A Course in Miracles: What It Says

Because of A Course in Miracles, Master Teacher, and the Bible, I am awakening from the dream.  I walk through the world knowing full that I am “in” the world, and not “of” the world; I am in form, yet formless, and I ask for help to wear the garment of the world, loosely.

I often wish that I had a succinct explanation to give to people who ask me questions about the Course.

The other day, my friend, Dan Maynard, called me up all excited and said, “I just read the Preface to the Course, and it is so good, particularly, the last section, What It Says."

I went straight to the Text, read it, and said to myself, "This is what I have been looking for, and it was right under my nose."

So, here it is, easily accessible—pass it on.

  This preface was written in 1977, in response to many requests for a brief introduction to A Course in Miracles. The first two parts How It Came; What It Is Helen Schucman wrote herself; the final part What It Says was written by the process of inner dictation described in the Preface.

How It Came

     A Course in Miracles began with the sudden decision of two people to join in a common goal. Their names were Helen Schucman and William Thetford, Professors of Medical Psychology at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York City. It does not matter who they were, except that the story shows that with God all things are possible. They were anything but spiritual. Their relationship with each other was difficult and often strained, and they were concerned with personal and professional acceptance and status. In general, they had considerable investment in the values of the world. Their lives were hardly in accord with anything that the Course advocates. Helen, the one who received the material, describes herself:

Psychologist, educator, conservative in theory and atheistic in belief. I was working in a prestigious and highly academic setting. And then something happened that triggered a chain of events I could never have predicted. The head of my department unexpectedly announced that he was tired of the angry and aggressive feelings our attitudes reflected, and concluded that there must be another way. As if on cue, I agreed to help him find it. Apparently this Course is the other way.

Although their intention was serious, they had great difficulty in starting out on their joint venture. But they had given the Holy Spirit the little willingness that, as the Course itself was to emphasise again and again, is sufficient to enable Him to use any situation for His purposes and provide it with His power.

To continue Helen's first-person account:

Three startling months preceded the actual writing, during which time Bill suggested that I write down the highly symbolic dreams and descriptions of the strange images that were coming to me. Although I had grown more accustomed to the unexpected by that time, I was still very surprised when I wrote, This is a course in miracles. That was my introduction to the Voice. It made no sound, but seemed to be giving me a kind of rapid, inner dictation which I took down in a shorthand notebook. The writing was never automatic. It could be interrupted at any time and later picked up again. It made me very uncomfortable, but it never seriously occurred to me to stop. It seemed to be a special assignment I had somehow, somewhere agreed to complete. It represented a truly collaborative venture between Bill and myself, and much of its significance, I am sure, lies in that. I would take down what the Voice said and read it to him the next day, and he typed it from my dictation. I expect he had his special assignment, too. Without his encouragement and support I would never have been able to fulfil mine. The whole process took about seven years. The Text came first, then the Workbook for Students, and finally the Manual for Teachers. Only a few minor changes have been made. Chapter titles and subheadings have been inserted in the Text, and some of the more personal references that occurred at the beginning have been omitted. Otherwise the material is substantially unchanged.

     The names of the collaborators in the recording of the Course do not appear on the cover because the Course can and should stand on its own. It is not intended to become the basis for another cult. Its only purpose is to provide a way in which some people will be able to find their own Internal Teacher.

What It Is

     As its title implies, the Course is arranged throughout as a teaching device. It consists of three books: a 669-page Text, a 488-page Workbook for Students, and a 92-page Manual for Teachers. The order in which students choose to use the books, and the ways in which they study them, depend on their particular needs and preferences.

     The curriculum the Course proposes is carefully conceived and is explained, step by step, at both the theoretical and practical levels. It emphasises application rather than theory, and experience rather than theology. It specifically states that a universal theology is impossible, but a universal experience is not only possible but necessary (Manual, p. 77). Although Christian in statement, the Course deals with universal spiritual themes. It emphasises it is but one version of the universal curriculum. There are many others, this one differing from them only in form. They all lead to God in the end.

     The Text is largely theoretical, and sets forth the concepts on which the Course's thought system is based. Its ideas contain the foundation for the Workbook's lessons. Without the practical application the Workbook provides, the Text would remain largely a series of abstractions which would hardly suffice to bring about the thought reversal at which the Course aims.

     The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons at that tempo, and one might want to remain with a particularly appealing lesson for more than one day. The instructions urge only that not more than one lesson a day should be attempted. The practical nature of the Workbook is underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasises experience through application rather than a prior commitment to a spiritual goal:

Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required (Workbook, p. 2).

     Finally, the Manual for Teachers, which is written in question and answer form, provides answers to some of the more likely questions a student might ask. It also includes a clarification of a number of the terms the Course uses, explaining them within the theoretical framework of the Text.

     The Course makes no claim to finality, nor are the Workbook lessons intended to bring the student's learning to completion. At the end, the reader is left in the hands of his or her own Internal Teacher, Who will direct all subsequent learning as He sees fit. While the Course is comprehensive in scope, truth cannot be limited to any finite form, as is clearly recognised in the statement at the end of the Workbook:

This Course is a beginning, not an end No more specific lessons are assigned, for there is no more need of them. Henceforth, hear but the Voice for God He will direct your efforts, telling you exactly what to do; how to direct your mind, and when to come to Him in silence, asking for His sure direction and His certain Word (Workbook, p. 487).

What It Says

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

     This is how A Course in Miracles begins. It makes a fundamental distinction between the real and the unreal; between knowledge and perception. Knowledge is truth, under one law, the law of love or God. Truth is unalterable, eternal and unambiguous. It can be unrecognised, but it cannot be changed. It applies to everything that God created, and only what He created is real. It is beyond learning because it is beyond time and process. It has no opposite; no beginning and no end. It merely is.

     The world of perception, on the other hand, is the world of time, of change, of beginnings and endings. It is based on interpretation, not on facts. It is the world of birth and death, founded on the belief in scarcity, loss, separation and death. It is learned rather than given, selective in its perceptual emphases, unstable in its functioning, and inaccurate in its interpretations.

     From knowledge and perception respectively, two distinct thought systems arise which are opposite in every respect. In the realm of knowledge no thoughts exist apart from God, because God and His Creation share one Will. The world of perception, however, is made by the belief in opposites and separate wills, in perpetual conflict with each other and with God. What perception sees and hears appears to be real because it permits into awareness only what conforms to the wishes of the perceiver. This leads to a world of illusions, a world which needs constant defence precisely because it is not real.

     When you have been caught in the world of perception you are caught in a dream. You cannot escape without help, because everything your senses show merely witnesses to the reality of the dream. God has provided the Answer, the only Way out, the true Helper. It is the function of His Voice, His Holy Spirit, to mediate between the two worlds. He can do this because, while on the one hand He knows the truth, on the other He also recognises our illusions, but without believing in them. It is the Holy Spirit's goal to help us escape from the dream world by teaching us how to reverse our thinking and unlearn our mistakes. Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit's great learning aid in bringing this thought reversal about. However, the Course has its own definition of what forgiveness really is just as it defines the world in its own way.

