I finally caught myself in the act. After all this time, I caught myself in the act of judging. Someone did something that upset me, but this time instead of stewing in the upset, feeling anger, contempt, and scorn, I heard myself saying, “I wouldn’t do it that way.” There it is. I had just reduced the entire universe to fit into my limited point of reference: I would do it this way.
The miracle is that I saw the reduction. This time I did not go from the incident to the reaction, skipping the connection. Judging from my narrow point of view is hard to spot because it is so habitual, automatic, and rapid. My personal preference becomes a reference point around which my entire world turns. No wonder a long-running soap opera is called, “As the World Turns.” A life pivoting on your preferences becomes a soap.
Just test this out by taking a look at the last time you were upset. Is it possible that between the event and the upset was this unconscious phrase, “I would do it this way?”
During this holiday season, my wife, Christine, has given me ample opportunity to see this connection because she sees gift giving differently than I do. Because it is different, that is enough to trigger upset in me, but now I take it as an opportunity to practice saying to myself, “That is just her way,” and ask for help to let it pass from my mind. Letting go of my narrow frame of reference is forgiveness, enabling me to experience a peaceful state of mind Now I walk around with a new-found freedom, saying “Bah humbug” less frequently, and “Thank you, Father,” more often.
What comes to mind is a statement by a Zen monk that I read a long time ago: “When someone says this, or does that, simply say to yourself, ‘That is his way.’ ”
It also makes me think that Jack Sprat and his wife enjoyed a holy relationship.
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
and his wife could eat no lean.
And so, betwixt them both, you see,
they licked the platter clean.
Apparently, Jack saw that eating fat was simply her way, and she saw that eating lean was his way, and in forgiveness they enjoyed the meal and each other’s company.
Learning to catch yourself in the act of imposing your way on the world is the beginning of training your mind to see that your narrow reference point is preventing you from experiencing the peace of God. In His Course in Miracles, Jesus helps you see this reduced point of view so that you can replace it by seeing from the only real state of mind, the peace of God, through which you see with the eyes of Christ.
Your small self, your personality, is like a mask covering your real Self. In fact, personality comes from the Latin per, meaning "through", and sonare, meaning "sound", referring to the theatrical wooden masks, persona, through which the sound came so that the ancient Greek actors could be heard in the large amphitheatres.
To see your neighbor through the eyes of your True Self, the eyes of Christ, requires that you learn to let go of seeing your neighbor through the mask of your false self, the self that constantly says, “I want it my way,” or in the vernacular, “My way or the highway.”
If you are tired of the soap opera of your life, you can follow Jesus’ instructions in His Course in Miracles. Just look at the titles of his first seven lessons in the Workbook, knowing that He is addressing you in your false frame of reference.
Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.
Lesson 2: I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.
Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see.
Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything.
Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think.
Lesson 6: I am upset because I see something that is not there.
Lesson 7: I see only the past.
Jesus instructs you that the Holy Spirit will guide you to let go of your narrow frame of reference, so that you can learn to replace it with the peace of God.
On the 49th day, Jesus presents this Lesson, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Look at how He contrasts the part of your mind you narrowly rely on with the part of your mind in which truth abides.
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.
The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son. W-p1.49:1,2
Be vigilant today to hear yourself want things your way, and when you make the connection, ask for help to let it go, so that in the vacancy you can hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
Click on the link below to read Lesson 49 in its entirety.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook049.html
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
George Bush sees himself as being on a mission from God
I don’t know why it took me so long, but I finally understand why Bush does what he does. I keep re-reading three paragraphs from an article in The New Yorker by Seymour M. Hersh, the brilliant journalist and abrasive critic of Bush, “Up in the Air: Where is the Iraq war headed next?”
Here are the first two:
Current and former military and intelligence officials have told me that the President remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq, and that he is impervious to political pressure, even from fellow Republicans. They also say that he disparages any information that conflicts with his view of how the war is proceeding.
Bush’s closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.
Since the war on terrorism is Bush’s “personal mission,” he is impervious to political pressure. Of course, he disparages any conflicting views. To sustain his beliefs, he looks for signs that God is supporting his mission, and one such sign was the Republican sweep in the elections.
Paragraph three:
“The President is more determined than ever to stay the course,” the former defense official said. “He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’ ” He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. “They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,” the former defense official said. Bush’s public appearances, for example, are generally scheduled in front of friendly audiences, most often at military bases. Four decades ago, President Lyndon Johnson, who was also confronted with an increasingly unpopular war, was limited to similar public forums. “Johnson knew he was a prisoner in the White House,” the former official said, “but Bush has no idea.”
His cause, his mission, is more important than individual lives. He is becoming more and more isolated in his own bubble.
I am not going to do much more with this, except to remind myself, "There, too, but by the Grace of God, go I." I, too, was isolated in a bubble of my own belief system until I got so sick of it that I asked for help and miraculously awakened from my beliefs to the truth of who I am, the holy son of God. And it is ongoing. A belief system is a bad habit that requires willingness, determination, and practice to overcome. It’s always only moment to moment.
After mulling over those three paragraphs, all I wanted to do was take twenty minutes to review the first fifty lessons of Jesus’ Course in Miracles, so that I could remind myself that I am not sustained by my beliefs, but I am sustained by the love of God.
Please click on the link for a review of the first fifty lessons.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook051.html
Here is the link to Hersh's article.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact
Today, Tuesday 18 April, 2006, James Reston, Jr., wrote an article with a similar theme: "The American Inquisition." Please click on the link below.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-04-17-american-inquisition-edit_x.htm
The New Yorker, Seymour M. Hersh, Bush, terrorism, Cheney
Here are the first two:
Current and former military and intelligence officials have told me that the President remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq, and that he is impervious to political pressure, even from fellow Republicans. They also say that he disparages any information that conflicts with his view of how the war is proceeding.
Bush’s closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.
Since the war on terrorism is Bush’s “personal mission,” he is impervious to political pressure. Of course, he disparages any conflicting views. To sustain his beliefs, he looks for signs that God is supporting his mission, and one such sign was the Republican sweep in the elections.
Paragraph three:
“The President is more determined than ever to stay the course,” the former defense official said. “He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’ ” He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. “They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,” the former defense official said. Bush’s public appearances, for example, are generally scheduled in front of friendly audiences, most often at military bases. Four decades ago, President Lyndon Johnson, who was also confronted with an increasingly unpopular war, was limited to similar public forums. “Johnson knew he was a prisoner in the White House,” the former official said, “but Bush has no idea.”
His cause, his mission, is more important than individual lives. He is becoming more and more isolated in his own bubble.
I am not going to do much more with this, except to remind myself, "There, too, but by the Grace of God, go I." I, too, was isolated in a bubble of my own belief system until I got so sick of it that I asked for help and miraculously awakened from my beliefs to the truth of who I am, the holy son of God. And it is ongoing. A belief system is a bad habit that requires willingness, determination, and practice to overcome. It’s always only moment to moment.
After mulling over those three paragraphs, all I wanted to do was take twenty minutes to review the first fifty lessons of Jesus’ Course in Miracles, so that I could remind myself that I am not sustained by my beliefs, but I am sustained by the love of God.
