Making Explicit the True Meaning of Forgiveness: February FB Statuses

Some time ago, I set up a Facebook account, but I never really did much with it, until Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday, 2012, auspiciously, when I decided to post a Status statement on Facebook, daily, for one year, to Easter,  2013.   These are my mini-essays for February, 2013.

2/1
I don’t  know about you, but I am in serious need of a timeout.  Things are getting pretty crazy around here at Endeavor Academy.

And once again, Thank God for A Course in Miracles.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I am going to sit down and breathe in and breathe out and do Lesson 31, I am not a victim of the world I see.

The inner is the cause of the outer.  As you survey your inner world, merely let whatever thoughts cross your mind come into your awareness, each to be considered for a moment, and then replaced by the next. Try not to establish any kind of hierarchy among them. Watch them come and go as dispassionately as possible. Do not dwell on any one in particular, but try to let the stream move on evenly and calmly, without any special investment on your part. As you sit and quietly watch your thoughts, repeat today's idea to yourself as often as you care to, but with no sense of hurry. (3)

Thank you,  Father.

2/2
I woke up much too early this morning, facing another difficult day, wondering about our future. 

Reading a passage from Jesus Calling, scribed by Sarah Young was very comforting.  Now, “comfort” often takes on a soft, fluffy association, like a down comforter, but the word actually comes from the Latin, comfortare,  meaning “to strengthen much.” 

FOLLOW ME ONE STE AT A TIME.  That is all I require of you. In fact, that is the only way to move through this space/time world.  You see huge mountains looming and you start wondering  how you’re going to scale those heights.  Meanwhile, because you’re not looking where you’re going, you stumble on the easy path where I am leading you now.  As I help you get back on your feet, you tell Me how worried you are about the cliffs up ahead.  But you don’t know what will happen today, much less tomorrow.  Our path may take an abrupt turn, leading you away from those mountains.  There may be an easier way up mountains than is visible from this distance.  If I do lead you up the cliffs, I will equip you thoroughly for that strenuous climb, I will even give My angels charge over you, to preserve you in all your ways.

Keep your mind on the present journey, enjoying My Presence.  Walk by faith, not by sight, trusting Me to open up the way before you. (February 1)

And now, I feel much strengthened to face this day.

2/3
I am so grateful for reminders that enable me to shift out of the incessant mind chatter of my noisy mind and sink into the peace and quiet and stillness that is my natural inheritance.  (And, as  far as synchronicity, I just finished reading the Lesson for today, 34, I could see peace instead of this.)

Here is a passage from Francois Fenelon (1651-1715, France)

God never ceases to speak to us; but the noise of the world without, and the tumult of our passions within, bewilder us, and prevent us from listening.  All must be silent around us, and all must be still within us, when we would listen with whole souls to this voice.  It is a still, small voice, and is only heard by those who listen to no other.  Alas!  How seldom is it that the soul is so still that it can hear when God speaks to it! 

And this is from one of my favorite Lessons, 49, God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.

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. (1,2)



2/4
I am so grateful for the book that my friend, Darrell Price, scribed for Jesus, From The Christ Mind.

When I talked to him about reading it, I told him that I am reading it very slowly, one Section at a time because this is all I can do.  It takes me out.  I expressed it to him that it is like savoring food, bite by bite.  He said that is what Jesus said, “Read it slowly and savor it.” This came to mind the other day when I read the Introduction to a book of Rumi’s poems, entitled The Forbidden Rumi.

For you, nothing less than the immediate and direct experience of what might be called God will do.  You need to put it right in your mouth, taste it, chew it (slowly), and then spend time digesting it, feeling it, becoming it, before you can find the satisfaction you seek.  And one great meal will not do it for you, either.  You need to eat and drink and feast on the divine every chance you get.  Your stomach for God is bottomless. (p. 1,2)

And here is the first paragraph of Chapter One of  From The Christ Mind.

Whenever humans are gathered together in Love, to fulfill Love’s purpose, I am there.  No one can fail to seek the Truth.  Every human mind is looking for Truth although you may not be conscious of that fact.  Ultimately it does not matter whether you understand the true goal of human life, for you will be drawn to it in time.  Until then you may substitute goals of your own making, goals without meaning, for the Truth you really seek.  It does not matter.  All things purposeless and temporary will pass away leaving only Truth in the end.  The end is certain as are the means through which it is reached.  You can make use of them when and where you choose.  That and only that is up to you.  To wait, or to decide for Truth here and now, are your only two options.  If yo make this decision now, you can save yourself much time and suffering.  And I strongly recommend you do so.  (p. 17)

From The Christ Mind is now available on Amazon.

2/5
Lesson 34 is particularly helpful  for me today, I could see peace instead of this.  For me, right now, the reference to “this” is the craziness occurring at Endeavor Academy.  Thoughts readily come to mind as I do the exercises for today.

Search your mind for fear thoughts, anxiety-provoking situations, "offending" personalities or events, or anything else about which you are harboring unloving thoughts. Note them all casually, repeating the idea for today slowly as you watch them arise in your mind, and let each one go, to be replaced by the next. 3:2
I love His metaphor, harboring unloving thoughts.  What we choose to bring into the harbor of our minds is ours in every moment.  In the midst of all this, it is good to be reminded that I “could” experience peace, that this is an opportunity to learn to see, even this, with vision.  “Opportunity” comes from the Latin, ob portum veniens,” meaning to sail into a harbor, under a favorable wind.

I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry with peace. 6:4

2/6
We have all experienced how unreliable our memories are.  I was reminded of this by reading an article by Oliver Sacks, Speak, Memory in The New York  Review.  In the winter of 1940-41, Sacks was an eight-year-old child living in London, and he remembered a bomb falling behind his house.

An incendiary bomb,  a thermite bomb, fell behind our house and burned with a terrible, white-hot heat.  My father pumped water on it, and it caused a vicious hissing and sputtering when the water hit the white-hot metal.  (February 21, 2013, p. 19)

He recently wrote about it in a book, and when his older brother, Michael, read it, he told Sacks that it never happened; they were living in a boarding school at the time.
Sacks goes on to say that, Such subjectivity is built into the very nature of memory, and follows from its basis and mechanisms in the human brain. P. 21)

This brings to mind this passage from Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.

Perhaps you think it is your childhood home that you would find again. The childhood of your body, and its place of shelter, are a memory now so distorted that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. (4:1,2)

Jesus reminds us in His Text, that we can learn to use memory, correctly, enabling us to remember God.

The Holy Spirit can indeed make use of memory, for God Himself is there. Yet this is not a memory of past events, but only of a present state. You are so long accustomed to believe that memory holds only what is past, that it is hard for you to realise it is a skill that can remember now. The limitations on remembering the world imposes on it are as vast as those you let the world impose on you. There is no link of memory to the past. If you would have it there, then there it is. But only your desire made the link, and only you, have held it to a part of time where guilt appears to linger still. (T-20.1:4)

2/7
We are really up against it, thinking all this time that the images we see are presenting to us reality.

Right now I am in the middle of all kinds of images, sitting in our Sun Room on a snowy afternoon.  I am watching a movie on television, and I glance out the window and see the birds at the feeder.  The tree branches are full of fluffy snow, and the television against the window seems to be topped with snow as well, but actually, the snow is on the top of the fence, at exactly the same height.  Not only that, but my little, wooden Cardinal is sitting on top of the television, appearing to be sitting in the snow, as well.

Not only that, but I am watching actors play characters, reading scripted lines, garbed in costumes.  The world of images outside my window is no more real that the world emanating from the television screen.

Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 15,  My thoughts are images that I have made.

It is because the thoughts you think you think appear as images that you do not recognize them as nothing. You think you think them, and so you think you see them. This is how your "seeing" was made. This is the function you have given your body's eyes. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions.

It helps me to remember, also, that the actor is to his character, as the Christ is to the actor.  In his everyday life, the actor probably thinks he is human, when all the time he is the Christ, the Son of God.

Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 37,  My holiness blesses the world.

This idea contains the first glimmerings of your true function in the world, or why you are here. Your purpose is to see the world through your own holiness. Thus are you and the world blessed together. No one loses; nothing is taken away from anyone; everyone gains through your holy vision. It signifies the end of sacrifice because it offers everyone his full due. And he is entitled to everything because it is his birthright as a Son of God.