     The world we see merely reflects our own internal frame of reference the dominant ideas, wishes and emotions in our minds. Projection makes perception (Text, p. 445). We look inside first, decide the kind of world we want to see and then project that world outside, making it the truth as we see it. We make it true by our interpretations of what it is we are seeing. If we are using perception to justify our own mistakes our anger, our impulses to attack, our lack of love in whatever form it may take we will see a world of evil, destruction, malice, envy and despair. All this we must learn to forgive, not because we are being good and charitable, but because what we are seeing is not true. We have distorted the world by our twisted defences, and are therefore seeing what is not there. As we learn to recognise our perceptual errors, we also learn to look past them or forgive. At the same time we are forgiving ourselves, looking past our distorted self-concepts to the Self that God created in us and as us.

     Sin is defined as lack of love (Text, p. 11). Since love is all there is, sin in the sight of the Holy Spirit is a mistake to be corrected, rather than an evil to be punished. Our sense of inadequacy, weakness and incompletion comes from the strong investment in the scarcity principle that governs the whole world of illusions. From that point of view, we seek in others what we feel is wanting in ourselves. We love another in order to get something ourselves. That, in fact, is what passes for love in the dream world. There can be no greater mistake than that, for love is incapable of asking for anything.

    

 Only minds can really join, and whom God has joined no man can put asunder (Text, p. 356). It is, however, only at the level of Christ Mind that true union is possible, and has, in fact, never been lost. The little I seeks to enhance itself by external approval, external possessions and external love. The Self that God created needs nothing. It is forever complete, safe, loved and loving. It seeks to share rather than to get; to extend rather than project. It has no needs and wants to join with others out of their mutual awareness of abundance.

     The special relationships of the world are destructive, selfish and childishly egocentric. Yet, if given to the Holy Spirit, these relationships can become the holiest things on earth... the miracles that point the way to the return to Heaven. The world uses its special relationships as a final weapon of exclusion and a demonstration of separateness. The Holy Spirit transforms them into perfect lessons in forgiveness and in awakening from the dream. Each one is an opportunity to let perceptions be healed and errors corrected. Each one is another chance to forgive oneself by forgiving the other. And each one becomes still another invitation to the Holy Spirit and to the remembrance of God.

     Perception is a function of the body, and therefore represents a limit on awareness. Perception sees through the body's eyes and hears through the body's ears. It evokes the limited responses which the body makes. The body appears to be largely self-motivated and independent, yet it actually responds only to the intentions of the mind. If the mind wants to use it for attack in any form, it becomes prey to sickness, age and decay. If the mind accepts the Holy Spirit's purpose for it instead, it becomes a useful way of communicating with others, invulnerable as long as it is needed, and to be gently laid by when its use is over. Of itself it is neutral, as is everything in the world of perception. Whether it is used for the goals of the ego or the Holy Spirit depends entirely on what the mind wants.

     The opposite of seeing through the body's eyes is the vision of Christ, which reflects strength rather than weakness, unity rather than separation, and love rather than fear. The opposite of hearing through the body's ears is communication through the Voice for God, the Holy Spirit, which abides in each of us. His voice seems distant and difficult to hear because the ego, which speaks for the little, separated self, seems to be much louder. This is actually reversed. The Holy Spirit speaks with unmistakable clarity and overwhelming appeal. No one who does not choose to identify with the body could possibly be deaf to His messages of release and hope, nor could he fail to accept joyously the vision of Christ in glad exchange for his miserable picture of himself.

     Christ's vision is the Holy Spirit's gift, God's alternative to the illusion of separation and to the belief in the reality of sin, guilt and death. It is the one correction for all errors of perception; the reconciliation of the seeming opposites on which this world is based. Its kindly light shows all things from another point of view, reflecting the thought system that arises from knowledge and making return to God not only possible but inevitable. What was regarded as injustices done to one by someone else now becomes a call for help and for union. Sin, sickness and attack are seen as misperceptions calling for remedy through gentleness and love. Defences are laid down because where there is no attack there is no need for them. Our bothers' needs become our own, because they are taking the journey with us as we go to God. Without us they would lose their way. Without them we could never find our own.

     Forgiveness is unknown in Heaven, where the need for it would be inconceivable. However, in this world, forgiveness is a necessary correction for all the mistakes that we have made. To offer forgiveness is the only way for us to have it, for it reflects the law of Heaven that giving and receiving are the same. Heaven is the natural state of all the Sons of God as He created them. Such is their reality forever. It has not changed because it has been forgotten.

     Forgiveness is the means by which we will remember. Through forgiveness the thinking of the world is reversed. The forgiven world becomes the gate of Heaven, because by its mercy we can at last forgive ourselves. Holding no-one prisoner to guilt, we become free. Acknowledging Christ in all our brothers, we recognise His Presence in ourselves. Forgetting all our misperceptions, and with nothing from the past to hold us back, we can remember God. Beyond this, learning cannot go. When we are ready, God Himself will take the final step in our return to Him.

---

"I have a dream" and A Course in Miracles

Wednesday, August 28, 2013, marks the 50^th Anniversary of Martin Luther King’s masterful oration, “I have a dream.” In an article in USA TODAY, Rick Hampson clearly demonstrates how King, after reading from his prepared text for ten minutes, stepped aside from his text, totally inspired.

This is one of my favorite themes:  Stepping back allows the Holy Spirit to come through us.  This inspiration is clearly expressed in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 155, I will step back and let Him lead the way.

Step back in faith and let truth lead the way.

You know not where you go. But One Who knows

goes with you. Let Him lead you with the rest.
(10:3)

Here is Rick Hampson’s account:  

 King had worked on his speech over the previous four days, finally finishing a few hours before dawn in his suite at the Willard Hotel.

When he was more than halfway through a recitation that had been well received but was, as King biographer Taylor Branch would write, "Far from historic" and in places "clubfooted."

Then, King looked up. He put aside his text, and in Taylor Branch’s words, “He took flight extemporaneously.”

"I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. It is a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

Some on the platform noticed that he was disregarding his prepared text, including Clarence Jones, a King adviser who had worked on the speech. "He's off. He's on his own now. He's inspired," Jones told Taylor Branch in 2002, four decades later.

Mahalia Jackson, who had performed earlier and was one of King's favorite gospel singers, cried, "Tell 'em about the dream, Martin!"

Having raised his eyes, he now had to raise his voice to be heard over the growing applause. He continued to profess his dream, repeating the refrain seven more times, moving from justice and equality to something deeper - a human bond transcending race.

To his wife, Coretta, it seemed King had forgotten time itself, that his words flowed "from some higher place."

He ended suddenly, returning to the speech that had been lying unread on the lectern for the last line: "Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty - we are free at last!"
For a moment the audience was stunned. Silence. Then, a rocking ovation.

At the White House, President Kennedy - who with King would produce much of 20th-century America's memorable oratory - turned to an aide: "He's damn good."

King created a masterpiece on the fly, "like some sort of jazz musician," said David J. Garrow, whose King biography, Bearing the Cross, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987. "It's the spontaneous parts of the speech that people remember."

