are trying to make a decision in your everyday life, and you research several different points of view about it, then finally make a decision based on the one that seems most valid, do you ever know for sure? Don't questions always arise when something happens that seems to contradict your choice (which it always will)? We stick by many of our choices stubbornly, because we have an addiction to being right about the voices we listen to... that is a law of the ego, the individual self. But A Course in Miracles tells us this is not our true will... and there is a way to listen to what we really want, in a unified fashion. We can listen to One Voice, the Voice of our True Self.

In A Course in Miracles, Jeshua ben Joseph says it this way: "The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. His is the Voice that calls you back to Where You were before and will Be again. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God's Sons are as equal as learners as they are as Sons. You are the Kingdom of Heaven, but you have let the belief in darkness enter your mind and so you need a new light. The Holy Spirit is the radiance that you must let banish the idea of darkness."

Listening to One Voice, hearing only that One Voice... in all spiritual traditions we are given the same instruction, to love God, the One, with all our our heart and mind and soul and strength. Listening to something or someone is giving them the value of your attention, giving them credence. And there is only One Voice that is worth anything at all. Hearing that One Voice is the only thing worthy of total commitment and trust.

"It is possible even in this world to listen to One Voice. If you are part of God and the Sonship as One, you cannot be limited to the self the ego sees. His Voice will direct you very specifically. You will be told all you need to know." -- A Course in Miracles

Getting Rid of It

"The world you perceive is a world of separation... you have no control over this world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless 'laws,' and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it." -- A Course in Miracles

Regular readers will remember this quote from Thursday's blog. It has been sticking with me, showing all the exceptions I seem to have in mind to its truth. "Without meaning of any kind" is a pretty unequivocal statement. Surely there is meaning in my new-born grandson's smile. Surely there is meaning in my study of Truth. Surely there is meaning in... fill in the blanks.

A Course in Miracles is full of what Jeshua ben Joseph called 'hard sayings.' He always said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." In other words, it is not for the wishy-washy seeker of truth. You either are willing to hear, or you are not. You can't have it both ways. A man cannot serve two masters.

The good news is that we only need a small willingness that what we regarded as meaningful be wrong. ACIM never says the real world is meaningless. It says that the projected world we call home is meaningless, chaotic, and unstable. Who could argue with that, really? Even what we most love can morph in an instant into ash. Is this meaning? Could this be love? No wonder we walk around with such fear. Like a Halloween fun-house, the projected world is an ever-shifting illusion that is totally unpredictable, and pretty darn scary.

I can see how even the things I think I want in this world are based on what I don't want. I can see how meaningless this makes even moments of pleasure, that are as fleeting as a cloud passing across the sky. I can see how getting rid of Oneness and finding uniqueness and specialness is the great preoccupation of the world. An entire universe based on the attempt to get rid of what IS. If this is not an insane and meaningless preoccupation, then I don't know what is.

So what IS meaningful? A Course in Miracles reassures us, "God did not create a meaningless world." The problem lies with our preoccupation with the meaningless. We simply won't be still and leave a clear and open space for what is Real and True to be revealed as effortlessly present, as Meaning ItSelf. We simply won't let go of what we think we know and who we think we are long enough to SEE what IS.

My grandson is no less precious without my story about him... he is more precious, more real, because I am experiencing Being directly, rather than through a projected filter or story. My search for Truth is no less comforting without making it all noble and spiritual... it is more precious, more real, because I am experiencing Being directly, and the journey is its own delight, without making it anything special at all. The world is more precious as we realize we were mistaken in our projections... and that getting rid of it is not possible. It is our very Self.

"I am the Holy Home of God Himself. I am the Heaven where His Love resides." -- A Course in Miracles

Peace

"What is the Peace of God? No more than this; the simple understanding that His Will is wholly without opposite... 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. God's Peace is the condition for His Will. Attain His Peace, and you remember Him." -- A Course in Miracles

Oneness. Allness. Infinite Wholeness. All-encompassing Divine Love. Bliss. As the above quote says, the simple understanding that there is nothing else, no opposite anywhere, ever. This is the Peace of God. No exceptions enter, for what could be outside this Oneness? No opposites exist, for what could oppose Allness?

