Organic Abundance

Responsibility and Choice

2019-05-25T11:51:00.000-05:00

"Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause." - A Course in Miracles, Chapter 21, Introduction, 1:1-8

"Miracles do not affect another mind. They always change your mind. There is no other." - A Course in Miracles, Chapter 21, Section V:3:10-12

We seem to jog daily on a treadmill of false responsibility. We are responsible for our homes, our jobs, our finances, our families, our pets, our understanding or lack of it. We feel responsible for both our seeming successes and failures, and feel guilty about all of it because it's never enough. We are constantly practicing hyper vigilance to protect what we think we want to keep, and to find ways to eliminate what we think we want to get rid of or eliminate from our lives and the world. This is always a zero sum game. No one ever wins in this world of constantly swinging perception and opinion. False responsibility is a zero sum game.

What are we truly responsible for? Our own mind and focus. Not our thoughts, which are the beginning of projection. But our awareness. Thoughts arise from what we are holding in awareness. Inspired thoughts arise from an awareness of Truth. False thoughts (judgments and guilt) arise from an external focus on our own projection, so that it appears to be happening to us. "

"Miracles are thoughts. Thoughts can represent the lower or bodily level of experience, or the higher or spiritual level of experience. One makes [projects] the physical, and the other creates [extends] the Spiritual [as we hold it in awareness!]. Miracles are examples of right-thinking, aligning your mind with Truth as God created It. The Holy Spirit is the mechanism of miracles." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 1, Section I, 12:1-3, 36:1 and 38:1

In the passage called "Responsibility for Sight" in A Course in Miracles, we are given this beautiful explanation:

"I am responsible for what I see.
I choose the feelings I experience,
and I decide upon the goal I would achieve.
And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for,
and receive as I have asked."
-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 21, Section II, 2:3-5

Once this is clearly recognized and owned, the power of choice is restored to the mind. Only judgments and guilt about our own projections keep us from the bliss of every holy instant. The choice is always between external focus (judgments and guilt about our own projections) and the recognition that there is nothing out there to judge or feel guilty about. It was always and only my own projection that obscured the ever-present reality of Love. God, Love is All. That is the Truth that is revealed in the crystalline Awareness of the holy instant, whenever we take responsibility for the only choice there is to make.

"There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." -- A Course in Miracles;Chapter 18, Section VI, 1:1-2 & 5-6

Being Perfect

2019-05-24T12:30:00.000-05:00

"The children of God are entitled to the perfect comfort that comes from perfect trust. God and His creations are completely dependent on Each Other. He depends on them because He created them perfect." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 2, Section III, 5:1, 6-7

"Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father in Heaven is perfect." -- The Bible; Matthew 5:48

Definition of the word perfect:

being entirely without fault or defect
absolute; unequivocal
faithfully reproducing the original
lacking in no essential detail; complete

Wow. I can feel myself relaxing. Relaxing in perfect trust. Resting in perfection. An unshakeable certainty of inseparable Oneness with the Love Intelligence and Infinite Goodness that is God. Completeness and fulfillment that never changes. Wow.

Who are we, that we should be entitled to all this, and more?

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, NOW we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." -- The Bible; 1 John 3:1-2

How many times a day do our thoughts about ourselves and others shift and change? From liking to not-liking, from kindness and acceptance to judging and blaming, from grandiose aspirations to morose regrets, we are like mental yo-yo's in the ever-shifting concept of self and other. These images are not who we are! They are mental constructs, projections with no substance.

The good news is that Being Perfect has nothing to do with who and what we imagine ourselves to be as bodies and personalities. Being and Perfection are the Reality of God, which is Principle. Like an axiom in mathematics, it is a given, an unchanging Principle. This is our Spiritual Reality! Our Reality is forever perfect and unchanging in the Mind of God, radiant with Love and Light and Life. Unchanging. Joyous. Free of all limits. Pure Love. Encompassing all with our Love and Light and Life. Being Perfect is our natural state.

"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

Joy for the New Year

2017-12-26T11:56:00.000-06:00

"And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed... and all went to be taxed, every one to his own city." -- The Bible; Luke 2: 1-3

As I was listening to a reading of the Christmas story on Christmas Eve, it was as if a translation was going on in my awareness. The world of Caesar, in this story, is the illusory material world with all its laws and limitations that seem to bind us and burden us. The tax is the need to bow down to these laws, to sacrifice to them and obey them and suffer because of them. Whether these are laws about bodies or laws about finances (and taxes!) or laws about relationships, the result is the same. We are on a treadmill trying to keep up and we feel guilt if we don't measure up. So we stay on that treadmill trying to fix it, to change it, or to succeed in it. Sometimes we just feel the need to punish ourselves or someone else for not measuring up to those insane laws. It's all the same thing, and the end result is a dizzying sense of burden and unease and guilt, even in the best of times.

Then, in the midst of this story of all the world bowing down to Caesar and paying taxes in tribute, Mary goes into labor. There is of course no room for this innocence in the insanity of guilt and need that is the world of Caesar. No room in the inn, which is where that world says we must stay. But in this amazing story of joy and deliverance, Mary gives birth to baby Jesus (Emmanuel, God with us!) right where she finds herself, which in the world's view is the lowliest of circumstances. This birth is taking place right where we are, wherever we are! No special circumstances needed! The birth pains come from our clinging to stories of wrongness, guilt, blame, lack, and limitation. The actual birth is the act of forgiving, of letting go of the burden of believing we are subject to laws of guilt, lack, and limitation. And the baby (God with us!) is the dawning Awareness of our Eternal Innocence and abiding as expressions of the One Love and Light that is God. We are that new born Awareness, expressing Love and Joy and Peace. We are the Christmas Story. This new day, and every new day.

As 2018 approaches, we don't need health or relationship or financial or political or ecological miracles to experience security and fulfillment. "Perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance." (A Course in Miracles; Workbook 56:1:5). True miracles are born of our perfect innocence (ALL of us!) and Infinite Love (ALL of us!) as pure Awareness. This Awareness is God expressing in the world of Caesar, and is the only miracle we ever need. This pure and innocent Awareness reveals the true hope and joy we all bring to the new year as Emmanuel, God with us! We are the Christmas Story. This new day, and every new day!

"There is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It is a thought of pure joy; a thought of peace, a thought of limitless release, limitless because all things are freed within it." (A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 16:6:1-2)

"When they saw the star [when the Awareness of Emmanuel, God with us! dawned], they rejoiced with exceeding great Joy!" -- The Bible; Matthew 2:10

True Thanksgiving

2017-11-24T09:51:00.000-06:00

"I rest in God." - A Course in Miracles; Workbook 109

"...the Lord my God hath given me rest on every side, so there is neither adversary nor evil occurrence." - The Bible: I Kings 5:4

It's hard to believe it has been nearly a year since I've written a blog post. This has been a year of constant challenge in the apparent world, both collectively and individually. And the miracle is the ease with which each challenge has been met in consciousness. As we become aware of each false appearance/projection, and forgive/release the appearance/projection, the ever-present Joy and Peace of Reality is always right here. Always. Our Reality is in God, Who is Pure Spirit.