Please click on the link for a review of the first fifty lessons.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook051.html
Here is the link to Hersh's article.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact
Today, Tuesday 18 April, 2006, James Reston, Jr., wrote an article with a similar theme: "The American Inquisition." Please click on the link below.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-04-17-american-inquisition-edit_x.htm
The New Yorker, Seymour M. Hersh, Bush, terrorism, Cheney
Friday, December 09, 2005
Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," and experiencing Heaven on earth.
I have yet to see the movie “Capote,” but all the hype surrounding it made me curious to see what he had as a writer. I picked up his short story, "A Christmas Memory," and I was delighted to experience his lyricism in describing scenes and events, and I was stunned to come across a paragraph that expressed a great truth, in fact, so on the mark that it echoed passages from Jesus’ Course in Miracles.
The narrator, Buddy, is seven years old at the time of the story, but he is looking back on it some twenty years later. He describes his loving friendship with his cousin, a woman in her late 60’s, as they prepare for Christmas in the south.
Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar.
A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window. She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable—not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-colored and timid. "Oh my," she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane, "it's fruitcake weather!"
They scrimp all year, saving up pennies at a time, to make the thirty fruitcakes. He tells of gathering the ingredients, including buying whiskey from a scary Indian, making the cakes, distributing them, sharing the whiskey afterwards, two ounces each, decorating the house, and then going deep into the woods for the perfect Christmas tree, making each other special gifts: kites, and then flying them on Christmas Day.
"Buddy, the wind is blowing."
The wind is blowing, and nothing will do till we've run to a Pasture below the house where Queenie has scooted to bury her bone (and where, a winter hence, Queenie will be buried, too). There, plunging through the healthy waist-high grass, we unreel our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky fish as they swim into the wind. Satisfied, sun-warmed, we sprawl in the grass and peel Satsumas and watch our kites cavort. Soon I forget the socks and hand-me-down sweater. I'm as happy as if we'd already won the fifty-thousand-dollar Grand Prize in that coffee-naming contest.
And now, here is the stunning paragraph.
"My, how foolish I am!" my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. "You know what I've always thought?" she asks in a tone of discovery and not smiling at me but a point beyond. "I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when he came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I'11 wager it never happens. I'11 wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are"—her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone—"just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
This from a woman who read only the funny papers and the Bible.
She discovers that it is always Heaven on earth, if you look through the eyes of Christ. She experiences a holy instant, and in that moment, things forever change for her, and it is implied for Buddy, too.
And now, look at the juxtaposition of lines from this paragraph and passages from A Course in Miracles.
"My, how foolish I am!" my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. "You know what I've always thought?" she asks in a tone of discovery
Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape?
W-p1.22.2:3
and not smiling at me but a point beyond. "I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all. W-p1.188.1:1-4
And I imagined that when he came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there? W-p1.188.2:1,2
But I'11 wager it never happens. I'11 wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. W-p1.188.3:1,2
That things as they are"
Let all things be exactly as they are. Lesson 268, Title
—her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone—"just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well. W-p1.188.4:1
The shining in his friend’s mind reminded Buddy of what he had forgotten, in that moment as a seven-year old, and now at twenty-seven as he looks back. He shared her holy instant, the restoration of the memory. This accounts for his lyricism. His lyrical passages stop to caress each living thing.
The kitchen is growing dark. Dusk turns the window into a mirror: our reflections mingle with the rising moon as we work by the fireside in the firelight.
Now a nude December fig branch grates against the window. The kitchen is empty, the cakes are gone; yesterday we carted the last of them to the post office, where the cost of stamps turned our purse inside out. We're broke. That rather depresses me, but my friend insists on celebrating—with two inches of whiskey left in Haha's bottle. Queenie has a spoonful in a bowl of coffee (she likes her coffee chicory-flavored and strong). The rest we divide between a pair of jelly glasses. We're both quite awed at the prospect of drinking straight whiskey; the taste of it brings screwedup expressions and sour shudders. But by and by we begin to sing, the two of us singing different songs simultaneously. I don't know the words to mine, just: Come on along, come on along, to the dark-town strutters' ball. But I can dance: that's what I mean to be, a tap dancer in the movies. My dancing shadow rollicks on the walls; our voices rock the chinaware; we giggle: as if unseen hands were tickling us. Queenie rolls on her back, her paws plow the air, something like a grin stretches her black lips. Inside myself, I feel warm and sparky as those crumbling logs, carefree as the wind in the chimney. My friend waltzes round the stove, the hem of her poor calico skirt pinched between her fingers as though it were a party dress: Show me the way to go home, she sings, her tennis shoes squeaking on the floor. Show me the way to go home.
And, now, Dear Reader, we are lit up, too, looking through the eyes of Christ and experiencing the peace of God as we gaze into the precious things surrounding us, Heaven on earth.
Click on the link below to read the complete story.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/christmas-capote.html
Thursday, December 01, 2005
A Savior's Dialectic
Reading the first paragraph of today’s lesson, 333, Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here, I was struck again by Jesus’ simple, clear, precise, step by step guidance in just four sentences: 1) to resolve your conflict, 2) don’t do this, 3) do this, and 4) your apparent conflict will disappear.
Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.
When I came across this phrase, where it is thought to be, this line flashed into my mind:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
This comes from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) entitled, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child.
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wÃll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Margaret may think she is depressed and grieving simply because of what she sees outside of her—the falling, dying leaves, Goldengrove unleaving, and worlds of wanwood leafmeal laying about, and the melancholy of a day in the fall. And the narrator knows that she will grow up, adjust to these sights, become hardened, and come to such sights colder. But he asks in the first sentence, are these external things really what she is upset about? He knows that her sorrow springs always from the same thing, conflicting thoughts that start inside and paint a sad picture outside. He answers his question in the last two lines, saying that this is the blight for which she was born. This is emphasized in rhyming born for and mourn for. The certain result of being born into the human condition is mourning.
To his credit the narrator identifies the problem, the thoughts in her mind, and yet he is incapable of offering a solution.
Right here is where we can engage the narrator and Margaret in a savior’s dialectic. That is what Jesus does throughout His Course in Miracles, and particularly in today’s lesson. (I am grateful to my friend, Jane Wiltshire, who first introduced me to this idea.) Dialectic means “dialogue, the art of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.” Although argument has taken on negative connotations—couples argue, parents and children argue, friends argue, the word comes from the Latin, arguere, meaning “to make clear.” With an awakened mind, the mind of the savior, we can engage Margaret in a dialogue that will make clear that she is not who she thinks she is, that her thoughts have no source in reality.
We can demonstrate to her that no matter what she thinks,
What heart heard of, ghost guessed
Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.
Margaret, in your separated state you are, indeed, born to mourn, but that is not the truth of what you are. You are the holy child of God, and you can be reborn through forgiveness. As Jesus tells us in today’s lesson, conflict is only thought into existence, and you can learn to change your thoughts.
This brings us back to the beginning, Jesus’ step by step guidance.
1. Conflict must be resolved.
Resolve means “to make a firm decision about.” You have the power of decision to decide between your sorrow, or the peace of God.
2. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped.
Jesus knows that we will do everything possible to keep the conflict, while all the time refusing to face it directly, engaging in evasive tactics. This ensures that the conflict remains as a defense against the love of God. Margaret, this is what I did in my most recent devastation. I sat down on the couch, grabbed a pen and notebook, and wrote down each thought exactly as it entered my mind—It must be seen exactly as it is. By simply setting down each thought, I faced it head on, not evading it, not setting it aside, and so forth. After filling up four pages, I realized that my inner dialogue disappeared into the nothingness it is, and I was free because it was replaced by my own dialogue with my Self, telling me the truth of what I am, the holy child of God.
3. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it.
The devastation was simply heightened conflict, and conflict, Margaret, is where it is thought to be, thought into existence, and these thoughts have only one purpose—preoccupying you to such an extent that you will not turn towards the light.
4. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.
And now as the dark defense lifts by your forgiving thoughts, you can see the glory of autumn as purely a reflection of your Self, shining brightly in everything you look upon.
Father, forgiveness is the light You chose
to shine away all conflict and all doubt,
and light the way for our return to You.
No light but this can end our evil dream.
No light but this can save the world. For this
alone will never fail in anything,
being Your gift to Your beloved Son.
Finally, think of light as understanding.
Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge.
T-5.111.7:5
Now, you understand that you seemed to be born to mourn, yet you can ask for help to be reborn by changing your mind, forgiving conflicting thoughts, and experiencing the knowledge of peace and joy.
Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.
When I came across this phrase, where it is thought to be, this line flashed into my mind:
Sorrow’s springs are the same.
This comes from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) entitled, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child.
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wÃll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
Margaret may think she is depressed and grieving simply because of what she sees outside of her—the falling, dying leaves, Goldengrove unleaving, and worlds of wanwood leafmeal laying about, and the melancholy of a day in the fall. And the narrator knows that she will grow up, adjust to these sights, become hardened, and come to such sights colder. But he asks in the first sentence, are these external things really what she is upset about? He knows that her sorrow springs always from the same thing, conflicting thoughts that start inside and paint a sad picture outside. He answers his question in the last two lines, saying that this is the blight for which she was born. This is emphasized in rhyming born for and mourn for. The certain result of being born into the human condition is mourning.
To his credit the narrator identifies the problem, the thoughts in her mind, and yet he is incapable of offering a solution.
Right here is where we can engage the narrator and Margaret in a savior’s dialectic. That is what Jesus does throughout His Course in Miracles, and particularly in today’s lesson. (I am grateful to my friend, Jane Wiltshire, who first introduced me to this idea.) Dialectic means “dialogue, the art of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.” Although argument has taken on negative connotations—couples argue, parents and children argue, friends argue, the word comes from the Latin, arguere, meaning “to make clear.” With an awakened mind, the mind of the savior, we can engage Margaret in a dialogue that will make clear that she is not who she thinks she is, that her thoughts have no source in reality.
We can demonstrate to her that no matter what she thinks,
What heart heard of, ghost guessed
Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.
Margaret, in your separated state you are, indeed, born to mourn, but that is not the truth of what you are. You are the holy child of God, and you can be reborn through forgiveness. As Jesus tells us in today’s lesson, conflict is only thought into existence, and you can learn to change your thoughts.
This brings us back to the beginning, Jesus’ step by step guidance.
1. Conflict must be resolved.
Resolve means “to make a firm decision about.” You have the power of decision to decide between your sorrow, or the peace of God.
2. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped.
Jesus knows that we will do everything possible to keep the conflict, while all the time refusing to face it directly, engaging in evasive tactics. This ensures that the conflict remains as a defense against the love of God. Margaret, this is what I did in my most recent devastation. I sat down on the couch, grabbed a pen and notebook, and wrote down each thought exactly as it entered my mind—It must be seen exactly as it is. By simply setting down each thought, I faced it head on, not evading it, not setting it aside, and so forth. After filling up four pages, I realized that my inner dialogue disappeared into the nothingness it is, and I was free because it was replaced by my own dialogue with my Self, telling me the truth of what I am, the holy child of God.
3. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it.
The devastation was simply heightened conflict, and conflict, Margaret, is where it is thought to be, thought into existence, and these thoughts have only one purpose—preoccupying you to such an extent that you will not turn towards the light.
4. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.
And now as the dark defense lifts by your forgiving thoughts, you can see the glory of autumn as purely a reflection of your Self, shining brightly in everything you look upon.
Father, forgiveness is the light You chose
to shine away all conflict and all doubt,
and light the way for our return to You.
No light but this can end our evil dream.
No light but this can save the world. For this
alone will never fail in anything,
being Your gift to Your beloved Son.
Finally, think of light as understanding.
Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge.
T-5.111.7:5
Now, you understand that you seemed to be born to mourn, yet you can ask for help to be reborn by changing your mind, forgiving conflicting thoughts, and experiencing the knowledge of peace and joy.
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Discovering a sonnet by Jesus
Yesterday morning, while reading the day’s lesson, Lesson 329, I have already chosen what you will, I found the prayer to be particularly poetic and began wondering if this were a sonnet by Jesus, hidden in the prose, one of several I have found sprinkled throughout the Text and Workbook.
Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.
Curiously, I started at the beginning of the prayer, counting ten syllables, then starting a new line, Et Voila! fourteen lines emerged from the prose, a sonnet marching stately across the page in a gentle cadence.
FATH er, i THOUGHT i WAN dered FROM your WILL,
de FIED it, BROKE its LAWS, and IN ter POSED
a second will more powerful than Yours.
Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will,
extended and extending. This am I,
and this will never change. As You are One,
so am I one with You. And this I chose
in my creation, where my will became
forever one with Yours. That choice was made
for all eternity. It cannot change,
and be in opposition to itself.
Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe,
untroubled and serene, in endless joy,
because it is Your Will that it be so.
This rhythm is iambic pentameter, five sets of iambs, slack STRESS. The one exception is FATH er, which is a trochee, STRESS slack.
Trust your ear to find the stresses, five per line, and then read it slowly aloud, finding a soft, stately cadence, and soon your heartbeat, ta DUM, ta DUM, will align with Jesus’ slack STRESS, slack STRESS, and you will discover:
My heart is beating in the peace of God. (Lesson 267)
Notice how Jesus uses the convention to blend the rhythm and the sense in this sentence:
As YOU are ONE,
so AM i ONE with YOU.
In the first clause, YOU and ONE receive the stress, emphasizing Oneness, and in the second clause, ONE is stressed, but not the i. If the i were stressed, it would prevent the blending into Oneness:
so I am ONE with YOU.
This particular sonnet is divided into three parts. In part one, the separation is emphasized. In part two, the Oneness is expressed, and in part three, the consequence of Oneness is emphasized: safety, serenity, and joy.
Now, I will contrast Jesus’ sonnet with a sonnet by Shakespeare, selecting one of my favorites, Sonnet 55.
Not MAR ble, NOR the GILD ed MON u MENTS
of PRIN ces, SHALL out LIVE this POWR’ ful RHYME;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
The Shakespearian sonnet, and it is hard to believe that he wrote 154 of them, is divided into three 4 line stanzas, and a rhyming couplet. The rhythm is iambic pentameter.
If you have a keen eye, you may have seen the irregularity of the iambic pattern in line 11:
Even in the eyes of all posterity
It scans like this:
E ven /in the EYES /of ALL /pos TER /i TY
Sometimes, Shakespeare varies the rhythm. In this case the first foot (E ven) is a trochee, STRESS slack, like FATH er, and the second (in the EYES) is an anapest, slack slack STRESS, and the last three are iambs.
Notice that the end rhymes of each stanza follow a certain pattern: the first and third rhyme
(-ments. –tents), and second and fourth (rhyme, time).