We all have glimpses of peace. Restful evenings listening to the frogs, quiet moments with a cup of tea, crystalline moments of pause in the midst of strenuous activity, and the nurturing times gazing into a warm fire after a hard day. From our limited perspective, these are very good times. But they are all laced with the knowledge that they are a time apart, and that they are temporary. The world is based on this very tension, the dance of opposites and contrast.

There is no contrast in the Peace of God. It is Omnipresent and is not dependent on anything. We have only to remember that God IS, and that God's Will IS, wholly without opposite. We need do nothing. Just rest in this, our true happiness and our true Self. This is not some alien will forced on us from without. This is an inside job.

Knowing this Oneness as our true Self is the most practical thing we can do in the world. It releases us from a false sense of separation and responsibility about it all. It allows our true nature of Wholeness to become our way of Being in the world. And our lives reflect this Wholeness effortlessly, through our Awakening and the Awakening of those around us. The joy of this is beyond measure, and cannot be measured externally by circumstances or conditions.

The Peace of God is Home. Nothing else but Home will ever satisfy us. The fake peace we have settled for up until now is not worthy of us. As ACIM reminds us, "Nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you."

"The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will for God's Son what his Father wills for him. Every dark lesson teaches this, in one form or another. And each bright lesson with which the Holy Spirit will replace the dark ones you do not accept, teaches you that you will with Father and His Son." -- A Course in Miracles

Love

"Everyone who believes the ego is salvation seems to be intensely engaged in the search for love. And since the ego teaches that it is your identification, its guidance leads you to a journey which must end in perceived self-defeat. For the ego cannot love... The ego will therefore distort love, and teach you that love really calls forth the responses the ego can teach. Follow its teaching, then, and you will search for love, but will not recognize it. Do you realize that the ego must set you on a journey which cannot but lead to a sense of futility and depression? The Holy Spirit offers you another promise, and one that will lead to Joy... The Holy Spirit's Love is your strength, for yours is divided and therefore not real... Only Love is strong because it is undivided." -- A Course in Miracles

An undivided love seems unfathomable to my human self, even as a mother and grandmother. Even knowing the unconditional love that I feel and consciously extend even when it hurts, it is certainly not undivided. There is always a sense that I am extending love in spite of something hurtful. And the very belief that there is something hurtful is my own dividedness, the separation itself.

A Course in Miracles says,"The world you perceive is a world of separation... You have no control over this world you made. It is not a world of will because it is governed by the desire to be unlike God, and this desire is not will. The world you made is therefore totally chaotic, governed by arbitrary and senseless 'laws,' and without meaning of any kind. For it is made out of what you do not want, projected from your mind because you are afraid of it." Yikes. This gives me great pause... because this means that EVERYTHING I perceive is made out of what I do not want, including and most especially the things and people I think I like and want. Yikes indeed.

The world as I know it all proceeds from the original lie, the thought that I could ever be separate from God and special in my separateness... the desire to be special and set apart. Since ideas can never be apart from their source, even the most beautiful projections in this world are based on that original lie, and are therefore unstable, changing, and simply illusory in nature. Nothing is what it seems.

The good news is that what ACIM calls the Real World can be perceived instead of what I have made. This is the miracle that exists for every thought and projection I have. As Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God." Because ideas can never be apart from their source, I can never be other than in the Mind of God, my true Source, my true Self. And every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God, every True Idea, is the Love and Joy that sustains me in reality.

Love is not something I do, or something I give, or something I get. Love is Who I Am. I have never been anyplace but Home in Divine Love. Thank God. And the Holy Spirit, the Voice of my True Self, is my guide and my strength and my sufficiency in every circumstance and relationship within this dream we call life.