2/8
I am so grateful to have had the blessed privilege of being in the presence of Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy for several years, and I still feel the blessing of his presence from time to time.

To stand for a moment and make eye contact with him was everything.  It was a silent Namaste moment.  It was the first time in my life that I experienced such holiness.  I was reminded of this experience while reading Lesson 38, There is nothing my holiness cannot do.  While reading the first paragraph, I found myself substituting Master Teacher as the reference for each pronoun.  In other words, Jesus is actually addressing the reader with “your” and “you.”

Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind. Your holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it establishes you as a Son of God, at one with the Mind of his Creator.

And because I woke up as a result of being in his presence, I can now own my holiness in the second paragraph.

Through your holiness the power of God is made manifest. Through your holiness the power of God is made available. And there is nothing the power of God cannot do. Your holiness, then, can remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems. It can do so in connection with yourself and with anyone else. It is equal in its power to help anyone because it is equal in its power to save anyone.

2/9
In an attempt to find peace of mind in the midst of craziness right now, I read Lesson 46, God is the Love in which I forgive.  I began doing this exercise:

If you are doing the exercises well you should have no difficulty in finding a number of people you have not forgiven. It is a safe rule that anyone you do not like is a suitable subject. Mention each one by name, and say:

God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].

Then I read, again, the second paragraph.

Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear.

Hmmm. . .illusions “disappear.” I thought of disappearing ink, and I wondered how it actually worked, thinking it might be good metaphor.  I went to a fabric store and bought a Disappearing Ink Marking Pen.  I came home and grabbed an old, white t-shirt, and did the exercise, again, writing names with the Marking Pen.

Then I wiped the names away with a damp cloth.

“Et Voila” it worked!  Although my illusions seem to be solidly written in my mind, they can easily be washed away with the cleansing of forgiveness.

2/10
I am continuing to be energized by my new-found, slight grasp of quantum physics as a metaphor for my experience with A Course in Miracles. The energy of God,  the wave, is pouring through the universe, infinite Love.  When we stop for a moment, breathe in and breathe out, letting go of our particularizing thoughts, we can come into contact in our minds with the wave, melting into it.

But, for too much of the time, we are caught in time, observing with the body’s eyes, forming this object and that object, and in the act of observation, the wave becomes a particle.

I have often thought of this analogy:  the wave is to the ocean, as a particle is to a bubble.

This came to mind when I read about Rumi’s quantum experience when he met Shams in the Introduction to The Forbidden Rumi, edited by Nevit O. Ergin and Will Johnson.

The two men are reported to have met on a roadway.  Something extraordinary was exchanged between them through their glance, and throwing both their lives and decorum to the winds, they went on together into a closed-door retreat, emerging several months later in a state of ecstatic illumination familiar to the Sufi tradition.  Through the prolonged power of their gaze and the exploration of intentional movements, Rumi and Shams dissolved the confining bubbles of separation that ordinarily encase us and mesmerize us into believing that who we are is an entity named “I” that lives inside our individual body and remains separate from everything that exists outside the body.  Pop the bubble and you find yourself swimming in a consciousness that perceives itself as merged with the ultimate source of existence.  The Sufis call this consciousness of union, the healing antidote to the fear and alienation that pervade the far more common consciousness of separation.  (p. 3)

Your holiness is the wave, and here is the first paragraph of Lesson 38, There is nothing my holiness cannot do.

Your holiness reverses all the laws of the world. It is beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind. Your holiness is totally unlimited in its power because it establishes you as a Son of God, at one with the Mind of his Creator.

2/11
OK.  I’ll say it again, “Thank God for A Course in Miracles.”  I found Lesson 41, God goes with me wherever I go, to be especially comforting, in the literal sense of giving me strength.

Today's idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss. 1

As the day goes on, I tend to lapse into allegiance with the ego’s fear thoughts;  it’s just a matter of remembering and forgetting.

Throughout the day use today's idea often, repeating it very slowly, preferably with eyes closed. Think of what you are saying; what the words mean. Concentrate on the holiness that they imply about you; on the unfailing companionship that is yours; on the complete protection that surrounds you. 9

You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go. 10

2/12
While reading Lesson 109, I rest in God, I was reminded, once again, of what a consummate poet Jesus is, blending sound and sense, structure and content, as He reassures me, hushing me into stillness, lulling me into a peaceful rest with His sheer poetry.

As you read the following paragraph, be aware of the various repetitions:  alliteration, initial sounds (fear of future); consonance, consonants (rest and respite reassure); and assonance, vowels (dreams and into peace).

In Him you have no cares and no concerns,
no burdens, no anxiety, no pain,
no fear of future and no past regrets.
In timelessness you rest, while time goes by
without its touch upon you, for your rest
can never change in any way at all.
You rest today. And as you close your eyes,
sink into stillness. Let these periods
of rest and respite reassure your mind
that all its frantic fantasies were but
the dreams of fever that has passed away.
Let it be still and thankfully accept
its healing. No more fearful dreams will come,
now that you rest in God. Take time today
to slip away from dreams and into peace.

2/13

The other day, my friend, Pat Connor, brought to my attention a book of Rumi’s poetry,  entitled, The Forbidden Rumi edited by Nevit Ergin and Will Johnson.  This passage in the Introduction caught my eye.

After being split wide open through the explosive encounter with his great friend Shams, Rumi let go of many of the precepts of formal religion, insisting instead that only a complete personal dissolving into the larger energies of God can provide the satisfaction that the heart so desperately seeks. (p. 3)

This reminds of the first paragraph in From the Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price, listening to Jesus. 

TRUTH RETURNS

Whenever humans are gathered together in Love, to fulfill Love’s purpose, I am there.  No one can fail to seek the Truth.  Every human mind is looking for Truth although you may not be conscious of that fact.  Ultimately it does not matter whether you understand the t rue goal of human life, for you will be drawn to it in time.  Until then you may substituted goals of your own making, goals without meaning, for the Truth you really seek.  It does not matter.  All things purposeless and temporary will pass away leaving only Truth in the end.  The end is certain as are the means through which it is reached.  You can make use of them when and where you choose.  That and only that is up to you.  To wait, or to decide for Truth here and now are your only two options.  If you make this decision now, you can save yourself much time and suffering.  And I strongly recommend you do so.  (p. 17)


2/14
This is a special day to celebrate our hearts beating in love for each other and for God.

Jesus has written a good part of His Course in such a way that it echoes our beating hearts in its rhythm.

My heart is beating in the peace of God. (Lesson 267)

With the emphasis on every other syllable, we can read it and hear it echoing our hearts beating:

my HEART/ is BEAT/ ing IN/ the PEACE/ of GOD./

I urge you to find your pulse, and feeling your pulse, read this line again, coordinating the stressed syllable with the beat of your pulse.

Now I am going to read these lines very slowly, coordinating my pulse with its stresses, celebrating my love for God, and Christine, and I invite you, Dear Reader, to celebrate your love, as well.

Surrounding me is all the life that God
created in His Love. It calls to me
in every heartbeat and in every breath;
in every action and in every thought.
Peace fills my heart, and floods my body with
the purpose of forgiveness. Now my mind
is healed, and all I need to save the world
is given me. Each heartbeat brings me peace;
each breath infuses me with strength. I am
a messenger of God, directed by
His Voice, sustained by Him in love, and held
forever quiet and at peace within
His loving Arms. Each heartbeat calls His Name,
and every one is answered by His Voice,
assuring me I am at home in Him.

Our  hearts are beating in sync with the rhythm of the universe.

2/15

I saw an intriguing title of an article in a newspaper the other day, “Statesman wrote about encounters with ghosts.”  I was eager to read it because I am so tired of politicians wrangling about this and that taking place in the dream.

Territorial Gov. Nathaniel Tallmadge was not only a statesman; he was a psychic.

After serving as a U.S. senator and governor of the Wisconsin Territory, Tallmadge discovered spiritualism and wrote about his ghostly encounters.  One of these was with his former Senate colleague, John C. Calhoun.

In February 1853, Tallmadge reported attending a séance at which Calhoun rapped out letters on the dining room table.  Asked why spirits manifested themselves in the human world, the ghost replied, “It is to draw mankind together in harmony, and convince skeptics of the immortality of the sou.”  (Wisconsin State Journal, 1/30/2013, Section, A, p. 2)

And then what came to mind 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.

