"God's Will for me is perfect happiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 101
"I share God's Will of happiness for me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 102
"There is no will but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 74
Reason tells us that Omnipresent God, Source, our Infinite and Eternal Creator must be perfect, whole, and complete. So if there is only One Infinite, Eternal Source, where did imperfection come from? We seem to find flaws and problems and imperfection everywhere we look, especially in ourselves. But if Omnipresent God is One, Perfect, and Whole, then I can only reflect God's Will, which is God's Being. Omnipresent, Infinite and Eternal means there can be nothing else, no 'other' Will but God's.
Religionists who believe in sin and redemption will argue that it's some sort of holy test in which we are learning to become like God. But where the heck did a creation unlike its Creator come from? What would be its source? Every suffering and sorrow in the world can be traced back to this belief in a bad seed, a seed that produces something totally unintended and unlike its source. But look at the natural world. Does a lettuce seed produce turnips???
Jesus once compared the Kingdom to a mustard seed. He also told us the Kingdom of Heaven is already IN us. A mustard seed already has everything that it is and will be within it. Like all ideas in the mind of God it is self-full, complete and self-fulfilling. Once planted, its happiness is that unfolding, that becoming, the extending of being in infinite variety, but always of the essence of its Creator. It's never the form that is perfect... form is constantly changing and flowing into new form, in endless celebration of the perfection at the heart of it all.
What Jesus showed us is how to stop obsessing about form. He demonstrated over and over that when you know God as your Self, and as the Self of everyone and everything, you see this perfection at the core of all Being. And then the forms that change and flow are seen to reflect this perfection as they change and flow. Perfection has nothing to do with your concept of perfection. Perfection is Wholeness of Being, and Perfect Happiness... not something you 'have' but something you BE. Something you already are and have always been.
This seed of happiness that is the core of everything, is pure joy. This bubbling well of joy that is in you and in me, IS perfect happiness.
"God, being Love, is also happiness." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 103
Showing posts with label Source. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Source. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Altered States
"The opportunity of spiritual awakening, enlightenment and Self-realization is that what we call the mind is stilled. Since we are no longer misidentified with thought as our true identity, then thought [ego] can no longer use us. The ego [thought] and its push and pull strategies are finished. Instead, the altered state of consciousness that appears to be ego dissolves, to reveal the pure Awareness that really IS. The mind then becomes the willing servant of Truth; the Heart of unconditional Love and perfect Peace and Joy." -- Katie Davis
When I read the above quote, it struck me first because she equates thought with ego, which is also what A Course in Miracles teaches. I also loved it because the term 'altered states' has been so extensively used to describe mystical, spiritual experiences. But how can you alter what is real and eternal? The altered states must actually be those that seem to alter Reality, that seem to be separate from the One, that seem to produce thoughts and feelings and experiences that are other than Good, other than God. Of course! And the only thing that can think it is separate from Allness is a thought. The egoic notion of self is simply a thought, an identification with thought and its images (projections) as self.
As a child of the 60's and long-time spiritual dilettante, I was a major worshiper of altered states... of spiritual experiences and the Truth I thought they pointed to. What a shock to realize I was really worshiping images, like any other image, no more 'spiritual' than any other projection. I was seeking a concept of awakening, a thought, always another and higher thought. The seeking of altered states of consciousness is itself the egoic notion of something 'other' or 'better' or 'higher'. When right here, silently Present and Aware, our Self IS unaltered, infinite Perfection.
It takes a lot of letting go to begin to realize that a projector simply projects images, and that those images are all the same. The projector and the images are neutral... they're nothing substantial at all. All images and the thoughts they reflect have one thing in common... they're not really here. Once we put the projector and its images away, there's nothing here but pure Awareness, the Truth of Being. And this Perfect Awareness then becomes the Source of any images reflected while we remain as seemingly separate entities. Because the Source is True, the images reflected become closer and closer to Reality.
So like children coming in from a day of make-believe, let's lay aside the thinking mind, letting go of all compulsion to seek altered states of consciousness. Instead, let's simply come in, always inward, and sit in silent contentment with the Love and Perfection that is our true Self. This inner vigil, this resting in our God-Self... this is the only natural state there is.