There is no anthropomorphic being outside of us to save us or to give us anything. God is a word used to denote the origin of all things, and it is only our sexist and misogynistic apparent world that has given this word its destructive meaning. We are told in scriptures around the world that God = Spirit = Good = Love. Pure Spirit, Perfect Awareness of Perfect Oneness, Love and Goodness without Limit, Pure Joy... THIS is the Origin of All Things. And we remain IN this vast ocean of Love and Goodness. It's our Reality.

Whenever the projected insanity seems too much, we simply need to return in consciousness to this expansive and perfect Reality that we share. There is nothing holding you back but your own unwillingness to let go of everything you think you know about the world. Let all the projections go, and be very thankful that you can let them go. This is why A Course in Miracles reminds us over and over again that "forgiveness offers everything I want." (ACIM Workbook 122). True thanksgiving is remembering this and living it on a daily basis.

True thanksgiving is remembering to forgive and rest in God. There is nothing else to do or be done at all. For out of this One Self arises all that is good and true and perfect. True thanksgiving is pure joy, and blesses All.

"Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest shall ye be saved. In quietness and confidence shall be your strength." - The Bible: Isaiah 30:15

No Greater Love

2016-12-22T08:32:00.000-06:00

"Do not interpret against God's Love, for you have many witnesses that speak of it so clearly that only the blind and deaf could fail to see and hear them. This year determine not to deny what has been given you by God. Awake and share it, for that is the only reason He has called to you. His Voice has spoken clearly, and yet you have so little faith in what you heard because you preferred to place faith in the disaster you have made. Today let us resolve to accept the joyful tidings that disaster is not real and Reality is not disaster. Reality is safe and sure and wholly kind to everyone and everything. There is no greater love than to accept this and be glad. For Love asks only that you be happy, and will give you everything that makes for happiness."- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 8

No greater Love than to accept happiness. Wow.

We associate love with sacrifice. We think love involves denying happiness for ourselves to give someone else happiness. We don't notice that this belief is based on separation and duality. And in duality, someone wins and someone loses.

In the Awareness of Love, there is unity and there is Oneness. In Oneness there is no sacrifice, because there is wholeness and happiness everywhere, always. The thought of sacrifice is meaningless when Oneness is accepted and known. Only our stubborn belief in the disaster of our projected world prevents accepting and knowing what is eternally Present and True. This is why we can let it all go in any Holy Instant we choose. We give the world and everything in it all the meaning that it has. Like a movie, without an audience it is nothing.

"You have never given any problem to the Holy Spirit He has not solved for you, nor will you ever do so. You have never tried to solve anything yourself and been successful. Is it not time you brought these facts together and made sense of them?" -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:1-3

I love the irony in the above quote, because it calls lightly to us to laugh at the absurdity of it all, rather than make it all seem so heavy and real. Instead of sitting in the dark in this theater of the absurd, we can Awaken.

"This is the year for the application of the ideas that have been given you. For the ideas are mighty forces, to be used and not laid idly by." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:4-5

It is up to us to allow the Truth to permeate all our thoughts, all our actions, and all our perceptions. What we do comes from what we think, and what we think arises from the ideas we habitually focus our awareness on. This is all there is to it. We are giving our awareness to Truth, or we are sitting in the dark theater, focusing only on the grim illusions we have projected because we prefer them to Love.

"This year invest in Truth, and let it work in peace." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 16, Section II, 9:7

We who have treasured our painful and crazy perception of a world gone mad, can also forgive it and let it go. How hard is it to let steam rise and disappear? Letting go of illusions is no harder than this! Simply bring all your insane beliefs to the Holy Spirit and let them go. And allow the Truth to reveal the Love that is All, and Everything. Let Truth work in peace. There is no greater Love than to accept this, and be glad!

Have a blessed and holy holiday, and an Awakened New Year!

The Rule of Law

2016-09-10T10:02:00.000-05:00

"You will attack what does not satisfy, and thus will not see you made it up. You always fight illusions. For the Truth behind them is so lovely and so still in Loving gentleness, were you aware of it you would forget defensiveness entirely, and rush to its embrace." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 1:2-3

Only One. One Love, One Life, One Mind, One Self. There are multiple workbook lessons in a Course in Miracles dedicated to this thought, and it is repeated over and over again in the Course, in different ways. There are no laws but Gods. There is no will but Gods. There is no love but Gods. My mind is part of Gods Mind, and I am very holy. Only One. Always One.

Our suffering all comes from the belief in other. We believe there is God, good, certainly... but then there is that which is other than God, other than good, the human creations of sin and suffering and lack and limitation. In our arrogance, we dream of a life other than God. And we suffer from those beliefs, from the dream of a separate life with the rule of law that seems to support man made values and roles that are always selfish and self-serving, and always shifting and changing to hide their nothingness. The rule of law in the world as we dream it has no meaning and no consistency. It is all made up, and based on nothing.

"Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws. They seem to dance a little while, according to the rules you set for them. But then they fall and cannot rise again. They are but toys, my child, so do not grieve for them. Their dancing never brought you joy. But neither were they things to frighten you, nor make you safe if they obeyed your rules. They must be neither cherished nor attacked, but merely looked upon as children's toys without a single meaning of their own. See one in them, and you will see meaning in them all. See none in them, and they will touch you not." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4

So whenever I look out on a world that seems to have gone mad... whenever I seem to see beliefs and laws that are so selfish and unfair it boggles the mind... whenever I am tempted to despair at the bluster and noise and rampant fear... I need only remember that there is only One Creation, and that is Gods. In it all things are held in perfect Love, in perfect Oneness that is eternally safe and secure, right where the insanity seems to be. The real meaning of it all is God, the All-Good. When I project other, I have given this meaning based on false human assumptions, rather than resting in the One Self, the One Loving meaning that all creation shares.

"Salvation is a paradox indeed! What could it be except a happy dream? It asks you but that you forgive all things that no one ever did; to overlook what is not there, and not to look upon the unreal as reality. Such is the only rule for the happy dream." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 7:1-3 and 8:7

The real rule of law is this: "I am One Self, united with my Creator, at One with every aspect of Creation, and limitless in Power and in Peace." (ACIM; Workbook Lesson 95)

In this awareness all lesser laws are revealed to be nothing at all.

Join us for our ACIM Teleclass each Wednesday evening. Call in information is always available at http://www.sundarya.com/acimteleclass.htm

Undivided

2016-07-30T19:28:00.000-05:00

"Only Love is strong, because it is undivided." -- A Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section V, 1:1

The current atmosphere in the world can only be described as fragmented, divisive, and competitive. How can we even conceive of a world where there is One Mind, One Purpose, where Love and Joy and Peace are our shared and constant state of Being?

A Course in Miracles tells us that our purpose becomes unified when we share a common goal. And when the goal is undivided, the means and end are in complete accord. "You need offer only undivided attention" to that goal, it reminds us. There's that word again... 'undivided.' The Course points out over and over again that this unification of purpose, regardless of seeming circumstances, is what allows our mind to return to sanity, to awareness of Oneness. Undivided.

