"I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 201
"I warn students against falling into the error of anti-Christ. The consciousness of corporeality, and whatever is connected therewith, must be outgrown. Corporeal falsities include all obstacles to health, holiness, and heaven. Man's individual life is infinitely above a bodily form of existence, and the human concept antagonizes the Divine." Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 309, Lines 18-24
The alleged human self is really just a concept, a projection and amalgam of belief. We have always been living and moving and having our Being in God, Who is Spirit and Life... which means that we are pure Spirit, too... and as Jeshua ben Joseph said, "Before Abraham was, I AM." He wasn't talking about a body.
Christ is the word for Emmanuel, God with us. Each of us is the baby Christ, unknown to the seemingly physical self encasing it. The belief that we are physical, that there is physical cause and effect and that we are subject to it, is the anti-Christ. We can't know Who we are as long as we insist on embracing the human concept. The baby Christ cannot mature and be fully re-membered while we embrace and defend our physicalness. As Mrs. Eddy said, the human concept antagonizes the Divine.
In my own life, I would describe this as spiritual warfare. Mrs. Eddy spoke a lot about this in her own life. Saint Paul spoke of spiritual warfare in high places, and that is exactly what this is... and the high place is our very consciousness. What and Who are we conscious of Being? Physical or Spiritual? Many separate ones, or the One? This cannot be a passive knowing, but must be consciously embraced. Passivity leads to the seeming reality of the physical, again and again. The physical illusion is what we have chosen up until now, and the momentum is with the familiar and the collectively agreed reality of the physical. The conscious Awareness of Truth is the only antidote for our habitually chosen illusions.
The human concept is not true. True humanity, the Christ, the Holy One of God, eternally exists in the Mind of God, and only here, only now. We reflect only what is true of God, our true Self, always. There is nothing else.
"Remember always that you cannot be anywhere except in the Mind of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VIII, 5:3
Showing posts with label Spiritual Sense. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spiritual Sense. Show all posts
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Divine Ideas
"Let then, your dedication be to the eternal, and learn how not to interfere with it and make it slave to time. For what you think you do to the eternal you to you. Whom God created as His Son is slave to nothing, being lord of all, along with his Creator. You can enslave a body, but an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it. For it remains joined to its source, which is its jailer or its liberator, according to which it chooses as its purpose for itself." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 19, Section I, 16:1-5
"God is the Creator of man, and the Divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the Divine Idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's Being." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 470, Lines 21-24
"God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." -- The Bible; John 4:24
We live in the Garden of Eden, the Mind of God... the garden of Divine Ideas. But we dream we live in a desert, where ideas and their unfoldment are scarce and have to be purchased through toil and suffering. Divine Ideas are Omnipresent, as God is Omnipresent... and we, as perfect reflections in the Mind of God, share in this infinite nature. Each Divine Idea is also Omnipotent, with full power and fulfillment within itself. Like the seeds we plant in our dream of a life, the reality of Divine Ideas have within themselves complete fulfillment and unfoldment, each seed-idea expanding and unfolding according to its idea-nature. Each is complete, as each holographic aspect of the One Divine Mind is complete and whole in reflection. We are each Divine Ideas, completely whole and free. We are completely One with God and with each other, each unique reflections of our One Self.
The challenge to our false sense of self, our supposed human nature, is to not interfere... our task is to simply let each Divine Idea be itself, to sprout and unfold according to its unique reflection of God. The temptation is to weave stories and illusory meanings around Divine Ideas, superimposing false images and limited, untrue ideas. This is like dumping caustic chemicals on the sprouting seeds in our garden. We have to let the seeds unfold according to their Divine Design.
As radiant emanations of the One Mind that is God, we are pure Idea, pure Spirit. When we attempt to super-impose human concepts and images onto our seed-selves, there are always seemingly unwelcome and unexpected consequences reflected within the dream "on earth as it is in Heaven." Our job is to not interfere with what is One with God, and forever perfect as God. When we see ourselves as less than this, we are only seeing the super-imposed false images and untrue ideas we insist on seeing. Like a double-exposed negative of a 35 mm photograph, these false images have no truth and no substance... they are simply blurred images of what we think we are, and what we fear we must always be. Imagining ourselves to be separate from God and from each other, our images remain blurred and fearful.