And of course, the Course:

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

2/16

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

It is always a matter of my readiness to hear His Voice.  How do I get ready?  Well, as my friend, Jack Davis, was fond of saying, “I stay ready, so that I don’t have to get ready.”  Pretty profound.  How do I stay ready?  This train of thought started with this passage from Lesson 42, God is my strength.  Vision is His gift.

We will have two three-to-five-minute practice periods today, one as soon as possible after you wake, and another as close as possible to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however, to wait until you can sit quietly by yourself, at a time when you feel “ready,” than it is to be concerned with the time as such. 3


There we are, simply sit quietly and be receptive.

Here are some other reminders from the Course.

I will provide the opportunities to do miracles, but you must be ready and willing.

And each one finds his savior when he is ready to look upon the face of Christ, and see Him sinless. 

Freedom from conflict has been given you.  Accept that fact, and you are ready to take your rightful place in God’s plan for salvation.

Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts.

Now are you ready to experience the  joy and peace you have denied yourself.

And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.

And here am I made ready for Your final step.

2/17

What a gift!  Here I am, only 44 days into the new year, experiencing Lesson 44, God is the light in which I see, and I can close my eyes, sit quietly, and be aware that I can experience either hell, or holiness.  My choice.

It may seem innocuous, but these idle thoughts are keeping me in hell.  “I like this, and I don’t like that;” “I like him, I don’t like her;” “I like it better there;” “I wish it were warmer, or colder;” and on and on,  chatter, chatter.

Thank God for the daily practice.

While you practice in this way, you leave behind everything that you now believe, and all the thoughts that you have made up. Properly speaking, this is the release from hell. Yet perceived through the ego's eyes, it is loss of identity and a descent into hell. 5:4,5
I need only remember that when I practice letting go of these meaningless thoughts, “I am doing something very holy.”

If you are doing the exercises correctly, you should experience some sense of relaxation, and even a feeling that you are approaching, if not actually entering into light. Try to think of light, formless and without limit, as you pass by the thoughts of this world. And do not forget that they cannot hold you to the world unless you give them the power to do so. 10

2/18

These days I am doing the Lessons with increased intensity.  Here is a paragraph that particularly struck me from Lesson 45, God is the Mind with which I think.

Under all the senseless thoughts and mad ideas with which you have cluttered up your mind are the thoughts that you thought with God in the beginning. They are there in your mind now, completely unchanged. They will always be in your mind, exactly as they always were. Everything you have thought since then will change, but the Foundation on which it rests is wholly changeless. 7

So I finished reading the Lesson, closed my eyes, and breathing in and breathing out, consciously, and this Thought came to mind:

I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole, shining in the reflection of His Love. In me is His creation sanctified and guaranteed eternal life. 14. What am I?  1:1

Thank you, Father.

And thank Him for the Thoughts He is thinking with you. 9:4

2/19

I like to think that there is a particular salute that is invaluable in my transformation; I call it “The Academy Salute.”  It looks like this:  I bring my right-index finger toward my face and touch the tip of my nose with it, then drop my hand to my side.

This is a reminder that it all ends at the tip of my nose, that what’s outside is only the inside projected, or extended.  It's all me.  With this recognition, I experience forgiveness.

The fact is, I don’t forgive another person, I always only forgive myself for having a thought/image of the other person.   And Jesus breaks it down into two steps for us in Lesson 46, God is the Love in which I forgive.

If you are doing the exercises well you should have no difficulty in finding a number of people you have not forgiven. It is a safe rule that anyone you do not like is a suitable subject. Mention each one by name, and say:
God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].
The purpose of the first phase of today's practice periods is to put you in a position to forgive yourself. After you have applied the idea to all those who have come to mind, tell yourself:
God is the Love in which I forgive myself. 4,5

And now I can look at a person “out there” and salute my Self.

2/20
One of the keys to my transformation is to bring into application the Lessons I learn in the Course, and the teachings taking place at Endeavor Academy.  For years now, I have had the opportunity to practice the lessons while being of service working at The Academy’s Cheese Factory Restaurant.  I just love cooking there, particularly cooking breakfasts, preparing the various types of eggs--over easy, over medium, poached, scrambled, sunny up, and flipping omelettes, working with four pans at a time.

The best opportunity for application comes when it’s slamming, when there are 12 tickets across in front of me, and 12 on the other side because there’s no room in front.  It’s a dance with your brothers, the three other cooks on the Line, and the  expeditor, and the servers.

Now, what I’m talking about is standing in the midst of this craziness, breathing in and breathing out, my feed firmly grounded on the floor, and simply staying peaceful, while I do the next thing.

This came to mind this morning when I was talking with a server who worked in the madness of yesterday’s slam.  He said that, for awhile, it was impossible, it just wasn’t going well at his tables, the customers complaining, and the food coming out slowly, and he found himself just sucking it up and trying to get by. 

Then, something clicked, and the mind-training kicked in.  He said to himself, “I can shift to a peaceful place in my mind, right now,” and in that moment, he was free.

When I came home, I sat down and read Lesson 47, God is the strength in which I trust.

Try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides. 7

2/21
I have been at this for a while now, and for me it all comes down to awareness and receptivity.  Am I aware of my false self, or my True Self; it’s one or the other, there’s no in-between.  In the first paragraph of Lesson 49, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day, Jesus expresses it this way.

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. 1

My awareness of my True Self is an invitation to the Holy Spirit.

And be sure to sit quietly and repeat the idea for today whenever you can, closing your eyes on the world, and realizing that you are inviting God's Voice to speak to you. 5:3

And now I will be told where to go, what to do, and what to say, to whom.

(For example, I just received that last sentence; I thought I was finished.)

2/22
It is becoming increasingly clear to me that what I see “outside” is merely a mirror of what is “inside.”  And further, what is “inside” is, either a cluttered, narrative, or a peaceful, still state of mind.  If my mind is cluttered, I project that “outside;” if my mind is peaceful, I extend that “outside.”  So much depends on my state of mind.

I like to think that that is what William Carlos Williams (1883-1963 ) is expressing in his classic poem, The Red Wheelbarrow.

(I audaciously added the phrase in bold to make my point, imagining his intention.)


The Red Wheelbarrow

so much depends
upon

seeing with
vision
”
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
2/23
One evening not long ago, Christine and I were returning from a day of playing in Madison, and we found ourselves gazing at the “Smiley Moon.”

Christine asked, “Is that a malevolent or a benevolent smile?”  We cracked up talking about whether we were seeing with our eyes, or seeing with vision.

Seeing with our eyes:

Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. T-21.Intro.1:1-5

Seeing with vision:
You cannot see apart from God because you cannot be apart from God. Whatever you do you do in Him, because whatever you think, you think with His Mind. If vision is real, and it is real to the extent to which it shares the Holy Spirit's purpose, then you cannot see apart from God. 3:3

And here is a sentence from From The Christ Mind, scribed by my friend, Darrell Price, listening to Jesus.

As your mind is healed and your spiritual vision awakened, you will see Heaven reflected here, the Love and Light of God everywhere. (p. 38)

Gazing at the moon with vision, there is no either/or, there is only experiencing a bright reflection of our peaceful minds.

2/24

I am reading this delightful book by Lorna Byrne  entitled, A Message of Hope from the Angels.

She begins:

I have been seeing and talking with angels since I was a little baby.  I see angels every day and I see them physically as I see someone sitting in front of me.  Angels are my friends and companions and I talk with them all the time, sometimes using words and sometimes without words.  I have no idea why I should be able to see angels.  I’m just an ordinary person. (p.1)

One of the things that particularly struck me about her story is her sense of responsibility for “worldly” tasks; that is, she is well aware of being “in” the world, and not “of” the world, and yet she takes seriously her responsibility “in” the world as a parent.

I am a single parent.  My husband, Joe, died after a long illness, leaving me with four children, the youngest of whom was only four, and I know how hard it is to be a single parent.  I pray to God often to help me to be the best parent possible to my children.

God and the angels have given me the task of spreading the message that everyone has a guardian angel, and that everyone has a soul, and to help me in this task God has allowed me to see angels physically.  And still, for me, the most important role or destiny in my life is to be a mother, the parent to my four children.  (p. 37)

. . .And still, for me. . .

Lorna Byrne reminds us that we are in the world, and not of the world, and yet we can ask for help to move beyond this world by taking full responsibility for being in this world.