"All this can very simply be reduced to this: "What is the same can not be different [can not be altered!], and what is One can not have separate parts." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 7:6-7
When I read the above quote, it struck me first because she equates thought with ego, which is also what A Course in Miracles teaches. I also loved it because the term 'altered states' has been so extensively used to describe mystical, spiritual experiences. But how can you alter what is real and eternal? The altered states must actually be those that seem to alter Reality, that seem to be separate from the One, that seem to produce thoughts and feelings and experiences that are other than Good, other than God. Of course! And the only thing that can think it is separate from Allness is a thought. The egoic notion of self is simply a thought, an identification with thought and its images (projections) as self.
As a child of the 60's and long-time spiritual dilettante, I was a major worshiper of altered states... of spiritual experiences and the Truth I thought they pointed to. What a shock to realize I was really worshiping images, like any other image, no more 'spiritual' than any other projection. I was seeking a concept of awakening, a thought, always another and higher thought. The seeking of altered states of consciousness is itself the egoic notion of something 'other' or 'better' or 'higher'. When right here, silently Present and Aware, our Self IS unaltered, infinite Perfection.
It takes a lot of letting go to begin to realize that a projector simply projects images, and that those images are all the same. The projector and the images are neutral... they're nothing substantial at all. All images and the thoughts they reflect have one thing in common... they're not really here. Once we put the projector and its images away, there's nothing here but pure Awareness, the Truth of Being. And this Perfect Awareness then becomes the Source of any images reflected while we remain as seemingly separate entities. Because the Source is True, the images reflected become closer and closer to Reality.
So like children coming in from a day of make-believe, let's lay aside the thinking mind, letting go of all compulsion to seek altered states of consciousness. Instead, let's simply come in, always inward, and sit in silent contentment with the Love and Perfection that is our true Self. This inner vigil, this resting in our God-Self... this is the only natural state there is.
"All this can very simply be reduced to this: "What is the same can not be different [can not be altered!], and what is One can not have separate parts." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 7:6-7
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
Monday, February 14, 2011
Take Joy in It!
"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 timeless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16, 6:1-2
What brings you joy? Nothing and no one. Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything. Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go. Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.
The freedom this brings us is limitless. We're here to take joy in it! Whatever it is! We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.
It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality. How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God? Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience. As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE." Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation. Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite. We don't have to play it safe. We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are.
This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self. Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life. Take Joy in it!
What brings you joy? Nothing and no one. Joy is a state of being, not linked to any form or referenced to anything. Nothing brings us joy... we take joy with us wherever we go. Taking joy in someone or something simply reminds us that Infinite Mind, Our True Self, is the Source and Substance of that Joy.
The freedom this brings us is limitless. We're here to take joy in it! Whatever it is! We are the radiating center of the Presence of God... and Joy and Love and endless Bliss are ours to give, to share, to BE.
It amazes me how many of us think our life needs to adhere to certain guidelines for safety, for comfort, for practicality. How much joy do we deny ourselves and others by setting limits on the Son of God? Not that Joy isn't still present... but what we deny in ourselves, we deny in awareness and experience. As ACIM puts it, "You can't HAVE what you're not willing to BE." Having and Being are one and the same... it's all the One Infinite Mind in infinite manifestation. Being is the reality... the apparent forms it takes in projection, as our world... the forms and possibilities are infinite. We don't have to play it safe. We can realize that when something appears in our lives that symbolizes joy, it's a shining symbol of Who We Are.
This Valentine's Day, please don't turn away from the Joy that is your Self. Let it flood your heart and mind and thus your life. Take Joy in it!
Sunday, December 5, 2010
My Only Need
"God has already done all things that need to be done. And I must learn I need do nothing of myself, for I need but accept my Self." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 337, 1:5-6
There has long been a virtual cult in self-help circles, a cult of the virtues of self-esteem. And it's true that we can build our ego up and feel better about ourselves attitudinally. But it's not real self love. The love of an illusion of self can only give us the illusion of love, an illusion that comes and goes. It's the same with loving (or hating) another person... loving (or hating) the illusion we've projected can only breed more illusion.