As far as content, this sonnet is a testament to the power of the sonnet form, whether Jesus’ or Shakespeare’s. This powerful form will outlive monuments in space and time. Wars will not wipe it out. As long as there are readers, the sonnet lives, and his beloved lives as well. She attains immortality in these lines. She lives again as we read it, now.
In fact, Shakespeare uses the word “live”, or a form of it, four times:
line 2, outlive; line 8, living; line 9, oblivious; and line 14, live
In Jesus’ sonnet, the lines live in us as we read them, hearing Him speak to us from within, His voice as rhythmic as our beating heart, and we hear Him speaking not about immortality, but of resurrection. Each moment we experience Oneness, we resurrect, relinquishing the crucifixion of wandering from God’s will.
THANK you, FATH er.
Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.
Curiously, I started at the beginning of the prayer, counting ten syllables, then starting a new line, Et Voila! fourteen lines emerged from the prose, a sonnet marching stately across the page in a gentle cadence.
FATH er, i THOUGHT i WAN dered FROM your WILL,
de FIED it, BROKE its LAWS, and IN ter POSED
a second will more powerful than Yours.
Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will,
extended and extending. This am I,
and this will never change. As You are One,
so am I one with You. And this I chose
in my creation, where my will became
forever one with Yours. That choice was made
for all eternity. It cannot change,
and be in opposition to itself.
Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe,
untroubled and serene, in endless joy,
because it is Your Will that it be so.
This rhythm is iambic pentameter, five sets of iambs, slack STRESS. The one exception is FATH er, which is a trochee, STRESS slack.
Trust your ear to find the stresses, five per line, and then read it slowly aloud, finding a soft, stately cadence, and soon your heartbeat, ta DUM, ta DUM, will align with Jesus’ slack STRESS, slack STRESS, and you will discover:
My heart is beating in the peace of God. (Lesson 267)
Notice how Jesus uses the convention to blend the rhythm and the sense in this sentence:
As YOU are ONE,
so AM i ONE with YOU.
In the first clause, YOU and ONE receive the stress, emphasizing Oneness, and in the second clause, ONE is stressed, but not the i. If the i were stressed, it would prevent the blending into Oneness:
so I am ONE with YOU.
This particular sonnet is divided into three parts. In part one, the separation is emphasized. In part two, the Oneness is expressed, and in part three, the consequence of Oneness is emphasized: safety, serenity, and joy.
Now, I will contrast Jesus’ sonnet with a sonnet by Shakespeare, selecting one of my favorites, Sonnet 55.
Not MAR ble, NOR the GILD ed MON u MENTS
of PRIN ces, SHALL out LIVE this POWR’ ful RHYME;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.
The Shakespearian sonnet, and it is hard to believe that he wrote 154 of them, is divided into three 4 line stanzas, and a rhyming couplet. The rhythm is iambic pentameter.
If you have a keen eye, you may have seen the irregularity of the iambic pattern in line 11:
Even in the eyes of all posterity
It scans like this:
E ven /in the EYES /of ALL /pos TER /i TY
Sometimes, Shakespeare varies the rhythm. In this case the first foot (E ven) is a trochee, STRESS slack, like FATH er, and the second (in the EYES) is an anapest, slack slack STRESS, and the last three are iambs.
Notice that the end rhymes of each stanza follow a certain pattern: the first and third rhyme
(-ments. –tents), and second and fourth (rhyme, time).
As far as content, this sonnet is a testament to the power of the sonnet form, whether Jesus’ or Shakespeare’s. This powerful form will outlive monuments in space and time. Wars will not wipe it out. As long as there are readers, the sonnet lives, and his beloved lives as well. She attains immortality in these lines. She lives again as we read it, now.
In fact, Shakespeare uses the word “live”, or a form of it, four times:
line 2, outlive; line 8, living; line 9, oblivious; and line 14, live
In Jesus’ sonnet, the lines live in us as we read them, hearing Him speak to us from within, His voice as rhythmic as our beating heart, and we hear Him speaking not about immortality, but of resurrection. Each moment we experience Oneness, we resurrect, relinquishing the crucifixion of wandering from God’s will.
THANK you, FATH er.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
"We have met the enemy, and they is us," Pogo.
You know, it all just comes down to a bad habit. We have the habit of looking out into the world and finding ourselves a victim of what we see, thinking that what we see out there is separate from us, and furthermore, that what we see is the cause of what we experience within. We think we are the effect of an external cause.
For example, we cross paths with a person who seems to be our enemy, and we react with anger and contempt. This is just a bad habit because it turns out that there are no enemies outside of us, except what we project from our minds. We look within, first, to see what is without, and what is without always is secondary. We are, in fact, the cause of an external effect.
This is classically expressed in Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” on Earth Day, 1970, when Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
Since seeing the enemy out there happens so rapidly and unconsciously, we need to slow it down so that we can become aware of exactly how the projection occurs. First, we start with your mind, and in your mind are only two states, one unreal, and one real. The unreal is a state of mind of conflict, through which the ego sees. The real is the state of mind of the peace of God, through which the Christ sees. When you see an enemy out there, it is because you made a choice, automatically, rapidly, and unconsciously to project from the state of mind of conflict and see through the eyes of the ego. When the enemy is transformed before your very eyes into your brother, your neighbor, it is because you chose to ask for help to extend love and see through the eyes of Christ. Jesus says it this way in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.
I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. T-12.V11.7:1-5
In a remarkable poem, The Man He Killed, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), gives us an example of how the narrator makes the shift from projecting the enemy to extending the Christ.
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."
The poem begins with the narrator reflecting on the action, at some point after it occurred. I imagine the narrator to be in a bar right now, wetting many small beer glasses. In the first stanza, he is looking back and seeing through the eyes of Christ the man he killed as a brother, as a neighbor. In the second stanza, he recalls how he first saw him on the battlefield as the enemy, after all, he had been trained to kill his enemy. The remarkable thing about stanza three is that you can see the shift beginning to occur.
“I shot him dead because—
And now the ordinarily automatic, rapid thought is slowed down; he can’t find the answer, and then he does come up with it because of his conditioning.
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was
Look at how slow that line moves, as if he’s trying to push away cobwebs. I read it stressing each of these words and pausing after each: so:, foe, course, was.
That’s clear enough, although
But he can’t maintain the thought, the rationalization, the projection is loosening, as the although takes him to his kinship with his “enemy.”
--just as I—
In the last stanza, the projection slips, and he sees him through the eyes of Christ.
The quotation marks around the poem show that he is telling this as a story, giving away his hard-earned truth in order to keep it. You hold onto it by giving it away. You learn by teaching.
His enemy was never out there, separate from the narrator’s thoughts. When his thoughts came from conflict, he saw his enemy; when they came from love, he saw someone exactly like himself, the Christ. We are asked only to be still, to slow down our thoughts, as the narrator did, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, to make the shift to the state of mind of the peace of God. If we don’t learn to slow down, as the narrator did in stanza three, we will crucify our “enemies,” when all the time we have the power of decision to resurrect.
Now, you and I are blessed to be able to hear Jesus speak to us through His Course in Miracles, and give us precise, clear instructions on how to make this shift in our minds, knowing now that what is within only appears as without.
Select one brother, symbol of the rest,
and ask salvation of him. See him first
as clearly as you can, in that same form
to which you are accustomed. See his face,
his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile,
and see familiar gestures which he makes
so frequently. Then think of this: What you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight
of one who can forgive you all your sins;
whose sacred hands can take away the nails
which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him, that he may set you free:
Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.