2/25

As I close in on my goal of posting a FB Status every day from Easter, 2012, to Easter, 2013, I am delighted to find that by fully immersing myself in each day’s activities, I find ample inspiration to write a brief essay or two, every day, e.g., passages from a book, or a magazine, or a newspaper, scenes from movies, or TV Series, conversations with friends, and most obviously, passages from the Course.  All these provide “grist for the mill.” 

Literally, “grist” means grain for grinding, and the phrase means something that is useful, or something that creates a favorable opportunity.

This brings me to one of my favorite themes; since I am in full awareness that I am not of this world, yet I find myself in this world, I might as well make good use of it.  Being in the world gives me an opportunity to learn that I am not of it.

The purpose of your learning is to enable you to bring the quiet with you, and to heal distress and turmoil.  This is not done by avoiding them and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself. Review 1, Intro. 4:4,5

You will yet learn that peace is part of you, and requires only that you be there to embrace any situation in which you are.  And finally you will learn that there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are. 5

It turns out that it is all “grist for the mill.”

2/26
On Valentine’s Day, Christine and I went to see a show at the Milwaukee Repertory Theater, called “Mind Over Milwaukee.”  For two hours, we watched the Mentalist, Marc Salem, perform one incredible mental feat after another.  I don’t know how many times my jaw dropped open, looking at Christine, shaking my head in disbelief.

I am going to describe here a few of the feats.  I am unable to fit them into any context.  Perhaps, you, Dear Reader, can help me understand these phenomena.

Marc Salem called up on stage a couple of nurses, and he asked one of them to take his pulse.  Three times he asked her what just happened:  The first time, his pulse sped up, the second time, it slowed down, the third time, it stopped.


He asked a member of the audience to come on stage, a veteran named Sergeant Baker.  Salem said to him, “There’s a gang of old ladies stealing in Milwaukee at night, and I want you to help me see what they’re up to.”

He threw a wadded up piece of paper he called a Ranomizer into the room, and he asked the person who caught it to name the gang:  HOWL.  He asked the man to throw the Randomizer across the room, and then he asked the recipient to name a place they stole from:  Casablanca.  Following this procedure, he asked what was stolen:  floorboards; who fenced them:  Dirty John; how much money did they get:  $30.00.  Then he asked Sergeant Baker to name a shape:  rectangle.

Then he said to Sergeant Baker, “Please take the wallet out of my coat pocket, open it up, take out the sealed envelope, open it, and read the list:  HOWL, Casablanca, floorboards, Dirty John, $30.00, rectangle.

He asked that the Ramdomizer be thrown again.  He asked the recipient to stand up and take the change from his pocket, and just hold it, not count it.  Then he asked him to shake it; then he wrote something down on a clipboard and handed it to a woman in the audience; then he asked the man to count the change; it turned out to be $1.35, and he asked the woman to read the number on the clipboard, and she read 135 cents.

He asked for a teacher to come up, and Christine volunteered me.  He asked me to take a book from the bookshelf, holding a couple hundred.  He asked me to give him the book, the rapidly thumbed the pages, asking me to tell him when to stop; then he handed me the book open to that page, and asked me to move my finger down the page until he said stop; I stopped at “Spence laughed,” and he tried to name the first letter, S, by going through the alphabet, abcde…and stopping at the right letter.  He tried it a couple of times, and couldn’t get it.  Then he asked me to turn to a different page, and run my finger down it until he said stop,  I stopped at the word “that.”  Then he asked me to turn to the inside back cover of the book, and read the word that appeared there written in pencil; it was “that.”

2/27

While traveling, Christine and I find the Global Positioning System to be invaluable.  Recently, we were in Milwaukee, and we wanted to go from our motel to the Repertory Theater, and she simply brought up the Navigator on her Android Smartphone, and spoke the address, and then we were guided there by a recorded voice and a map.

Now, I find this a useful analogy for the way dreamers navigate their dream by using  this navigating system:  Greed, Power, Sex.

For Greed, just look at the various Ponzi schemes; for Power, just look at the political struggles in Congress between the Republicans and Democrats, and I also include here, the religious power struggles throughout the world; for Sex, just look at the daily headlines.  I just saw this one in the USA TODAY:

Former senator Pete Domenici acknowledged he fathered a son outside of his marriage more than 30 years ago with the daughter of another senator, Paul Laxalt. (Section A. p.2, February 21,  2013)

Now, I am asking for help to navigate my daily life with Gratitude, Patience, Spirit.

Gratitude: 

Our gratitude will pave the way to Him,
and shorten our learning time by more
than you could ever dream of. Gratitude
goes hand in hand with love, and where one is
the other must be found. Lesson 163.10:1,2

Patience:

Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety. Patience is natural to the teacher of God. Patience is natural to those who trust. Sure of the ultimate interpretation of all things in time, no outcome already seen or yet to come can cause them fear. Manual for Teachers, 4.

Spirit:

You are the spirit lovingly endowed with all your Father's
Love and peace and joy. You are the spirit which completes Himself, and shares His function as Creator. He is with you always, as you are with Him.
Lesson 97.2:2,3

2/28

Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy often looked out at us gathered in Session and called us “associations.”  What he was pointing out is that we are constantly making associations in our minds as we look out at the world, willing our past thoughts onto the objects we see.

The great American poet, Wallace Stevens (1879-1955) makes this so clear in his wonderful poem,  A Study of Two Pears.  Just look at his first two stanzas.  (The first two Latin words mean “a little education,” and Stevens is saying this with tongue in cheek because it is, in fact, a huge education.)

I
Opusculum paedagogum.
The pears are not viols,
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.

II
They are yellow forms
Composed of curves
Bulging toward the base

Just as Master Teacher was expressing, Stevens is encouraging us to see with vision.

What I think I see now is taking the place of vision.  I must let it go by realizing it has no meaning, so that vision may take its place.  Lesson 51.1:4,5

Please enjoy the rest of this poem.


III
They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines.
They are round
Tapering toward the top.

IV
In the way they are modelled
There are bits of blue.
A hard dry leaf hangs
From the stem.

V
The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.

VI
The shadows of the pears
Are blobs on the green cloth.
The pears are not seen
As the observer wills.

Making Explicit the True Meaning of Forgiveness: January FB Statuses

Some time ago, I set up a Facebook account, but I never really did much with it, until Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday, auspiciously, when it occurred to me that I could post a Status statement on Facebook, daily.  These are my mini-essays for January.


1/1

I give you to the Holy Spirit as part of myself.

I know that you will be released, unless I want to use you to imprison myself.
In the name of my freedom I choose your release, Because I recognize that we will be released together.

So will the YEAR begin in joy and freedom. There is much to do, and we have been long delayed. Accept the holy instant as this YEAR IS BORN, and take your place, so long left unfulfilled, in the Great Awakening. Make this year different by making it all the same. And let all your relationships be made holy for you. This is our will. Amen. T-15.Xl.10

1/2

Just as our GPS gives us a great road map, so can a Parable provide us with a great map, helping us navigate through our world to reality.

Here is Jesus in His Course in Miracles.

Listen to the story of the prodigal son, and learn what God's treasure is and yours: This son of a loving father left his home and thought he had squandered everything for nothing of any value, although he had not understood its worthlessness at the time. He was ashamed to return to his father, because he thought he had hurt him. Yet when he came home the father welcomed him with joy, because the son himself was his father's treasure. He wanted nothing else.  T-8.Vl.4

Just as the father welcomed back his son with an open heart, so will God greet us when we return to Him, as we overcome our sense of unworthiness.

You made neither yourself nor your function. You made only the decision to be unworthy of both. Yet you cannot make yourself unworthy because you are the treasure of God, and what He values is valuable. There can be no question of its worth, because its value lies in God's sharing Himself with it and establishing its value forever. 5

1/3

I am so grateful for A Course in Miracles, and I am still astounded that it is sheer poetry.  Just look at Lesson 336, Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined, the first stanza is a sonnet, 14 lines of blank verse, meaning 10 syllables per line with a slack STRESS cadence.

For GIVE/ ness IS/ the MEANS/ ap POINT/ ed FOR/
Per CEP/ tion's END/ ing. KNOW/ ledge IS/ re STORED/
after perception first is changed, and then
gives way entirely to what remains
forever past its highest reach. For sights
and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall
the memory that lies beyond them all.
Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and
opens the hidden altar to the truth.
Its lilies shine into the mind, and call
it to return and look within, to find
what it has vainly sought without. For here,
and only here, is peace of mind restored,
for this the dwelling place of God Himself.