As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it." Who is the Mind that is the Source of All, as Divine Ideas, Divine Reflections? And can the Mind of the Infinite be limited or distorted by illusory finite ideas and images? Ideas leave not their source. We are Divine Ideas emanating from the Infinite and Eternal Mind of God... we have never left this Mind, and we have never been apart from it. We are the Divine Ideas that populate the untouched and unchanged, eternal Garden of Eden.
"God and the real man are inseparable as Divine Principle and idea. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 476, Lines 4-5, & 9-11
"God is the Creator of man, and the Divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the Divine Idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's Being." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 470, Lines 21-24
"God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth." -- The Bible; John 4:24
We live in the Garden of Eden, the Mind of God... the garden of Divine Ideas. But we dream we live in a desert, where ideas and their unfoldment are scarce and have to be purchased through toil and suffering. Divine Ideas are Omnipresent, as God is Omnipresent... and we, as perfect reflections in the Mind of God, share in this infinite nature. Each Divine Idea is also Omnipotent, with full power and fulfillment within itself. Like the seeds we plant in our dream of a life, the reality of Divine Ideas have within themselves complete fulfillment and unfoldment, each seed-idea expanding and unfolding according to its idea-nature. Each is complete, as each holographic aspect of the One Divine Mind is complete and whole in reflection. We are each Divine Ideas, completely whole and free. We are completely One with God and with each other, each unique reflections of our One Self.
The challenge to our false sense of self, our supposed human nature, is to not interfere... our task is to simply let each Divine Idea be itself, to sprout and unfold according to its unique reflection of God. The temptation is to weave stories and illusory meanings around Divine Ideas, superimposing false images and limited, untrue ideas. This is like dumping caustic chemicals on the sprouting seeds in our garden. We have to let the seeds unfold according to their Divine Design.
As radiant emanations of the One Mind that is God, we are pure Idea, pure Spirit. When we attempt to super-impose human concepts and images onto our seed-selves, there are always seemingly unwelcome and unexpected consequences reflected within the dream "on earth as it is in Heaven." Our job is to not interfere with what is One with God, and forever perfect as God. When we see ourselves as less than this, we are only seeing the super-imposed false images and untrue ideas we insist on seeing. Like a double-exposed negative of a 35 mm photograph, these false images have no truth and no substance... they are simply blurred images of what we think we are, and what we fear we must always be. Imagining ourselves to be separate from God and from each other, our images remain blurred and fearful.
As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "an idea is free, incapable of being kept in prison or limited in any way except by the mind that thought it." Who is the Mind that is the Source of All, as Divine Ideas, Divine Reflections? And can the Mind of the Infinite be limited or distorted by illusory finite ideas and images? Ideas leave not their source. We are Divine Ideas emanating from the Infinite and Eternal Mind of God... we have never left this Mind, and we have never been apart from it. We are the Divine Ideas that populate the untouched and unchanged, eternal Garden of Eden.
"God and the real man are inseparable as Divine Principle and idea. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 476, Lines 4-5, & 9-11
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Shiny and New
"Behold, I make all things new." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:5
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -- The Bible; 2 Corinthians 5:17
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:1
"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable. Therefore, there must be another world that you do not see. The Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new earth, yet this cannot be literally true, for the eternal are not re-created. To perceive anew is merely to perceive again, implying that before, or in the interval between, you were not perceiving at all. What, then, is the world that awaits your perception when you see it?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 1:1-6
"The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see; that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. The heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual; while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 572, Lines 23-26, & Page 573, Lines 3-12
Have you noticed that the human mind loves shiny, new things? Shiny, new ideas. Shiny, new toys. Shiny new clothes and shoes. Shiny new jewelry. Shiny new cars or appliances. Shiny new jobs. Shiny new relationships (supposedly) without old baggage. A shiny new diet or exercise plan. The concept of a fresh start is not a new one. Of course, in the way of this dream world, everything that is new now will soon grow old and pass away. "And it came to pass..." is the story of literally everyone and everything in the dream we call the world.
Every spiritual tradition and teacher agree that God is Creator, and that God is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. This means that all that IS created exists eternally within the Mind of God. Nothing unlike God could be created by God, since that would mean there is something other than God, in a place and time where God is not. Like Light, God radiates Self everywhere, omnidirectionally, omnipresently. God creates by extension, and so creates only like HimSelf, infinite, eternal, loving, and free. These are not adjectives we could reasonably apply to the world as we know it. As A Course in Miracles puts it, no matter how crazy things look, we must remember that "God is still Love, and this is not His Will." We are told to remember that "God's Will for us is perfect happiness." Love and Perfect Happiness are attributes of the Awareness of our Oneness with God.