There is only one way to know the Truth... we have to release what isn't true, and see what is always here, always effortlessly present. Like the huge dome of the sky, God is what is always here, regardless of the thought clouds and projections that come and go. To accept that my real Self is One with God and all that Is... and that God is the Source and I am One with Source... and that creation is seamless, whole, and complete, no lack or limitation possible in all of God's Being... this acceptance allows me finally to simply BE. I need do nothing.
In this lies freedom... because it also means that I am free to do whatever arises through the spontaneous inspiration that emanates from our One Being. I am not obligated or coerced or in bondage to anyone or anything. I co-create with all of Self in joy and love. Like the sun shines, we ARE. My only need, and yours, is to accept this and live it.
There has long been a virtual cult in self-help circles, a cult of the virtues of self-esteem. And it's true that we can build our ego up and feel better about ourselves attitudinally. But it's not real self love. The love of an illusion of self can only give us the illusion of love, an illusion that comes and goes. It's the same with loving (or hating) another person... loving (or hating) the illusion we've projected can only breed more illusion.
There is only one way to know the Truth... we have to release what isn't true, and see what is always here, always effortlessly present. Like the huge dome of the sky, God is what is always here, regardless of the thought clouds and projections that come and go. To accept that my real Self is One with God and all that Is... and that God is the Source and I am One with Source... and that creation is seamless, whole, and complete, no lack or limitation possible in all of God's Being... this acceptance allows me finally to simply BE. I need do nothing.
In this lies freedom... because it also means that I am free to do whatever arises through the spontaneous inspiration that emanates from our One Being. I am not obligated or coerced or in bondage to anyone or anything. I co-create with all of Self in joy and love. Like the sun shines, we ARE. My only need, and yours, is to accept this and live it.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Blessing or Curse?
"The mind can think it sleeps, but that is all. It cannot change what is its waking state. It cannot make a body, nor abide within a body. What is alien to the mind does not exist, because it has no source. For mind creates all things that are, and cannot give them attributes it lacks, nor change its own eternal, mindful state. It cannot make the physical. What seems to die is but the sign of mind asleep." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 6:1-7
I've been reflecting on what I seem to be seeing and hearing from people around me... stories of struggle with what is really happening or what is really true, with spiritual paths, with physical symptoms, with sticky relationship problems. I know that all of it is my perception, and that nothing is as it appears. And so I forgive and release these projections to Holy Spirit (which is another name for my True Self), ask for healed perception, and accept the healing of Atonement. And as I do, I'm led to reflect on the blessing (or curse?) of this. To the world around me, including clients, family and most friends, this non-dual view of the world would seem a curse... because I am no longer apparently in alignment with any popular thought-system in the world, including much of religious thought. They might ask how I could possibly see such an (apparently) aberrant world-view as anything but a curse.
Upon reflection, I find it extraordinary that the Truth is aberrant to people. We would rather see a world of opposites, with mysterious bad things happening without a source. We would rather believe that bad stuff really does happen, and then try to forgive it even while we think it's real. Do we think God creates bad things and punishes us? Or do we think we somehow usurped the power of God and created it ourselves?! Do we think all this crap is really happening? And if it is really happening, what allegiance do we owe to a divine Parent who would treat us this way, or even allow it to exist as creator of all? If it were an earthly parent, we would report them for child abuse. But friends, God is the All-Good. God is the Source of All, and All is Love and Light and Truth. Where would the darkness or the mistakes come from? What would be their source?
"There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the Truth. It does not have degrees. It is the one condition in which all that God created share. Like all His Thoughts, it has no opposite. There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are one." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 1:1-7
There is no opposite to God... there cannot be God and anything. Why would we not find this Truth comforting? Why do we prefer a dream of opposition to God, of illusory suffering and death, of struggle and lack and limitation? In India they call this compulsive dream 'samsara', which roughly translates to the wheel of suffering. The wheel turns, the characters and situations seem to change, but the stories are all the same. And every awakened soul who has walked this dream has come to tell us that it's our dream, and it's up to us to snap out of it. With such good news, wouldn't we rather be happy than right?
