"Christ Before the High Priest," a 17th Century Dutch painting by Matthias Stom

The Milwaukee Art Museum sits on the shore of Lake Michigan, having graced the shoreline for over 100 years. Recently, it was crowned with an architectural marvel designed by Santiago Calatrava. His Burke Brise Soleil is a moveable wing-like sunscreen that rests on top of the museum's 90-foot ceiling reception hall. It looks like a giant white bird nesting on top of the roof.
The great bird's wings consist of 72 white steel fins, ranging in size from 26-105 feet, spreading to 217 feet at its widest point, wider than a Boeing 747 jet. The wings "flap" to close and open each day at noon. In a museum guidebook, these wings are described as "a visual symbol of transformation."

When my wife, Christine, and I visited the museum on Valentine's Day, we first saw the "flapping" wings and figured that would be the highlight of the day's visit. However, moving through the exhibitions of paintings and sculptures from Ancient Asian and African Art to Contemporary Art, walking on white marble floors quarried from Italy, and looking through corridors bound by curved windows overlooking the lake, we came across the true highlight of the day, the light illuminating the painting by the 17th Century Dutch painter, Matthias Stom (1600-1652) entitled, "Christ Before the High Priest."

This is the commentary on the painting from the guidebook:

This painting depicts the moment when the high priest Caiaphas accuses Christ of blasphemy because of his refusal to deny that he was the Son of God. Stom has captured beautifully the psychological drama of this decisive moment in Christ's Passion by contrasting an emphatic, gesticulating Caiaphas with a strangely serene and saddened Christ, whose countenance betrays his knowledge of future events. His quiet beauty contrasts with the gleeful snickers of the two false witnesses who lurk behind him. Intense candlelight casts an eerie, pale hue over the figures and further heightens the psychological tension of the confrontation. The three- quarter-length figures and their placement close to the picture plane transform the painting into a powerful and moving image that was meant to engage the viewer and inspire religious devotion.

Here is the passage from Matthew depicted in the painting:

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou
nothing? what is it which these witness against thee?

But Jesus held his peace, And the high priest answered and said
unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether
thou be the Christ, the Son of God.

Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said; nevertheless I say unto
you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken
blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye
have heard his blasphemy.
Matthew 26: 62-65

Because Jesus did not deny that he is the Son of God, the high priest considers that he committed blasphemy, "the act of insulting, or showing contempt, or lack of reverence for God." In the painting, the high priest is looking directly at Jesus; but he is unable to see the Christ. He is incapable of seeing the reality of the Son of God because he is seeing only his own reflection as a Son of man. Although the high priest's face is shown in light, he is not experiencing light because he is seeing only the darkness of his own projection. What you see outside is simply a reflection of what is seen inside, first. This brings us to Jesus' Course in Miracles, a modern-day masterpiece in which he teaches us to undo the projections of our minds so that we can learn to see with vision.

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. T-21.Intro.1:1-5

The real witnesses are not those mockingly, derisively, holding Jesus, the real witness is the projection of Jesus as a blasphemer. This image witnesses to the high priest's state of mind. He is thinking with a part of his mind that has no source in reality.

As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos. T-21.Intro.1:6-12

Stom has captured beautifully the psychological drama of this decisive moment in Christ's Passion by contrasting an emphatic, gesticulating Caiaphas with a strangely serene and saddened Christ, whose countenance betrays his knowledge of future events. (Guidebook)

Caiaphas is gesticulating emphatically because he is damning himself first, and then quickly projecting it onto the world that seems to be outside.

Damnation is your judgment on yourself, and this you will project upon the world. See it as damned, and all you see is what you did to hurt the Son of God.
T-21.Intro.2:1,2

You, too, Caiaphas are the Holy Son of God.

If you behold disaster and catastrophe, you tried to crucify him. If you see holiness and hope, you joined the Will of God to set him free. There is no choice that lies between these two decisions. And you will see the witness to the choice you made, and learn from this to recognize which one you chose. The world you see but shows you how much joy you have allowed yourself to see in you, and to accept as yours. And, if this is its meaning, then the power to give it joy must lie within you. T-21.Intro.2:3-8

In the painting, Jesus is not looking a Caiaphas; he is gazing at the candle, completely at peace. He is in a state of mind of peace, the Christ mind, and what he sees in the world is the reflection of that state of mind. The light of the candle suffusing the painting is analogous to the light of the world.