Why did King decide to insert the "dream" section? He never really explained, and no one pressed him. When he spoke with Donald Smith, a graduate student, later that year, he didn't seem sure himself:

"I started out reading the speech, and I read it down to a point, and just all of a sudden  this thing came to me that I'd used many times before, that thing about 'I have a dream.' I just felt I wanted to use it. I don't know why. I hadn't thought about it before that speech."

After the march ended peacefully - not a single marcher was arrested - Kennedy met the leaders of the march at the White House.

When he walked into the Cabinet Room, the president looked at King and grinned. "I have a dream," he said. (Rick Hampson, “What you didn’t know about King’s ‘Dream’ speech,” USATODAY, August 13, 2013, Section A, pp.1,2)

“Then, King looked up. He put aside his text. . .”
I will step back and let Him lead the way.

Experiencing the Light

I came across an article in The Sun, Brown Thrush, and I was astonished at how the author, Simone Poirer-Bures expressed experiencing the Light in such a lovely manner without ever mentioning Light, and how it echoed so perfectly a stanza from Lesson 156 in A Course in Miracles.

As I stepped into the screened-in breezeway between my house and garage, I heard the muffled sound of wings. Something swooped by my head and landed on the screen: a brown thrush. It had flown in through the open garage door and couldn't find its way out. It was a beautiful bird, reminding me of an auburn-haired girl with a fair white complexion and long, graceful limbs. An exhausted girl. She watched me warily, her feet grasping the screen, her little chest heaving. 

I'd found birds in the breezeway before, sparrows and finches mostly, even, once, a hummingbird. They would flit wildly from screen to screen, somehow never see­ing the open doorway to the garage and, through it, freedom. Sometimes I'd tried to catch them and carry them outside, but they'd eluded me, careening even more frantically until it seemed cruel to keep trying. Eventually they would find their way out. 

This thrush was bigger than the other birds, so I thought she might be easier to catch. I approached her slowly, crooning in a hushed voice, "Don't be afraid. I want to help you." When I got within reach, she made another panicked dart to the other side of the breezeway and watched me. What sounds do birds find friendly? I wondered. Should I chirp? Sing in my best soprano voice? I took a deep breath and felt myself grow very still inside, until it seemed that there was nothing in the world except the thrush and me. I kept my eye on her as I approached, humming and whispering as I would to a frightened child. Then I reached out and grasped her. I could feel her heart pounding, but she didn't struggle. I stroked her speckled throat with my finger and carried her outside, pausing a moment by the hedges so she could get her bearings. When I opened my hands, she flew off in a great thrilling rush. 

Her wings, I saw, were unharmed. She had not damaged them banging herself against the screens, so she could probably have resisted me for a long time. But she had not. It was as if she had understood my intent and trusted me. None of the other birds had ever let me catch them. 

Full of the wonder of this, and with the feel of her delicate body still warm in my hands, I went on to water the flowers by the side of the house. The day was warm and bright. The flowers were thirsty. As they drank in the cool, clear water, I could sense their relief. Then something behind me needed my attention. The young pin oak. It wanted a drink too. The message was utterly clear, as though some mysterious tele­phone line between species had suddenly opened, and we were all communicating in a wordless language: the bird, the flowers, the tree, and me. 

It went on like that for some time: The wasp on the railing, warning me not to come closer. The grasses sunbathing by the garage, sighing their pleasure. The squirrel chanting, Busy, busy. And I, in a state of quiet awe, feeling that if I could be still enough, listen carefully enough, I could hear all of creation speaking, even the rocks.

(p.44, The Sun, December, 2012)

And here is Jesus in His Course.

There is a light in you which cannot die;

whose presence is so holy that the world

is sanctified because of you. All things

that live bring gifts to you, and offer them

in gratitude and gladness at your feet.

The scent of flowers is their gift to you.

The waves bow down before you, and the trees

extend their arms to shield you from the heat,

and lay their leaves before you on the ground

that you may walk in softness, while the wind

sinks to a whisper round your holy head.
L156.4

Madking Explicit the True Meaning of Forgiveness: March FB Statuses

I did it!  Here are  my FB Statuses for March.  The one for March 31, Easter Sunday, completes my goal of posting a status, daily, since last Easter Sunday, 2012.

3/1

In Jesus Calling, scribed by Sarah Young, the message for February 24 provides an excellent introduction and summary for a poem by Carl Sandburg (1878-1967 ), entitled, Limited.

BE STILL IN THE LIGHT of My Presence, while I communicate Love to you.  There is no force in the universe as powerful as My Love.  You are constantly aware of limitations: your  own and others’.  But there is no limit to My love; it fills all of space, time, and eternity. (p. 57)

Limited

I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains
     of the nation.
Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air
     go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people.
(All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men
     and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall
     pass.)
I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he
     answers: "Omaha."

Now you see through a glass, darkly but someday you will see Me face to Face.  Then you will be able to experience fully how wide and long and high and deep is My Love for you.    For now, the knowledge of My loving Presence is sufficient to carry you through each day. (p. 57)

3/2

I have been spending a lot of time these days sitting quietly and being receptive to understanding what trust really means.

First, I want to look into what it does not mean:  If I were standing on the bow of the Titanic after it struck the iceberg, and saying to myself, “I trust it won’t sink.”  That is not what trust is about. 

Rather, I would stand there saying to myself, I am the holy son of God, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. (What am I?)  I would trust that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are guiding me and comforting me, and giving me strength. I would trust that if I were to die, I would live eternally.

Of course, it is no surprise that a just moment ago I read this passage from today’s Lesson.

God is the strength in which I trust.

It is not my own strength through which I forgive. It is through the strength of God in me, which I am remembering as I forgive. As I begin to see, I recognize His reflection on earth. I forgive all things because I feel the stirring of His strength in me. And I begin to remember the Love I chose to forget, but which has not forgotten me. Lesson 60.2

. . .I feel the stirring of His strength in me.

God's Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49.


There is not a moment in which God's Voice ceases to call on my forgiveness to save me. There is not a moment in which His Voice fails to direct my thoughts, guide my actions and lead my feet. I am walking steadily on toward truth. There is nowhere else I can go, because God's Voice is the only Voice and the only Guide that has been given to His Son. Lesson 60.4

I also think that our need to trust, truly, is one reason that a book like Proof of Heaven is so popular right now.  Eben Alexander, the neurosurgeon, demonstrates beyond doubt that there is life beyond what our brain is showing us, that we are free, that we can trust we are eternal, that all is well.

Lesson 163, There is no death.  The Son of God is free.

Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are

Your messengers, and we would look upon

the glorious reflection of Your Love

which shines in everything. We live and move

in You alone. We are not separate

from Your eternal life. There is no death,

for death is not Your Will. And we abide

where You have placed us, in the life we share

with You and with all living things, to be

like You and part of You forever. We

accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will

is one with Yours eternally. Amen. 9



And then what came to mind, reassuringly, is this passage from William Wordsworth, Ode:  Intimations of Immortality.



Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life’s Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home.

One other thing, if I were on the Titanic, I would be grateful to those who were taking action to keep the ship afloat as best they can, and to those who were lowering the lifeboats.  After all, I am “in” the world, and not “of” the world, and while I am “in” the world, I will ask for help to do the next right thing.



