See No Evil

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil." -- 17th Century Japanese Proverb

Sometimes the oddest things inspire me.  This proverb, which comes from a carving above the door of the Tosho-gu Shrine in Nikko, Japan, has been a part of our culture as long as I can remember.  It's one of those things that everybody says, but nobody actually does.  There was a hilarious movie (See No Evil, Hear No Evil with Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder) that played on that very thing.  Part of their promo line was, "The blind guy couldn't see it.  The deaf guy couldn't hear it."  Obviously when you're blind, you have no choice but to see no evil... or anything else.

But of course this proverb refers to a deeper meaning, one that is embedded in collective consciousness, even though we choose to ignore it.  There is no real evil.  There is only an upside-down projection, and our reaction to those projections (after all, the word 'evil' is the word 'live' spelled backwards!).  Action (projection) and reaction to our own projections maintains the momentum, and is the karmic wheel of suffering referred to in eastern philosophy.  

Another way to put it is in terms of quantum physics.  There is nothing there until we look at it.  It is only energy, waves of energy, until we look and project that something is there.  This is called the complementary principle, and says that it is the observer that creates the appearance (particles) upon observation (projection).  Until then, everything remains pure potential, pure unconditioned energy.

Jeshua ben Joseph, whose birth we're celebrating at this time of year, said it this way: "Resist not evil." (Matthew 5:39)  And later in the Bible we're told to "Overcome evil with Good." (Romans 12:21) You could paraphrase this to say, you can't fight evil by seeing it (that is what gives it the illusion of reality!)... but you can dissolve the reality of illusion by knowing this Truth and seeing only the Good, which is another name for God. 

I found this passage in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy: "We must learn that evil is the awful deception and unreality of existence.  Good is not helpless; nor are the so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit Secondary.  There is but One primal cause [GOD, Who is All-Good].  Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only Cause.  The spiritual Reality is the scientific fact in all things." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 207, Lines 9, 20, and 27

The scientific fact in all things is Spiritual Reality.  Quantum physics couches it in different terms, but says the same thing.  It really is the scientific reality... and spiritual wisdom has been telling us this in all cultures and all languages for all of recorded history.  This everyday proverb is a good example. 

But how?  How do we do this?  Well, how do you see anything differently?  You can change your mind about a person, so that one who was previously someone you liked or even loved, you now find offensive, or vice versa.  What changed?  Your mind.  Who changed it?  You did.  You can change your mind about most anything, and do on a daily basis.  The problem is not the ability to change how we see things.  It's what we're basing those choices on.

We are constantly looking 'out there' for reasons and validity, not remembering that it's our projection in the first place... we're reacting to our own mental constructs, not reality.  These 'false gods' give us the illusion of not being responsible... but at what price?  If we base our changing mind on trying to manipulate or change something 'out there', we're basing our choices on phantoms, on illusions, the false gods and idols of the world we've projected  by our split mind.  However, if we first understand the Truth of Being, that we live and move and have our being in the Allness and Oneness of God, of All-Good, then that's all we can project and see.  We begin to take responsibility for sight, and understand the Biblical injunction to "Choose this day whom you shall serve."

A Course in Miracles happily reminds us, "The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be.  Be never fearful of temptation [evil] then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again." (ACIM Chapter 31, Section VIII, 4:1-2)  And again, "You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see." (ACIM Chapter 31, Section VIII, 6:1)  We have a choice about what we project and therefore see in this world... but no choice in Reality.  Our Reality is safe in God.  To see no evil in this world is the result of remembering that Truth. 

"Nothing inharmonious can enter being, for Life IS God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 228, Line 5

"Learn then, the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words:  I am as God created me.  His Son can suffer nothing.  And I am His Son." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 5:1-4

Repeat the Sounding Joy!

"Metaphysics is above physics, and matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions.  The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the Divine Mind.  Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 269, Lines 11-15

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day.  It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16.6:1-2

Joy to the World!  It's the time of year that we hear that phrase (and the word joy) a lot.  To most people, though, it seems like just a word.  Ask yourself, what is joy?  Don't most of us think about personal gratification, about getting something we want?  We think of enjoyment, good consumers that we are.  But joy is a metaphysical reality, and has nothing to do with physical enjoyment or gratification.  Joy is pure BEING... or to quote Paramahansa Yogananda, "God is ever-new Joy."  So Joy is an attribute of God, and of our Being as we reflect our Source.