In His Course in Miracles, Jesus teaches that you, too, Dear Reader, are the Christ. When you do the lessons and learn to forgive your projected thoughts, you can experience, My holiness envelops everything I see.

From my holiness does the perception of the real world come. Having forgiven, I no longer see myself as guilty. I can accept the innocence that is the truth about me. Seen through understanding eyes, the holiness of the world is all I see, for I can picture only the thoughts I hold about myself. W-p1.58.1

Caiaphas is also the Son of God, but he is limiting himself to be the Son of man, attacking the Son of God. Jesus, of course, sees with vision, and he is defenseless against the charges.

But Jesus held his peace.

His quiet beauty contrasts with the gleeful snickers of the two false witnesses who lurk behind him. Intense candlelight casts an eerie, pale hue over the figures and further heightens the psychological tension of the confrontation. (Guidebook)

And the high priest arose, and said unto him, Answerest thou nothing?

If Stom were to paint the next moment, he would have Jesus look up, make eye contact with the high priest and answer knowingly: Thou hast said.

He would be telling Caiaphas that what you see in me is a projection of an image that starts in your mind. That image will not change until your mind changes by asking for help to forgive thoughts that have no source in reality. It does not matter in your condition, now, what I say. You will hear what you want to hear. Therefore, the only answer could possibly be a reminder that you are projecting: Thou hast said.

Jesus demonstrates to Caiaphas that his defensive attack is preventing him from experiencing that there is a plan.

What could you not accept, if you but knew
that everything that happens, all events,
past, present and to come, are gently planned
by One Whose only purpose is your good?
Perhaps you have misunderstood His plan,
for He would never offer pain to you.
But your defenses did not let you see
His loving blessing shine in every step
you ever took. While you made plans for death,
He led you gently to eternal life.

Your present trust in Him is the defense
that promises a future undisturbed,
without a trace of sorrow, and with joy
that constantly increases, as this life
becomes a holy instant, set in time,
but heeding only immortality.
Let no defenses but your present trust
direct the future, and this life becomes
a meaningful encounter with the truth
that only your defenses would conceal.

Without defenses, you become a light
which Heaven gratefully acknowledges
to be its own. And it will lead you on
in ways appointed for your happiness
according to the ancient plan, begun
when time was born. Your followers will join
their light with yours, and it will be increased
until the world is lighted up with joy.
And gladly will our brothers lay aside
their cumbersome defenses, which availed
them nothing and could only terrify.
W-p1.135:18-20

The three-quarter-length figures and their placement close to the picture plane transform the painting into a powerful and moving image that was meant to engage the viewer and inspire religious devotion. (Guidebook)

I am not convinced that Stom wanted to "inspire religious devotion." I think, rather, he wanted to inspire the recognition that we are, indeed, the Christ. After all, he did name his painting, "Christ Before the High Priest," not "Jesus before the High Priest."

To look at this drama in the context of Mel Gibson's movie, please read my article entitled, "It is Accomplished!" The Passion of the Christ. Click on the link below.

http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.com/A-it_is_accomplished.htm

"Yes, Linn, you really are dreaming."

Philip Chard, a psychotherapist, author, and trainer, writes a regular column for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, entitled Out of My Mind. In a recent column, "Row, row, row your imaginary boat. . ." he talks about working with a client who is asking if life is but a dream.

"Do you ever fell like life is a dream?" Linn asked.

"Sure, but why do you ask?" I replied.

"Sometimes I get a distinct sense that all this is just an illusion, that I'm just dreaming it," she explained.

Before taking a look at Chard's answer, I am going to step in and answer her question from my point of reference. Having awakened from the dream through the mind training of Jesus' Course in Miracles, I recognize the state of mind in which I am dreaming a false dream, and the state of mind that is real, where I experience, for a moment, the end of the illusion, and the peace of God.

I would say, Linn, trust your "distinct sense that all this is just an illusion." Just stop right now, be still an instant and trust. In your stopping you allow something else to enter in. In being still you can catch a glimpse of reality. In fact, your "distinct sense" is really a call, a memory of your real Home, a reminder that you are not what you dream you are.