And He will answer Whom you called upon.
For He will hear the Voice for God in you,
and answer in your own. Behold him now,
whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone,
and recognize that Christ has come to you.
Today's idea is your safe escape
from anger and from fear. Be sure you use
it instantly, should you be tempted to
attack a brother and perceive in him
the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him suddenly transformed from enemy
to savior; from the devil into Christ.
W-p1.161.11,12
Finally, for a fuller treatment of exactly how you naturally project and how you can learn to extend, read Jesus' words in His Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 7, "Looking Within."
http://acim.home.att.net/text-12-07.html
For example, we cross paths with a person who seems to be our enemy, and we react with anger and contempt. This is just a bad habit because it turns out that there are no enemies outside of us, except what we project from our minds. We look within, first, to see what is without, and what is without always is secondary. We are, in fact, the cause of an external effect.
This is classically expressed in Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” on Earth Day, 1970, when Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”
Since seeing the enemy out there happens so rapidly and unconsciously, we need to slow it down so that we can become aware of exactly how the projection occurs. First, we start with your mind, and in your mind are only two states, one unreal, and one real. The unreal is a state of mind of conflict, through which the ego sees. The real is the state of mind of the peace of God, through which the Christ sees. When you see an enemy out there, it is because you made a choice, automatically, rapidly, and unconsciously to project from the state of mind of conflict and see through the eyes of the ego. When the enemy is transformed before your very eyes into your brother, your neighbor, it is because you chose to ask for help to extend love and see through the eyes of Christ. Jesus says it this way in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.
I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. T-12.V11.7:1-5
In a remarkable poem, The Man He Killed, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), gives us an example of how the narrator makes the shift from projecting the enemy to extending the Christ.
"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!
But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.
I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although
He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.
Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."
The poem begins with the narrator reflecting on the action, at some point after it occurred. I imagine the narrator to be in a bar right now, wetting many small beer glasses. In the first stanza, he is looking back and seeing through the eyes of Christ the man he killed as a brother, as a neighbor. In the second stanza, he recalls how he first saw him on the battlefield as the enemy, after all, he had been trained to kill his enemy. The remarkable thing about stanza three is that you can see the shift beginning to occur.
“I shot him dead because—
And now the ordinarily automatic, rapid thought is slowed down; he can’t find the answer, and then he does come up with it because of his conditioning.
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was
Look at how slow that line moves, as if he’s trying to push away cobwebs. I read it stressing each of these words and pausing after each: so:, foe, course, was.
That’s clear enough, although
But he can’t maintain the thought, the rationalization, the projection is loosening, as the although takes him to his kinship with his “enemy.”
--just as I—
In the last stanza, the projection slips, and he sees him through the eyes of Christ.
The quotation marks around the poem show that he is telling this as a story, giving away his hard-earned truth in order to keep it. You hold onto it by giving it away. You learn by teaching.
His enemy was never out there, separate from the narrator’s thoughts. When his thoughts came from conflict, he saw his enemy; when they came from love, he saw someone exactly like himself, the Christ. We are asked only to be still, to slow down our thoughts, as the narrator did, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, to make the shift to the state of mind of the peace of God. If we don’t learn to slow down, as the narrator did in stanza three, we will crucify our “enemies,” when all the time we have the power of decision to resurrect.
Now, you and I are blessed to be able to hear Jesus speak to us through His Course in Miracles, and give us precise, clear instructions on how to make this shift in our minds, knowing now that what is within only appears as without.
Select one brother, symbol of the rest,
and ask salvation of him. See him first
as clearly as you can, in that same form
to which you are accustomed. See his face,
his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile,
and see familiar gestures which he makes
so frequently. Then think of this: What you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight
of one who can forgive you all your sins;
whose sacred hands can take away the nails
which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him, that he may set you free:
Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.
And He will answer Whom you called upon.
For He will hear the Voice for God in you,
and answer in your own. Behold him now,
whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone,
and recognize that Christ has come to you.
Today's idea is your safe escape
from anger and from fear. Be sure you use
it instantly, should you be tempted to
attack a brother and perceive in him
the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him suddenly transformed from enemy
to savior; from the devil into Christ.
W-p1.161.11,12
Finally, for a fuller treatment of exactly how you naturally project and how you can learn to extend, read Jesus' words in His Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 7, "Looking Within."
http://acim.home.att.net/text-12-07.html
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Informed by the formless
It is possible for me now to walk through the world knowing that I am in the world, but not of the world. This awareness can also be expressed as entering into time and space from out of time. This is experienced as being in the state of mind of the peace of God and simply observing what is unfolding before my eyes. Objects come and go, time passes, the dream figures pass by, and I walk through the emphemeral rooted in the peace of God.
It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I find myself walking through the world forgetting that I have come here from out of time, I ask for help to remember that I am not from here. That moment of recognition is a miracle. It is a miracle to know the difference.
When I do find myself remembering that I am from Heaven, I say “Thank You.”
In the state of mind of remembering, I am receptive to the Voice for God, and I ask:
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5
In this manner, I walk through form informed by the formless.
And now, there is only now, the world shines brightly because it reflects the light of Heaven, the light of the formless.
Yes, Dear Reader, you can experience this for yourself.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
W-p1.188.6
And now enjoy in blank verse Lesson 188, The Peace of God is shining in me now.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of the world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stayed with you because it is your own.
It is the only thing you bring with you
from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you
because it lights your home, and leads you back
to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there?
It can so easily be looked upon
that arguments which prove it is not there
become ridiculous. Who can deny
the presence of what he beholds in him?
It is not difficult to look within,
for there all vision starts. There is no sight,
be it of dreams or from a truer Source,
that is not but the shadow of the seen
through inward vision. There perception starts,
and there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. What it gives
must be eternal. It removes all thoughts
of the ephemeral and valueless.
It brings renewal to all tired hearts,
and lights all vision as it passes by.
All of its gifts are given everyone,
and everyone unites in giving thanks
to you who give, and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well.
From you salvation radiates with gifts
beyond all measure, given and returned.
To you, the giver of the gift, does God
Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does
the light in you shine brighter, adding to
the gifts you have to offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained.
Who recognizes it within himself
must give it. And the means for giving it
are in his understanding. He forgives
because he recognized the truth in him.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and in all living things. In quietness
is it acknowledged universally.
For what your inward vision looks upon
is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize
their home. And they point surely to their Source,
Where God the Father and the Son are One.
God's peace is shining on them, but they must
remain with you as well, for they were born
within your mind, as yours was born in God's.
They lead you back to peace, from where they came
but to remind you how you must return.
They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse
to listen. And they urge you gently to
accept His Word for what you are, instead
of fantasies and shadows. They remind
you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light
in us today. We take our wandering thoughts,
and gently bring them back to where they fall
in line with all the thoughts we share with God.
We will not let them stray. We let the light
within our minds direct them to come home.
We have betrayed them, ordering that they
depart from us. But now we call them back,
and wash them clean of strange desires and
disordered wishes. We restore to them
the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we
acknowledge that the peace of God still shines
in us, and from us to all living things
that share our life. We will forgive them all,
absolving all the world from what we thought
it did to us. For it is we who make
the world as we would have it. Now we choose
that it be innocent, devoid of sin
and open to salvation. And we lay
our saving blessing on it, as we say:
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.