In the quote from Mary Baker Eddy, she points out the impossibility of our human eyesight ever seeing anything real or lasting or true. Only spiritual sight reveals our Oneness with God and Our True Self. The new heavens and new earth spoken of so frequently in The Bible are what A Course in Miracles calls the Happy Dream, the shiny and new perception that leads to direct and experiential knowledge of Truth and God.
Even in the dream we are looking for our true perceptions... we just don't realize it. We think we are looking for people, places, things, and experiences outside ourselves, and we settle for shiny, new and supposedly improved versions of old stories over and over and over again. And yet the journey continues, because we can never be satisfied with less than everything. We can never be content with less than wholeness. And it is not out there. Our perceptions are in US. When the world is seen through loving and forgiving eyes, everything is translated and becomes shiny and new. And this is not just a figure of speech. This is literal. Through forgiveness the world is literally saved from our false perceptions, and what we begin to see revealed is simply what was always, eternally Present and always, eternally True.
"Everything you made will be forgotten; the good and the bad, the false and the true. For as Heaven and earth become One, even the Real World will vanish from your sight. The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VIII, 1:6-9
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." -- The Bible; 2 Corinthians 5:17
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." -- The Bible; Revelation 21:1
"The world as you perceive it cannot have been created by the Father, for the world is not as you see it. God created only the eternal, and everything you see is perishable. Therefore, there must be another world that you do not see. The Bible speaks of a new Heaven and a new earth, yet this cannot be literally true, for the eternal are not re-created. To perceive anew is merely to perceive again, implying that before, or in the interval between, you were not perceiving at all. What, then, is the world that awaits your perception when you see it?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VII, 1:1-6
"The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see; that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. The heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual; while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 572, Lines 23-26, & Page 573, Lines 3-12
Have you noticed that the human mind loves shiny, new things? Shiny, new ideas. Shiny, new toys. Shiny new clothes and shoes. Shiny new jewelry. Shiny new cars or appliances. Shiny new jobs. Shiny new relationships (supposedly) without old baggage. A shiny new diet or exercise plan. The concept of a fresh start is not a new one. Of course, in the way of this dream world, everything that is new now will soon grow old and pass away. "And it came to pass..." is the story of literally everyone and everything in the dream we call the world.
Every spiritual tradition and teacher agree that God is Creator, and that God is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. This means that all that IS created exists eternally within the Mind of God. Nothing unlike God could be created by God, since that would mean there is something other than God, in a place and time where God is not. Like Light, God radiates Self everywhere, omnidirectionally, omnipresently. God creates by extension, and so creates only like HimSelf, infinite, eternal, loving, and free. These are not adjectives we could reasonably apply to the world as we know it. As A Course in Miracles puts it, no matter how crazy things look, we must remember that "God is still Love, and this is not His Will." We are told to remember that "God's Will for us is perfect happiness." Love and Perfect Happiness are attributes of the Awareness of our Oneness with God.
In the quote from Mary Baker Eddy, she points out the impossibility of our human eyesight ever seeing anything real or lasting or true. Only spiritual sight reveals our Oneness with God and Our True Self. The new heavens and new earth spoken of so frequently in The Bible are what A Course in Miracles calls the Happy Dream, the shiny and new perception that leads to direct and experiential knowledge of Truth and God.
Even in the dream we are looking for our true perceptions... we just don't realize it. We think we are looking for people, places, things, and experiences outside ourselves, and we settle for shiny, new and supposedly improved versions of old stories over and over and over again. And yet the journey continues, because we can never be satisfied with less than everything. We can never be content with less than wholeness. And it is not out there. Our perceptions are in US. When the world is seen through loving and forgiving eyes, everything is translated and becomes shiny and new. And this is not just a figure of speech. This is literal. Through forgiveness the world is literally saved from our false perceptions, and what we begin to see revealed is simply what was always, eternally Present and always, eternally True.