A Course in Miracles offers simple yet elegant tools to awaken from the dream. But we have to be willing to shed our fixation with the world as real. It is not. Often I awaken from my night time dreams to hear the Voice reassuring me that these dreams are just like my daytime dreams, and all of them are easily released and transformed. This has been my experience. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because only God is real, and nothing else is at all. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and there are no steps to take to awaken. Mind is asleep and believing its own dreams or it is awake in God. And only one of these seeming choices really exists at all.
While we dream, forgiveness and Atonement allow our dreaming perceptions to be healed and released, day by day. More and more we walk through our life as one awakening from a deep sleep, where the dreams make no sense at all. There is no real curse to be found, anywhere. There is only our true Self in God, and endless blessing.
"Let us today be children of the Truth, and not deny our holy heritage. Our life is not as we imagine it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 10:1-2
I've been reflecting on what I seem to be seeing and hearing from people around me... stories of struggle with what is really happening or what is really true, with spiritual paths, with physical symptoms, with sticky relationship problems. I know that all of it is my perception, and that nothing is as it appears. And so I forgive and release these projections to Holy Spirit (which is another name for my True Self), ask for healed perception, and accept the healing of Atonement. And as I do, I'm led to reflect on the blessing (or curse?) of this. To the world around me, including clients, family and most friends, this non-dual view of the world would seem a curse... because I am no longer apparently in alignment with any popular thought-system in the world, including much of religious thought. They might ask how I could possibly see such an (apparently) aberrant world-view as anything but a curse.
Upon reflection, I find it extraordinary that the Truth is aberrant to people. We would rather see a world of opposites, with mysterious bad things happening without a source. We would rather believe that bad stuff really does happen, and then try to forgive it even while we think it's real. Do we think God creates bad things and punishes us? Or do we think we somehow usurped the power of God and created it ourselves?! Do we think all this crap is really happening? And if it is really happening, what allegiance do we owe to a divine Parent who would treat us this way, or even allow it to exist as creator of all? If it were an earthly parent, we would report them for child abuse. But friends, God is the All-Good. God is the Source of All, and All is Love and Light and Truth. Where would the darkness or the mistakes come from? What would be their source?
"There are not different kinds of life, for life is like the Truth. It does not have degrees. It is the one condition in which all that God created share. Like all His Thoughts, it has no opposite. There is no death because what God created shares His life. There is no death because an opposite to God does not exist. There is no death because the Father and the Son are one." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 1:1-7
There is no opposite to God... there cannot be God and anything. Why would we not find this Truth comforting? Why do we prefer a dream of opposition to God, of illusory suffering and death, of struggle and lack and limitation? In India they call this compulsive dream 'samsara', which roughly translates to the wheel of suffering. The wheel turns, the characters and situations seem to change, but the stories are all the same. And every awakened soul who has walked this dream has come to tell us that it's our dream, and it's up to us to snap out of it. With such good news, wouldn't we rather be happy than right?
A Course in Miracles offers simple yet elegant tools to awaken from the dream. But we have to be willing to shed our fixation with the world as real. It is not. Often I awaken from my night time dreams to hear the Voice reassuring me that these dreams are just like my daytime dreams, and all of them are easily released and transformed. This has been my experience. There is no order of difficulty in miracles because only God is real, and nothing else is at all. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and there are no steps to take to awaken. Mind is asleep and believing its own dreams or it is awake in God. And only one of these seeming choices really exists at all.
While we dream, forgiveness and Atonement allow our dreaming perceptions to be healed and released, day by day. More and more we walk through our life as one awakening from a deep sleep, where the dreams make no sense at all. There is no real curse to be found, anywhere. There is only our true Self in God, and endless blessing.
"Let us today be children of the Truth, and not deny our holy heritage. Our life is not as we imagine it." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 167, 10:1-2
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Never Alone
"This world is but the dream that you can be alone, and think without affecting those apart from you. To be alone must mean you are apart. It is like the house set upon straw. It seems to be quite solid and substantial in itself. Yet its stability cannot be judged apart from its foundation. If it rests on straw, there is no need to bar the door and lock the windows and make fast the bolts. The wind will topple it, and rain will come and carry it into oblivion. What can be safe that rests upon a shadow?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section VII, 5:2-3, 7-11, 6:3
It's interesting that the above passage from A Course in Miracles points to the concept of aloneness as a house built on straw. The idea of being alone is the belief that all things are separate, because we imagine ourselves to be separate from our Source. This tiny false idea is the basis of a whole world of prodigal sons, trying to make their way home to what they never left.