Listen to this echo from Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73.

That TIME/ of YEAR/ thou MAYST/ in ME/ be HOLD/
When YEL/ low LEAVES,/ or NONE,/ or FEW,/ do HANG/
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death's second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see'st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish'd by.
   This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
   To love that well which thou must leave ere long.

I invite you to click on this link to enjoy The Rhythm and Reason of Reality:  Poetry and Prose in A Course in Miracles.

http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.com 

1/4

Looking back, I am amazed to remember being a little kid running around the playground shouting a new phrase I had just heard, “Me, my Self, and I.” Little did I know, then, and in fact for many more years, that I was actually uttering a profound truth, describing the typography or my mind.

I came to learn that the “Me” is my ego self, seeing through the body’s eyes, thinking what is seen is real.

My “Self” is my true Identity, my mind united with God, seeing through Christ’s eyes, seeing a reflection of what’s real.

The “I” is the mechanism of decision, deciding between unreality and reality, determining my awareness.

“Decide” comes from the Latin, cidere, meaning to cut off. When I ally with my ego self, I cut away all awareness of my reality.  When I join with my Self, I cut away all awareness of unreality.

It is always simply, profoundly, a matter of my decision.

But let me not forget Your Love and care,
keeping Your promise to Your Son in my
awareness always. Let me not forget
my self is nothing, but my Self is all.
Lesson 358

1/5

One of the lessons I find most helpful is Lesson 338, I am affected only by my thoughts.  This makes it so simple:  when I am in fear, love is just a thought away; and when I am in the experience of love, fear is just a thought away.

His thoughts can frighten him,
but since these thoughts belong to him alone,
he has the power to change them and exchange
each fear thought for a happy Thought of love.

There.  The shift in thought is easy.  It is as easy as using the “Shift” key on the keyboard; to capitalize a letter--you simply press, simultaneously the Shift key and the letter key “t” et Voila, Thought.

Your plan is sure, my Father, - only Yours.
All other plans will fail. And I will have
thoughts  that will frighten me, until I learn
that You have given me the only Thought
that leads me to salvation. Mine alone
will fail, and lead me nowhere. But the Thought
You gave me promises to lead me home,
because it holds Your promise to Your Son.

1/6

I am CHARGED by starting over reading the Lessons of A Course in Miracles, Lesson 1 on January 1.

For example, in Lesson 3, I do not understand anything I see in this room, Jesus says:

Some of the things you see may have emotionally-CHARGED meaning for you.  Try to lay such feelings aside, and merely use these things exactly as you would anything else. (6,7)

This provides a solid reference for this passage from Matthew:

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

And as for being CHARGED, I invite you to enjoy God’s Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889).

THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.   
  It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;   
  It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil   
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?   
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;            5
  And all is seared with trade;bleared, smeared with toil;    
  And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell:the soil   
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.   
    
And for all this, nature is never spent;   
  There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;            10
And though the last lights off the black West went   
  Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—   
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent   
  World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.   
    


1/7

A long time ago I saw Man of La Mancha at a Broadway theatre in New York City.  Of course, I was so inspired by hearing The Impossible Dream.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question or pause
To be willing to march into Hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star.

When I heard the song again the other day, my first thought was that the song, as glorious as it is, is about being victorious in the dream, in the duality, simply being more brave than cowardly.  However, reading a passage from Sarah Young’s Jesus Calling, I realized that Jesus implanted in the hero the impossible dream beyond duality, and in the song that is represented by the unreachable star  and  a heavenly cause.

Here’s Jesus speaking to Sarah Young:

True dependence is not simply asking Me to bless what you have decided to do.  It is coming to Me with an open mind and heart, inviting Me to plant My desires within you.  I may infuse within you a DREAM that seems far beyond your reach.  (the unreachable star) You know that in yourself you cannot achieve such a goal.  Thus begins your journey of profound reliance on Me.  It is a faithwalk, taken one step at a time, leaning on Me as much as you need.  Enjoy the blessedness of a victorious life, (That my heart will be peaceful and calm) through deepening your dependence on Me.  (January 5)

1/8

One of my main problems walking around in the dream is that I, habitually, set up a duality, bad vs good, negative vs positive.  It is cold, I wish it were warm; I feel bad, I want to feel good; she doesn’t like me, I want her to like me.
Then, I spend my time and energy trying to move towards the positive, eliminating the negative.

In fact, that old song just came to mind, Accentuate the Positive, written by Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen.

You've got to accentuate the positive
 Eliminate the negative
 Latch on to the affirmative
 Don't mess with Mister In-Between.

The tendency to make it better is a clever ruse by the ego to keep me preoccupied with thoughts that are meaningless.

Here is Jesus making this clear as early as Lesson 4, These thoughts do not mean anything.

In these practice periods, begin with noting the thoughts that are crossing your mind for about a minute. Then apply the idea to them. If you are already aware of unhappy thoughts, use them as subjects for the idea. Do not, however, select only the thoughts you think are "bad." You will find, if you train yourself to look at your thoughts, that they represent such a mixture that, in a sense, none of them can be called "good" or "bad." This is why they do not mean anything.

Remembering that these thoughts are meaningless is helpful to me, enabling me to pull out of the duality.

After writing this, I came across this wonderful quotation from Oscar Pistorius, the amputee sprinter.

“My mother used to tell us in the mornings, ‘Carl, put on your shoes.  Oscar, you put on your prosthetic legs, and that’s the last I want to hear about it.’  So I grew up not  really thinking I had a disability.  I grew up thinking I had different shoes.”

1/9

A long time ago, when I heard this Zen story, I found it very helpful.  As I remember it, a seeker stood before a Zen Master, holding a cup as the Master poured tea into it, but he kept on pouring, the tea spilling onto the floor; he was incredulous, saying, “You can’t get any more in!”

“Just so,” replied the Master.   “And like this cup, you are full of your own ideas and opinions.  How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup?”

I was reminded of this when I read this passage from Angel Voices  by Karen Goldman.

Our destinies cannot “arrive” until we do.  Until we are “present” in our “lighter” state, we will never really ascent to any higher ground.  Until then, we are off center, banishing the good that waits to come to us, blocking the road to our own miracles with fear and pain, not really capable of accepting joy because our hands are already full.  We must empty them.  Let go of all we are holding, like angels, trusting that our lives will be filled with diviner things. (p. 109)

1/10

As I am typing this, I am looking at my hand-written copy, and occasionally glancing at the screen, but I hardly ever look at the keyboard.

Many years ago in the 9th grade of high school, I took Typing 1, learned the keyboard, and now I simply touch-type.

I was reminded of this last night when my son, Stephen, was trying to teach me to send text messages on my new cell phone.  The little keyboard slips out of the phone, configured exactly as my computer keyboard.

But…I was having great difficulty finding the letters one-by-one; trying to type a text message was painfully slow. What that made me realize is how ingrained our habits are. We take for granted, for “granite,” our conditioning, thinking that it is showing us reality.  We look out and see a world brought to us by years of conditioning.

Learning to undo our automatic, habitual perception requires sound mind-training.  If I am going to learn to send text messages, I will have to let go of the old and embrace the new.

In respect to mind-training, here is Jesus in Lesson 9, I see nothing as it is now.

It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there. This idea can be quite disturbing, and may meet with active resistance in any number of forms. Yet that does not preclude applying it. No more than that is required for these or any other exercises. Each small step will clear a little of the darkness away, and understanding will finally come to lighten every corner of the mind that has been cleared of the debris that darkens it. 3

With each “small step” I may be able to train my mind and actually learn to text.

1/11

Reading Lesson 7, I see only the past, I am reminded of a scene in the movie, What the Bleep Do We Know? where the Native tribesmen were unable to see the European ships.

When the tall European ships first approached the early Native Americans, it was such an ‘impossible’ vision in their reality that their highly filtered perceptions couldn’t register what was happening, and they literally failed to ‘see’ the ships.

Without a past reference, they were unable to “see” the ships.

Jesus reminds us of this in this magnificent paragraph, demonstrating how we associate perceptual phenomenon and our everyday experience. 