"Everything you made will be forgotten; the good and the bad, the false and the true. For as Heaven and earth become One, even the Real World will vanish from your sight. The end of the world is not its destruction, but its translation into Heaven. The reinterpretation of the world is the transfer of all perception to knowledge." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 11, Section VIII, 1:6-9
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Stand Still
"Fear ye not; stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord." -- The Bible; Exodus 14:13
"Stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the Word of God." -- The Bible; 1 Samuel 9:27
"Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord." -- The Bible; 2 Chronicles, 20:17
I love walking in the woods. I've noticed that most people who hike do it with a body consciousness... they approach it as exercise and work. I walk a bit, but I spend a great deal of time standing still. I'll stop in the middle of the path and listen to the wind in the trees. I'll stop by the stream and listen to the trickling sound of water, and the rustle of leaves, breathing in the scents of the forest, and noticing how the light filters through the canopy of the trees. I'll laugh and appreciate the antics of my dogs as they run with sheer joy and abandon. All of these words are describing the five senses of the body. And if I was thinking in those moments (which I'm not), I would say that my body is serving its true function... a tool for communication within the dream. I am hearing and tasting and breathing and seeing Self in all Its glory.
My walks in the woods are metaphors for standing still. Wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we can stand still and rest in Awareness ItSelf. These are moments of expanded awareness, where everything simply IS, and at the same time, it is all One, an interwoven tapestry of immeasurable beauty. It's easy to do this and see this in the silence of nature. We may have opinions that make us think that standing still in the middle of a noisy city is harder or impossible, but it is just the same. And standing still in the middle of a mental or emotional or physical battle is also no different. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "All that a hierarchy of illusions can show is preference, not reality. What relevance has preference to the Truth? Illusions are illusions and are false. Your preference gives them no reality. Not one is true in any way, and all must yield with equal ease to what God gave as answer to them all. God's Will is One." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section VII, 6:5-10)
Standing still has nothing to do with the physical self. It doesn't mean we have to literally stop the body. It is all about an inner stillness and alertness, the expanded Awareness of Wholeness. We stop thinking and doing from the consciousness of a separated self, and experience firsthand the salvation of the Awareness of the Oneness and Allness of God. There are an incredible number of passages in The Bible about standing still. As Jeshua ben Joseph said, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will hear the inner meaning. It's not about bodies or illusory stories about battles and personalities. It's about the inner war we have set up between the illusory separated consciousness and the inevitable Awareness of Our True Self, forever and forever One with the Allness and Completeness that is God.
"The word "inevitable" is fearful to the ego, but joyous to the Spirit. God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him anymore than He can avoid you. The ego is afraid of the Spirit's Joy, because once you have experienced It you will withdraw all protection from the ego, and become totally without investment in fear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section I, 9:10-11, 10:1
"Stand thou still a while, that I may show thee the Word of God." -- The Bible; 1 Samuel 9:27
"Ye shall not need to fight in this battle. Set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord." -- The Bible; 2 Chronicles, 20:17
I love walking in the woods. I've noticed that most people who hike do it with a body consciousness... they approach it as exercise and work. I walk a bit, but I spend a great deal of time standing still. I'll stop in the middle of the path and listen to the wind in the trees. I'll stop by the stream and listen to the trickling sound of water, and the rustle of leaves, breathing in the scents of the forest, and noticing how the light filters through the canopy of the trees. I'll laugh and appreciate the antics of my dogs as they run with sheer joy and abandon. All of these words are describing the five senses of the body. And if I was thinking in those moments (which I'm not), I would say that my body is serving its true function... a tool for communication within the dream. I am hearing and tasting and breathing and seeing Self in all Its glory.
My walks in the woods are metaphors for standing still. Wherever we are, whatever we're doing, we can stand still and rest in Awareness ItSelf. These are moments of expanded awareness, where everything simply IS, and at the same time, it is all One, an interwoven tapestry of immeasurable beauty. It's easy to do this and see this in the silence of nature. We may have opinions that make us think that standing still in the middle of a noisy city is harder or impossible, but it is just the same. And standing still in the middle of a mental or emotional or physical battle is also no different. As A Course in Miracles reminds us, "All that a hierarchy of illusions can show is preference, not reality. What relevance has preference to the Truth? Illusions are illusions and are false. Your preference gives them no reality. Not one is true in any way, and all must yield with equal ease to what God gave as answer to them all. God's Will is One." (ACIM; Chapter 26, Section VII, 6:5-10)
Standing still has nothing to do with the physical self. It doesn't mean we have to literally stop the body. It is all about an inner stillness and alertness, the expanded Awareness of Wholeness. We stop thinking and doing from the consciousness of a separated self, and experience firsthand the salvation of the Awareness of the Oneness and Allness of God. There are an incredible number of passages in The Bible about standing still. As Jeshua ben Joseph said, those who have eyes to see and ears to hear will hear the inner meaning. It's not about bodies or illusory stories about battles and personalities. It's about the inner war we have set up between the illusory separated consciousness and the inevitable Awareness of Our True Self, forever and forever One with the Allness and Completeness that is God.