On the other hand, ACIM reminds us that a solid foundation is based on our relationship with every living thing, for as we acknowledge the innocence and perfection of our brothers and sisters, we remember our own. "Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him. The winds will blow upon it and the rain will beat against it, but with no effect. The world will wash away, and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone. It is an ark of safety, resting on God's promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself." Not alone.
We can no more be separate from the rest of life than we could ever be separated from our Source, from God. We are literally reflections of the Light shining in God's Mind, and have no being or will or qualities apart from God. We are God in expression, innocent and free as God created us... all of us together. This Principle of Oneness is the Ground of Being... our Home built upon the unshakable foundation of Truth. For we are One with God and with each other. And we are never alone.
"There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is nothing to be feared. There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His. God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing. For there is no lack in him." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section I, 1:1-3, and Chapter 28, Section VII, 1:1-2
It's interesting that the above passage from A Course in Miracles points to the concept of aloneness as a house built on straw. The idea of being alone is the belief that all things are separate, because we imagine ourselves to be separate from our Source. This tiny false idea is the basis of a whole world of prodigal sons, trying to make their way home to what they never left.
On the other hand, ACIM reminds us that a solid foundation is based on our relationship with every living thing, for as we acknowledge the innocence and perfection of our brothers and sisters, we remember our own. "Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him. The winds will blow upon it and the rain will beat against it, but with no effect. The world will wash away, and yet this house will stand forever, for its strength lies not within itself alone. It is an ark of safety, resting on God's promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself." Not alone.
We can no more be separate from the rest of life than we could ever be separated from our Source, from God. We are literally reflections of the Light shining in God's Mind, and have no being or will or qualities apart from God. We are God in expression, innocent and free as God created us... all of us together. This Principle of Oneness is the Ground of Being... our Home built upon the unshakable foundation of Truth. For we are One with God and with each other. And we are never alone.
"There is no time, no place, no state where God is absent. There is nothing to be feared. There is no way in which a gap could be conceived of in the Wholeness that is His. God asks for nothing, and His Son, like Him, need ask for nothing. For there is no lack in him." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 29, Section I, 1:1-3, and Chapter 28, Section VII, 1:1-2
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
What's Changing?
"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
I was just talking to a friend who commented how everything in the world is in the process of monumental change. My rather surprising and spontaneous comment was: "Not here. Everything here seems to be hardly changing at all." I think it took me by surprise as much as it did my friend! And it gave me pause. After all, there are a lot of outer changes in my life. I was just blessed with grandson number four. I just took on two new cats and a new dog here at the Sanctuary, and a new Quaker parrot may be coming, as well as another horse. I'm making changes in my websites and the content offered there. And I've started doing more public speaking appearances. So what is the source of the 'nothing's changing' comment?
People are always complaining about their lives, of course. Either everything is changing or nothing is changing... and both seem to be cause for complaint! So what is the real issue?
A Course in Miracles explains that literally everything in our daily lives, the things we think we want and the things we think we don't want, serve only one purpose: to keep us so preoccupied with the illusion of life, the constantly changing kaleidoscope of forms and events, that we don't acknowledge that it isn't real. Our true Self is eternal and unchanging, the Ground of All Being... and the changing, shifting forms that come and go are mere shadows, and are falsely perceived as substance by the egoic, conditioned mind.
The more our awareness of the eternal deepens, the more we notice that there is no real difference in content in all the constantly changing forms. The quality of all of them is nothingness... and so nothing really changes. Forms shift and change, the furniture is rearranged, but nothing in the world of illusory forms ever really happens. It doesn't matter if we move from one side of the world to the other... we find that nothing has changed. Because what is Real remains in us... unmoving, eternal, perfect, and joyously serene.
It's the Real and eternal shining in my new grandson that I celebrate. It's the Real shining through the eyes of the animals and people in our lives that we love. It doesn't change, even though our emotions may be in flux, and the forms and relationships may shift and change. The Real, the Eternal, the True, the Love... no matter what we call It, THIS is always effortlessly present, and can be attended to with our awareness in the midst of it all. This we can depend on. This will never change.