"You who have tried to learn what you do not want should take heart, for although the curriculum you set yourself is depressing indeed, it is merely ridiculous if you look at it. You need only offer God your undivided attention. Everything else will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles

Hearing One Voice

"If you will listen with an open mind... then you will hear the mighty Voice of Truth, quiet in Power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages. 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 not afraid today to circumvent the voices of the world... Hear one Voice today." -- A Course in Miracles

I'm late posting today. It's my birthday, and I self-indulgently slept in and had a glorious morning of allowing myself to be loved and pampered. The rest of the day promises to be a continuation of this hedonism. And what, you may well ask, does this have to do with listening to God's Voice?

So often I have had judgmental thoughts that only certain actions and certain ways of being are 'spiritual.' But as ACIM reminds me, it is never about externals. It is all within the realm of mind, and Truth can only be revealed here. It is our thoughts that have to be corrected. Externals are truly irrelevant. In truth there is no world as we imagine it. Not one thought we hold about the world or that the world holds about us is true. Not one relationship is true as we imagine it. Only the still, small Voice in the midst of things guides us truly though the maze of our own imaginings. Only the Voice guides us in deciding so that only awakening is served. To listen to any other voice, the voice of any imagined self, is to suffer. And as God is One, His Voice speaks of Oneness and Joy without limits. It guides us to awaken to Who We Are, as Love ItSelf. Whatever It reveals, wherever It leads, It is always a blessing and always Loving.

So when I hear the Voice say, "Go back to sleep," I listen. When I hear the Voice say, "Sit back down and read this," I listen. When I hear the Voice say, "Take time and enjoy yourself," I listen. When I hear that I am His Very Self, I listen with Joy and tears of gratitude. No story of my little ego-self holds the slightest interest in comparison with this feeling of Home and Wholeness.

So on this, my supposed birth day, I am more aware than ever of my only need... to listen and hear only One Voice. Today and every day this Voice is Loving me, as me. My true Self.

"Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical." -- Mary Baker Eddy

The World of Ideas

"Ideas leave not their source, and their effects but seem to be apart from them. Ideas are of the mind. What is projected out, and seems to be external to the mind, is not outside at all, but an effect of what is in, and has not left its source. Perception's laws must be reversed, because they are reversals of the laws of Truth. The laws of Truth forever will be True, and cannot be reversed; yet can be seen as upside down. And this must be corrected where the illusion of reversal lies. It is impossible that one illusion be less amendable to Truth than are the rest. No illusion has any truth in it." -- A Course in Miracles

"Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"Cause and effect are One, not separate. God wills that you learn what always has been true: that He created you as part of Him, and this must still be true because ideas leave not their source. Such is creation's law; that each idea the mind conceives but adds to its abundance, never takes away." -- A Course in Miracles

I find it truly fascinating that some people think ideas are intellectualizations, and that reality is living life spontaneously, without thinking about it. "You think too much," is something I have heard a lot of over the years. Has it ever occurred to you that eating is an idea that dawns on you as an urge, and that the urge arises because of the idea that people need to eat? And that there are scientifically documented cases of people who lived for years NOT eating? So what is eating or anything else except an idea, a mental construct?

A Course in Miracles reminds us over and over that ideas leave not their source. In other words, a true idea can be traced directly to the One True Source. And every other idea can be traced back to the nothingness that is their source. The reason nothing can be really known and counted on in the world as we know it is that it is based completely on nothingness, on fabrications and obfuscations so grandiose that our eyes glaze over and we just accept it rather than face ourselves. It is a self-created set-up. It is all made up.

Into this grand game of self-hide-and-don't-seek, the miracle shines. ACIM says, "God gave to all illusions that were made another purpose that would justify a miracle, whatever form they took. In every miracle all healing lies, for God gave answer to them all as one. And what is One to Him must be the same." So regardless of what idea you are looking at... no matter what scary situation looks real, no matter what person seems separate and hurtful, no matter what body part is hurting... the miracle of returning the mind to Source reveals the Truth of our Being as eternally One and safe and Whole. Ideas leave not their Source. The Truth is true, and nothing else is true. The world of ideas is our salvation, because if we are willing to reverse ourselves and follow our ideas back to their source, we will always find our way Home. Thank God for our inquiring minds.