"The word "inevitable" is fearful to the ego, but joyous to the Spirit. God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him anymore than He can avoid you. The ego is afraid of the Spirit's Joy, because once you have experienced It you will withdraw all protection from the ego, and become totally without investment in fear." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 4, Section I, 9:10-11, 10:1
Thursday, May 1, 2008
The Tree of Knowledge
"KNOWLEDGE: Evidence obtained from the five corporeal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not Divine and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the opposite of spiritual Truth and understanding." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 590, Lines 4-8
"Question: What is Substance? Answer: Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are Substance. The Spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the Divine Substance of Spirit." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 468, Lines 17-18, 23-24
Have you ever heard someone say that a book or a dissertation has no substance? We look at knowledge as having substance if it is new or novel, or if it presents 'acceptable' theories in a new light, with tons of physical and theoretical evidence. There is a saying in academe that we must do research to 'add to the body of knowledge.' Hmmmm... as Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "There is no Life, Truth Intelligence, nor Substance in matter." And we might add, no knowledge in the affairs of matter, nor in the ideas that swirl around and around in the dream we call life.
We dedicate ourselves to gaining knowledge. Even if you're someone who never picks up a book, you try to gain street smarts or skills that will serve you in the world. We literally worship what we call education. But what exactly are we educating ourselves for? What are we trying to gain? Jesus said, "What profit is it to gain the world if you lose your soul?" A Course in Miracles says that all appetites, whether for food or love or knowledge (temporal or spiritual) are "appetites [which] are 'getting' mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of bodily appetites as it is of the so-called higher order needs." (ACIM Chapter 4, Section II, 7:5-6)
So we come to the crux of it. What are we gaining knowledge for? In The Bible allegory of the Garden of Eden, God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) We think that the more we know the more we can keep ourselves autonomous, separate, and safe. We think that we can gain the ability to call certain things good, certain things bad, certain things right, and certain things wrong. In other words, we think we can KNOW something, anything, apart from the whole. What nonsense! What happens to a hand that is cut off of the body that is its life? What happens to a leaf pulled off of a tree branch, or a flower pulled from its stem? These are all projections within the dream of death, projections of our insistence on an imaginary existence apart from God, separated from Omnipresent Goodness and Love. And so we experience, over and over in the dream, the death and suffering of the separated illusory self.
Did you notice that in the allegory, God said that EVERY tree in the garden was O.K.? And then God said not to mess with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Which implies that this tree, the tree of knowledge wasn't in the garden. The alleged tree of knowledge is the symbol of the crazy notion that we can think and dream apart from God, and judge what is what. It's an illusion, and as soon as we begin to think we know and judge, we fall from the garden all over again. That's the dream of samsara, the wheel of suffering. As ACIM says, "How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement. So must he judge not, and he will awaken." (ACIM Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:2-5)
We can return to innocence any day, any time. And it has nothing to do with knowing anything at all. Judgement, the need to see projected separation and differences wherever we look, can be released. This is called forgiveness, and is the happy dream that the Holy Spirit holds out to us continually. We forgive and let go of all need to know... and we are restored to the garden. The need for differences and drama is again the illusory self clamoring for existence. And it was doomed before it started. The Holy Spirit will translate every dream of knowledge into a happy dream of Awakening to the Oneness of Self. We have only to ask.
"You will not remember change and shift in Heaven. You have need of contrast only here. Contrast and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them you learn what to avoid and what to seek. When you have learned this, you will find the Answer that makes the need for any differences disappear. Truth comes of Its Own Will unto Its Own." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section XI, 6:1-5
"Heaven is not a place, nor a condition. It is an awareness of perfect Oneness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6
"Question: What is Substance? Answer: Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are Substance. The Spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea, reflecting the Divine Substance of Spirit." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page 468, Lines 17-18, 23-24
Have you ever heard someone say that a book or a dissertation has no substance? We look at knowledge as having substance if it is new or novel, or if it presents 'acceptable' theories in a new light, with tons of physical and theoretical evidence. There is a saying in academe that we must do research to 'add to the body of knowledge.' Hmmmm... as Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "There is no Life, Truth Intelligence, nor Substance in matter." And we might add, no knowledge in the affairs of matter, nor in the ideas that swirl around and around in the dream we call life.