So everything is returned to holiness and Wholeness by this simple unification of Purpose. No longer is the purpose of fixing dinner to feed a body. It is to remember that our true Self is pure, undivided Love, eternally Whole and Complete, and we participate in this world to joyously remember the Love that we are. This is our only Purpose. No longer do we interact with others to get something. Our holy Purpose is always to see the One Love that we are in all things and all Beings. Our holy Purpose is to let the Love that we are be the guiding Force in our lives, because only Love is strong in Oneness. Only Love is undivided.

In a world where unity has different meanings to different people in vastly differing cultures, Unity is still possible. But not out there. Only in the heart of each of us can Love be Love. Only by making this return to Oneness our only Purpose can we experience Oneness in the midst of seeming insanity.

So every time we are tempted to judge the world as it appears, let's remember to ask, "What is it for?" This reminds us that, in Truth, everything shares one purpose, without exception. This returns our undivided attention to the One Goal that all things share, and lets the undivided strength of Love be reflected in the most unlikely of places. Every time we remember to ask, "What is it for?" we always receive the same answer. Our unified Purpose is to remember that God, Love, is All. There is only God, only Love, no matter how it appears. Which means that right where I seem to be, as a separate self with separate agendas and purposes, there is only the One Self that we share in God. One Self, One Light, One Love, reflected everywhere. Undivided.

"You need offer only undivided attention. Everything else will be given you." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 12, Section V, 9:4-5

Arise, Shine

2016-05-24T09:38:00.000-05:00

Almost every morning when I wake up, I hear a scripture passage from Isaiah that I learned at an early age: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee." And it amuses me to see that this is how dogs act when they wake up. Have you ever watched a dog wake up? They almost always get up, shake themselves, and exude pure joy.

Humans tend to do the same until a certain age. My younger grandchildren usually wake up joyful and trusting in the goodness of the day ahead. As they get older, this seems to change. As we get older, this seems to change.

But I have found that it hasn't really changed. I have discovered what my dogs and all scripture has been telling me all along... that Who I Am never changes. As it says in the Bible, "The Holy One of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps."

Who We Are never changes, whether we appear to be sleeping or waking, and Self is always light and joyful. Pure Being delights in being. Sometimes we seem to fall asleep to Who We Are, and we forget to shine. At such times we can learn a lot from dogs. Get up, shake yourself Awake, and exude the Joy that you are!

So when I hear, " Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee," I know that this is eternally so. That every holy instant, and every holy morning of existence, this is the Truth.

The Guilty Identity

2016-03-22T21:14:00.000-05:00

"Temptation has one lesson it would teach, in all its forms, wherever it occurs. It would persuade the holy Son of God he is a body, born in what must die, unable to escape its frailty, and bound by what it orders him to feel."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII, 1:1-2

Do you regularly find things about yourself or your surroundings that are lacking, or should be different? Are you ashamed of things you have done or even are doing? Are you judgmental of what others are doing, mentally shaming them? All of these mental attitudes and actions are part and parcel of the guilty identity we learn as part of a separate self, living in a separate body in this world. Do you know anyone who is free of this?

Even very happy people react and become apologetic if someone else is upset. This is the conditioned guilty response. "I am so sorry," we say, as if we could do something about it. Or as if we should.

A Course in Miracles helps us understand that guilt is how a sense of body awareness and a separate self is maintained. Without the judgment and guilt, there is only the unified Mind, where all things exist in the Light of Awareness and Love, pure transparencies for God. Without judgment and guilt, there is an Awareness of Oneness, which is All Good and only Good. Perfect Oneness is our natural state, which is always and only God, reflecting and radiating the Light of Goodness and Love.

It's interesting, don't you think, that a small upset or affront to our egoic identity can send us into a seeming tail spin, can make us so agitated and fearful that it seems as if a huge thing has really occurred. When in such a state, it's impossible to conceive of a unified Mind that radiates peace and joy. And yet we are always and only reacting to our own judgments and guilty verdicts, the story of a separate body-self and the fearful 'others'. And even in the midst of this story of separation and loss, all we have to do is forgive our judgments and let them go. Right where all seems hopeless or angry or sad or lost or any other version of guilt, there is pure joy and perfect love. Right where the problem seems to be, there is only Love, which is the only Law of God.

"There are no laws but God's... there is no loss under the laws of God. Payment is neither given nor received. Exchange cannot be made; there are no substitutes; and nothing is replaced by something else. God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 76, 9:1, 3-6

The story of the crucifixion and resurrection of God's Son is the story of everyone's life. The guilty identity that we have carefully protected for so long is not real. It can only seem fearful and shameful and wrong when we hang on to our 'laws' of judgment and refuse to forgive. A Course in Miracles gives us many ways to approach forgiveness, and all of them involve letting go of human laws of judgment and thus realizing what has always been true. The guilty identify was all made up, and has never been at all. This realization is the resurrection of the Son of God.

"Learn then the happy habit of response to all temptation to perceive yourself as weak and miserable with these words: I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son. You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss is but temptation to perceive yourself defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain, in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, VIII, 5:1-4, and 6:1-3

You Are Home

2016-02-03T06:29:00.001-06:00

"The learning of the world is built upon a concept of the self adjusted to the world's reality. A concept of self is made by you. It bears no likeness to your Self at all. It is an idol, made to take the place of your reality as Son of God." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section V.

Many of these blog posts have explored the question, Who am I? And A Course in Miracles teaches us that this is the only real question we can ask. Once we have clearly understood this, everything changes. As the Course says, I cannot have what I am unwilling to be.

The Course reminds us over and over, in thousands of uniquely poetic ways, that our lives are not as we imagine them. Those of us who are writing or reading this obviously have glimpsed this, and know it to be true in spite of the tenacity of the egoistic image of a self. Why else would you be reading this blog? Such words hold no interest to those who still believe their own self-concepts. It is those of us whose concepts are dissolving that are drawn to such things.

Dissolving is what is going on, you know. The false will fall away automatically when it is no longer defended. This is a blissful process when you realize what is happening. It is like a delicious melting away of all that is false, and a relaxing into the Self that has always been Who We Are. Like realizing you are Home, and have always been Home.

"Whatever form temptation seems to take, it always but reflects a wish to be a self that you are not. And from that wish a concept arises, teaching that you are the thing you wish to be. It will remain your concept of yourself until the wish that fathered it no longer is held dear. Be vigilant against temptation, then, remembering that it is but a wish, insane and meaningless, to make yourself a thing that you are not. Consider then what temptation is, and see the real alternatives you choose between." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VII.

Choose wisely today, and see all things in the Light of this one Self. You are the Self that God created... One Self that excludes no one and no thing. You are that Self. You are Home.

"You are as God created you, and so is every living thing you look upon, regardless of the images you see. What you behold as sickness and as pain, as weakness and as suffering and loss, is but temptation to perceive your self defenseless and in hell. Yield not to this, and you will see all pain in every form, wherever it occurs, but disappear as mists before the sun." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 31, Section VIII.

Please join our ACIM Teleclass every Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm CT. All are welcome.