Look at a cup, for example. Do you see a cup, or are you merely reviewing your past experiences of picking up a cup, being thirsty, drinking from a cup, feeling the rim of a cup against your lips, having breakfast and so on? Are not your aesthetic reactions to the cup, too, based on past experiences? How else would you know whether or not this kind of cup will break if you drop it? What do you know about this cup except what you learned in the past? You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning. Do you, then, really see it? 3

1/12

When I type a FB Status, for example, I type quickly and efficiently because I learned a long time ago to place my hands on the Home Row, my right index finger on the letter J, and my left index finger on the letter F.

I remember my Typing Class at Three Rivers High School (Michigan), taught by Gerald Royce, a be-speckled man who always wore a suit and a bow tie.  In the beginning of the first class, he said, “Place your hands on the Home Row and type ‘juj (space juj (space), and in unison we did.

All this has been coming back to me in the last couple of days as I am trying to learn to Text on my new phone.  The miniature keyboard slides out, and I forget everything I had learned about typing, reverting to “hunting and pecking” with my right index finger.  Although the keyboard is exactly the same as my computer keyboard (and, of course, my high school typewriter), I have such difficulty finding the letters that I get headaches trying to compose a Text Message.

My son, Stephen, said to use my thumbs.  Well, this morning I finally tried it, and “Lo and Behold” everything fell into place.  When my thumbs hover over the F and J keys, the keyboard finally lights up, and I can find the other keys with ease.

This is a parable, reminding me of the value of mind-training.  As I walk through the day, I ask for help to be anchored at home.  When I am in the state of mind of being home, I experience peace, echoing Lesson 160, I am at home.  Fear is the stranger here.
 
This is my home.  Here I belong, and will
not leave because a madman (fear) says I must. 2 

1/13

Years ago, when I first crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy and stood in the lobby, I looked up and saw these words inscribed on a plaque on the wall:

It is certain because it is impossible.

I found it completely baffling at the time, and it took considerable mind-training for me to comprehend it, finally.  The ambiguity comes from the two pronouns “it,” having different references.
 
It is certain. . .reference:  Nothing real can be threatened.

It is impossible. . .reference:  Nothing unreal exists.
Knowing this distinction is peace:

Herein  lies the peace of God.

1/14

During the holidays, Christine and I spent some time with friends in Michigan.  One of my friends told me a story about her husband that fascinated me.

He was recovering from cancer surgery, and they went before a judge to determine how much money they would receive to pay for the procedure.  At one point in the middle of the deliberation, he began to forget things like where he was; what they were doing there; answers to the judge’s questions.  Pretty soon the judge became frustrated and adjourned the meeting.

My friend said that riding home from the meeting, she gently asked him questions, like, what is your son’s name; what day is it; where do we live; and then she asked “Who are you?” and he promptly said with a big smile, “I am the Holy son of God.”

Later, the condition was diagnosed by a doctor as “temporary amnesia,” and soon it passed, and he made a full recovery.

For me, this is a great example of what Jesus is teaching us in His Course.  If we were to let go of our meaningless thoughts, temporarily, we would experience the truth of what we are.  Just look at the titles of the first 7 Lessons.

Nothing I see means anything.
I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.
I do not understand anything I see.
These thoughts do not mean anything
I am never upset for the reason I think.
I am upset because I see something that is not there.
I see only the past.

So, I sit here, breathe in and breathe out, letting go of my thoughts, experiencing temporary amnesia,  resting in the peace of God.

1/15

One of the difficult lessons is to learn is this:  Resist not evil.  I tend to resist negative thoughts in favor of positive ones, thereby maintaining the duality, preoccupying myself with thoughts, staying rooted in the dream.

We are told to invite them in, making them welcome, knowing that we conceived of them to help us learn who we are.  I was reminded of this by reading this magnificent poem by Rumi.


The Guest House

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.


This echoes passages from the Course where Jesus teaches the same lesson.

Today I would remember the simplicity of salvation by reinforcing the lesson that there is one problem and one solution.  The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle.  And I invite the solution to come to me through my forgiveness of the grievance, and my welcome of the miracle that takes its place. Lesson 90.1:4-6

1/16

Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy often said, “I cannot take that away from you.”  What he meant is that he could not take away from us our conditioned belief system, our conceptual/perceptual ideas of what is real, but he could show us the truth of what we are.  In fact, he once said, “I will stand here for a moment so that you can catch your true reflection.”  He demonstrates to us that we are light.

This came to mind when I came across a book by Lorna Byrne, A Message of Hope from the Angels.  In the beginning she writes;

I have been seeing and talking with angels since I was a little baby.  I see angels every day and I see them physically as I see someone sitting in front of me.  Angels are my friends and companions and I talk with them all the time, sometimes using words and sometimes without words.  I have no idea why I should be able to see angels.  I am just an ordinary person. (p. 1)

She goes on:

Lately, I have been seeing the Angle of Hope.  I was shown him guiding soldiers through a trench battlefield.  I was shown one particular soldier crawling exhausted through the mud.  I could see he was injured.  The Angel of Hope was moving in front of him, constantly beckoning him forward.  I was allowed to see through the soldier’s eyes.  The soldier could not see the Angel of Hope, but he saw a light.

“Do you understand, Lorna?” the angel said.  The Angel of Hope cannot stop the war, heal this soldier, or rescue him, but he can give him the strength to make it to where he can be rescued.”

Thank you, Master Teacher, for showing us that we are the light of the world.

1/17

More and more horrible things “seem” to be happening in the world these days.  When you express this to a brother, it is not helpful to hear him say, “You are the cause, Dear One,” particularly, if he just leaves it at that.  In what way am I the cause?

Reading Lesson 12, I am upset because I see a meaningless world, I see clearly my responsibility.

The importance of this idea lies in the fact that it contains a correction for a major perceptual distortion. You think that what upsets you is a frightening world, or a sad world, or a violent world, or an insane world. All these attributes are given it by you. The world is meaningless in itself. 1
I am the cause, then, in this sense:  All these attributes are given it by me.
Jesus continues, As you look about you, say to yourself:

I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world, a sad world, a wicked world, a crazy world. 3

It comes down to whether I am looking out through the body’s eyes, or through the eyes of Christ.  It is always, in every moment, my choice;  if I choose to see through my body’s eyes, I will get the results of fear and loss; if I choose to see through the eyes of Christ, I will experience love and peace. 

So, my brother is right, I am the cause; this is just a more thoughtful way to express it.

As they simply say on the streets today when someone says something that’s true,  “Word.”

Beneath your words is written the Word of God. When your words have been erased, you will see His. That is the ultimate purpose of these exercises. 5

1/18

Recently, I received a phone call from a friend of mind, Darrell Price.  We became friends several years ago at Endeavor Academy, and after he left, I lost track of him.  He wanted me to know that he had just published a book, From The Christ Mind. 

Now, I am so grateful, so inspired because Jesus selected Darrell to scribe His book.  Darrell began scribing in January, 2012, and the book was published in December, 2012.

Here is Darrell speaking in one paragraph from his Foreward.

Then in January of this year, 2012, I began to experience a deepening and continuous communication with the Mind of Jesus.  Much to my surprise, He asked me to take dictation, to write down a teaching He would give me that was to be published in book form.  In addition to providing the material for this book, Jesus has guided me through every step of the process, from start to finish.  Everything necessary for the publication of this book was miraculously provided when and as needed.  This whole project has been a miracle, every step of the way.  To have been part of it has been a great blessing.  For that I thank Jesus, the Holy Spirit, my Heavenly Father, and all my brothers who have helped me along the way.  (p.14)

Here is just one paragraph from this magnificent book.

There is no place for Truth in the ego’s world.  Yet even here Truth cannot be completely obscured, for It waits for you in the present, underneath the loud and incessant chatter of the ego mind, resting in deepest peace.  A quiet mind is an invitation to Truth to enter and claim its Home once again.  You who have worked so hard to maintain illusion and protect yourself from Truth, need only lay down your defenses and the Self will return to your awareness.  Only defenselessness will bring you to a true state of safety.  In this condition of harmlessness, you will again know God.  (p. 26)

I am finding that I have to read this book very slowly, savoring every word. After  reading  just one Section, I am completely taken out and have to stop.

To order this magnificent gift to the world, please call Darrell in Chico, CA:
  (707) 888-3215, and it is available on Amazon.

1/19

I just came across this wonderful passage about the hummingbird.