We dedicate ourselves to gaining knowledge. Even if you're someone who never picks up a book, you try to gain street smarts or skills that will serve you in the world. We literally worship what we call education. But what exactly are we educating ourselves for? What are we trying to gain? Jesus said, "What profit is it to gain the world if you lose your soul?" A Course in Miracles says that all appetites, whether for food or love or knowledge (temporal or spiritual) are "appetites [which] are 'getting' mechanisms, representing the ego's need to confirm itself. This is as true of bodily appetites as it is of the so-called higher order needs." (ACIM Chapter 4, Section II, 7:5-6)
So we come to the crux of it. What are we gaining knowledge for? In The Bible allegory of the Garden of Eden, God said, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Genesis 2:16-17) We think that the more we know the more we can keep ourselves autonomous, separate, and safe. We think that we can gain the ability to call certain things good, certain things bad, certain things right, and certain things wrong. In other words, we think we can KNOW something, anything, apart from the whole. What nonsense! What happens to a hand that is cut off of the body that is its life? What happens to a leaf pulled off of a tree branch, or a flower pulled from its stem? These are all projections within the dream of death, projections of our insistence on an imaginary existence apart from God, separated from Omnipresent Goodness and Love. And so we experience, over and over in the dream, the death and suffering of the separated illusory self.
Did you notice that in the allegory, God said that EVERY tree in the garden was O.K.? And then God said not to mess with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Which implies that this tree, the tree of knowledge wasn't in the garden. The alleged tree of knowledge is the symbol of the crazy notion that we can think and dream apart from God, and judge what is what. It's an illusion, and as soon as we begin to think we know and judge, we fall from the garden all over again. That's the dream of samsara, the wheel of suffering. As ACIM says, "How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement. So must he judge not, and he will awaken." (ACIM Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:2-5)
We can return to innocence any day, any time. And it has nothing to do with knowing anything at all. Judgement, the need to see projected separation and differences wherever we look, can be released. This is called forgiveness, and is the happy dream that the Holy Spirit holds out to us continually. We forgive and let go of all need to know... and we are restored to the garden. The need for differences and drama is again the illusory self clamoring for existence. And it was doomed before it started. The Holy Spirit will translate every dream of knowledge into a happy dream of Awakening to the Oneness of Self. We have only to ask.
"You will not remember change and shift in Heaven. You have need of contrast only here. Contrast and differences are necessary teaching aids, for by them you learn what to avoid and what to seek. When you have learned this, you will find the Answer that makes the need for any differences disappear. Truth comes of Its Own Will unto Its Own." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 13, Section XI, 6:1-5
"Heaven is not a place, nor a condition. It is an awareness of perfect Oneness." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:5-6
Saturday, April 26, 2008
Love
"There is no Love but God's, and ALL of Love is His. There is no other principle that rules where Love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its Wholeness is the Power holding everything as One. If you achieve the faintest glimmering of what Love means today, you have advanced in distance without measure and in time beyond the count of years to your release. He HimSelf will place a spark of Truth within your mind wherever you give up a false belief, a dark illusion of your own reality and what love means. He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the Truth of Love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach Love's meaning to your clean and open mind." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 127, 3:5-8, 7:1, 9:3-5
"There is no material truth. The physical senses can take no cognizance of God and Spiritual Truth. The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demonstrate Truth and Life. Divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that is real." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page273, Lines 2-4; Page 274, Lines 12-13; Page 286, Lines14-15
How do we even begin to speak about what is All-Encompassing and so Beautiful that I weep as I write this? Imagine a time when your experience of love was so intense that there was no containing it. You may have thought it was because of a certain person or experience. It wasn't. In those moments we simply relax our defenses of mind and heart enough to glimpse the breathtaking Reality of Love. In any moment, in any experience when our undefended heart opens, the unimaginable experience of ever-present Love rushes in.
In the Tao te Ching, Lao Tsu wrote, "There is a Being, whose name I do not know, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment." The overwhelming experience of Divine Love leaves no story unchanged. All that previously looked like pain or limitation is transformed, radiant with blessing. Every drop of blood, every experience of failure, every hateful experience becomes a source of gratitude and wonder. How is it possible? What mystery is this?
Our human stories about love really have very little to do with Love. They distract us from what IS. "Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is One. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like ItSelf, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son." (ACIM; Workbook 127, 1:1-7)
Love is not what we think it is. It is completely impersonal, without a story... and yet It is more intimate than any emotional or sexual encounter, more deeply fulfilling than any human relationship or attachment. There is no describing It in words, and yet It spills over into words, into this blog, into imagined time and space... It cannot and will not be contained. Forever ItSelf, It is Our Home and Our Self.