It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I find myself walking through the world forgetting that I have come here from out of time, I ask for help to remember that I am not from here. That moment of recognition is a miracle. It is a miracle to know the difference.
When I do find myself remembering that I am from Heaven, I say “Thank You.”
In the state of mind of remembering, I am receptive to the Voice for God, and I ask:
What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5
In this manner, I walk through form informed by the formless.
And now, there is only now, the world shines brightly because it reflects the light of Heaven, the light of the formless.
Yes, Dear Reader, you can experience this for yourself.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
W-p1.188.6
And now enjoy in blank verse Lesson 188, The Peace of God is shining in me now.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of the world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stayed with you because it is your own.
It is the only thing you bring with you
from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you
because it lights your home, and leads you back
to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there?
It can so easily be looked upon
that arguments which prove it is not there
become ridiculous. Who can deny
the presence of what he beholds in him?
It is not difficult to look within,
for there all vision starts. There is no sight,
be it of dreams or from a truer Source,
that is not but the shadow of the seen
through inward vision. There perception starts,
and there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. What it gives
must be eternal. It removes all thoughts
of the ephemeral and valueless.
It brings renewal to all tired hearts,
and lights all vision as it passes by.
All of its gifts are given everyone,
and everyone unites in giving thanks
to you who give, and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well.
From you salvation radiates with gifts
beyond all measure, given and returned.
To you, the giver of the gift, does God
Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does
the light in you shine brighter, adding to
the gifts you have to offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained.
Who recognizes it within himself
must give it. And the means for giving it
are in his understanding. He forgives
because he recognized the truth in him.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and in all living things. In quietness
is it acknowledged universally.
For what your inward vision looks upon
is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize
their home. And they point surely to their Source,
Where God the Father and the Son are One.
God's peace is shining on them, but they must
remain with you as well, for they were born
within your mind, as yours was born in God's.
They lead you back to peace, from where they came
but to remind you how you must return.
They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse
to listen. And they urge you gently to
accept His Word for what you are, instead
of fantasies and shadows. They remind
you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light
in us today. We take our wandering thoughts,
and gently bring them back to where they fall
in line with all the thoughts we share with God.
We will not let them stray. We let the light
within our minds direct them to come home.
We have betrayed them, ordering that they
depart from us. But now we call them back,
and wash them clean of strange desires and
disordered wishes. We restore to them
the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we
acknowledge that the peace of God still shines
in us, and from us to all living things
that share our life. We will forgive them all,
absolving all the world from what we thought
it did to us. For it is we who make
the world as we would have it. Now we choose
that it be innocent, devoid of sin
and open to salvation. And we lay
our saving blessing on it, as we say:
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Lesson 308, This instant is the only time there is.
You may find yourself increasingly dissatisfied with you life, and while looking for satisfaction, you may find comfort in the idea that you are on a journey, and in time you will find what you’re looking for.
What you have forgotten is that there is only now. Whoops! That now moment is gone, and there’s only now. Right now is this interval from what appears to be past to what appears to be the future. Now is a shift in your mind from the state of conflict to the state of the peace of God. In this state of mind you look through the eyes of Christ and experience only the reflection of the peace of God, now. The now is experienced as the absence of a chattering voice narrating you life of conflict. There is only the stillness of now.
These thoughts were inspired by today’s lesson.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook308.html
“Conceive” comes from the Latin, concipere, meaning “to take in.” Through the eyes of the ego, we assume that what is outside is real, and we “take it in” and give it meaning. That is our conception of time. We look at the hands moving on a clock and make it real, while all the time this defeats our aim of experiencing the Christ being born in us, an expression for experiencing peace through the eyes of Christ, requiring simply a shift of mind from conflict to peace.
The purpose of the illusion of time is to use it to spring into Heaven. You can choose, you can elect now, to see through the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ and experience now. This action of the mind is called forgiveness. Since there are only two emotions, love and fear, you can forgive fear and experience only love; fear is no more real than time. There is no world other than how I conceive it. When I forgive my conceptions, I experience salvation.
Here is Lesson 308 in blank verse. Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambic, slack STRESS. (For a fuller explanation of blank verse, please see the preceding blog on Lesson 304)
Enjoy.
Lesson 308
This instant is the only time there is.
I have conceived of time in such a way
that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must
change my perception of what time is for.
Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past
and future one. The only interval
in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come
to set me free. The birth of Christ is now,
without a past or future. He has come
to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.
Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now
I am redeemed. This instant is the time
You have appointed for Your Son's release,
and for salvation of the world in him.
What you have forgotten is that there is only now. Whoops! That now moment is gone, and there’s only now. Right now is this interval from what appears to be past to what appears to be the future. Now is a shift in your mind from the state of conflict to the state of the peace of God. In this state of mind you look through the eyes of Christ and experience only the reflection of the peace of God, now. The now is experienced as the absence of a chattering voice narrating you life of conflict. There is only the stillness of now.
These thoughts were inspired by today’s lesson.
http://acim.home.att.net/workbook308.html
“Conceive” comes from the Latin, concipere, meaning “to take in.” Through the eyes of the ego, we assume that what is outside is real, and we “take it in” and give it meaning. That is our conception of time. We look at the hands moving on a clock and make it real, while all the time this defeats our aim of experiencing the Christ being born in us, an expression for experiencing peace through the eyes of Christ, requiring simply a shift of mind from conflict to peace.
The purpose of the illusion of time is to use it to spring into Heaven. You can choose, you can elect now, to see through the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ and experience now. This action of the mind is called forgiveness. Since there are only two emotions, love and fear, you can forgive fear and experience only love; fear is no more real than time. There is no world other than how I conceive it. When I forgive my conceptions, I experience salvation.
Here is Lesson 308 in blank verse. Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambic, slack STRESS. (For a fuller explanation of blank verse, please see the preceding blog on Lesson 304)
Enjoy.
Lesson 308
This instant is the only time there is.
I have conceived of time in such a way
that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must
change my perception of what time is for.
Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past
and future one. The only interval
in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come
to set me free. The birth of Christ is now,
without a past or future. He has come
to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.
Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now
I am redeemed. This instant is the time
You have appointed for Your Son's release,
and for salvation of the world in him.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Lesson 304: Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
For the past several weeks, I keep coming back to this five-step formulation of the utter simplicity of salvation. I often sit back and run these steps through my mind, rehearsing them, and then when the drama begins, when the director says “Action,” I am ready.
1. When I find myself experiencing fear and pain, I say to myself, “This certainly seems fearful, but it is not so. In my mind there are only two states, one is the state of mind of the peace of God, and this state is the only one real; the other state is one of ear and conflict, and it has no source in reality.”
2. Further, I make it very concrete by using the metaphor of seeing: When I look out at the world, what I see mirrors, either the state of mind of fear, or the state of mind of peace. What I see, then, is seen through, either the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ.
3. Since this is all going on only in my mind, I have the power, I have the responsibility, to choose the eyes through which I see. I remind myself that what I am seeing through the eyes of the ego is not real, and in fact, no longer exists. What I see through the eyes of Christ is real and loving and eternal.
4. Now, it is just a matter of asking for help to let go of, relinquish, forgive that which is not real, so that I can shift from the false state of mind to the true. It is simply an action of the mind.
5. Finally, if I do not immediately experience forgiveness in the next moment, and sometimes I do with a warm wave of gratitude, then I trust that I am God’s beloved Son, and the lag time will soon pass, and I will soon see again with the eyes of Christ, mirroring the peace of God.