I lost a beloved canine companion this week... Claire, my soul-friend for nearly 15 years (http://www.clairefoundation.ws/).  As her transition drew near, the cats and other dogs would check on her frequently, and lay quietly nearby.  I noticed that the sadness I felt at seeming to lose her was transformed shortly before she passed.  The very air felt lighter and freer.  The Divine Idea that Claire IS had expanded and was free... and I could FEEL the joy she felt, that she feels.  The Christmas Carol sings: "While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy!"  That's what it felt like... that all of creation was a little lighter, a little brighter, through her passing.  The joy of remembering Who We Are... and the Christ is born again.

Thank God for all of creation, to remind us... the rocks and hills and plains, the animals, and each other... repeat the sounding Joy! 

"God's Will for you is perfect happiness, because there is no sin, and suffering is causeless.  Joy is just, and pain is but the sign you have misunderstood yourself." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101, 6:1-2

Inclusive Vision

"There is no place for hell within a world whose loveliness can yet be so intense and so inclusive it is but a step from there to Heaven. To your tired eyes I bring a vision of a different world, so new and clean and fresh you will forget the pain and sorrow that you saw before." -- A Course in Miracles; T31, VIII. 8:3-4

"Truth is not fragmentary, disconnected, unsystematic, but concentrated and immovably fixed in Principle. The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action." -- Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy; p.93, lines 11-16

I love that the words 'intense' and 'inclusive' are used in the same sentence, in the above quote from ACIM. It is no easy task to return our minds to inclusive thinking. It requires focus and willing discipline... the willingness to surrender our fragmented , selfish ideas to the inclusive vision of our High Self, the Holy Spirit. It requires the focus to notice when we're not doing that. It requires the willingness to Awaken.

All of this is done in consciousness. Notice Mary Baker Eddy points out that lifting our thought in this way is done through stillness and strength, through stationary power. It's never about the outer, which is only the image-making projection of what lies in consciousness. What appears without is projected, and therefore illusory. As Mrs Eddy says in her scientific statement of being: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; p. 468, lines 9-10)

I was reminded of this in a very dear way by a friend. I was in the process of sending out a letter about some business matter. My friend commented that by sending out the letter in this way, I am in effect acknowledging that I see it happening to me, taking place 'out there,' and that I somehow need something else to happen 'out there.' She suggested that I write a letter in consciousness, thanking the recipients for having already met the requirements... in effect, forgiving their debts... and for the opportunities and income that have resulted for so many. All of this taking place in consciousness. Not out there. The letter will never be sent. Its purpose is not to get anything to happen 'out there.' There is no 'out there!' The purpose of the letter is to return my mind to Wholeness, to the realization, in stillness and stationary strength, that it is all taking place in consciousness, where every imagined problem, separation, or need is seen to be nothing. Whose consciousness? My dream is occurring here in my mind... and in the stillness I remember that there is only One Mind. I can release and forgive my aberrant dreams, the scattered dreams that see separate, fragmented selves.... and I can again welcome the inclusive, expansive vision of my High Self, the Holy Spirit. This all-inclusive vision is the Holy Spirit's gift to us when we are willing to once again be still.

Inclusive Vision is not about manipulating or trying to change the dream. It's about returning our mind and heart to what is true. There is only One, only God, only GOOD. Inclusive Vision returns us to the Wholeness of our right Mind. It is the Grace of God made manifest, on earth as it is in the Heaven of Oneness.

"In returning and rest you shall be saved. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." -- The Bible; Isaiah 30:15

One Forever

"The separation [from God] is merely a faulty formulation of reality, with no effect at all. 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; Chapter 13, Section VIII, 3:5 & 5:1-3

"Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's Being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 481, Lines 2-4

The thought that anything unlike God, unlike Good, unlike Love, is simply an aberrant formulation of reality... this seems unlikely, an unrealistic and idealistic philosophy at best. Our practical, worldly selves base our judgements on experience and the views of other wiser people and their experience. We base our judgements on numbers, too... we love statistics as 'evidence.' What we don't take into account is that numbers are neutral... they are simply another mental construct to attempt to quantify reality. And they are only 'evidence' for what we already believe to be true. This is why statistics are used to justify both sides of pretty much every issue at one time or another. What we fail to realize is that Reality, what is True, cannot be quantified. What is One cannot be divided, cannot be compared, cannot be opposed. It is One forever.