"No law the world obeys can help you grasp Love's meaning. What the world believes was made to hide Love's meaning, and to keep it dark and secret. There is not one principle the world upholds but violates the Truth of what Love IS, and what you are as well. Seek not within the world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet it is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and ears that hear Love's Voice." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 127, 5:1-3, 6:1-3
"Accept the Truth about your Self, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. It is but this we are asked to do." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 139, 10:2-3
"There is no material truth. The physical senses can take no cognizance of God and Spiritual Truth. The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demonstrate Truth and Life. Divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that is real." -- Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy; Page273, Lines 2-4; Page 274, Lines 12-13; Page 286, Lines14-15
How do we even begin to speak about what is All-Encompassing and so Beautiful that I weep as I write this? Imagine a time when your experience of love was so intense that there was no containing it. You may have thought it was because of a certain person or experience. It wasn't. In those moments we simply relax our defenses of mind and heart enough to glimpse the breathtaking Reality of Love. In any moment, in any experience when our undefended heart opens, the unimaginable experience of ever-present Love rushes in.
In the Tao te Ching, Lao Tsu wrote, "There is a Being, whose name I do not know, Who surrounds everything with Its Love like a garment." The overwhelming experience of Divine Love leaves no story unchanged. All that previously looked like pain or limitation is transformed, radiant with blessing. Every drop of blood, every experience of failure, every hateful experience becomes a source of gratitude and wonder. How is it possible? What mystery is this?
Our human stories about love really have very little to do with Love. They distract us from what IS. "Perhaps you think that different kinds of love are possible. Perhaps you think there is a kind of love for this, a kind for that; a way of loving one, another way of loving still another. Love is One. It has no separate parts and no degrees; no kinds nor levels, no divergencies and no distinctions. It is like ItSelf, unchanged throughout. It never alters with a person or a circumstance. It is the Heart of God, and also of His Son." (ACIM; Workbook 127, 1:1-7)
Love is not what we think it is. It is completely impersonal, without a story... and yet It is more intimate than any emotional or sexual encounter, more deeply fulfilling than any human relationship or attachment. There is no describing It in words, and yet It spills over into words, into this blog, into imagined time and space... It cannot and will not be contained. Forever ItSelf, It is Our Home and Our Self.
"No law the world obeys can help you grasp Love's meaning. What the world believes was made to hide Love's meaning, and to keep it dark and secret. There is not one principle the world upholds but violates the Truth of what Love IS, and what you are as well. Seek not within the world to find your Self. Love is not found in darkness and in death. Yet it is perfectly apparent to the eyes that see and ears that hear Love's Voice." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 127, 5:1-3, 6:1-3
"Accept the Truth about your Self, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God. It is but this we are asked to do." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 139, 10:2-3
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Spiritual Sense
"Looking outside yourself for the Source of Love and Grace, you lose the real Presence within. That which you receive through spiritual sense comes as the Grace of God, and only this is important." -- Joel Goldsmith
"'I am as God created me.' This idea is all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the Truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be a substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. The healing power of this idea is limitless." -- A Course in Miracles
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." -- The Bible
Spiritual sense is the only sense we need. We have been badly taught to listen to the material senses, which are not instruments of detection, but of fiction. The physical, material sense always and only tells us what we want to hear. We are proving, like all delusional minds, that our illusions are true and that we are right. Even in the midst of our suffering, damn it, we are right. This is the way it is.
Spiritual sense is the only sense we really have. Joel Goldsmith was fond of saying that unless we can hear what can't be heard by the physical ears and see what can't be seen by the physical eyes, we will never know the Kingdom of God that is in the midst of us. Jeshua ben Joseph shortened that to, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see." Short and to the point... and unintelligible to the human sense of things.
Spiritual sense is how we honor the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Material sense is the evidence of gods many, with the imaginary power to change and manipulate and control the Son of God. How could this be true or even exist at all within the Allness of God?
The First Commandment is not an ultimatum... it's a roadmap Home. As ACIM says, "I am under no laws but God's." The sights and sounds that seem to show us many powers and many laws are the evidence gathering machine of the illusory, material dream. Believe in them, and you are lost in the dream for now. Believe in even one of them, and it is as if you believed in all of them. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and you cannot be a little bit asleep. You either wander in the dream, lost and alone in spite of the illusion of many bodies... or you Awaken to Awareness of Who You Are, and in Whom You Live and Move and Have Your Being. There is nothing in between these two choices. It really is All or nothing.