"As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with all transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feelings, alterations in conditions of the body or the mind; in all awareness and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 152, 5:1-3
I was just talking to a friend who commented how everything in the world is in the process of monumental change. My rather surprising and spontaneous comment was: "Not here. Everything here seems to be hardly changing at all." I think it took me by surprise as much as it did my friend! And it gave me pause. After all, there are a lot of outer changes in my life. I was just blessed with grandson number four. I just took on two new cats and a new dog here at the Sanctuary, and a new Quaker parrot may be coming, as well as another horse. I'm making changes in my websites and the content offered there. And I've started doing more public speaking appearances. So what is the source of the 'nothing's changing' comment?
People are always complaining about their lives, of course. Either everything is changing or nothing is changing... and both seem to be cause for complaint! So what is the real issue?
A Course in Miracles explains that literally everything in our daily lives, the things we think we want and the things we think we don't want, serve only one purpose: to keep us so preoccupied with the illusion of life, the constantly changing kaleidoscope of forms and events, that we don't acknowledge that it isn't real. Our true Self is eternal and unchanging, the Ground of All Being... and the changing, shifting forms that come and go are mere shadows, and are falsely perceived as substance by the egoic, conditioned mind.
The more our awareness of the eternal deepens, the more we notice that there is no real difference in content in all the constantly changing forms. The quality of all of them is nothingness... and so nothing really changes. Forms shift and change, the furniture is rearranged, but nothing in the world of illusory forms ever really happens. It doesn't matter if we move from one side of the world to the other... we find that nothing has changed. Because what is Real remains in us... unmoving, eternal, perfect, and joyously serene.
It's the Real and eternal shining in my new grandson that I celebrate. It's the Real shining through the eyes of the animals and people in our lives that we love. It doesn't change, even though our emotions may be in flux, and the forms and relationships may shift and change. The Real, the Eternal, the True, the Love... no matter what we call It, THIS is always effortlessly present, and can be attended to with our awareness in the midst of it all. This we can depend on. This will never change.
"As God created you, you must remain unchangeable, with all transitory states by definition false. And that includes all shifts in feelings, alterations in conditions of the body or the mind; in all awareness and in all response. This is the all-inclusiveness which sets the Truth apart from falsehood." -- A Course in Miracles; WB 152, 5:1-3
Friday, January 8, 2010
The Father is Greater
Recordings of the 2010 ongoing study of A Course in Miracles are available at http://www.sundarya.com/ACIMteleclasses.htm
For those of you who value your privacy, please know that I have no way of knowing who downloads these recordings, no record of it. They are freely offered, and you are encouraged to share them with others if you choose. And now for today's blog...
"There are two parts to the statement ["I and my Father are One"] in recognition that the Father is greater." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section II, 4:7
Using this quote and this terminology may get me into hot water with some of my friends, who feel that using the male 'Father' image perpetuates patriarchal stereotypes. And I agree with them to a point. But the larger point is that A Course in Miracles and much of the non-dual teaching that is available in the world is written using our very patriarchal language, but has nothing to do with gender. The Truth can use any symbol and point beyond it to what is True.
This statement is not about gender. It's about individuality and Wholeness. We have come to accept that God is All. We have come to accept that we are One with Allness. But what happens to me then? What is my individuality, my uniqueness in this world? Am I nothing at all? Yes and no.
This question preoccupies our egos, our false sense of individuality. The ego thinks it's only something in comparison to something 'other,' something or someone else that is separate and apart from self. This is the illusion of false identification. On the other hand, the infinity of God can only express ItSelf as infinite uniqueness, infinite possibility. Uniqueness is an attribute of all aspects of the Infinite Oneness of God. Every snowflake is unique, every fractal image new, to infinity and beyond. But the snowflake only exists as an aspect of snow. It's not separate, but it is unique.
Specialness is the false identification of the ego. It's as if that snowflake tried to imagine itself as separate from the rest of snow, endlessly competing with and comparing itself to other snowflakes, and trying to exist forever as a separate thing. It's not true for the snowflake and it's not true for us as individuals. Often, that delusion only becomes painfully clear when we are confronted with challenges to our own self-images. Self-image is a good word here, because all images are projections, and self-created in consciousness.