We think that we experience what is already manifest. So we're always trying to judge and quantify the manifest world. But A Course in Miracles reminds us, "What I experience I will make manifest." The world that appears to be outside is simply the reflection of our own consciousness, our own inner experience. It is the fragmented perception of the Son of God, where what is One appears to be many... where what is forever whole and harmonious and loving appears to be divided and at war with itself.

Our Reality is One forever. We are collectively One Self, and reflect One Being which we call God. We are emanations, reflections of all that is Good. We can have no qualities but those of our Source. And so we come to question the 'rational' self, with its hidden agendas and skewed perceptions... and all it takes is a truly questioning mind to begin to glimpse Reality. Self-inquiry is the key to moving beyond the false perceptions of the human mind. Self-inquiry makes it possible for us to forgive, to really let our false perceptions go, and welcome the miracle of true perception in every circumstance, with every person.

Our Reality is One forever. But we can't know that until we see that every single aspect, every single person, every single situation as the same. The miracle of forgiveness returns our healed perception to this sameness... the awareness that God is All-Inclusive, and Everywhere. There is nothing else.

"You cannot enter into real relationships with any of God's Sons unless you love them all and equally. Love is not special. You can only love as God loves." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section X, 11:1-2 & 4

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

Happy Easter!

"I am your resurrection and your life. Believe in resurrection because it has been accomplished, and it has been accomplished in you. This is as true NOW as it will ever be, for the resurrection is the Will of God, which knows no time and no exceptions. You have nailed yourself to a cross, and placed a crown of thorns on your own head. Yet you cannot crucify God's Son, for the Will of God cannot die. The dream of crucifixion still lies heavy on your eyes, but what you see in dreams is not reality. You will awaken to your own call, for the Call to awake is within you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VI, 4:1 & 6-7, 8:1-2 & 4, 9:1

"The Christ is not subject to material conditions... and is able, through Truth, Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and the grave." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 49, Line 21-25

Happy Easter to all! I've missed writing this blog... it's been a very busy few weeks, but I did manage to write one blog while on the road, and I'm now home again after my travels, and have even resumed the conference calls every Saturday morning at 9 a.m. central time. If you are interested in joining us, we just completed Chapter 11 of the text of A Course in Miracles, and will be on Chapter 12 next week. The call-in number is 605-475-4333... and the access code is 101546#.

It's Easter morning. The grass is vibrant after all the rain, and my pansies are waving their happy faces gratefully at the sun. It feels like a rebirth and renewal, reflected in my dream. ACIM tells us that God's Will for us is perfect happiness... and as we awaken to Reality, everything in the dream reflects this. Even my 90-year-old mother with dementia reflects this joy, within the apparent limitations of her own dream. Our seemingly personal dreams are reflections of our own consciousness, but dreams of suffering are transformed when we awaken and realize the resurrection is within our very own mind. Forgiveness of all our limited and false perceptions, letting them go, allows us to remember this Truth. In a forgiven world, a clean and open mind reveals the miracle, the happy dream, for each and every person, place, thing, and experience.

Dreams within dreams is the life we seem to see around us, always dreams of lack, limitation, suffering and death. This is not the Truth! Life shines all around us, in our holy minds. Love radiates from deep within, shedding Its blessings on the world. Truth illumines our minds and our paths within the dream. And Spiritual Substance in all Its Abundance is the Source of All Being, and reflects in our dream as an infinity of blessings and supply. We are so blessed, if we would only awaken. We dream of crucifixion, but in Truth we are the Resurrection and the Life.

"Sin, sickness, disease, and death are comprised in human material belief, and belong not to the Divine Mind. They are without a real origin or existence." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 286, Line 31

"The whole power of God is in every part of Him, and nothing contradictory to His Will is either great or small. What does not exist has no size and no measure. To God all things are possible." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VI, 10:6-8

Multiplying Nothing

"There is no more self-contradictory concept than that of "idle thoughts." What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle. Every thought you have contributes to Truth or illusion; either it extends the Truth or it multiplies illusions. You can indeed multiply nothing, but you will not extend it by doing so." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 16, 2:1-4

"Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, and not a vitalizing property of matter." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 510, Lines 27-28

The above quotes are so mind-boggling. Today is my 58th birthday... talk about multiplying nothing! We multiply years and seasons, and call it age and wisdom. But we're really only weaving stories around an illusion of self. All Life is eternal, and knows no age or limitation. All Wisdom is an eternal aspect of Mind, without beginning or end. And this Mind is the Source and Substance of our mind. Of course, we can only know this when we're in our right mind So let's shed Light on this, shall we? Since Light is also an eternal, unchanging aspect of Mind, and has nothing to do with the physical.