3/3

I just love reading words scribed by Jesus.  I recently came across John Smallman who has been scribing Jesus since June, 2011.  Here is his statement from his blog site.

I have been taking dictation from my friend Saul since 1995.  A few months ago I began to feel intuitively that Jesus wanted to channel through me, but felt skeptical — many people have channeled him — why would he want another channel.  Anyhow I sat down with my pen and asked him:

Good afternoon dear Jesus. Thank you for your human life in which you demonstrated love, acceptance, and forgiveness. Thanks also for “A Course in Miracles”; reading it is an ongoing, uplifting, and most supportive experience.

Did I imagine that you spoke to me a few weeks ago asking me to take dictation? Was it my own (egoic!) inspirational, intuitive idea, or truly a message from you?  You did tell Helen Schucman (scribe for “A Course in Miracles”) that you always respond to those who call on you.  Did I call on you?  Or did you call on me?  Or neither?  Anyway why would you want to talk to me?  There are many others who could hear you better and take dictation more easily.  Anyhow, if you do want me to listen and take dictation, then I am willing, and greatly honored.  So, speak to me and I will write.  If my intuition was wrong then please forgive my call.

With love, John.

Of course I want to talk to you, John, I want to talk to anyone who will listen to me. You are all my brothers and sisters, I love you all dearly, and it is my joyful task to help you to awaken. Listen carefully, take your time – we have plenty – and write what you “hear”. You will find it easy.

Your loving brother, Jesus.

Here is a passage from one of the first scribing sessions, and it deals with one of my favorite themes, inevitably catching glimpses of Home.

As humans experiencing life in the illusion, it is impossible for you not to feel dissatisfied and disappointed because deep within you the divine Flame of God’s love remains alight, however determinedly you try to snuff it out or ignore it.  Along with that inextinguishable Flame are faint ethereal and ephemeral memories, of which you catch only the most fleeting glimpses – memories of Reality, your eternal Home.  This is why human existence is dissatisfying and disappointing for you.  You know life should be blissful, and yet every effort to achieve that state fails abysmally.  How could it not?  You were created in Love, to enjoy eternal ecstasy – and then you hid in an insane, imaginary environment filled with misery, pain, and suffering.  There is absolutely no meeting-point between these two extremes.  And of course the illusion is non-existent, nothing at all, so there are no two extremes; there is only your heavenly Home.  All else is smoke and mirrors, which for eons you have been trying to convince yourselves are real.

John Stockman, scribing Jesus, 5 June 2011

http://johnsmallman2.wordpress.com/



3/4

I am, indeed, the cause of what I see; you are, too.  But this is a tricky one because I find it hard to understand how I am the cause of the disasters that are occurring in the world.  I don’t even have to name one because the newspapers and the television bring them to our attention in every moment.

I am the cause only in the sense that for a moment I choose to see with my body’s eyes, rather than with vision.  That moment is so fleeting that I don’t even realize I made a choice; it is so habitual, automatic, and unconscious.

But, now, as I recognize it, I can ask for help to shift my awareness from illusion to truth.

I am determined to see things differently.

What I see now are but signs of disease, disaster and death. This cannot be what God created for His beloved Son. The very fact that I see such things is proof that I do not understand God. Therefore I also do not understand His Son. What I see tells me that I do not know who I am. I am determined to see the witnesses to the truth in me, rather than those which show me an illusion of myself.

What I see is a form of vengeance.

The world I see is hardly the representation of loving thoughts. It is a picture of attack on everything by everything. It is anything but a reflection of the Love of God and the love of His Son. It is my own attack thoughts that give rise to this picture. My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world, and give me the peace God intended me to have. Lesson 55.1,2

And From The Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price.

Every day, in many different forms, under apparently different and widely varying circumstances, you are given the opportunity to choose the kind of world you want to inhabit.  Forgive, and Love itself will rise to greet you; peace and joy will accompany you and quicken you on your journey Home.  (p. 46)

I am, indeed, the cause of the loving world I see, at this moment, now.

3/5

Here I go again:  quantum and A Course in Miracles

In her book, The Universe in Black and White, Terry Favour uses a table in reference to wave/particle.

But now we know that even a table is not solid.  What actually makes up the table is what I have been calling particles: waves that have become particles upon observation, particles that have interacted with sense perception and then become the table. (p. 159)

And in Lesson 28, Above all else I want to see things differently,  Jesus uses a table as an example.

You will not question what you have already defined. And the purpose of these exercises is to ask questions and receive the answers. In saying, "Above all else I want to see this table differently," you are committing yourself to seeing. It is not an exclusive commitment. It is a commitment that applies to the table just as much as to anything else, neither more nor less.

You could, in fact, gain vision from just that table, if you would withdraw all your own ideas from it, and look upon it with a completely open mind. It has something to show you; something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope. Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe.

In using the table as a subject for applying the idea for today, you are therefore really asking to see the purpose of the universe. You will be making this same request of each subject that you use in the practice periods. And you are making a commitment to each of them to let its purpose be revealed to you, instead of placing your own judgment upon it.  (4-6)

The wave is to seeing with vision as the particle is to seeing with the body’s eyes.

3/6

It is most helpful for me when I am reading to pay very close attention to the pronouns and their references. For example, I am reading From The Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price, and carefully stopping and looking at the reference for “you” each time Jesus uses it.

There can only be three references:  1) “you” as the decision maker, choosing between 2) “you” identifying with the ego, or 3) “you”  identifying with the Self.

Whenever you (2) are feeling less than happy, you (1) have chosen wrongly.  Happiness is what you (3) are, an aspect of what is true.  To be yourself truly, to be the Self, is to be happy and in a state of peace.  Nothing and no one can disturb that peace or take your happiness away unless you (1) so choose.  To choose the ego as your guide is to decide against happiness, for it knows nothing of happiness.  The ego is based on fear, having arisen as a fearful response.  To identify with the ego is to continue that dependence on fear, and though you (2) may seek happiness through various things and activities, it will elude you (2) for it cannot be found without.  Happiness arises from within for no reason, being independent of appearances and conditions that constantly change.  When you (3) realize the Self, awaken to and as the Self, you (3) find a happiness that is unshakeable, that will never leave you (3), for it is forever a part of you (3).  (p. 46)

It is always a matter of recognition.  This word comes from the Latin, recognoscere, meaning “to know again.”  When I decide to know again my true Self, accepting my holiness, any guilt disappears, and I am free.

My holiness is my salvation.

Since my holiness saves me from all guilt, recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the world. Once I have accepted my holiness, nothing can make me afraid. And because I am unafraid, everyone must share in my understanding, which is the gift of God to me and to the world. Lesson 58.4

3/7

Even though I am so easily, so readily, so habitually caught in time and space, believing falsity to be reality, thinking that seeing is believing. . . it is not so.   It’s a moment to moment decision.  As far as moments, I often think that when I am awake during the day for, say, 16 hours, that I have at my disposal 57,600 moments to choose between falsity and reality.  (16 hours X 60 minutes X 60 seconds)

Here are three different ways to express this.

Genesis 2:16, `6

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

A Course in Miracles, T-26.V.3

God gave His Teacher to replace

the one you made, not to conflict with it.