So we return to the statement by Jesus, "I and my Father are One." We are One with our Creator. If we are One, why speak of Father and Son? Because it's important to see that we are expressions within the One, and each expression is unique. But to catch a snowflake is not to experience snow. The infinity of the Father is unfathomable to us, just as the depth of a snowbank would be unfathomable to a single snowflake. Our task, should we choose to accept it, is to value the uniqueness of each expression of the One, while forgiving and releasing all thoughts and beliefs that interfere with our awareness of the Wholeness and Oneness of our True Self.
We did not create ourselves. We are not the source, but we are One with Source. It's in our complete awareness of and dependence on God, the All-Encompassing, All-Loving Good that is our Source, that we find our true Self. It's in letting go of the false that we find the True. Jesus called our Source the Father, and was always very clear that he did nothing of himself, that Jesus the man was not the source. He said, "Of myself I do nothing. God doeth the work."
To say the Father is greater is not as the ego mind imagines it. It's not a hierarchy, and not a competition. It's our assurance of Source and our eternal Home.
"You are the means for God; not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His Life is manifest in you who are His Son. Each aspect of HimSelf is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto ItSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 4:1-3
For those of you who value your privacy, please know that I have no way of knowing who downloads these recordings, no record of it. They are freely offered, and you are encouraged to share them with others if you choose. And now for today's blog...
"There are two parts to the statement ["I and my Father are One"] in recognition that the Father is greater." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section II, 4:7
Using this quote and this terminology may get me into hot water with some of my friends, who feel that using the male 'Father' image perpetuates patriarchal stereotypes. And I agree with them to a point. But the larger point is that A Course in Miracles and much of the non-dual teaching that is available in the world is written using our very patriarchal language, but has nothing to do with gender. The Truth can use any symbol and point beyond it to what is True.
This statement is not about gender. It's about individuality and Wholeness. We have come to accept that God is All. We have come to accept that we are One with Allness. But what happens to me then? What is my individuality, my uniqueness in this world? Am I nothing at all? Yes and no.
This question preoccupies our egos, our false sense of individuality. The ego thinks it's only something in comparison to something 'other,' something or someone else that is separate and apart from self. This is the illusion of false identification. On the other hand, the infinity of God can only express ItSelf as infinite uniqueness, infinite possibility. Uniqueness is an attribute of all aspects of the Infinite Oneness of God. Every snowflake is unique, every fractal image new, to infinity and beyond. But the snowflake only exists as an aspect of snow. It's not separate, but it is unique.
Specialness is the false identification of the ego. It's as if that snowflake tried to imagine itself as separate from the rest of snow, endlessly competing with and comparing itself to other snowflakes, and trying to exist forever as a separate thing. It's not true for the snowflake and it's not true for us as individuals. Often, that delusion only becomes painfully clear when we are confronted with challenges to our own self-images. Self-image is a good word here, because all images are projections, and self-created in consciousness.
So we return to the statement by Jesus, "I and my Father are One." We are One with our Creator. If we are One, why speak of Father and Son? Because it's important to see that we are expressions within the One, and each expression is unique. But to catch a snowflake is not to experience snow. The infinity of the Father is unfathomable to us, just as the depth of a snowbank would be unfathomable to a single snowflake. Our task, should we choose to accept it, is to value the uniqueness of each expression of the One, while forgiving and releasing all thoughts and beliefs that interfere with our awareness of the Wholeness and Oneness of our True Self.
We did not create ourselves. We are not the source, but we are One with Source. It's in our complete awareness of and dependence on God, the All-Encompassing, All-Loving Good that is our Source, that we find our true Self. It's in letting go of the false that we find the True. Jesus called our Source the Father, and was always very clear that he did nothing of himself, that Jesus the man was not the source. He said, "Of myself I do nothing. God doeth the work."
To say the Father is greater is not as the ego mind imagines it. It's not a hierarchy, and not a competition. It's our assurance of Source and our eternal Home.
"You are the means for God; not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His Life is manifest in you who are His Son. Each aspect of HimSelf is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto ItSelf." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 25, Section I, 4:1-3
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