A Course in Miracles speaks of this as two ways of thinking. Only one is actually happening, so this is tricky. How do you talk about illusory experiences without making them real? "Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes the physical, and the other creates the spiritual." (ACIM; Chapter 1, Section I, 12:2-3) Notice that the illusory, lower-level thoughts are made... while the real, spiritual thoughts are created.

We can make up stories, and we all enjoy doing this. But nothing has really happened. We didn't really create anything. It seems there is no harm done unless we start confusing what we've made with what is Real. But there are no idle thoughts. When we make up stories or believe other people's stories, we're lost in the dream, lost in what ACIM calls wrong-mindedness. Right-mindedness doesn't involve making up more stories. It involves allowing what IS to extend through us. What is True is already effortlessly present. What IS radiates and extends naturally and effortlessly, when we forgive and release our wrong-minded stories. This is the experience of the miracle, the shift from false perception to Awareness of the True and Real, even in the midst of the dream we call life.

It takes great courage to want to wake up from our stories. There is absolutely no support for this within the dream we call life, since everyone has a vested interest in the stories they're living. And there is absolutely no support for it within our own story, since our own ego has a vested interest in the survival of its stories. But through Grace, the Truth is true and nothing else is true. Through Grace, stories come and go. Through Grace, we can make lots of stories, but not one of them is created, and so they are not true, and so they will not last. Even if we resist this Awakening as hard as we can, we inevitably come face to face with the Truth of Who We Are. Nothing else even exists. Sooner or later everyone wakes up.

So there are no idle thoughts. We can hasten our own Awakening (as ACIM dryly puts it, since you believe in time, why waste it?) by remembering this, and forgiving and releasing our thoughts and stories of a material world and separate bodies. This allows the True thoughts that continually extend, radiating from the Mind of God, to shine in and through us. And even though that seems like a really hard thing, the really good news is that we can multiply nothing... zero to the zero power... and we can keep doing this over and over, and be fascinated by the results. But nothing has ever happened... and we remain safe in the Mind of God, where we have always been. Thank God.

"The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section III, 8:4

Beyond Belief

"Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Mere belief is blindness without Principle." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 487, Lines 15 & 22

"It is, then, only your wish to change reality that is fearful, because by your wish you think you have accomplished what you wish. When you maintain that there must be an order of difficulty in miracles, all you mean is that there are some things you would withhold from Truth. You believe Truth cannot deal with them only because you would keep them from Truth." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 17, Section I, 2:1 & 3:1-2

The seeming power of belief is a highly extolled and hotly debated issue in the world. The definition of belief is "assent to the truth of something offered for acceptance." This implies that we can believe anything is true or false, based on the evidence. Our criminal justice system is a good example of that. True or false? Right or wrong? This way or that way? Is he telling the truth or is he lying? The answer is what we believe. And we believe we can believe wrongly.

Remember in the last blog we talked about Principle, the unchanging, unmovable Truth that is the Source of everything. The realization that this is beyond belief is our first glimmer of awakening. That there is Being, utterly natural and unchanging, complete in all aspects, whole and perfect and infinite... and that this Being is Source and Substance of all that IS... and that this Truth is the Principle that shines through all true spirituality... this is beyond belief. It can't be believed. But it can be known. It can be experienced directly, as we let go of all relative beliefs and stories. This is what A Course in Miracles calls the act of forgiveness, our only truly active function in this world of many-storied dreams.

The process is usually gradual. There are exceptions of course, like Byron Katie's experience of seemingly instantaneous shedding of all stories and beliefs, leaving her as innocent as a newborn baby. She had to acquire the ability to live in the stories again, but this time without believing them. She now knows from direct experience that Who We Are is beyond belief.

For the rest of us, the shedding of stories and belief systems and identities, which are all fictional, is a gradual process. We learn to live in the stories of our lives, even in the belief systems and identities, without mistaking them for Who We Are. We learn to forgive and release every single aspect (whether it seems good or bad) to the Holy Spirit, the eternal and Awakened Voice within each of us, to be used within the dream of Awakening for all. And every single story, every belief, every identity will then have served its only true purpose. For this is a dream of Awakening to Self. And that is most definitely beyond belief.

"You cannot be faithful to two masters who ask conflicting things of you. What you use in fantasy you deny to Truth. Yet what you give to Truth to use for you is safe from fantasy." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 17, Section I, 2:4-5