And what He would replace has been replaced.

Time lasted but an instant in your mind,

with no effect upon eternity.

And so is all time past, and everything

exactly as it was before the way

to nothingness was made. The tiny tick

of time in which the first mistake was made,

and all of them within that one mistake,

held also the Correction for that one,

and all of them that came within the first.

And in that tiny instant time was gone,

for that was all it ever was. What God

gave answer to is answered and is gone.



From The Christ Mind, p. 47

You are not the ego though it lives in your mind.  It is an alien identity, imagined as a response to the fear that arose when the idea of separation from your Source first seized your mind, and in that moment seemed to become a reality.This error is repeated again and again, every time you choose fear over Love, separation over Unity.  Your mind has become crystallized around this misunderstanding and the identification with what you are not.  You have lived so long in this state of mind it seems like reality to you, and the actuality of Reality Itself has been lost.  Reality still abides deep in your mind, held for you by Go’s Answer to your belief in separation, the Holy Spirit.  Whenever you so decide, the memory of what you are will rise to awareness, and all doubt and confusion will vanish.

3/8

As the day goes on, it is so helpful to me to remember to just stop, be still a moment, breathe in and breathe out.  Sometimes, I recite to myself this passage from Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.

When you are still an instant, when the world

recedes from you, when valueless ideas

cease to have value in your restless mind,

then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly

He calls to you that you will not resist

Him longer. In that instant He will take

you to His home, and you will stay with Him

in perfect stillness, silent and at peace,

beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt,

sublimely certain that you are at home.
Lesson 182.8




3/9

When I am still for a moment, I experience the contrast between feeling at home and being in an alien world.  This passage from Lesson 182, states it so beautifully, so clearly.


This world you seem to live in is not home

to you. And somewhere in your mind you know

that this is true. A memory of home

keeps haunting you, as if there were a place

that called you to return, although you do

not recognize the voice, nor what it is

the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel

an alien here, from somewhere all unknown.

Nothing so definite that you could say

with certainty you are an exile here.

Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not

more than a tiny throb, at other times

hardly remembered, actively dismissed,

but surely to return to mind again.

Lesson 182.1




3/10

It never fails to amaze me that introductory philosophy textbooks, purportedly attempting to teach logic, use this syllogism:

All men are mortal;
Socrates is a man;
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

Now, the incredible irony is 1) the premises are false, and 2) Socrates knew he was immortal.  “Premise” comes from the Latin, praemittere, meaning “to put first.”  It is not helpful to teach with invalid premises.

These thoughts came to mind as I was reading Lesson 66, My happiness and my function are one, where Jesus, of course, teaches with this valid syllogism:

God gives me only happiness.
He has given my function to me.
Therefore my function must be happiness. 5:2,3

The first premise is that God gives you only happiness. This could be false, of course, but in order to be false it is necessary to define God as something He is not. Love cannot give evil, and what is not happiness is evil. God cannot give what He does not have, and He cannot have what He is not. Unless God gives you only happiness, He must be evil. And it is this definition of Him you are believing if you do not accept the first premise. 6

The second premise is that God has given you your function. We have seen that there are only two parts of your mind. One is ruled by the ego, and is made up of illusions. The other is the home of the Holy Spirit, where truth abides. There are no other guides but these to choose between, and no other outcomes possible as a result of your choice but the fear that the ego always engenders, and the love that the Holy Spirit always offers to replace it. 7

Thus, it must be that your function is established by God through His Voice, or is made by the ego which you have made to replace Him. Which is true? Unless God gave your function to you, it must be the gift of the ego. Does the ego really have gifts to give, being itself an illusion and offering only the illusion of gifts? 8

In Plato’s Collected Dialogues, we find Socrates, as he is dying after ingesting Hemlock, ruminating on his immortality, in The Apology.

What would one not give, gentlemen, to be able to question the leader of that great host against Troy, or Odysseus, or Sisyphus, or the thousands of other men and women whom one could mentions, to talk and mix and argue with whom would be unimaginable happiness!  At any rate I presume that they do not put one to death there for such conduct, because apart from the other happiness in which their world surpasses ours, they are now immortal for the rest of time.  (p. 25)

Across the centuries, his phrase, “Know thyself,” has summed up his philosophy, and I always see it as, “Know Thy Self.”

3/11

The tricky thing about transforming through the mind-training of A Course in Miracles is that, at least for me, it is not a once and for all thing.  That is, in one moment, I experience my immortality, the peace and love of God, and in the next, I forget and experience the fear and uncertainty of my mortality.

For me, it is a shifting back and forth.  This is the paradox. A paradox is defined as “a statement seemingly absurd, yet really true,” from the Latin, paradoxum; para, meaning “against,” and doxum, meaning “opinion.”

When I experience my immortality, it is against the orthodoxy of mortality; when I experience mortality, it is against the orthodoxy of immortality.

This is why I appreciate a passage like this from Lesson 67, Love created me like Itself.

Today's idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. This is why you are the light of the world. This is why God appointed you as the world's savior. This is why the Son of God looks to you for his salvation. He is saved by what you are. We will make every effort today to reach this truth about you, and to realize fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth. 1

. . .and to realize fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth.

It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering.  I pray to remember my immortality more and more often as the day unfolds.

It will be particularly helpful today to practice the idea for the day as often as you can. You need to hear the truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images. Four or five times an hour, and perhaps even more, it would be most beneficial to remind yourself that love created you like itself. Hear the truth about yourself in this. 5

And here is how Rumi expresses it in the last stanza of his poem, How Happy a Time:

In these forms, we are in the world.
At the same time
we are in paradise.

3/12

Lesson 61, I am the light of the world.

True humility requires that you accept today's idea because it is God's Voice which tells you it is true. This is a beginning step in accepting your real function on earth. It is a giant stride toward taking your rightful place in salvation. It is a positive assertion of your right to be saved, and an acknowledgment of the power that is given you to save others. 3

. . .a giant stride.

I’ve got to keep coming back, keep coming back to the awareness of the truth of what I am, the truth of what you are.  I keep going out, I keep going out as thoughts pour in to keep me separated from this awareness.  I learned a long time ago that when I am down, the ego rushes in to keep me down, heightening my awareness of thoughts pouring in that have  no source in reality.

The Course is a life jacket, sustaining me, preventing me from sinking into the ocean of illusory thoughts.

To the ego, today's idea is the epitome of self-glorification. But the ego does not understand humility, mistaking it for self-debasement. Humility consists of accepting your role in salvation and in taking no other. It is not humility to insist you cannot be the light of the world if that is the function God assigned to you. It is only arrogance that would assert this function cannot be for you, and arrogance is always of the ego. 2

There.  Now, I am experiencing that easy, peaceful feeling, again, humbly accepting my function.

You are the light of the world. God has built His plan for the salvation of His Son on you. 7:5,6

Pep talks are good.

3/13

Lesson 62, Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation. 1

Jesus often uses contrast to help us learn to accept our function.  Just look at these contrasts running through the Lesson.

Darkness                                    light
falsity                                         truth
attack                                         forgiveness
weakness, scorn, fatigue            strength
vulnerability                              invulnerability

Here is a passage from From The Christ Mind, Darrell Price, scribing Jesus.