It is necessary to establish that 1) this waking dream is unreal, and 2) reality is an experience that is available when you stop your dreaming projection for just a moment. The best way to clarify these ideas is to compare sleeping dreams and waking dreams. First, let's look at five characteristics of a sleeping dream.

1. You are the center of your dream. All the events going on around you are seen through your eyes. It is as if you were a movie projector.

2. You are the narrator of your dream, describing events as they unfold.

3. What you see in your dream are images as if projected on a screen.

4. You are entirely responsible for your dream. Everything you see is coming from your mind, based on your past experiences.

5. When you awaken from your dream, the images disappear.

When you are dreaming, you cannot know you are dreaming because you have no point of reference outside of your dream. That is why I appreciate my wife, Christine, for being a point of reference outside of my dream. When I am having a nightmare, she gently nudges me, saying softly, "Wake up, you are dreaming."

Right now, Linn, I am your point of reference outside of your waking dream, nudging you softly, saying, "Wake up, you are dreaming."

Here's the nudge. I invite you to sit quietly and slowly look around you. Every once in a while, look again at the characteristics, above, of the sleeping dream, one at a time, and apply them to your waking dream.

Thank you.

You can see now that sleeping dreams and wking drams have precisely the same structure. You see that you are the center of your waking dream. You are narrating it. You see only images. These images are simply thoughts you have made. You are entirely responsible for what you are making up. Someone else sitting next to you would be having a different dream. The moment you wake up, all this will disappear.

Just sit there for a moment and entertain the idea that you are dreaming, and be still so that something else can enter in. You just need practice training your mind to see in a new way. That is why Jesus nudges you gently in His lessons, one for each day of the year. Just look at the titles of His first ten lessons:

1. Nothing I see means anything.
2. I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.
3. I do not understand anything I see.
4. These thoughts do not mean anything.
5. I am never upset for the reason I think.
6. I am upset because I see something that is not there.
7. I see only the past.
8. My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.
9. I see nothing as it is now.
10. My thoughts do not mean anything.

Each lesson is a gentle reminder that your waking dream is what you make it, and it is not so.
You are not at home here in your dream, and your real Home awaits you as you begin to recognize that you are dreaming. You already have a "distinct sense" that this is so, or you would not have asked the question. A memory of where you truly belong is in your mind, and it is beginning to haunt you. Listen to Jesus tell you this in the first paragraph of Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.

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.
W-p1.182.1

Chard ends his column with this quotation from Einstein: "Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one." I would say, "Unreality is merely an illusion. . ."

Chard recognizes that we are looking through "lenses that distort and obscure."

What few realize is that we perceive the world by using cognitive representations created by our brains, like looking through lenses that distort and obscure., and not in a direct and factually accurate manner. So when we experience life as a dream, we may be removing these lenses and glimpsing the enigma that constitutues existence.

I would say that the waking dream is seeing through lenses of false eyes, and by removing these lenses through mind training, we learn to see with vision, no longer distorting what is real.

"You don't think I'm losing it, do you?" Linn asked, concerned.

I would say, yes, you are losing it, and that's good, because what you are losing is your firm grip on the dream, you are loosing the world as you know it, allowing for the experience of your Home.

We speak today for everyone who walks
this world, for he is not at home. He goes
uncertainly about in endless search,
seeking in darkness what he cannot find;
not recognizing what it is he seeks.
A thousand homes he makes, yet none contents
his restless mind. He does not understand
he builds in vain. The home he seeks can not
be made by him. There is no substitute
for Heaven. All he ever made was hell.
W-p1.182.3

Linn, the Christ Child is being born in you now.

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.
W-p1.182.8

Jesus is saying, "Wake up, you are dreaming. I am your reference point outside of the dream."

Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Life is but a dream.

I invite you to read Jesus' Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home, in its entirety by clicking on the link below.


http://acim.home.att.net/workbook182.html


Please click on the link below to read Philip Chard's column in its entirety.

http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/advice/jan06/388600.asp

A vivid account of an awakening experience

A few days ago, reading The New Yorker, I came across a short story that took my breath away because it described the narrator undergoing an awakening experience, and the experience was being rendered in language similar to that of A Course in Miracles, using words, such as, miracle, forgiveness, earthly thoughts, and the word. Yet, the story was published in Russian in 1923 by Vladimir Nabokov, over fifty years before the publication of A Course in Miracles.