Our Only Function here

2016-01-13T21:11:00.000-06:00

"I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you welcomed me; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was in prison and you came to me... for just as you have done this to least of these, my brothers, you have done it unto me." -- The Bible, Matthew 25:35-36, 40

"Your home is built upon your brother's health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him."-- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 28, Section VII, 7:1

"Pain, illness, loss, age, and death seem to threaten me... yet perfect security and complete fulfillment are my inheritance."-- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 56:1:3 and 5

The images that pass across the mirror of our minds every day can seem daunting. We see others suffering as well as witnessing our own suffering. But over 2,000 years ago Jesus gave us a radical teaching... seeing our brother as whole, healthy, fulfilled and secure and letting all the images of lack and limitation go. Allowing the radiance of Divine Love to so fill our minds and hearts that we see only that Light reflected in all that we seem to encounter. And then discovering that as we have seen the 'other', so we have seen our Self.

Forgiveness as given to us through A Course in Miracles means the simple act of letting the daunting images go, 'overlooking' them, and seeing all things safe and healed and whole. "Spirit am I, safe and healed and whole; free of all limits, free to forgive, and free to save the world." The Course assures us that this practice will give us everything we have ever dreamed of or could ever want. So what is stopping us?

From a very early age we are taught habits of mind and thought that are supposedly normal, habits that we are told will keep us healthy and safe within the tribe of humans. Of course, they are actually the mental chains we willingly wear day after day until we seem to age and die, worn out by the struggle to be something we are not. These conditioned habits of thought and behavior can only be let go by a disciplined willingness to practice this new way of looking at things every minute of every day. This is forgiveness. This is our only function here.

"These insubstantial images will go and leave your mind unclouded and serene, when you accept the function given you. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your only function here." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 186, 10:1 and 14:5-6

The Thing That I Seek

2015-12-29T09:59:00.000-06:00

First, I want to send everyone infinite love and blessings for the New Year. This is Who We Are! May all Being remember this!

"I am the goal the world is searching for." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 318

"I am that I am." -- The Bible

"I am That." -- Nisargadatta Maharaj

Reading the above quotations, the natural response of the conditioned self is, "No, I'm not." Or if you are a bit more open to the possibility, it may lead naturally into self-inquiry... "Who am I?" Or maybe even "What am I?" Am I what I seem to be, or am I beyond the seeming? Am I what is experiencing the seeming, or what is noticing the seeming? And if there is both, then are there two of me? What is the truth of all of this???

For those of us that have been reading and studying and even teaching A Course in Miracles for a while, it is apparent that every sentence and even every word is pointing to this Truth. "My mind is part of God's, and I am very holy." I am. I already am. So who or what is it that is constantly trying to fix up an unholy, flawed self? And who or what is that flawed self? Who, what, and why?

This morning I turned in the Workbook to Lesson 47: "God is the strength in which I trusts." To the split mind, this is a dualistic statement of God and me, self and other. But it is actually referring to God as our True Self.

To trust in a false sense of self is to suffer, and to live in the constant fear that is the world we see every day. But when we remember our shared God Self there is only Love, Goodness, Infinite Strength and Power and Security and Joy. And there is no limit to the miracles that are revealed when this is truly known. "I am the goal the world is searching for." Try contemplating this statement between now and the new year. Try remembering Who You Really Are throughout the new year, and always.

"Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 47:7:3-6

Stories and Laws

2015-11-02T20:17:00.000-06:00

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"Reality observes the laws of God, and not the rules you set. It is His laws that guarantee your safety. All illusions that you believe about yourself obey no laws." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 30, Section IV, 4:1-3

"I am under no laws but God's." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76

Every day seems to be an endless round of things to be done, people to please, and stories to tell and listen to. Such are the laws of work, of friendship, of being a good person. Such are the laws of survival of the body and its relative bodies, be they persons, animals, or structures. We like to tell the story that we want more 'free' time to meditate, to read, to write, to listen to God. Such are the laws of being spiritual, of being dedicated to a spiritual path, of being enlightened. Such rubbish! There are no laws but God's, and God's laws are unchanging and perfectly complete! There is no need to search for what is effortlessly true. And there is no need to look for laws in the world, where there simply aren't any! It's all made up!

Buddha said that desire is the source of all suffering. But he might have said that the desire to tell stories about what binds us is the source of all suffering. Because every imagined desire, every imagined problem, every imagined pleasure, every imagined encounter... all of it... has absolutely no substance and no power but the story we tell of it. That's all there is to it. And stories can be forgiven and dropped. We can allow the laws of God to tell the true story of All that Is. In the unified vision of God (our true Eye), there is only Love, the story of Everything.

The conditioned mind is quick to defend its stories. There is an existential fear of having nothing to say and nothing to do, of being nothing. The irony is that as the stories are forgiven and relinquished, we experience the expanded Awareness of Self, our true Being, which has always been and will eternally be all there Is. And the only laws in this expansive, eternal Life we share are laws of Love, Joy, Abundance, Peace, and Ever-New Joy.

When we forgive and cease believing our own stories, with new-born senses we see and hear a new story of Everything: "No matter how this appears, this is Good. No matter what story you have been told, there is only Love in you and around you and AS you. No matter what laws you think you must obey, you are always in the arms of Love, and need only follow Love's promptings." As we listen to the Truth that Divine Love whispers to us, the old stories and fears fall away, and the world is reborn in our experience. This isn't a fictional story. This is experiential Truth. Beyond all stories and earthly laws, the Truth of Being remains and longs to remind us that we are under no laws but God's.

"God's laws forever give and never take." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 76, 9:6

A Question of Freedom

2015-10-28T20:21:00.000-05:00

“Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have. Which do you value? Which is your goal? For one you see as means; the other, end. And one must serve the other and lead to its predominance, increasing its importance by diminishing its own. Means serve the end, and as the end is reached the value of the means decreases, eclipsed entirely when they are recognized as functionless. No one but yearns for freedom and tries to find it. Yet he will seek for it where he believes it is and can be found. He will believe it possible of mind or body, and he will make the other serve his choice as means to find it.” – A Course in Miracles; Chapter 22, Section VI, 1:1-10

This passage from A Course in Miracles asks us a direct question. It’s interesting how this blog seems to be taking a turn toward questions and answers, but then I realize that it is the nature of the unwinding mind. We ask questions until we exhaust ourselves, pretending there is some ‘answer’ missing still. In our exhaustion, if we’re lucky, we find the stillness, the emptiness, the freedom… the expansive Self.

Every seeming question is about Freedom. We may ask, “How do I get well?” if health is an issue. We may ask, “How do I make enough money?” if money is an issue. We may ask, “How do I feel good about myself again?” if guilt and self-condemnation are the issues du jour. But every single question is about freedom. Freedom for something, or freedom from something. All lies, you see. Because Real Freedom is completely expansive and includes everyone and everything. It is the Freedom of BEING that ironically results in freedom within the life we live, without even trying. Because the unified, expansive Mind reflects in unified, expansive life situations.

The question that the Course asks is very direct. Are we seeking this freedom of unified Mind, or are we just seeking for mental solutions to take care of the physical issues we really value? I can honestly say that most of my life, even much of my life studying and teaching the Course, was spent in searching for freedom of the body… for pleasure, for success, for recognition, for companionship, for accomplishment, for avoidance, for security… the list of seeming reasons goes on and on. But all were related to freedom for the imagined self in a body, in a world of bodies.