You are not the ego though it lives in your mind.  It is an alien identity, imagined as a response to the fear that arose when the idea of separation from your Source first seized your mind, and in that moment seemed to become a reality.  This error is repeated again and again, every time you choose fear over Love, separation over Unity.  Your mind has become crystallized around this misunderstanding and the identification with what you are not.  You have lived so long in this state of mind it seems like reality to you, and the actuality of Reality Itself has been lost.  Yet Reality still abides deep in your mind, held for you by God’s Answer to your belief in separation, the Holy Spirit.  Whenever you so decide, the memory of what you are will rise to awareness, and all doubt and confusion will vanish.   (p. 47)

3/14

Sometimes it all seems pretty simple.  My only purpose, my only goal, my only function, my salvation is to experience the light that I am, the light that you are.

We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and to see the tears of God's Son disappear in the sunlight. Let us begin our longer practice period today with the full realization that this is so, and with real determination to reach what is dearer to us than all else. Salvation is our only need. There is no other purpose here, and no other function to fulfill. Learning salvation is our only goal. Let us end the ancient search today by finding the light in us, and holding it up for everyone who searches with us to look upon and rejoice. Lesson 69.3

Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy once said, “Light is understanding.”  This understanding renews my trust in the truth of what I am, God’s Son,  and then I can watch things unfold in a divine way.

If you are doing the exercises properly, you will begin to feel a sense of being lifted up and carried ahead. Your little effort and small determination call on the power of the universe to help you, and God Himself will raise you from darkness into light. You are in accord with His Will. You cannot fail because your will is His. 7

3/15

This headline on the front page of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel certainly caught my eye:

Soaring beyond Tourette

Acting gives Greendale’s ‘Peter Pan’ star a chance to be free

Clare Faile, a 16-year-old student at Greendale High School, finds that while she is acting on stage, she is free from Tourette symptoms.

Out of character, her shoulders may briefly shudder.  Or she may hop in a way one might if bitten by an insect.  Or she might make some quick, breathy grunts. (Erin Richards, March 13, 2013, Section A. p. 1)

While reading the article, I thought of this analogy:  Tourettes is to acting as human nature is to the holy instant.

I had to chuckle because of the similarity between ego mind chatter, and her Tourette vocal outbursts.

At one point she starts saying “bob-bop-bop” in the middle of a sentence. She also would  repeat words.  Sometimes it was an obscenity.  The B-word.  The F-word. (p. 8)

Yet, she finds an instant of peace on stage.

“I need to focus on things that make me happy,” she said.

Now, that’s Peter Pan.  The eternal optimist who loved the unusual, who embraced the adventure ahead.

“I feel like Peter Pan wouldn’t judge you,”  Clara said.  “He’d say ‘Come with me on this journey.’”

Neverland awaits. (p. 8)

Heaven awaits.

The holy instant’s radiance will light your eyes, and give them sight to see beyond all suffering and see Christ’s face instead.  Healing replaces suffering.  Who looks on one cannot perceive the other, for they cannot both be there.  And what you see the  world will witness, and will witness to.   T-27.lV.6:5-8

3/16

It is so encouraging for me to look out on a cloudy, cold, winter day, especially in Wisconsin, one week before Spring begins, to know that the sun is always there, even though it is obscured by clouds.
It is even more encouraging for me to realize that, although the light in me is often obscured by cloudy thoughts of fear and anger and despair and guilt, the light still shines brightly in me, and in you.

Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation. Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. Lesson 70.9

Yes, indeed, Jesus is holding my hand, holding your hand, leading us to the light.

3/17

I am slowly pulling out of my malaise by coming to understand and experience what it means to trust.

I trust, I have faith in the fact that I am the Holy Son of God, that you are the Holy son of God, and with this trust, I anticipate that worldly events will miraculously unfold.
I love the way Jesus expresses it in His Manual for Teachers.

The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.

When this Power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust one’s own petty strength again. Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him? And who would place his faith in the shabby offerings of the ego when the gifts of God are laid before him? 1:1:4-7,2

So, right now I am trusting that what seems to be going on around me is helpful in building my trust.

It takes great learning to understand that all things, events, encounters and circumstances are helpful. It is only to the extent to which they are helpful that any degree of reality should be accorded them in this world of illusion. 1A.4:5-6

3/18

In my single-minded pursuit of learning to trust in who I am in truth in the craziness going on around me, I forgot the connection between trust and my function and my salvation.  Learning to trust is huge because it’s my salvation.  It all came clear in reading today’s Lesson, 65, My only function is the one God  gave me.

The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. It also reminds you that you have no function other than that. Both these thoughts are obviously necessary for a total commitment. Salvation cannot be the only purpose you hold while you still cherish others. The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself. 1

It is always a matter of asking for help to relinquish my trivial pursuits, my meaningless fears.

Arrange your day so that you have set apart the time for God, as well as for all the trivial purposes and goals you will pursue. This is part of the long-range disciplinary training your mind needs, so that the Holy Spirit can use it consistently for the purpose He shares with you. 4:3,4

3/19

Since I am determined to come into the experience of the true meaning of trust, I am not surprised that in a March 5 Reading in Jesus Calling, He deals with trust.

MAKE FRIENDS WITH THE PROBLEMS IN YOUR LIFE.  Though many things feel random and wrong, remember that I am sovereign over everything.  I can fit everything into a pattern for good, but only to the extent that you trust Me.  Every problem can teach you something, transforming you little by little into the masterpiece I created you to be.  The very same problem can become a stumbling block over which you fall, if you react with distrust and defiance.  The choice is up to you, and you will have to choose many times each day whether to trust Me or defy Me.

Now, Christine drew my attention to the second paragraph because Jesus, playfully, suggests that we give our problems nicknames, helping you to approach them with familiarity rather than with dread.

The best way to befriend your problems is to thank Me for them.  This simple act opens your mind to the possibility of benefits flowing from your difficulties.  You can even give persistent problems nicknames, helping you to approach them with familiarity rather than with dread.  The next step is to introduce them to Me. Enabling Me to embrace them in My loving Presence.
So, I took Him up on it, and anxiety became “Angst;” fear, “Fearless Fosdick;” contempt, “Con;” and anger, “Ang Lee.”  For example, “Jesus, please help me with my Angst.”

This enables me to take a little less seriously things that seem to be overwhelming  in time and space.

3/20

How many Fs are in the following statement?

FINISHED FILES ARE THE RE-
SULT OF YEARS OF SCIENTI-
FIC STUDY COMBINED WITH THE
EXPERIENCE OF MANY YEARS.

*        *    *

How many Fs did you find?

I saw only three and, believe me, I was determined to see the right number.
I came across this exercise in a book by the Mentalist, Marc Salem, and he writes:
If you counted three, you are wrong.  There are six.  Because the F in “of” sounds like a V, it seems to disappear.  Habit makes us fail to perceive many things, and past-learned patterns create expectations to perceive in a particular way.   (The Six Keys to Unlock and Empower Your mind, p. 18.)

