"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!
Showing posts with label Substance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Substance. Show all posts
Monday, February 14, 2011
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
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