I had a dream the other night, and I won’t bore you with the plots, twists, turns, and weird associations. But the symbolic part was this enormous tree, vibrant and alive, but completely hollow. You could walk inside and never see the top… it was like a huge, dark, infinite unknown. Some part of me wanted to be afraid of the unknown part, but the wiser part knew it was completely safe, and somehow holy.

It was several days later that the Inner Voice clarified the symbol. Our True Self is vibrant, eternally Alive, but completely empty of everything but the spacious, infinite Altar of Self… Unified Mind Awake and Infinitely Free. And if this is the freedom we seek, we gladly give over every other aspect of our lives as means to find it… and find it we do. It is our True Self, the Reality of All that Is. The question of Freedom is answered the minute we ask a true question. “Do you want freedom of the body or of the mind? For both you cannot have!”

Questions from a Reader

2015-10-16T10:41:00.000-05:00

Dearest Friend:

I just wanted to share some thoughts about your questions yesterday, which are very similar to the ones you had last week. The gist of it is (if I am hearing you correctly), there are thoughts you are having that you don’t like. Last week you were having thoughts of judgment that you didn’t like. So both of these are really the same seeming problem.

Forgiveness is key here, but not as you seem to be using it. The thing is, forgiveness isn’t a tool to be used to make the human self feel better. It is an act of completely surrendering judgment and being clueless, empty of judgment, unknowing and not needing to know. As the Course teaches it, we give our thoughts to the Holy Spirit, which is our True Self, the communicative part of the Christ Mind we share. None of this is true, but it is what the course calls a ‘happy fiction’ that moves us toward completely relinquishing the imagined separate self. The Absolute Truth is that we never left our right Mind. But while seeming to live and move in the relative and dualistic dream world, the Holy Spirit will ‘translate’ all our thoughts into Truth (“Truth will correct all errors in my mind.” WB 107). Translate actually doesn’t mean to change at all, but to make clear. For example, if I say ‘hola’ to you and you don’t know Spanish, you don’t know what I mean. But if I then say, ‘that means hello’ to you, I have made the true meaning clear to you. I haven’t changed anything… I have simply made it clear.

In the same way, the Course reminds us that if we give every thought to the Holy Spirit, all of it will be used to make clear and obvious what has always been. The translation of every thought and every situation is the same: the meaning is always Perfect Goodness, Happiness, Joy, and Infinite Love. Our True Self has not been affected by any of our misperceptions, just as ‘hola’ means hello whether you know it or not.

Forgiveness means letting go, not analyzing, worrying, getting angry, or any other form of judging thoughts and situations. Judging your judgments is just another way of holding onto them, instead of giving them completely to Holy Spirit. And thinking that you have to ‘do’ something, or to forgive them somehow differently, is another delaying strategy of the personal self. The personal self will always see personal problems. That is what holds the illusion of a personal self in place, so of course we are constantly judging. We fear the loss of self. Ironically, Our Real Self has no problems. And from the standpoint of the Real Self, all problems not only disappear, but their relative reflection will either go away or be transformed somehow. That’s the way projection works. Either way, you will be happy, safe, and blissfully content resting in Truth.

Happiness is the only Reality of all things. It’s not like we need to get rid of or change anything (what in the Allness of God could be deleted or changed?). We simply need to let go of (forgive) our judgments and meanings and thinking we know. Once that is given, we see that right where we thought there was a negative thought, there is only happiness. Right where we thought we saw tragedy or disaster, there is only comfort, joy, and laughter. This is what the Course means when it says our perceptions are upside down and backwards. “To give up (forgive) all problems to one Answer is to reverse the thinking of the world entirely.” (Manual for Teachers 4:IX:1:6)

God’s Will for us is perfect Happiness, and there is no will but God’s. (WB Lessons 74 and 101) So you see, even the belief in outcomes has to be translated, because Happiness and Goodness and Love are what has always been and all that can ever BE. The belief in laws of behavior and reciprocity have to be translated, because we are in Truth under no laws but God’s… which is another way of saying that the Love of God, which includes Perfect Joy and Peace, is ALL THERE IS. (WB Lesson 76) So nothing else is ever going on but this Love, this Joy, this Happiness. Nothing!

“Forgiveness is the key to Happiness,” the Course reminds us. “Forgiveness is my only function here.” “Forgiveness offers everything I want.” “I will forgive and this will disappear.” Obviously, this is all we need to wake up. Not a tool, but the only practice in the dream that can never lead to suffering. Just give every thought to the Holy Spirit, and allow the Beauty and Joy of each moment, each action, each thought to be translated. Heaven is here and now. This Oneness of Being must include everyone, everything, and yes, every thought!

"Beloved Son of a wholly blessing Father, joy was created for you. Who can condemn whom God has blessed? There is nothing in the Mind of God that does not share his shining innocence. Creation is the natural extension of perfect purity. Your only calling here is to devote yourself, with active willingness, to the denial of guilt in all its forms." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section V, 3: 1-5

Blessings...
Mary

The Beauty of Holiness

2015-08-20T08:06:00.000-05:00

"Worship the Lord in the beauty of Holiness." -- Psalm 29

"Your purpose is to see the world through your own Holiness." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 37, 1:2

We are taught at a very early age to see differences. These differences are quickly sorted into good and bad, right and wrong, desirable and undesirable. And as we get older,, the compulsion to avoid the so-called bad and seek the imagined good is the only thing that motivates us (and the entire world!).

Ironically, this endless seeking to avoid pain and seek pleasure doesn't work. It may appear to work for short periods of time, but all you have to do is look around. We continue to pretend it works because the alternative is too fearful to the mind. We avoid looking at the Truth, because we have carefully and methodically been living in the thought system we inherited from our parents or from our social peers. And all of it is made up. We make it up daily, as we obey the so-called rules and judgments we have so carefully constructed.

The first glimmers of hope come when we realize that everything is Mind. What you are aware of is what you experience, even when it is all made up. Who is experiencing this pain, or this pleasure? Certainly it seems to be a body, but Who is aware of this body? And certainly this awareness seems to come and go, but whenever you check, it is always here. Whenever you become aware of Awareness, it is always here. Mind Awake is pure Awareness. And the only Awareness is that of Wholeness, which is what Holiness is. And it is pure Beauty, pure Love, and pure Joy.

One of the first Bible verses I learned as a child was the famous Shema: "Hear, O Israel: The Lord your God is One. And you shall the Lord with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." To be in alignment with the world of differences, this is interpreted as being something we have to do. We have to work at being good, work at loving God. But after studying A Course in Miracles for many years I have gradually come to know that it is a statement of fact. God is One Mind, and that Mind is Who We Really Are. This Mind is Whole, Holy, and wholly Loving. It can only be known when the need to pretend that everything is separate and different falls away. And this need falls away when we want to know the Truth more than we want to hang on to the carefully constructed ideas and judgements of the world around us.

As the earlier quote reminds us, our purpose here is to finally see the world through our own Holiness. As we begin to see that there is only Mind, we begin to accept that this One Mind is our true vision. This begins the process of mental housecleaning that The Course calls forgiveness. And as the mirror of the mind is swept clean of the compulsion to judge and see differences, all that remains is the Beauty of Holiness.