The hummingbird shows us how to re-visit the past for the purpose of releasing it instead of being caught in a permanently backward flight pattern. It also helps us to see that if we step aside we may see our life differently. The hummingbird teaches us to transcend time, to recognize that what has happened in the past and what might happen in the future is not nearly as important as what we are experiencing now. It teaches us to hover in the moment, to appreciate its sweetness. Constance Barrett Sohodski

This echoes a wonderful passage from a recently-published book entitled From The Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price, listening to the voice of Jesus.

If you would realize the Self, you must bring your mind into the present where Its Reality can be revealed.  To live in the past and chase the future is to live in dreams.  The Self cannot be found in dreams.  The choice between Truth or illusion, Love or fear, is the choice between the present or the past. Either you realize the Self and return to freedom, or you continue as the self always searching but never finding. (p. 26)

(To purchase From The  Christ Mind, please call Darrell in Chico, CA:
(707)888-3215), or order it from Amazon.

1/20

The idea of forgiveness is being bandied about rather loosely lately, prompted in the last few days by Lance Armstrong’s confession on the Oprah Winfrey Show of cheating.

Here are the first three paragraphs of a front-page story in USA TODAY(1/18/ 2013) entitled, “Can you forgive?”

And now Lance Armstrong’s televised cheating confession raises the question of whether, when it comes to fallen heroes, there’s anything Americans won’t forgive.

From Bill Clinton (again toast of the Democratic Party) to Charlie Sheen (again a sit-com TV star) to Michael Vick (again an NFL quarterback) the bar for public redemption seems to have gotten lower and lower.

“America,” says Frank Farley, former president of the American Psychological Association and a student of hero worship, “is the land of second chances.  All you have to do is ask—especially if you can throw a ball, sing a song, make a speech, coach a team.”

Giving someone a second chance is hardly forgiveness.  In the dream, in the duality, forgiveness turns out to be, I will give him a break, let him off the hook, look the other way,  not judge him harshly.  In this dualistic thinking, I am actually bargaining, being one-up, generous, at least, this time.

Forgiveness is not about people “out there;” forgiveness is letting go of thought images in our minds, recognizing that they have no source in reality.

Forgiveness is at the heart of A Course in Miracles.

Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in that view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin,
except a false idea about God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
1.  What is Forgiveness?

1/21

As more and more tragic events seem to be occurring in the world, more and more people are asking, “Why would God allow this to happen?

Well, the short answer is that God knows nothing of it.

What we see in the world is always a result of our thinking; the thought always comes first.  The question is always, “Who is thinking, the self or the Self?

Here are two paragraphs from From The Christ Mind, a book scribed by Darrell Price, listening to Jesus speak.

The self, a self-invented limitation on and denial of what you truly are, will never be free.  How can that which denies itself freedom and is an active defense against it, find what it is so clearly deciding against?  Keeping alive the past is the means used to completely obscure the present and maintain an unbroken continuity of illusion based in the past and stretching to the future.  There is no place for Truth in the ego’s world.

Yet even here Truth cannot be completely obscured, for It waits for you in the present, underneath the loud and incessant chatter of the ego mind, resting in deepest peace.  A quiet mind is an invitation to Truth to enter and claim its Home once again.  You who have worked so hard to maintain illusion and protect yourself from Truth, need only lay down your defenses and the Self will return to your awareness.  Only defenselessness will bring you to a true state of safety.  In this condition of harmlessness, you will again know God.  (p. 26)

And again God knows you, as the Self, not the self experiencing worldly events.

(To order a copy of From The Christ Mind, please call Darrell Price, Chico, CA:
(707) 888-3215, or order it from Amazon.

1/22

Once again I am so grateful to begin reading at the first of the year the Lessons of the Workbook of A Course in Miracles.  Here is a paragraph from Lesson 15, My thoughts are images I have made.

This introductory idea to the process of image making that you call seeing will not have much meaning for you. You will begin to understand it when you have seen little edges of light around the same familiar objects which you see now. That is the beginning of real vision. You can be certain that real vision will come quickly when this has occurred. 2

Now, a long time ago when I read about the “little edges of light” around objects, I felt bad that I was not getting it because I did not see the light, and I don’t see it now, either. 

“Jeez, all these years and I’m still not seeing it.”  Guilt.  Guilt.

But, today for the first time, I had a Thought that was encouraging.  Perhaps, Jesus is not being literal; perhaps He is being figurative.  This came to mind when I remembered something that Maser Teacher of Endeavor Academy said one time, “Light is understanding.”

I feel better now because I do, indeed, experience the difference between seeing with the body’s eyes, and seeing with vision.  Right now I can look up, see the birds at the feeder and say to myself, I Am the holy Son of God, I am at peace, and what I see is a peaceful reflection, seeing through form and time and space, and this definitely is seeing through the mirror of my mind, brightly.

As you go along, you may have many "light episodes." They may take many different forms, some of them quite unexpected. Do not be afraid of them. They are signs that you are opening your eyes at last. 3:1-3

And from From The Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price, scribing Jesus.

True vision, wholly unified perception, is of the mind, not the body; it sees beyond the body to the Light wherein all are joined.  The appearances of form, the distortions of separation, cannot obstruct true vision or dilute its purity.  (p. 31)

1/23

I just love reading the book, Proof of Heaven, by Dr. Eben Alexander, and the subtitle expresses why I love it so much:  A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife.  Here is a highly-trained, professional, dedicated scientist who believed that brain consciousness was everything, the brain was an “extraordinary device,” that there was nothing beyond it.  Yet, in a coma he had these incredible experiences, while the brain was completely shut down.
Along the way, he had caught glimpses of something beyond the brain, but he did not know what to do with them.  As a young man, he did a great deal of parachuting and skydiving.  One time he found himself in an impossible situation, and by making a split-second decision, he miraculously pulled out of it, saving the lives of those around him.  He knew that the split-second decision came from beyond him, but he didn’t know what to do with it.
Here is what he says in his Prologue.

I finally chalked it up to the fact that the brain is truly an extraordinary device; more extraordinary than we can even guess.  I realize now that the real answer to that question is much more profound.  But I had to go through a complete metamorphosis of my life and worldview to glimpse that answer.  This book is about the events that changed my mind on the matter.  They convinced me that, as marvelous a mechanism as the brain is, it was not my brain that saved my life that day at all.  (p. 6)

He goes on to say:

During my coma my brain wasn’t working improperly—it wasn’t working at all. (p 8)

I am certain that he would now say,  echoing the Course:

I am not a “brain.”  I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 199

1/24

I just finished reading an article in the newspaper entitled, “Marines learn to quiet the mind,” and this phrase came to mind, “Never underestimate the insanity of the conceptual mind.”

The U.S. Marine Corps, known for turning out some of the military's toughest warriors, is studying how to make its troops even tougher through meditative practices, yoga-type stretching and exercises based on mindfulness.

Marine Corps officials say they will build a curriculum that would integrate mindfulness-based techniques into their training if they see positive results from a pilot project. Mindfulness is a Buddhist-inspired concept that emphasizes active attention on the moment to keep the mind in the present. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 20, 2013, Section A,  p. 13)

Now, I, too, ask for help to experience a quiet mind.  But my question is, “For what purpose?”  I quiet my mind, so that I am receptive to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit directing me where to go, what to do, what to say, and to whom.

Jeffery Bearor, the executive deputy of the Marine Corps training and education command at its headquarters in Quantico, VA, said,  "This is not tied to any religious practice. This is about mental preparation to better handle stress."

To learn to quiet your mind only to relieve stress is to make real what is inherently unreal.

Now,  this is a helpful exercise from Lesson 22, What I see is a form of vengeance.

Look at the world about you at least five times today, for at least a minute each time. As your eyes move slowly from one object to another, from one body to another, say to yourself:

I see only the perishable.
I see nothing that will last.
What I see is not real.
What I see is a form of vengeance.

At the end of each practice period, ask yourself:

Is this the world I really want to see?

The answer is surely obvious.

1/25

In His Course in Miracles, Jesus is so simple and so practical.  For example, here is a passage from Lesson 23, I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.

The idea for today introduces the thought that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed. This change requires, first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced. The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not. Your images have already been replaced. By taking the first two steps, you will see that this is so. 4

It is simply 1, 2, 3 to recognize that I am the cause of the world I see.

OK.  Let’s try it.

One.  I am upset because a brother just passed me, frowning.  That’s a pattern of mine from childhood.  I look at facial expressions and make up what someone is thinking. 