"A miracle can make no change at all. But it can make what always has been true be recognized by those who know it not; and by this little gift of Truth but let to be itself, the Son of God allowed to be himself, and all creation freed to call upon the Name of God as One." -- A Course in Miracles

Let There Be Light

"Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you... Then turn to Him and let Him teach you what need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as Love which has no opposite in you." -- A Course in Miracles

"And God said, 'Let there be light.' And there was Light." -- The Bible

"Miracles are seen in Light." -- A Course in Miracles

There is a huge difference in Vision and projection. Vision is what is seen through the Light of the unified mind, through Oneness. Projection is based on the fragmented reflection of light, like all shadows. It is not the Light. Vision is the closest thing to the Light we can experience in this dream world we call life.

Unified Light casts no shadows. Omnipresent Light reveals only ItSelf. As the above quote from ACIM points out, only through this Vision do we remember our Self as Love without change or shadows or opposites. Love and Light without darkness.

As I was meditating last night, it dawned that there is really no other prayer so pure as 'let there be Light.' When I say this prayer, I simply asking for what IS to be restored to my awareness. I am asking for the shadows and hidden places to be illuminated with Awareness, and that the Beauty that I Am be restored to my Sight. I am simply asking to really SEE, perhaps for the first time. I am praying the only true prayer.

What is True and Real and Forever is what is revealed in Light. What is hidden in the shadow of our many projections is simply the idea of separation from the One, replicating like a computer virus. The fact that we project our fears onto God is simply a defense against the Truth. God is Love, and Light, and Truth. There is nothing to fear in Reality. Only our illusions keep us caught in this insane circle of shadows. Let there be Light.

"Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of Light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality." -- Mary Baker Eddy

Opportunity

"Truth and illusion have no connection. This will remain forever true, however much you seek to connect them. But illusions are always connected, as is Truth. Each is united, a complete thought system, but totally disconnected to each other. And to perceive this is to recognize where separation is, and where it must be healed. The result of an idea is never separate from its source." -- A Course in Miracles

"You are of your father, Satan, who is a liar and the father of all lies." -- The Bible

Every day, every minute, we are projecting the world we see. When we sleep at night, we seem to project other worlds. Waking or sleeping, not one thing we see or experience is true. As ACIM puts it so unequivocally, "Not one thing in this world is true." That pretty much narrows it down. As ACIM explains it, the whole concept of Satan and illusion are extensions of the insane thought that we could somehow be separate from God, from Omnipresent Allness. Even the thinking mind can see the craziness of this if we just stop for a moment. Only wanting the world we live in to be true could cause us to believe it for even a fraction of a second. It's craziness.

Jeshua ben Joseph told us that this insane belief in illusory matter with a power other than God is the source of all suffering. He called it Satan, our collective belief in matter, and reminded us that Satan is a liar and the father of all lies. Out of this one error, this one ridiculous thought, whole fictional universes have mushroomed. This is the original movie studio, where every drama and comedy and romance and epic have been acted and re-enacted, for our viewing pleasure. We are very attached to suffering and crying and lusting and dying. We love projecting and blaming and praising and idolizing. All the stuff that dreams are made of. We worship dreams.

Out of this insane mix of distractions that hide our real motivations, there is a Voice for sanity. The Holy Spirit, the part of our mind that is always in communion with reality, our true Home in God, is quietly reminding us that this is not our Home. We are reminded that even in the midst of the dream we have a choice, and this choice has nothing at all to do with generating new and better dreams. It has everything to do with forgiving our part in the illusion and letting it go. It has everything to do with waking up. It has everything to do with recognizing each twist and turn and person in the dream as an opportunity to remember Who We Are. Choose once again.

I have discovered, as Jeshua and all of my teachers have tried to tell me for years (funny, but I really didn't want to hear this part for the longest time!), that the closer you get to really remembering Truth and seeing through the illusion, the scarier the dreams can get. I don't think this is in any way personal. It's simply that you are closer to the source of the lie of the separated self, and like all lies it fights for its delusional and illusory life. Only lies need defense. The Truth just IS.