Everyone, Everywhere, and Always

2015-08-08T07:56:00.002-05:00

"The reflections you accept into the mirror of your mind in time but bring eternity nearer or farther. You will turn from time to holiness, as surely as the reflection of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt aside. Reflect the peace of Heaven here, and bring this world to Heaven. For the reflection of Truth draws everyone to Truth, and as they enter into it they leave all reflections behind." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section X, 1:2-7

"I will forgive, and this will disappear." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 193, 13:3

I woke up this morning from a nightmare. It was a convoluted dream, complete with an evil nemesis who took away everything I loved. Interestingly, such dreams don't make me afraid anymore. I just wake up from them feeling muddy and tired... but unafraid. I know that this is a very good sign. It means that all the remaining hidden beliefs and obstacles to Love's Presence are finally coming to the surface to be forgiven and released. As the Course reminds us, "I will forgive, and this will disappear." Not because forgiveness is magic, but because as soon as we let go of the judgment (which is all the reality or meaning that it has), there is nothing there. It's all made up, just like my convoluted dream.

"Perception is a mirror, not a fact." -- A Course in Miracles;

Everything I see and experience in the life called Mary is in my mind, and nowhere else. No matter how much I project it 'out there' it remains in my mind, since ideas can't leave their source. True forgiveness is the process of recognizing that all of these thoughts and experiences are images I have made, and so I can let them go. The Reality of our shared experience is beyond these perceptual images we call our lives. Our Reality is One, unified, safe, and sure.

"In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 14, Section X, 2:1

I love that I can awaken from every dream of hatred or dissatisfaction or pain or even pleasure (all based on projected judgments of self or others... no difference), and find myself instantly in Joy, unconditioned and free. I love that my judgments are nothing. I love that salvation is always present, in every Holy Instant of Now.

"A dream of judgement came into the mind that God created perfect as Himself. And in that dream was Heaven changed to hell, and God made enemy unto His Son. How can God's Son awaken from the dream? It is a dream of judgement. So must he judge not, and he will waken. For the dream will seem to last while he is part of it." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 29, Section IX, 2:1-6

The nightmare seemed to last while I was part of it. But as I became aware that I was dreaming, I was able to stop judging the figures in the dream, and so it disappeared. Then I was able to let go of analysis or judgment of self, and remembered: "I will forgive, and this will disappear." This clearing process is our only function in the world. "Reflect the Peace of Heaven here, and bring this world to Heaven." My vocation is to forgive and release all perception (the good included). What remains is a clear Reflection of Truth. What remains when all is forgiven is the Luminous Mind of God and the Reflection of Heaven, which is everyone, everywhere, and always.

In and Out

2015-07-01T19:49:00.000-05:00

"In Him we live and move and have our being." --The Bible; Acts 17:28

"I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." -- The Bible; Galatians 2:20

"My mind is part of God's. I am very holy." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook 35

Whether we talk about the Mind of God, or the Spirit of God, or the Allness of God, we are always speaking of Infinite Mind which is all-encompassing. The problem with our shared dualistic perspective is that even when we speak of God as All, we place ourselves inside that allness, as if we're sort of part of it, but still something 'other'. Arthur Corey spoke of this dilemma when he wrote, "AS Mind we live and move and have our Being -- not inside of Mind, like seeds in a watermelon!" We can't seem to help viewing everything as in or out.

I began this blog with some Biblical passages that have pointed me toward the Truth over the years. And of course, the famous Workbook Lesson from A Course in Miracles that reminds us we are as holy as God is, and never separate from this Infinite Awareness. Of course, it does so in language that we can understand, however imperfectly. And I have been reflecting on just how inadequate our language is to speak of what is forever One and indivisible.

In Hindu scriptures they compare our minds to waves in the Ocean of Divine Mind. In other words, waves are always and forever ocean... not IN the ocean, but ocean BEING ocean. Our minds are not just part of God's Mind. Our Minds are God's Mind, Infinitely Extending in Perfect Awareness. God BEING God.

"But..." I know. I know. The mind that sleeps seems to shrink in awareness until all it sees is imperfection and fragmented being, everywhere it looks. It is the act of focusing on this tunnel vision that creates the illusion of in and out. From the mountaintop, everything looks different. From a unified Mind, there is only the Beauty of Holiness.

So are both real? This is the question all of us have asked at some point. Immersed in dualism, we imagine there is a 'both', a 'two', an in and an out. The gift of A Course in Miracles is that it shows us how our tunnel vision perspective deludes and frightens us, when it is just a false sense of things, an insubstantial projection of the sleeping mind, and completely false. "Where is the darkness when the Light has come?" the Course asks us. "Nothing, and nowhere," is the reply.

We are forever pure Spirit, pure Mind, which is beyond all appearances that shift and change. We are neither in nor out.

"Unity alone is not a thing of dreams." -- A Course in Miracles; Manual for Teachers 12, 6:10

Impossible Things

2015-06-08T09:14:00.001-05:00

"There is no use trying," said Alice. "One can't believe impossible things."
"I dare say you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age I always did it for half an hour a day. Why sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast." -- from Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

"It is through the holy instant that what seems impossible is accomplished, making it evident that it is not impossible." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section VI, 14:1

Trying to understand the notion that all is Mind, and that Mind is the only Substance that exists, is like trying to tell the Emperor that he isn't wearing any clothes. We have a very vested interest in the world we have projected, and we have no real desire to have the Truth revealed to us. We like to play at seeking the Truth, but we don't really want to find it. Like Alice, we have already judged that one can't believe such impossible things.

In moments of true quiet, moments of present awareness when walking in the woods or by the ocean, we feel an unexplainable contentment and joy. These holy instants reveal what is True, and what has always been True. We are Infinite Mind, infinitely Aware, infinitely Perfect, infinitely Whole, infinitely Loving and Aware of the Perfection of Self. These instants of awareness are the storehouse of every so-called miracle. Perfection can only see the perfect. Wholeness can only see the whole and holy.

The practice of mindfulness touches on this, but as commonly practiced mostly limits us to being mindful of a body and limited self image. It can help quiet the mind, which can lead to glimpses of awareness. But we can practice mindfulness of Mind, of Awareness ItSelf. What A Course in Miracles calls the holy instant is this moment by moment mindful awareness of our True Self, which is Infinitely Loving and Aware.

Self is Mind, and Mind is Self. There is no other. And as ACIM reminds us, "Ideas leave not their Source." We are like waves in the ocean of Mind, and we cannot be other than Mind. What we call matter does not matter; it doesn't exist in the sense that we imagine it does. If Mind is all, then we have simply misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misjudged the world. We have forgotten Who We Are, and so we have forgotten the Reality of all things.

Letting go of these judgements, interpretations, and misunderstandings is what the Course calls forgiveness. Forgiveness is the bridge to Awareness, because once the mind is cleared of the clutter, Truth is radiantly Present. Forgiveness and miracles go hand in hand, since we cannot be aware of the miracle of Perfection that is already here, as long as we insist on the imperfections we think we see. Like Alice, we have already decided that perfection is impossible. But like Alice, we can let the rabbit holes in our lives reveal the Truth to us. We can forgive and jump in... we can let go of what we think we know. And we can let the Awareness of Truth in each holy instant set us free to experience the impossibly possible Goodness of Life and Truth and ever-present Love.