Now, that is my point.  We are so conditioned to think habitually, automatically, unconsciously, that we do not see what is in front of us; yet we think that what we see is real, that seeing is believing.

It is so difficult to change our habits; we are really up against it.

Now, wouldn’t you know, Christine showed me how to break our habitual patterns.
While I was writing this, without giving her any context, I asked her to count the Fs in the passage.  After a couple of minutes, she said, “Six.” 

Surprised, I ask her, “How did you do that?” 

She said, “I decided after reading it a couple of times to read it backwards.”
There you are.  She completely changed her habits and saw what was in front of her eyes, and I didn’t see it because I read the passage, left to right, not changing my habits at all.

As Marc Salem goes on to say:

Most of us stumble through life shielded, cocooned, half-blinded, and unaware of the new and exciting world around us every second.  Past experience and past learning create our perceptual set.  In order to fully experience the powers of your mind, you need to break out of your mind-set and expand your possibilities for perception.  (p. 19)

Of course, this is why Jesus begins His Course where He does.

Lesson 1, Nothing I see means anything.
Lesson 7, I see only the past.
Lesson 9, I see nothing as it is now.

Thank God, we can learn to change our habits, systematically, and learn to see with vision.

God is my strength. Vision is His gift.

Let me not look to my own eyes to see today. Let me be willing to exchange my pitiful illusion of seeing for the vision that is given by God. Christ's vision is His gift, and He has given it to me. Let me call upon this gift today, so that this day may help me to understand eternity. Lesson 59.2

3/21

Lesson 61, I am the light of the world.

Who is the light of the world except God's Son? This, then, is merely a statement of the truth about yourself. It is the opposite of a statement of pride, of arrogance, or of self-deception. It does not describe the self-concept you have made. It does not refer to any of the characteristics with which you have endowed your idols. It refers to you as you were created by God. It simply states the truth. 1

And  the following is from John Smallman, scribing Jesus, March 3, 2013.

Continue to focus your determined intent on awakening into that state, and ask for assistance from those in the spiritual realms to help you to achieve your aims – your success in this is the only possible outcome.  Your Father has been encouraging you to wake up since you first chose to enter the dream state — which is the illusion — and for a long time you made yourselves deaf to His call. That deafness is dissipating as your dissatisfaction with your present way of experiencing life grows stronger. You were created to experience everlasting joy, and the realization that that is God’s Will for you is finally penetrating the dark and limited state of consciousness in which you have confined yourselves.

It could be thought of as an enclosed and darkened room, complete with heavy blackout curtains, into which no light is able find its way.  However, those curtains are now very old, and over the eons the brilliant light shining upon them has caused them to fray and disintegrate, allowing the light to penetrate that darkened room.  The effect of this is quite miraculous!  The occupants of the room – humanity – are absolutely amazed to see beams of light shining on various objects and bringing into view the myriad beautiful colors with which they are imbued and that until now have been invisible.

The dark that has enveloped you and that has hidden from you the wonder and beauty of Reality is receding and breaking up as the divine Light of God’s brilliant day burns it off, like morning mist in the sunshine.  Humanity has made the collective decision to wake up from the darkness of the illusion into the brilliance of Reality, and nothing can prevent it doing so.

Your loving brother, Jesus.

http://johnsmallman2.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/signs-of-disintegration-can-be-seen-all-over-the-world/

3/22

Yesterday, I was working with a couple of brothers, and I found that what they said and what they did was pissing me off.  Here I am, knowing that I am the Holy son of god, and look at my attitude.

Of course, my mind went to forgiveness, and I realized that forgiveness is not about what someone deserves, or what should be earned. Forgiveness has nothing to do with worldly concerns.  Forgiveness is the recognition that I am making judgments about occurrences in space and time, and these judgments are based solely on my conditioning, on my personality, and finally, nothing really occurred at all; I simply wandered into temptation. 

I ask for help to experience forgiveness, the recognition that my brothers are the Holy sons of god, in truth, and what seems to be happening does not matter.

There, I feel better.

Lesson 64, Let me not forget my function.

Today's idea is merely another way of saying "Let me not wander into temptation." The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it. It is the temptation to abandon God and His Son by taking on a physical appearance. It is this the body's eyes look upon.

Nothing the body's eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation. 1,2

, , , the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.

Thank You, Father.

3/23

I just love it when a poet expresses in verse a truth that is echoed by Jesus in His Course in Miracles.
For example, here is 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 and by, nor spare a sigh
   Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
   And yet you will weep and 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.
The speaker in the poem knows full well that Margret in her mind is split off from God, holding grievances, living the blight of a human’s birthright, and in time she will come to know that she is mourning her human self.

It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.
To hold a grievance is to forget who you are. To hold a grievance is to see yourself as a body. To hold a grievance is to let the ego rule your mind and to condemn the body to death. Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind. It seems to split you off from your Source and make you unlike Him. It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become, for no one can conceive of his Creator as unlike himself. Lesson 68.2

Shut off from your Self, which remains aware of Its likeness to Its Creator, your Self seems to sleep, while the part of your mind that weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake. Can all this arise from holding grievances? Oh, yes! For he who holds grievances denies he was created by love, and his Creator has become fearful to him in his dream of hate. Who can dream of hatred and not fear God? 2

Yet, the speaker holds out trust that she will eventually come to learn of her Self:

And yet you will weep and know why.

3/24

I spent a good part of my life not even thinking about religion, not even considering what came before my passage through time and space, or what was to come after.  I thought I was totally alone, simply doing the best I could with whatever came along.
I came across A Course in Miracles in my mid-forties, and of course, all that changed.  Undergoing the mind-training and subsequent transformation, I came into the awareness that I was not alone, and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are always present, only a shift in my awareness is necessary to experience their presence. 

This came to mind when I read this passage from Jesus Calling.

YOU ARE MINE FOR ALL TIME—and beyond time, into eternity.  No power can deny you your inheritance in heaven.  I want you to realize how utterly secure you are!  Even if you falter as you journey through life, I will never let go of your hand.
(March 11)

Looking back,  I am aware of a large number of times that Jesus was holding my hand, so that I could take the next step.  Here are just three examples of what Wayne Dyer calls, “Divinely orchestrated coincidences.”  These examples just deal with my formal education.

One.  Summer, 1959.

I just graduated from Three Rivers High School in Michigan.  I was being recruited by several colleges to run track and play football.  I couldn’t decide.  The doorbell rings.  An Admissions Counselor from Kalamazoo College tells me that I’ve been offered the best Athletic Scholarship that the college offers, and am I going to take it or not?  OK.

Two.  Spring, 1963.

I am about to graduate from K.  What am I going to do with an English Major?  A professor tells me that a new Master of Arts in Teaching English Program is just starting up at the University of Chicago.  I apply, win a scholarship, head for Chicago.

Three.  Summer, 1969.

After teaching English in junior high school in Westport, CT. for four years, I receive a call from my Master’s Coordinator at the University of Chicago.  She tells me that I would be a good candidate for a new doctoral program in Teacher Training.  I apply, earn a scholarship, and move to Chicago.

Even in my ignorance along the way, I was being guided.