The story begins with the narrator in a heavenly state of mind, yet soon drawn out of it by a single earthly-thought. But he anticipates a miracle as he is surrounded by angels. And then a miracle occurs as an angel approaches him. The narrator pleads his earthly cause to the angel, and he asks for forgiveness. The angel answers with the word, like pouring heavenly warmth over my heart. Although he forgets the word the next morning, he is forever transformed.

I urge you now to read the short story (13 paragraphs) in its entirety.

Read Now

And now I will simply, and profoundly, juxtapose passages from the story and passages from A Course in Miracles without commentary.

Swept out of the valley night by an inspired oneiric (dreamy) wind, I stood at the edge of a road, under a clear pure-gold sky, in an extraordinary mountainous land. Without looking, I sensed the lustre, the angles, and the facets of immense mosaic cliffs, dazzling precipices, and the mirrorlike glint of multitudinous lakes lying somewhere below, behind me. My soul was seized by a sense of heavenly iridescence, freedom, and loftiness: I knew that I was in Paradise.

What is the holy instant but God's appeal to you to recognize what he has given you? Here is the great appeal to reason; the awareness of what is always there to see, the happiness that could be always yours. Here is the constant peace you could experience forever. Here is what denial has denied revealed to you. For here the final question is already answered, and what you ask for given. Here is the future now, for time is powerless because of your desire for what will never change. For you have asked that nothing stand between the holiness of your relationship and your awareness of its holiness. T-21.V111.5

Yet, within this earthly soul, a single earthly thought rose like a piercing flame—and how jealously, how grimly I guarded it from the aura of gigantic beauty that surrounded me. This thought, this naked flame of suffering, was the thought of my earthly homeland.

You have been told to bring the darkness to the light, and guilt to holiness. And you have also been told that error must be corrected at its source. Therefore, it is the tiny part of yourself, the little thought that seems split off and separate, the Holy Spirit needs. The rest is fully in God's keeping, and needs no guide. Yet this wild and delusional thought needs help because, in its delusions, it thinks it is the Son of God, whole and omnipotent, sole ruler of the kingdom it set apart to tyrannize by madness into obedience and slavery. This is the little part you think you stole from Heaven. Give it back to Heaven. Heaven has not lost it, but you have lost sight of Heaven. Let the Holy Spirit remove it from the withered kingdom in which you set it off, surrounded by darkness, guarded by attack and reinforced by hate. Within its barricades is still a tiny segment of the Son of God, complete and holy, serene and unaware of what you think surrounds it.

Be you not separate, for the One Who does surround it has brought union to you, returning your little offering of darkness to the eternal light. How is this done? It is extremely simple, being based on what this little kingdom really is. The barren sands, the darkness and the lifelessness, are seen only through the body's eyes. Its bleak sight is distorted, and the messages it transmits to you who made it to limit your awareness are little and limited, and so fragmented they are meaningless.
T-18.1X.1,2

Barefoot and penniless, at the edge of a mountain road, I awaited the kind, luminous denizens of Heaven, while a wind, like the foretaste of a miracle, played in my hair, filled the gorges with a crystal hum, and ruffled the fabled silks of the trees that blossomed amid the cliffs lining the road. Tall grasses lapped at the tree trunks like tongues of fire; large flowers broke smoothly from the glittering branches and, like airborne goblets brimming with sunlight, glided through the air, puffing out their translucent convex petals. Their sweet, damp aroma reminded me of all the finest things I had experienced in my life.

Suddenly, the road on which I stood, breathless from the shimmer, was filled with a tempest of wings. Swarming out of the blinding depths came the angels I awaited, their folded wings pointing sharply upward. Their tread was ethereal; they were like colored clouds in motion, and their transparent visages were motionless except for the rapturous tremor of their radiant lashes. Among them, turquoise birds flew with peals of happy girlish laughter, and lithe orange animals loped, fantastically speckled with black. The creatures coiled through the air, silently thrusting out their satin paws to catch the airborne flowers as they circled and soared, pressing past me with flashing eyes.