"There is nothing outside you. That is what you must ultimately learn, for it is the realization that the Kingdom of Heaven is restored to you. For God created only this, and He did not depart from it nor leave it separate from Himself. The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, Who left not his Father and dwells not apart from Him. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within. What could God give but knowledge of Himself? What else is there to give? The belief that you could give and get something else, something outside yourself, has cost you the awareness of Heaven, and of your Identity." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI

With God, all things are possible. -- Matthew 19:26

The End of Sacrifice

2015-02-23T10:05:00.001-06:00

As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.” But the man replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family." Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.” -- The Bible; Luke 9: 57-62

The ego reads this Biblical passage as a call to 'sacrifice' the pleasures of the world. But only a mind that is lost in its own images and judgements could fear letting images go. Images have no substance. The Reality of everything we think we see is One, and all the separate images ultimately meaningless. All meaning is given by simply Being. All we are ever letting go of are the mental constructs. Reality, Goodness, Love... these are eternal and ever-present, right where those images seem to be. Learn to let your judgements go, and Love the Reality of all things. Let the images come and go. This is no sacrifice... it is pure Joy!

Learning to recognize everything we see around us as mental constructs, projected images with no real substance, is one of the most challenging aspects of the curriculum of Jesus' teachings in both Biblical scriptures and A Course in Miracles. Why? Because we have a vested interest in seeing our images as real and substantial, with a cast of characters that make up our projection.  Our entire assumed identity depends upon the images we project as 'real.' And the mental constructs or beliefs that our mind accepts and then projects are the only proof we have that we are separate bodies with individual identities. A real house of cards. Begin to question these constructs one by one, and watch what happens. Begin to Love the Reality of all things. Let the judgements, the mental constructs, fall away. What remains is pure Joy! Nothing will look different to anyone else. But you will know the Joy of Being.

"It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your 'seeing' was made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 13, 1:1-7

All of the images the mind makes concern a body. "Power, fame, money, physical pleasure: who is the 'hero' to whom all these things belong? Could they mean anything except to a body? Yet a body cannot evaluate. By seeking after such things the mind associates itself with the body, obscuring its Identity and losing sight of what it really is." (ACIM Manual for Teachers 13, 2:6-9)

Does the Infinite Mind that is our true Self need a house, a car, a new dress, a good meal? These things are judgements, images, and will come and go accordingly. Over 2000 years ago the Christ Mind, our true Self, began reminding us that we are not bodies, that we are lost in our own mental images and judgements, and that we can let it all go and return to the Awareness of Self that he called the Father, and the Kingdom of Heaven. "Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an Awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else; nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within." (ACIM Chapter 18; VI, 1:5-6) Pure Joy!

Many have called these passages 'hard sayings.' Many ignore these passages, and their obvious message, and use parts of both the Bible and the Course to bring some semblance of truth to their projections and illusions of self and world. But Truth cannot be brought to illusions. We can only lift all our illusions, all our mental constructs, the entire house of cards to the Light of Truth. In this Light of Love and Clarity, the illusion of separation dissolves, and images are no longer seen as substantial.  Seen as nothing, there is no longer a compulsion to 'sacrifice' one's life to illusions. Seen as nothing, the belief in sacrifice is seen as just another construct... it's all made up! God is All, and there is nothing else. Pure Joy!

"That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else." -- Isaiah 45:6

The War Against My Self

2014-08-22T11:47:00.000-05:00

"Innocence is strength, and nothing else is strong. No one is strong who has an enemy, and no one can attack unless he thinks he has." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 23, Introduction,1:2, 5

The news lately doesn't bear repeating. There appears to be so much anger and hatred teeming everywhere, so much unfairness and senseless violence.
My question to myself is, "Who is seeing this?"
I am seeing both victims and enemies.
I am seeing both villains and innocents.
I am seeing this.
And as ACIM reminds me, no one can attack (and seeing a world like this is an attack on Self, on the Christ that I Am!) unless he believes in enemies and victims. So how do I give up this War Against My Self? (ACIM Chapter 23)

"Walk you in glory with your head held high, and fear no evil. The innocent are safe, because they share their innocence [see it everywhere, in everyone and everything]. Nothing they see is harmful, for their awareness of the Truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness. And what seemed harmful now stands shining in their innocence, released from sin and fear and happily returned to Love. They share the strength of Love because they looked on innocence."

To those of us who deeply cherish our belief in suffering and death, this is a challenging section of the Course. To accept the responsibility that my awareness of the Truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness can seem impossible. But remember, forgiveness (the release of everything from the illusion of harmfulness) is our only function here. Remember, the Course says very plainly and literally, "I will forgive, and this will disappear."

These are not pretty words to read and then put away. They are the Truth, and so encompass everyone and everything as the Reality of All. When we forgive, nothing is really happening. We are simply letting go of all the seemingly harmful ideas and concepts we held about ourselves and the world around us. When the concepts are shed, it's like the veil is lifted, and the Beauty and Joy of Truth is revealed as All, literally All that is ever happening.

Awakening to Truth is not escapism, and it is not for those who still think there is truth in the world of images and concepts. It is the Way given to us by Buddha, by Jesus, by all the Awakened Ones throughout the seemingly endless stories of the world. In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells his disciple Arjuna, "Fear Not. What is not real, never was and never will be. What is real, always was and cannot be destroyed." A Course in Miracles says the same thing in the Introduction, where it says quite plainly: "This Course can therefore be summed up very simply in this way: Nothing Real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the Peace of God."

While we struggle with judgments about the appearance of things, with stories of villains and victims, of good and bad, we cannot see the Truth. We are covering the face of Christ with masks and veils, and cannot remember Who We Are. We are valuing our conditioned beliefs over our commitment to knowing the Truth. The good news is that we can forgive literally everything we see, knowing that right where the evil seems to be, there is only our God-Self, only Goodness and Infinite Love.

"Brother, the war against yourself is almost over. The journey's end is at the place of peace. Would you not now accept the peace offered you here? This 'enemy' you fought as an intruder on your peace is here transformed, before your sight, into the giver of your peace. Your 'enemy' was God HimSelf, to Whom all conflict, triumph, and attack of any kind are all unknown." A Course in Miracles; Chapter 23, Section I, 4:1-5

The Illusion of Differences

2014-08-02T10:25:00.000-05:00

"This world seems to hold out many purposes, each different and with different values. Yet they are all the same. Again there is no order; only a seeming hierarchy of values." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 20, Section VIII, 8:8-10

I have had several conversations with friends in the past week about wanting something different in their lives. Of course, this is a familiar feeling and story for all of us. Something is perceived as wrong or lacking or uncomfortable or simply unsatisfying, and so we think that something different is the answer. Not this, but that. Not here, but there. Not now, but someday. Not that person, but this person, or no person. Something different, which will hopefully be something better.

The illusion of differences is the ego's maintenance plan. This body is different from that body, that car is different from this car, that job is definitely different than this job! And on and on and on and on... there's no end to the ego's litany of needed improvements (translation: differences).