Two.  With this recognition, I can let go of negative thoughts.

Three.  There.  I now feel relaxed and peaceful, again.

How simple is salvation.

1/26

In his book Proof of Heaven, Dr. Eben Alexander makes it clear that now his life work, his mission, is to express his experience of Reality beyond our limited consciousness.

My experience showed me that the death of the body and the brain are not the end of consciousness,  that consciousness continues beyond the grave.  The place I went was real.  Real in a way that makes the life we’re living here and now completely dreamlike by comparison.  This doesn’t mean I don’t value the life I’m living now, however.  Once I realized the truth behind my journey, I knew I had to tell it.  Doing so properly has become the chief task of my life.  Now that I have been privileged to understand that our life does not end with the death of the body or the brain, I see it as my duty, my calling to tell people about what I saw beyond the body and beyond this earth.  (pp.9,10)

This brought to mind a passage from the Urtext of A Course in Miracles.  It is a passage reminding us to be ready to extend Truth while we are still “in” the world, knowing that we are  not “of” the world.

Readiness here means keep your perception right side up, (or valid), so you will ALWAYS be ready, willing and able.  These are the essentials for “listen, learn and do.”  You must be

READY to listen
WILLING to learn
And ABLE to do

Only the last is involuntary, because it is the APPLICATION of miracles which must be Christ-controlled.  But the other two, which are the voluntary aspects of miracles-mindedness, ARE up to you.  (p. 18)

Here is a another account, rather dramatic, of being invited to “do” by God.
Mary Neal wrote about her NDE in her book, To Heaven and Back,  A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again:  A True Story.  She writes:

“I didn’t seek out people to talk to, I put everything on the back burner until the day that God threw me out of bed and said, ‘OK, now is the time you are going to write this.’  And from that point on, this has been an incredible lesson in obedience, because I said, ‘OK.  I’m doing it.’”

1/27

It is so helpful for me to recognize how often in His Course, Jesus addresses a particular part of our mind by using the pronoun, “you.”  I find it useful each time He uses this pronoun, to identify the reference.  For example, here is a passage from the Text.

I can tell “you” what to do, but “you” must collaborate by believing that I know what “you” should do.  Only then will your mind choose to follow me.  Without this choice “you” could not be healed because “you” would have decided against healing, and this rejection of my decision for “you” makes healing impossible.  (T-8.lV.4:9-11)

It is obvious that the reference to “you” in his passage is the mechanism of decision, deciding between separation and union.

The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole.  Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision.  (5:6,7)

This all came to mind when I came across these wonderful passages in From The Christ Mind, scribed by Darrell Price, scribing Jesus.

What you identify with becomes your guide in decision making.  Identify with the body, with separation, and the ego is your guide, the thought system of separation is the context.  Identify with Spirit, the Self in you, Truth, and the Holy Spirit will gently direct you.  His direction is always in your highest interest and will lead you away from pain and fear. (p. 31)

You must learn the difference between Truth and illusion and learn it well, for you are constantly choosing between the two.  The Holy Spirit will lead you along the path of learning if you let Him, for the choice of which teacher to follow is always up to you.  There are only two:  one teaches Truth and gently reveals it to you; the other has been teaching illusion since first you chose to give him your mind.  The ego will continue to teach nothingness and take you nowhere until you withdraw your allegiance.  (p. 32)
 
1/28

In  her book, A Message of Hope from the Angels, Lorna Byrne tells us about her direct experiences with angels.

I have been seeing and talking with angels since I was a little baby.  I see angels every day and I see them physically as I see someone sitting in front of me.  Angels are my friends and companions and I talk with them all the time, sometimes using words and sometimes without words.  I have no idea why I should be able to see angels. I’m just an ordinary person.  (p. 1)

I see a guardian angel with everyone, regardless of their religion or nationality.  I have never seen anyone, anywhere in the world, without a guardian angel.  Your guardian angel is with you from before you are conceived until after your death and never leaves you even for one moment.  It loves you unconditionally and will do everything possible to guide you through life and keep you filled with hope.  Your guardian angel can let other angels in to help you, too.  (p. 5)

When I read these passages, I heard this echo from A Course in Miracles.

God's Name can not be heard without response,
nor said without an echo in the mind
that calls you to remember. Say His Name,
and you invite the angels to surround
the ground on which you stand, and sing to you
as they spread out their wings to keep you safe,
and shelter you from every worldly thought
that would intrude upon your holiness.
Lesson  183.2

1/29

I recently came across a book, actually it seemed to fall off a shelf in a bookstore during the holidays, entitled, The Universe in Black and White:  A Plain and Simple Illustrated Guide to Time, Space and the Meaning of Life by Terry Favour.

Thank God, it is Plain and Simple because it enabled me to catch a glimpse, for the first time, of the meaning of quantum physics. 

Here we go:  God is.  God is the energy pouring through the universe, infinitely,   a wave of energy, eternal. 

A wave becomes a particle when we observe it, when our sense apparatus gives it temporary form.  It becomes particular, an object fleshed out with our particular associations.

From the book:

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)

This book proposes that there cannot be form as we know it without human observation, since the manifested and the unmanifested  are different aspect of the same thing. (p. 169)

This provides an invaluable context for understanding A Course in Miracles.

I am not a body.  I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 199

When I am free in my consciousness, experiencing peace and joy and harmony, I am experiencing being a wave; and when I experience myself as a body, I shift from wholeness to particularization.  In my particle consciousness, I am unable to experience my Self as God created me.

Now, here is where the abstraction comes home to me.  In my direct experience, the analogy that God is to the wave as the particle is to my ego consciousness manifests as the cosmic joke; we fear God’s Love to such an extent that we build a world of particles  to defend ourselves against it.  We make up an entire world with our senses, defending ourselves by holding onto the idea that seeing is believing.

I am so rigidly holding onto my belief system as a defense against God.
This is where the wave/particle analogy is helpful because it is a vivid reminder of my defensiveness.

One way for me to be less defensive and experience the wave in the midst of particles is to stop, breathe in and breathe out,  letting go of all thoughts making up my particle world, and experiencing the wave of the peace of God.

Jesus leads us to this wave consciousness in this paragraph.

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is;
all concepts you have learned about the world;
all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad,
of every thought it judges worthy, and
all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you
one thought the past has taught, nor one belief
you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God.
Lesson 189. 7

1/30

Some time ago, I wrote a poem in blank verse, entitled, TIMEOUT.  Now I look back and realize that it is a celebration of quantum, shifting from particalizing the world through our ego consciousness, to experiencing the wave of the peace of God.

TIMEOUT

The moment I become aware that I
am sinking into a morass of thoughts   
with neither source nor substance in the truth,  Lesson 131.10:3
bouncing back and forth in dualistic
frenzy, This or that, That or this, I take
action, reminding myself that I am
the holy son of God, created free,
my hands forming the universal sign:
“Timeout,” my left hand held horizontal,
my right hand held vertical, underneath,
fingertips pressing in my hand’s center,
not mine but Thine, breathe in, breathe out, TIMEOUT.
I place the future in the hands of God.  Lesson 194
It can be but myself I crucify.  Lesson 196
Particularization fades away,
And I experience a wave of joy.
The peace of God is shining in me now.  Lesson 188

1/31

Yesterday, our friends, Doug Christlieb and Karen Young, came over for lunch.  While we were in the kitchen preparing the food, Christine began slicing a lemon, and Doug  told us that when he was little, he and his Dad would take a small, sharp, stick and write with lemon juice on a blank piece of paper.  What they wrote was invisible to them, until they held the sheet of paper over a candle flame, and what they had written clearly emerged on the paper.

Christine grabbed a wooden skewer and wrote a word on white paper.  When she held it over a candle flame, the word appeared, majestically:  GOD.

Today, while reading Lesson 29, God is in everything I see, I saw that the heat of transformation enables me to see with vision, replacing the blankness that I see with my body’s eyes.  Transforming enables me to experience love and peace and joy, seeing with vision the reflection of my whole mind.

Try then, today, to begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation and open-mindedness. You do not see them now. Would you know what is in them? Nothing is as it appears to you. Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range. When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today's idea perfectly. And you will not understand how you could ever have found it difficult.  (3)

Along the top of the page in my book for Lesson 29, I must have written the sentence some time ago:

Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.  Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)