Your newborn purpose is nursed by angels, cherished by the Holy Spirit and protected by God himself. It needs not your protection; it is yours. For it is deathless, and within it lies the end of death.T-19.C.i.9:4-6

Wings, wings, wings! How can I describe their convolutions and their tints? They were all-powerful and soft—tawny, purple, deep blue, velvety black, with fiery dust on the rounded tips of their bowed feathers. Like precipitous clouds they stood, imperiously poised above the angels’ luminous shoulders; now and then an angel, in a kind of marvellous transport, as if unable to restrain his bliss, suddenly, for a single instant, unfurled his winged beauty, and it was like a burst of sunlight, like the sparkling of millions of eyes.

Around you angels hover lovingly, to keep away all darkened thoughts of sin, and keep the light where it has entered in. Your footprints lighten up the world, for where you walk forgiveness gladly goes with you. No one on earth but offers thanks to one who has restored his home, and sheltered him from bitter winter and the freezing cold. And shall the Lord of Heaven and His Son give less in gratitude for so much more? T-26.1X.7

They passed in throngs, glancing heavenward. Their eyes were like jubilant chasms, and in those eyes I saw the syncope of flight. They came with gliding step, showered with flowers. The flowers spilled their humid sheen in flight; the sleek, bright beasts played, whirling and climbing; the birds chimed with bliss, soaring and dipping. I, a blinded, quaking beggar, stood at the edge of the road, and within my beggar’s soul the selfsame thought kept prattling: Cry out to them, tell them—oh, tell them that on the most splendid of God’s stars there is a land—my land—that is dying in agonizing darkness. I had the sense that, if I could grasp with my hand but one quivering shimmer, I would bring to my country such joy that human souls would instantly be illumined, and would circle beneath the plash and crackle of resurrected springtime, to the golden thunder of reawakened temples.

Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see. A tiny moment of surprise, perhaps, will make you pause before you realize the world you see before you in the light reflects the truth you knew, and did not quite forget in wandering away in dreams.W-p1.131.13

Reaching out with trembling hands, striving to bar the angels’ path, I began clutching at the hems of their bright chasubles (hooded garments), at the undulating, torrid fringes of their curved wings, which slipped through my fingers like downy flowers. I moaned, I dashed about, I deliriously beseeched their indulgence, but the angels trod ever forward, oblivious of me, their chiselled faces turned upward. They streamed in hosts to a heavenly feast, into an unendurably resplendent glade, where roiled and breathed a divinity about which I dared not think. I saw fiery cobwebs, splashes, designs on gigantic crimson, russet, violet wings, and, above me, a downy rustling passed in waves. The rainbow-crowned turquoise birds pecked, the flowers floated off from shiny boughs. “Wait, hear me out!” I cried, trying to embrace an angel’s vaporous legs, but the feet, impalpable, unstoppable, slipped through my extended hands, and the borders of the broad wings only scorched my lips as they swept past. In the distance, a golden clearing between lush, vivid cliffs was filling with the surging storm; the angels were receding; the birds ceased their high-pitched agitated laughter; the flowers no longer flew from the trees; I grew feeble, I fell mute. . . .

Then a miracle occurred. One of the last angels lingered, turned, and quietly approached me. I caught sight of his cavernous, staring, diamond eyes under the imposing arches of his brows. On the ribs of his outspread wings glistened what seemed like frost. The wings themselves were gray, an ineffable tint of gray, and each feather ended in a silvery sickle. His visage, the faintly smiling outline of his lips, and his straight clear forehead reminded me of features I had seen on earth. The curves, the gleaming, the charm of all the faces I had ever loved—the features of people who had long since departed from me—seemed to merge into one wondrous countenance. All the familiar sounds that came separately into contact with my hearing now seemed to blend into a single, perfect melody.

He came up to me. He smiled. I could not look at him. But, glancing at his legs, I noticed a network of azure veins on his feet and one pale birthmark. From these veins, from that little spot, I understood that he had not yet totally abandoned earth, that he might understand my prayer.

The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. Since He must bridge the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge through the grace that God has given Him, to be His gift to everyone who turns to Him for truth. Across the bridge that He provides are dreams all carried to the truth, to be dispelled before the light of knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception's tranquil end.