Knowing that your future is absolutely assured can free you to live abundantly today.  I have prepared this day for you with the most tender concern and attention to detail.  (March 11)

3/25

On February 2, 2006, Anita Moorjani was rushed to the hospital in a coma, having suffered from cancer for four years.  She describes her vivid NDE experiences in her book,  Dying to be Me (2012).  I love the title, echoing St. Paul, I die daily.
(1 Corinthians 15:31)

I am fascinated about her state of consciousness that has nothing to do with her body.  I am going to juxtapose her vivid awareness with this passage from the Course.

I am not a body.  I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-p1.Review lV.Intro.3:3-5

I felt no emotional attachment to my seemingly lifeless body as it lay there on the hospital bed.  It didn’t feel as though it were mine.  It looked far too small and insignificant to have housed what I was experiencing.  I felt free, liberated, and magnificent.  Every pain, ache, sadness, and sorrow was gone!  I felt completely unencumbered.  I couldn’t recall feeling this way before—not ever. (pp. 62,63)

In this near-death state, I was more acutely aware of all that was going on around me than I’ve ever been in a normal physical state.  I wasn’t using my five biological senses, yet I was keenly taking everything in, much more so than if I’d been using my physical organs.  It was as though another, completely different type of perception kicked in, and more than just perceive, I seemed to also encompass everything that was happening, as though I was slowly merging with it all. 
(p. 69)

3/26

In so many movies, in so many television programs, in so many newspapers and  television news programs, an individual suffering from a major tragedy will shake his fist ask, plaintively, “Why would God allow this to happen?”

The short answer is that God knows nothing of it..  The individual thinks that the body is real, that it is created by God.  In this mistaken identity, it is easy to think that God is a body.

This is the universal belief of the world you see. Some hate the body, and try to hurt and humiliate it. Others love the body, and try to glorify and exalt it. But while the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking God's plan for salvation, and holding your grievances against Him and His creation, that you may not hear the Voice of truth and welcome It as Friend. Your chosen savior takes His place instead. It is your friend; He is your enemy. Lesson 72.7

And here is a way out.

We will try today to stop these senseless attacks on salvation. We will try to welcome it instead. Your upside-down perception has been ruinous to your peace of mind. You have seen yourself in a body and the truth outside you, locked away from your awareness by the body's limitations. Now we are going to try to see this differently. 8

The light of truth is in us, where it was placed by God. It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our natural state. To recognize the light of truth in us is to recognize ourselves as we are. To see our Self as separate from the body is to end the attack on God's plan for salvation, and to accept it instead. And wherever His plan is accepted, it is accomplished already. 9

3/27

Reading Lesson 73, I will there be light, I kept coming across the word “idle.”

The ego's idle wishes are unshared, and therefore have no power at all. Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. But they are idle indeed in terms of creation. They make nothing that is real. 1:4-7

Then I got to thinking that when my car is “idling,” it’s not going anywhere.  In my idle thinking I’m not going anywhere, either.  Then Jesus uses the word “traffic,” and I got excited about the analogy.

Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the world you see. The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego's need for grievances, which are necessary to maintain it, peoples it with figures that seem to attack you and call for "righteous" judgment. These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances. They stand between your awareness and your brothers' reality. Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self. 2

An idling car is dangerous in traffic.  Anyway, putting my car in “first” is uniting my will with God’,  letting there be light.

I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects God's Will and mine.
Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and united with your Self.10:2-4

3/28

While describing her unworldly experiences in a coma in her book,  Dying to be Me, Anita Moorjani echoes these passages, in particular, from A Course in Miracles.

Nothing real can be threatened;
Nothing unreal exists;
Herein lies the peace of God.
Introduction

Lesson 71, Only God’s plan for salvation will work.
Lesson 268 , Let all things be exactly as they are.

THE  FURTHER OUTWARD I EXPANDED, THE LESS UNUSUAL it felt to be in this miraculous state—in fact, I had no awareness of it being out of the ordinary.  It all seemed perfectly natural to me at the time.  I continued to be fully aware of every detail of every procedure that was being administered to me, while to the outside world I appeared to be in a coma.

In this near-death state, I was more acutely aware of all that was going on around me than I’ve ever been in a normal physical state.  I wasn’t using my five biological senses, yet I was keenly taking everything in much more so than if I’d  been using my physical organs.  It was as though another, completely different type of perception kicked in, and more than just perceive, I seemed to also encompass everything that was happening, as though I was slowly merging with it all.

I knew when people came in to see me, who they were and what they were doing.  Although my physical eyes were closed, I seemed to be acutely aware of every minute detail that was taking place around me and beyond.  The sharpness of my perception was even more intense than if I’d been awake and using my physical senses.  I seemed to just know and understand everything—not only what was going on around me, but also what everyone was feeling, as though I were able to see and feel through each person.

I felt no emotional attachment to my seemingly lifeless body as it lay there on the hospital bed.  It didn’t feel as though it were mine.  It looked far too small and insignificant to have housed what I was experiencing.  I felt free, liberated, and magnificent.

It felt normal, as though this were the real way to perceive thing.  I didn’t even think it odd that I was aware of my husband and the doctor speaking to each other outside the ICU, some 40 feet down a hallway.

As soon as I began to get emotionally attached to the drama taking place around me, I also felt myself being simultaneously pulled away as though there were a  bigger picture, a grander plan that was unfolding.  I could feel my attachment recede as I began to know that everything was perfect and going according to plan.

Each time my emotions took over the situation, I discovered myself starting to expand again, and I felt a release from all attachment.  Once more, I was surrounded by the reassuring feeling of a greater tapestry unfolding, where everything was exactly as it should be in the grand scheme of things.  (pp. 62-65)

3/29

Matthew 27:45,46

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
For a moment, even Jesus forgot.

And then, He remembers.

And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit:  and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Luke 23:46

3/30

Matthew 27:62-66

 Now the next day, the chief priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate,
Saying, Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.

 Command therefore that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day, lest his disciples come by night, and steal him away, and say unto the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first.

 Pilate said unto them, Ye have a watch: go your way, make it as sure as ye can.
 So they went, and made the sepulchre sure, sealing the stone, and setting a watch.

3/31

Mark 16: 1-6

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him.
 And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

 And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre?

 And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great.
 And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment; and they were affrighted.

 And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: he is risen; he is not here: behold the place where they laid him.
A Course in Miracles. Lesson 135.25,26

He has remembered you. Today we will
remember Him. For this is Eastertime
in your salvation. And you rise again
from what was seeming death and hopelessness.
Now is the light of hope reborn in you,
for now you come without defense, to learn
the part for you within the plan of God.
What little plans or magical beliefs
can still have value, when you have received
your function from the Voice for God Himself?

Try not to shape this day as you believe
would benefit you most. For you can not
conceive of all the happiness that comes
to you without your planning. Learn today.
And all the world will take this giant stride,
and celebrate your Eastertime with you.
Throughout the day, as foolish little things
appear to raise defensiveness in you
and tempt you to engage in weaving plans,
remind yourself this is a special day
for learning, and acknowledge it with this:

This is my Eastertime. And I would keep
it holy. I will not defend myself,
because the Son of God needs no defense
against the truth of his reality.