The opportunity in every moment, in every situation, is to become aware of where our allegiance lies. We are always caught up in the dream of our own making, or resting in our true Self, in Oneness with God. Every dream is an opportunity to choose once again.

"Choose this day whom you shall serve... for man cannot serve two masters." -- The Bible

Oneness and Allness

"To be alone is to be separated from infinity, but how can this be if infinity has no end? No one can be beyond the limitless, because what has no limits must be everywhere. There are no beginnings and no endings in God, Whose universe is Himself. Can you exclude yourself from the universe, or from God Who is the universe? I and my Father are one with you, for you are part of Us. Do you really believe that part of God can be missing or lost to Him?" -- A Course in Miracles

Oneness is beyond what our minds can grasp. We can think about it, we can conceptualize it, we can make up stories and fantasies about it... but the mind which dissects, measures, compares, and analyzes by holding things separate and apart can never know itself as a part of the One.

Oneness requires a widening of perception. This is what I call 'widening back', like climbing a mountain for the perspective it brings. This is only a step in knowing Oneness. From a larger perspective, we start to see that it might just be true that all is One, and that nothing is what it seems. But what is required to know Oneness is to let go of wanting to be separate.

This longing for autonomy is the source of all suffering. The Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering... and what is desire but the longing for separate interests and special gratification? Even the desire to join with another person is based on individual preferences. In other words, we want what we want, as a separate being in a separated world. Who, what, and where are beside the point.

Desire is not bad or wrong. It's just that when you look at life from a separated mind, you suffer, subtly or obviously, sooner or later. Period. Because the separated mind is not Home. It's a lie, and not the Truth about Who You Are. How can Allness desire anything? How can Oneness desire more than its Allness?

The comfort in knowing the Allness of God and therefore our Self is beyond measure. As ACIM reminds us, we are forever free of all limits, safe and whole, and forever free to forgive our false perceptions and change our minds about the world.

"The ego made the world as it perceives it, but the Holy Spirit, the reinterpreter of what the ego made, sees the world as a teaching device for bringing you Home. Correct and learn, and be open to learning... You who made delay can leave time behind simply by recognizing that neither beginnings nor endings were created by the Eternal, Who placed no limits on His creation or upon those who create like Him. The laws of the Universe do not permit contradiction. What holds for God holds for you." -- A Course in Miracles

With My Whole Heart

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not to thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths." -- The Bible, Proverbs 3:5-6

"It is impossible to see two worlds." -- A Course in Miracles

There is a wonderful freedom in these words. I either trust with my whole heart or not at all. I either see it or I don't. There is really no in-between, although most of us live our lives moving our feet in a rapid dance between multiple illusory worlds.

There is also a challenge in these words. Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Narrow is the path that leads to Life, and few there are that walk thereon." ACIM says it this way: "All are called, but few choose to listen." The fine art of rationalization that is the ego's way seems to fog it all over, until it simply looks like we are surrendering to the way it is (how spiritual!)... when we are really doing exactly what we want while looking innocent and vulnerable; keeping our feet in both worlds while looking like we're taking the high road. Our very human guilt and compulsion remains intact, carefully disguised in busyness and altruism.

The deepest message in all of this, though, is that I have to make a stand at some point. I am either choosing to identify with the conditioned self that isn't even real, remaining a character in my own stories, or to know my Self as One with God, knowing God as All in All, Omnipresent, and nothing beside this Oneness... really knowing that wherever I stand is holy ground. Once this stand is taken, what question could remain? What could there be that is other than All?

How is this final choice ultimately made? As ACIM reminds us, "The real and the unreal are all there are to choose between, and nothing more than these. The world you see is proof you have already made a choice as all-embracing as its opposite." As the proverb reminds me, only choosing with my whole heart will do.

"Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the real and the unreal." -- Mary Baker Eddy

"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." -- A Course in Miracles

A Future Undisturbed

"Your present trust in Him is the defense that promises a future undisturbed, without a trace of sorrow, and with joy that constantly increases, as this life becomes a holy instant, set in time, but heeding only immortality. Let no defenses but your present trust direct the future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with the Truth that only your defenses would conceal." -- A Course in Miracles

I remember reading years ago, in Yogananda's "Autobiography of a Yogi," that God is ever-new joy. And then many years later hearing Gangaji say that there is no end to the deepening of Awareness of Self, of God. In the above quote from ACIM we are reminded once again that the joy we really are is constantly increasing, giving itself as only Love can. I find this so incredibly moving and comforting in my moments of forgetting. And as I allow myself to be comforted without defense, without any obstacles of thought, I am instantly Home in this expanding Love that is our real Life. Why would I defend myself against what brings me only joy and peace?

The answer to this lies in the conditioned fear of Love. Our whole world is constructed around it. It seems the chief tool for self-deception in this dream world is to act like we are seeking what we want to defend against. We keep looking, looking, and acting like we haven't a clue where it could be, or why we seem to find it and then lose it... so we have to look some more, until we despair of looking and declare that it never really existed. This could apply to most anything, because everything is just Love in disguise... and the disguise is of our own making.

I am not speaking theory here. Direct experience will show you that literally anything you are defending against is the Love you fear. If you are willing to try this as an experiment, the only thing you risk losing is your illusion of yourself and the world. So let's try it, O.K.?

Bring into your mind and heart whatever you most fear... it could be something you fear will happen, or something you fear to lose, or a person who troubles you. Whatever it is, allow all of this experience and the feelings that go with it into your awareness without resistance. Welcome it as you would an honored guest. At the same time, allow into your mind and heart whatever you think you most want... again, whatever it is, allow all of this experience and the feelings that come with it into your awareness without resistance, mingling now with what you most fear. There may be other things that rise into awareness as you do this, and welcome them too. Rest in this awareness of all of it within your own mind and heart. Just rest and let it all be. Now, I ask you... in this inclusive awareness, what is your experience?

When our true wholeness is experienced, all our illusions fall away, and only Love remains. A future undisturbed is the result of inclusion, not exclusion. Defenses never work because they are always and only trying to run from the Love that is Who We Really Are. And Who We Are is a given, and shines without effort and without obstruction in spite of our illusory attempts to disguise it and hide from it. ACIM calls this wholeness forgiveness, the letting go of all limited self-definition and the dissolving of the world as we know it. Only Love remains.

"Only perfect Love exists. If there is fear, it produces a state that does not exist." -- A Course in Miracles

Organic Patience

"Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety. All he sees is certain outcome, at a time perhaps unknown to him as yet, but not in doubt. The time will be as right as is the answer. Patience is natural to those who trust." -- A Course in Miracles

As most of you know by now, when I use the word organic I am using it in the natural sense, something that arises and emerges spontaneously out of its own nature. Like a seed sprouting from within itself, without apparent cause or motivation or design. In this sense, trust and patience are like our true seed-selves. They are attributes of Self that echo Who We Really are within the many storied dream we call life. And they are organic in the sense that they are effortlessly present when we drop our stories of who, what, and where... and they seem to sprout within us and give us new vision and inspiration to carry on within this world of dreams.

Regardless of the circumstances in which we find ourselves, organic patience is a core resource we all have, an attribute of Self we all share. This gives us the ability to gaze on what we most resist and see through it, to know that it is not reality, and that Who We Are remains untouched and unchangingly Whole, Loving, and in Peace and Joy. The bliss of this is beyond measure. Who We Are is beyond measure.

ACIM tells us unequivocally, "Nothing the world believes is true." Impatience always arises out of the illusion that there is truth in what we see. If all is our own projection, and we have never been apart from God, from the One, then not one thing that appears within our dream world can be true. The Allness of God and our eternal Oneness with Him is our only reality. Within this One, our true Self, there can be no lack or suffering, no opposites at all. "What is all-encompassing can have no opposites."

Organic patience arises from the Awareness of our Oneness with God, and the certainty that arises from this intuitive knowing. Organic patience is this ancient knowing we have always carried within us. ACIM reminds us, "As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with all transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feelings and alterations in conditions of body or mind."

"No longer doubt that only good can come to you who are beloved of God." -- A Course in Miracles