The goal the Holy Spirit's teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love. And when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides it to the outcome He perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.
W-p11.7. What is the Holy Spirit? 1,2

Then, bending my head, pressing my singed palms, smeared with bright clay, to my half-blinded eyes, I began recounting my sorrows. I wanted to explain how wondrous my land was, and how horrid its black syncope, but I did not find the words I needed. Hurrying, repeating myself, I babbled about trifles, about some burned-down house where once the sunny sheen of parquet had been reflected in an inclined mirror. I prattled of old books and old lindens, of knickknacks, of my first poems in a cobalt schoolboy notebook, of some gray boulder, overgrown with wild raspberries, in the middle of a field filled with scabiosa (plants) and daisies—but the most important thing I simply could not express. I grew confused, I stopped short, I began anew, and again, in my helpless, rapid speech, I spoke of rooms in a cool and resonant country house, of lindens, of my first love, of bumblebees sleeping on the scabiosa. It seemed to me that any minute—any minute!—I would get to what was most important, I would explain the whole sorrow of my homeland. But for some reason I could remember only minute, quite mundane things that were unable to speak or weep those corpulent, burning, terrible tears, about which I wanted to but could not tell. . . .
Recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones. It represents a situation in which God and the ego "challenge" each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. And on this alone it is correct.

It is essential, therefore, that you learn to recognize the meaningless, and accept it without fear. If you are fearful, it is certain that you will endow the world with attributes that it does not possess, and crowd it with images that do not exist. To the ego illusions are safety devices, as they must also be to you who equate yourself with the ego. W-p1.13.2,3

I fell silent, raised my head. The angel smiled a quiet, attentive smile, gazed fixedly at me with his elongated diamond eyes. I felt he understood me.

“Forgive me,” I exclaimed, meekly kissing the birthmark on his light-hued foot. “Forgive that I am capable of speaking only about the ephemeral, the trivial. You understand, though, my kindhearted, my gray angel. Answer me, help me, tell me, what can save my land?”

The idea for today (God did not create a meaningless world) is another step in learning to let go the thoughts that you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. W-p1.14.3:1

Have faith in him who walks with you, so that your fearful concept of yourself may change. And look upon the good in him, that you may not be frightened by your "evil" thoughts because they do not cloud your view of him. And all this shift requires is that you be willing that this happy change occur. No more than this is asked. On its behalf, remember what the concept of yourself that now you hold has brought you in its wake, and welcome the glad contrast offered you. Hold out your hand, that you may have the gift of kind forgiveness which you offer one whose need for it is just the same as yours. And let the cruel concept of yourself be changed to one that brings the peace of God.
T-31.V11.5

Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude? And is it not a kindness to yourself to hear His Voice and learn the simple lessons He would teach, instead of trying to dismiss His words, and substitute your own in place of His?

His words will work. His words will save. His words contain all hope, all blessing and all joy that ever can be found upon this earth. His words are born in God, and come to you with Heaven's love upon them. Those who hear His words have heard the song of Heaven. For these are the words in which all merge as one at last. And as this one will fade away, the Word of God will come to take its place, for it will be remembered then and loved.W-p1.198.5,6

Embracing my shoulders for an instant with his dovelike wings, the angel pronounced a single word, and in his voice I recognized all those beloved, those silenced voices. The word he spoke was so marvellous that, with a sigh, I closed my eyes and bowed my head still lower. The fragrance and the melody of the word spread through my veins, rose like a sun within my brain; the countless cavities within my consciousness caught up and repeated its lustrous edenic song. I was filled with it. Like a taut knot, it beat within my temple, its dampness trembled upon my lashes, its sweet chill fanned through my hair, and it poured heavenly warmth over my heart.

If you could accept the world as meaningless and let the truth be written upon it for you, it would make you indescribably happy. But because it is meaningless, you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be. It is this that is meaningless in truth. Beneath your words is written the Word of God. The truth upsets you now, but when your words have been erased, you will see His.
W-p1.12.5:3-8

"Heaven and earth shall pass away" means that they will not continue to exist as separate states. My word, which is the resurrection and the life, shall not pass away because life is eternal. You are the work of God, and his work is wholly lovable and wholly loving. This is how a man must think of himself in his heart, because this is what he is.T-1.111.2

I shouted it, I revelled in its every syllable, I violently cast up my eyes, which were filled with the radiant rainbows of joyous tears. . . .