Remembering these lines in my daily drama, I was astonished and grateful to read Jesus’ words today in Lesson 304, Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.
To obscuremeans to hide, or veil meaning. Seeing through the eyes of the ego presents a world that veils the truth of what I am, what we are, and when one of us sees truly, it is a gift to all our brothers.
Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambs, slack STRESS. Try scanning the lines to find the rhythm, for example: chris TINE.
Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ
I can obscure my holy sight, if I
intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights Christ looks upon,
unless it is His vision that I use.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the world
by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light;
from sin to holiness. Let me forgive,
and thus receive salvation for the world.
It is Your gift, my Father, given me
to offer to Your holy Son, that he
may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.
Here you go:
let NOT my WORLD ob SCURE the SIGHT of CHRIST
i CAN ob SCURE my HO ly SIGHT, if I
You can practice scanning the rest of the lines.
in trude my world up on it. Nor can I
4. be hold the ho ly sights CHRIST LOOKS up on,
un less it is His vis ion that I use.
Per cep tion is a mir ror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
re flect ed out ward. I would bless the world
by look ing on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the cer tain signs
that all my sins have been for giv en me.
12. YOU LEAD me from the dark ness to the light;
from sin to hol i ness. Let me for give,
and thus re ceive sal va tion for the world.
It is Your gift, my Fath er, giv en me
to of fer to Your ho ly Son, that he
may find a gain the mem or y of You,
and of Your Son as You cre at ed him.
In lines 4 and 12, Jesus breaks the pattern to emphasize His meaning by using a particular pattern called spondees, STRESS STRESS.
In the Workbook from Lesson 98 to 365, Jesus’ lessons are all in blank verse, and in the Text, from Chapter 26 to 31 His chapters are in blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
I express my gratitude for Jesus’ Course in Miracles in this poem of blank verse.
Jesus speaks and Helen scribes, precisely,
so that not one syllable goes astray,
marching stately across the pages in
blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
1. When I find myself experiencing fear and pain, I say to myself, “This certainly seems fearful, but it is not so. In my mind there are only two states, one is the state of mind of the peace of God, and this state is the only one real; the other state is one of ear and conflict, and it has no source in reality.”
2. Further, I make it very concrete by using the metaphor of seeing: When I look out at the world, what I see mirrors, either the state of mind of fear, or the state of mind of peace. What I see, then, is seen through, either the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ.
3. Since this is all going on only in my mind, I have the power, I have the responsibility, to choose the eyes through which I see. I remind myself that what I am seeing through the eyes of the ego is not real, and in fact, no longer exists. What I see through the eyes of Christ is real and loving and eternal.
4. Now, it is just a matter of asking for help to let go of, relinquish, forgive that which is not real, so that I can shift from the false state of mind to the true. It is simply an action of the mind.
5. Finally, if I do not immediately experience forgiveness in the next moment, and sometimes I do with a warm wave of gratitude, then I trust that I am God’s beloved Son, and the lag time will soon pass, and I will soon see again with the eyes of Christ, mirroring the peace of God.
Remembering these lines in my daily drama, I was astonished and grateful to read Jesus’ words today in Lesson 304, Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.
I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.
To obscuremeans to hide, or veil meaning. Seeing through the eyes of the ego presents a world that veils the truth of what I am, what we are, and when one of us sees truly, it is a gift to all our brothers.
Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambs, slack STRESS. Try scanning the lines to find the rhythm, for example: chris TINE.
Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ
I can obscure my holy sight, if I
intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights Christ looks upon,
unless it is His vision that I use.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the world
by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.
You lead me from the darkness to the light;
from sin to holiness. Let me forgive,
and thus receive salvation for the world.
It is Your gift, my Father, given me
to offer to Your holy Son, that he
may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.
Here you go:
let NOT my WORLD ob SCURE the SIGHT of CHRIST
i CAN ob SCURE my HO ly SIGHT, if I
You can practice scanning the rest of the lines.
in trude my world up on it. Nor can I
4. be hold the ho ly sights CHRIST LOOKS up on,
un less it is His vis ion that I use.
Per cep tion is a mir ror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
re flect ed out ward. I would bless the world
by look ing on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the cer tain signs
that all my sins have been for giv en me.
12. YOU LEAD me from the dark ness to the light;
from sin to hol i ness. Let me for give,
and thus re ceive sal va tion for the world.
It is Your gift, my Fath er, giv en me
to of fer to Your ho ly Son, that he
may find a gain the mem or y of You,
and of Your Son as You cre at ed him.
In lines 4 and 12, Jesus breaks the pattern to emphasize His meaning by using a particular pattern called spondees, STRESS STRESS.
In the Workbook from Lesson 98 to 365, Jesus’ lessons are all in blank verse, and in the Text, from Chapter 26 to 31 His chapters are in blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
I express my gratitude for Jesus’ Course in Miracles in this poem of blank verse.
Jesus speaks and Helen scribes, precisely,
so that not one syllable goes astray,
marching stately across the pages in
blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
True Security, the peace of God
I was inspired to write this blog by reading a column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, entitled Security is an Elusive Mental Blanket by Philip Chard, a psychotherapist and regular columnist for the Sentinel.
Please read Philip's column by clicking on this link:
http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/advice/oct05/365340.asp
Dear Philip,
I rather enjoyed yesterday’s column on Security. I began tracking you right away when you emphasized “illusion” in your first paragraph. Illusion comes from the Latin ludere, meaning “to play, to mock.” An illusion is a mockery of truth. I began tracking you in the sense that a correspondence was set up in my mind between my terminology based on Jesus’ Course in Miracles and yours. “Small picture” is an illusion projected from within by a self that has no source in reality. It is an internal state of mind, the ego mind, projected to appear out there. When it seems to be out there, we make adjustments regarding money, relationships, and fixed patterns of behavior, not recognizing that we are responsible because there is no out there separate from in here, in the mind. There is only my mind. Since there is no out there, only in here, I have the responsibility of choosing to see from the “small picture” state of mind, or from the state of mind of the peace of God, the “big picture.” I also like the word “elusive” in the title; our focus out there on the “small picture” is an evasion of reality, of the truth.
The “big picture” is simply the recognition of a state of mind of the peace of God that is our natural inheritance as children of God. The recognition that the peace of God is shining in me now is seeing the “big picture.” This is our only security because any investment in the “small picture” is an investment in an illusion, a mockery of truth.
That’s why I like your paragraph that begins, “True security grows from an abiding faith. . .”
Now, I think you will find this incredible. Here is the title for the lesson for today from Jesus’ Course in Miracles, Lesson 299: Eternal holiness abides in me. Your use of the word “abide” is inspired. My mind, your mind, is the abode of God’s holiness. Here’s the lesson:
My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.
Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.
Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.
Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.
It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.
These comments came to mind regarding the lesson in the context of your column.
My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.
Holiness is synonymous with the “big picture.” We can know it by recognizing it, but we cannot understand it from the ego perspective.
Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.
The state of mind of the peace of God is an extension of God.
Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.
My will is only to experience the peace of God, to look through the illusion and say, “This is not so.” Only the peace of God is so. The letting go of the “small picture” is forgiveness.
Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
“Sin” comes from the Aramaic, Jesus’ language, and it is an archery term. To be on the mark is to hit the target. To be off the mark is to miss, to sin. Isn’t that amazing! Sin has nothing to do with violating a church code; sin simply means to invest in the illusion.
It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.
I am, you are, the light of the world. We are very holy.
It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.
So, I begin each day looking forward to reading the lesson for the day. Today’s is 299, meaning the 299th day since lesson 1 on January 1, 2005. And how do you think Jesus helps us begin our great undoing, investing in the “small picture?” His first lesson title forces us to take a direct look at it, and say to ourselves: Nothing I see means anything.
So there you are. You fired me up. Thank you.
Take care.
To place this blog in the context of Jesus' teaching, please read my "Latest Article," entitled Yours is the Power of Decision on my website:
http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.com/
Please read Philip's column by clicking on this link:
http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/advice/oct05/365340.asp
Dear Philip,
I rather enjoyed yesterday’s column on Security. I began tracking you right away when you emphasized “illusion” in your first paragraph. Illusion comes from the Latin ludere, meaning “to play, to mock.” An illusion is a mockery of truth. I began tracking you in the sense that a correspondence was set up in my mind between my terminology based on Jesus’ Course in Miracles and yours. “Small picture” is an illusion projected from within by a self that has no source in reality. It is an internal state of mind, the ego mind, projected to appear out there. When it seems to be out there, we make adjustments regarding money, relationships, and fixed patterns of behavior, not recognizing that we are responsible because there is no out there separate from in here, in the mind. There is only my mind. Since there is no out there, only in here, I have the responsibility of choosing to see from the “small picture” state of mind, or from the state of mind of the peace of God, the “big picture.” I also like the word “elusive” in the title; our focus out there on the “small picture” is an evasion of reality, of the truth.
The “big picture” is simply the recognition of a state of mind of the peace of God that is our natural inheritance as children of God. The recognition that the peace of God is shining in me now is seeing the “big picture.” This is our only security because any investment in the “small picture” is an investment in an illusion, a mockery of truth.
That’s why I like your paragraph that begins, “True security grows from an abiding faith. . .”
Now, I think you will find this incredible. Here is the title for the lesson for today from Jesus’ Course in Miracles, Lesson 299: Eternal holiness abides in me. Your use of the word “abide” is inspired. My mind, your mind, is the abode of God’s holiness. Here’s the lesson:
My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.
Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.
Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.
Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.
It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.
These comments came to mind regarding the lesson in the context of your column.
My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.
Holiness is synonymous with the “big picture.” We can know it by recognizing it, but we cannot understand it from the ego perspective.
Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.
The state of mind of the peace of God is an extension of God.
Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.
My will is only to experience the peace of God, to look through the illusion and say, “This is not so.” Only the peace of God is so. The letting go of the “small picture” is forgiveness.
Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
“Sin” comes from the Aramaic, Jesus’ language, and it is an archery term. To be on the mark is to hit the target. To be off the mark is to miss, to sin. Isn’t that amazing! Sin has nothing to do with violating a church code; sin simply means to invest in the illusion.
It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.
I am, you are, the light of the world. We are very holy.
It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.
So, I begin each day looking forward to reading the lesson for the day. Today’s is 299, meaning the 299th day since lesson 1 on January 1, 2005. And how do you think Jesus helps us begin our great undoing, investing in the “small picture?” His first lesson title forces us to take a direct look at it, and say to ourselves: Nothing I see means anything.
So there you are. You fired me up. Thank you.
Take care.
To place this blog in the context of Jesus' teaching, please read my "Latest Article," entitled Yours is the Power of Decision on my website:
http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.com/
Friday, October 28, 2005
Skeptic
Dear Glenn,
I will start with the last sentence in your e-mail: I really would like to believe that I’ve not wasted my life chasing illusions.
Well, you have.
Just as I wrote that sentence, this poem flashed into my mind.
LYING IN A HAMMOCK
AT WILLIAM DUFFY’S
FARM IN PINE ISLAND,
MINNESOTA
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.
James Wright
Now, I am very excited about this flash because it shows me a way to answer your question. In respect to the poem, let me establish that there are two states of mind, one is the peace of God, and that is the only one real, and the other is the state of mind of conflict, ruled by the ego, having no source in reality, being completely unreal, an illusion.
Now, the poet lying in the hammock is experiencing the peace of God and thereby, seeing only this reflection in whatever his eyes light upon, including horseshit. Seeing the reflection of the peace of God does, indeed, light up everything you see. In the last line is the recognition that he has spent most of his life experiencing the conflict of his ego-centered life, thereby seeing only his projections, making his illusory, wasted life.
Since I am in the direct experience of the peace of God, right now, sitting here writing, I am in the state of mind receptive to the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit. That’s what I heard when the poem flashed into my mind.
It is quite possible for you reading this right now to join with me, momentarily bypassing, forgiving, your ego state of mind, the peace of God, and in that moment your skepticism would vanish as you melted into the peace of God.
But the chances are good that your skeptical state of mind interfered with the experience of the true state of mind. There is no way then, that I can convince you of the validity of my experience. Imagine that I am floating in the ocean near the shore, and you are standing on a low cliff looking down and asking me what the water is like. No matter the metaphors I might use to convey to you the temperature of the water, you could only know by jumping in. Your wanting to know on your conceptual terms prevents you from the experience.
Jump into the lessons of The Course in Miracles with little willingness and trust and ask for help to experience the peace of God.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.
Jump.
Thank you.
I will start with the last sentence in your e-mail: I really would like to believe that I’ve not wasted my life chasing illusions.
Well, you have.
Just as I wrote that sentence, this poem flashed into my mind.
LYING IN A HAMMOCK
AT WILLIAM DUFFY’S
FARM IN PINE ISLAND,
MINNESOTA
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly,
Asleep on the black trunk,
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
Into the distances of the afternoon.
To my right,
In a field of sunlight between two pines,
The droppings of last year's horses
Blaze up into golden stones.
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on.
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home.
I have wasted my life.
James Wright
Now, I am very excited about this flash because it shows me a way to answer your question. In respect to the poem, let me establish that there are two states of mind, one is the peace of God, and that is the only one real, and the other is the state of mind of conflict, ruled by the ego, having no source in reality, being completely unreal, an illusion.
Now, the poet lying in the hammock is experiencing the peace of God and thereby, seeing only this reflection in whatever his eyes light upon, including horseshit. Seeing the reflection of the peace of God does, indeed, light up everything you see. In the last line is the recognition that he has spent most of his life experiencing the conflict of his ego-centered life, thereby seeing only his projections, making his illusory, wasted life.
Since I am in the direct experience of the peace of God, right now, sitting here writing, I am in the state of mind receptive to the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit. That’s what I heard when the poem flashed into my mind.
It is quite possible for you reading this right now to join with me, momentarily bypassing, forgiving, your ego state of mind, the peace of God, and in that moment your skepticism would vanish as you melted into the peace of God.
But the chances are good that your skeptical state of mind interfered with the experience of the true state of mind. There is no way then, that I can convince you of the validity of my experience. Imagine that I am floating in the ocean near the shore, and you are standing on a low cliff looking down and asking me what the water is like. No matter the metaphors I might use to convey to you the temperature of the water, you could only know by jumping in. Your wanting to know on your conceptual terms prevents you from the experience.
Jump into the lessons of The Course in Miracles with little willingness and trust and ask for help to experience the peace of God.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.
Jump.
Thank you.
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