A Course in Miracles gives us many simple and direct ways of seeing through this chaos. One of my favorites is: "Make this year different by making it all the same." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 15, Section XI, 10:11

And how can we make it all the same, when the very nature of our lives seems to be the constant focus on shifting challenges and victories, failures and successes, pleasures and pains? I had a glimpse of this yesterday while filling the water tank for the horses. I only had a few minutes between coaching calls, and went out to make sure the water tank was full. It was a summer mid-afternoon, with rain clouds in the distance, but no air stirring. My focus on the details and differences dropped, and there was crystalline, All-Inclusive Awareness. Silent but Alive. Still but including all movement. Awareness ItSelf. Then the water tank began overflowing and my awareness contracted to take care of business. This is the way of it as we practice letting go of differences. I can focus on the water tank, knowing that The Self that I Am is the Reality of even this seeming. I have only to drop the contracted focus, and my True Self that is Everything, and knows ItSelf as the All where all differences fall away. No matter, just pure Awareness, pure Spirit, pure Mind that includes All.

To the Unified Mind, there are no differences! Perception is a contracted point of view, happening IN you, not TO you. YOU ARE THE SEER AND THE SEEN. There are no differences. And forgiveness, the dropping of the addictive need to project differences, is our unified purpose. A Unified Mind with Unified Purpose returns us to the Awareness of Perfect Oneness (Heaven!) that is Our Reality.

"I will forgive, and this will disappear." A Course in Miracles; Workbook 193, 13:3

The Truth About You

2014-05-31T12:07:00.001-05:00

"The Truth about You is so lofty that nothing unworthy of God is worthy of you. Choose then what you want in these terms, and accept nothing that you would not offer to God as wholly fitting for Him/Her. You do not want anything else." -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 9, Section VII, p.8:4-6

Well, it has been exactly six months since my last blog... that is the longest I have gone without posting since this blog began over 7 years ago. And yes, since time is illusion, I know that the Voice speaks to all of us daily, with or without symbols like this blog. However, we all seem to have a story of being less than good, other than God. Thank Goodness for the Truth about you (and me), which is beyond measure, beyond all judgement. The story of 'me' fears this Infinite Glory, because it fears everything. It judges and measures and compares because, "The ego cannot survive without judgement, and is laid aside accordingly." (ACIM; Ch.4, II, 10:3). To help understand this, remember that the ego is story. And what is a story without protagonists and antagonists, after all?

In this world of stories, a dream world of continual judgment and conflict, how can we know the Truth? A Course in Miracles puts it so very simply: "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; Ch.29, IX, 2:3-5)

I urge you to try releasing all judgement in every situation, in all circumstances. Since God is All, and we live and move and have our Being in and as that All, then there can be nothing but God, nothing but Good. So the only thing we are ever letting go of, or releasing (another word for forgiveness), is a false sense of things, a story that is the projection of a sleeping mind. What remains, and is ever-present behind every projection, is the Truth. The Truth of a villain or a hero or a rock or a tree is the same, because there is only the One Self, only God. It is always the Truth About You.

"You are surrounded only by Him. What limits can there be on You Whom He encompasses?" -- A Course in Miracles; Chapter 18, Section VI, p.10:6-7

Please join us for ACIM Teleclass to study A Course in Miracles, every Sunday evening at 7:30 pm CT.

The Kingdom of Joy

2014-01-01T20:11:00.001-06:00

Pure joy. Pure ecstasy. Pure goodness. Pure being without an object or an opposite. This is Who We Are. But we are so intent on change and changing that we ignore the bliss of what is always effortlessly present. We are so intent on trying to get what we think we don't have that we ignore the Wholeness of Being that has never lacked anything. The Holy Instant when we make this re-discovery is not in the future. It's not something we experienced before and want to have again. The Kingdom of Joy is now, and is only experienced NOW.

In India they call the constant seeking of the conditioned mind Samsara, which translates roughly to the wheel of suffering. Although we know our seeking has never brought us happiness, we continue to seek, continue to 'believe' that we will find what we want. When Jesus said to seek and ye shall find, he didn't say what you'd find. He simply urged us to continue to seek until we discover the Kingdom of Joy that is always here, and is always our reality. Because we have raised beliefs to cover the face of what IS, we will continue to compulsively seek until we let go of all beliefs. Beliefs are conceptual getting mechanisms, tools of the ego. Not one of them is true.

It's funny how angry and puffed up our minds can get when we don't find what we think we want. The smokescreen of anger is the hardest smokescreen to see through. It's hard to accept that our compulsive anger is simply the fear of the Love and Joy that we really are. Somehow the belief that personal limits and rules and beliefs define me and keep me safe has seemed to obscure the Joy of my limitless Reality. Somehow my compulsive habits of thought and rituals of body and mind have become my gods, the idols I pretend will give me what I want. How silly of me.

Thankfully the Kingdom of Joy remains ever-present, untouched by my imaginings. Joy and Love surround and enfold the entirety of the Kingdom, and Its Being has no end. Ever-new Joy, continually expanding Bliss and Love, and a Peace so profound and all-encompassing it cannot be conceived by the conditioned mind. All conditioning has to be laid aside, like last years toys. All beliefs, all concepts, all wanting can be simply and lovingly released and seen to be nothing. The thought of something can be released, so I can again remember the Everything that I Am.

This New Years Day my prayer is simply the complete release of all the 'somethings' that appear to lurk in consciousness, like the clutter in the kitchen that needs to be cleared before the feast is prepared. The Feast is the fullness of the Kingdom of Joy.

The Miracle

2013-12-14T17:17:00.000-06:00

"Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me." -- A Course in Miracles; Workbook Lesson 347

The miracle. How often are those two words repeated in ACIM, always pointing to the wholeness and perfection that exist without an opposite. It isn't really anything, doesn't really do anything, never changes and never opposes. The miracle is what is revealed with a shift in awareness from physical sight (projection) to Spiritual Sight (extension). It reveals the Spiritual Reality that is all there is, or ever will be. Only the perceptual mechanism of judgment made a world other than perfect and whole appear to exist. When judgment is forgiven and released, only the innocence of Spiritual Perfection is here. Only One, only God, only pure Spirit, Mind Awake and Aware of Its Infinite Beauty.

So why would any aspect of mind judge? Why would any aspect of this Infinite I Am attempt to hide from Self-Awareness? What part of One Self imagines that there is another to defend against or hide from? How foolish this all sounds, and yet how familiar.

The great reversal, as ACIM calls the process of mind awakening to Itself, can seem long indeed. Judgment is used in many forms, in many disguises, always to justify our addiction to the contracted mental state we call a self. But no matter what we call this upside down perception, these inverted and projected images have no relationship to Reality. They don't need to be changed or understood. They simply need to be forgiven and released.

When all judgment is finally put aside, projected images fall away and reveal the miracle of One Spiritual Self abiding and unchanging, All-Loving and All-Whole, Encompassing all that appears to be with pure and radiant Joy. This is the miracle, the coming of the Christ Child... your own Beloved Self.

"And the angel said unto them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." -- Luke 2:10