And when the memory of God has come to you in the holy place of forgiveness you will remember nothing else, and memory will be as useless as learning, for your only purpose will be creating. Yet this you cannot know until every perception has been cleansed and purified, and finally removed forever. Forgiveness removes only the untrue, lifting the shadows from the world and carrying it, safe and sure within its gentleness, to the bright world of new and clean perception. There is your purpose now. And it is there that peace awaits you. T-18.1X.14

Oh, Lord—the winter dawn glows greenish in the window, and I remember not what word it was that I shouted.

Although he cannot remember the word, he has been forever transformed by experiencing for a moment his real home, so that the feeble call of his earthly home will slowly recede, becoming increasingly meaningless.

Come home. You have not found your happiness in foreign places and in alien forms that have no meaning to you, though you sought to make them meaningful. This world is not where you belong. You are a stranger here. But it is given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or jail for anyone. W-p1.200.4

We trust our ways to Him and say "Amen." In peace we will continue in His way, and trust all things to Him. In confidence we wait His answers, as we ask His Will in everything we do. He loves God's Son as we would love him. And He teaches us how to behold him through His eyes, and love him as He does. You do not walk alone. God's angels hover near and all about. His Love surrounds you, and of this be sure; that I will never leave you comfortless. W-p11.Epilogue.6


(Translated, from the Russian, by Dmitri Nabokov)

Seeing with the savior's vision

This morning in session, Master Teacher spoke one particular sentence that struck me deeply. It resonated throughout the rest of the day until I finally expressed its resonance in a poem, “Seeing Truly.”

But first, who is Master Teacher, and what is a session?

It is roughly 8:30 in the morning, and Master Teacher is descending the stairway leading into the lobby of a former resort center, built in the late 30’s, located at the edge of a town in Wisconsin called Wisconsin Dells. This worn-down resort center serves as the heart of Endeavor Academy. Founded by Master Teacher in 1993, the Academy is dedicated to the awakening of the individual from his dream to the experience of his True Self.


Master Teacher lightly descends, wearing a white jersey pullover, blue pants, and dark socks, cradling in the crook of his left arm a battered copy of A Course In Miracles, one of the original copies, printed in 1975. Forty or fifty students are gathered in the lobby, anticipating with great joy his descent.

He pauses at the bottom of the stairs, beaming, looking surprised at seeing such joy, and says, “We meet again at last.” This is met with great cheer and much laughter. He walks among the students who have come from all parts of the globe with the single purpose of waking up. Looking deeply into the eyes of each one, he walks among us. Actually, it is much more than that. He is gazing through the appearance into the eyes of Christ in each individual. It is true namaste, the Indian greeting, “The Christ in me meets the Christ in you.” This is an incredible moment. You meet this gaze either with total certainty of your Christhood, or with total fear. If you meet it with fear, you are interposing your false self between the Christ in you and the Christ in him. It is either/or, there is no compromise.

When he says, “There is no world,” he means that your world, the world you have made up with your perceptual mind, trusting your senses, the world of seeing, smelling, hearing, tasting, and touching is not Real. It seems Real, yes, but it is not the Real World of the Peace of God. The world you have made is a dream. You are now in every moment, dreaming a dream. And he is telling you in every moment, “It is not so. There is no world.”

Since his illumination twenty years ago, he has become a uniquely joyous instrument, voicing with great lucidity the words of Jesus. In his talks, pamphlets, audiotapes, and videotapes, he is always offering personal illumination by simply, profoundly, standing in this moment, reflecting for you and for me the Truth of who we are. We see in him the mirroring of the Christ in us. There is no idolization in this. It is always, simply and profoundly, “I stand here in this moment, reflecting back to you your True Self.”

Master Teacher moves through the lobby and down the corridor into the Session Room where some two hundred students are gathered, anticipating with great joy his entrance. He moves among them, talking constantly in his deep, sonorous voice, speaking the Truth with complete lucidity. At some point, he sits in his chair, surrounded by students sitting in a semi-circle, and holds forth with great joy. Each sentence makes you pause and shake your head, then the next one comes along.

Now, here is my poem, inspired by just one such sentence.

SEEING TRULY

Master Teacher said in session early
this morning, “I see you when you see me.”