As long as we prefer one illusion to the Truth, we sleep and suffer and die within the dream, over and over and over. Our spiritual sense cannot awaken unless we value it above all else. As long as one twinge of attachment and emotion holds you to the old allegiances, you sleep and suffer and die, over and over and over. There is no compromise nor meeting place between illusions and Truth. One IS. The other simply isn't, and so there is nothing to do but wander within the nonsense of the dream. Sometimes it looks like life, sometimes like death, but there is no real difference. Sometimes it looks like love, sometimes like hate, but there is no difference. What isn't true simply doesn't exist, and no new stories or attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable will every change it into Truth.
Our spiritual sense cannot be lost. But as long as we look outside ourselves for evidence with the material senses, we cannot see or hear what is Real and True. As long as we look to person, place, or thing for love, approval, validation, or survival, we are lost. The good news is that the spiritual sense of Our True Self is available to us any instant we let go of the illusions that have fascinated us for so very long. The First Commandment is couched in uncompromising tone because this act of surrender and commitment is truly our first and only need, our first and only Love, and the only sense we ever need to pay attention to.
"Hear O Israel: the Lord your God is One. And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." -- The Bible
"'I am as God created me.' This idea is all you need to let complete correction heal your mind, and give you perfect vision that will heal all the mistakes that any mind has made at any time or place. It is enough to heal the past and make the future free. If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the Truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be a substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. In this one thought is all the past undone; the present saved to quietly extend into a timeless future. If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. The healing power of this idea is limitless." -- A Course in Miracles
"Thou shalt have no other gods before Me." -- The Bible
Spiritual sense is the only sense we need. We have been badly taught to listen to the material senses, which are not instruments of detection, but of fiction. The physical, material sense always and only tells us what we want to hear. We are proving, like all delusional minds, that our illusions are true and that we are right. Even in the midst of our suffering, damn it, we are right. This is the way it is.
Spiritual sense is the only sense we really have. Joel Goldsmith was fond of saying that unless we can hear what can't be heard by the physical ears and see what can't be seen by the physical eyes, we will never know the Kingdom of God that is in the midst of us. Jeshua ben Joseph shortened that to, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear. He who has eyes to see, let him see." Short and to the point... and unintelligible to the human sense of things.
Spiritual sense is how we honor the First Commandment: Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Material sense is the evidence of gods many, with the imaginary power to change and manipulate and control the Son of God. How could this be true or even exist at all within the Allness of God?
The First Commandment is not an ultimatum... it's a roadmap Home. As ACIM says, "I am under no laws but God's." The sights and sounds that seem to show us many powers and many laws are the evidence gathering machine of the illusory, material dream. Believe in them, and you are lost in the dream for now. Believe in even one of them, and it is as if you believed in all of them. There is no hierarchy of illusions, and you cannot be a little bit asleep. You either wander in the dream, lost and alone in spite of the illusion of many bodies... or you Awaken to Awareness of Who You Are, and in Whom You Live and Move and Have Your Being. There is nothing in between these two choices. It really is All or nothing.
As long as we prefer one illusion to the Truth, we sleep and suffer and die within the dream, over and over and over. Our spiritual sense cannot awaken unless we value it above all else. As long as one twinge of attachment and emotion holds you to the old allegiances, you sleep and suffer and die, over and over and over. There is no compromise nor meeting place between illusions and Truth. One IS. The other simply isn't, and so there is nothing to do but wander within the nonsense of the dream. Sometimes it looks like life, sometimes like death, but there is no real difference. Sometimes it looks like love, sometimes like hate, but there is no difference. What isn't true simply doesn't exist, and no new stories or attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable will every change it into Truth.
Our spiritual sense cannot be lost. But as long as we look outside ourselves for evidence with the material senses, we cannot see or hear what is Real and True. As long as we look to person, place, or thing for love, approval, validation, or survival, we are lost. The good news is that the spiritual sense of Our True Self is available to us any instant we let go of the illusions that have fascinated us for so very long. The First Commandment is couched in uncompromising tone because this act of surrender and commitment is truly our first and only need, our first and only Love, and the only sense we ever need to pay attention to.
"Hear O Israel: the Lord your God is One. And thou shalt love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your mind, and with all your soul, and with all your strength." -- The Bible
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