I see Dear One when I am looking through
the eyes of Christ, seeing with Christ’s vision.
Dear One only stands there for me to see
my sure reflection in his bright mirror.

Since my mind is now clear, unclouded by
thoughts having no source in reality,
no dream images to be pursued still,
no egoic goals to be realized,
he can now look through my eyes, seeing me,
saying softly, “I’ve been looking for you.”

This is all that is required, and it is everything. I stand still in the state of mind of the peace of God, and ask, “Thy will be done.” This is seeing with the savior’s vision. Here is Jesus expressing it in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.

Behold your role within the universe!
To every part of true creation has
the Lord of Love and life entrusted all
salvation from the misery of hell.
And to each one has He allowed the grace
to be a savior to the holy ones
especially entrusted to his care.
And this he learns when first he looks upon
one brother as he looks upon himself,
and sees the mirror of himself in him.
Thus is the concept of himself laid by,
for nothing stands between his sight and what
he looks upon, to judge what he beholds.
And in this single vision does he see
the face of Christ, and understands he looks
on everyone as he beholds this one.
For there is light where darkness was before,
and now the veil is lifted from his sight.
T-31.V11.8

This is the savior's vision; that he see
his innocence in all he looks upon,
and see his own salvation everywhere.
He holds no concept of himself between
his calm and open eyes and what he sees.
He brings the light to what he looks upon,
that he may see it as it really is.
T-31.V11.11:5-7

I now urge you to read "The Savior's Vision" in Chapter 31 in its entirety.

http://acim.home.att.net/text-31-07.html

I want it my way, judging all that I see.

I finally caught myself in the act. After all this time, I caught myself in the act of judging. Someone did something that upset me, but this time instead of stewing in the upset, feeling anger, contempt, and scorn, I heard myself saying, “I wouldn’t do it that way.” There it is. I had just reduced the entire universe to fit into my limited point of reference: I would do it this way.

The miracle is that I saw the reduction. This time I did not go from the incident to the reaction, skipping the connection. Judging from my narrow point of view is hard to spot because it is so habitual, automatic, and rapid. My personal preference becomes a reference point around which my entire world turns. No wonder a long-running soap opera is called, “As the World Turns.” A life pivoting on your preferences becomes a soap.

Just test this out by taking a look at the last time you were upset. Is it possible that between the event and the upset was this unconscious phrase, “I would do it this way?”

During this holiday season, my wife, Christine, has given me ample opportunity to see this connection because she sees gift giving differently than I do. Because it is different, that is enough to trigger upset in me, but now I take it as an opportunity to practice saying to myself, “That is just her way,” and ask for help to let it pass from my mind. Letting go of my narrow frame of reference is forgiveness, enabling me to experience a peaceful state of mind Now I walk around with a new-found freedom, saying “Bah humbug” less frequently, and “Thank you, Father,” more often.

What comes to mind is a statement by a Zen monk that I read a long time ago: “When someone says this, or does that, simply say to yourself, ‘That is his way.’ ”

It also makes me think that Jack Sprat and his wife enjoyed a holy relationship.

Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
and his wife could eat no lean.
And so, betwixt them both, you see,
they licked the platter clean.

Apparently, Jack saw that eating fat was simply her way, and she saw that eating lean was his way, and in forgiveness they enjoyed the meal and each other’s company.

Learning to catch yourself in the act of imposing your way on the world is the beginning of training your mind to see that your narrow reference point is preventing you from experiencing the peace of God. In His Course in Miracles, Jesus helps you see this reduced point of view so that you can replace it by seeing from the only real state of mind, the peace of God, through which you see with the eyes of Christ.

Your small self, your personality, is like a mask covering your real Self. In fact, personality comes from the Latin per, meaning "through", and sonare, meaning "sound", referring to the theatrical wooden masks, persona, through which the sound came so that the ancient Greek actors could be heard in the large amphitheatres.

To see your neighbor through the eyes of your True Self, the eyes of Christ, requires that you learn to let go of seeing your neighbor through the mask of your false self, the self that constantly says, “I want it my way,” or in the vernacular, “My way or the highway.”

If you are tired of the soap opera of your life, you can follow Jesus’ instructions in His Course in Miracles. Just look at the titles of his first seven lessons in the Workbook, knowing that He is addressing you in your false frame of reference.

Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.

Lesson 2: I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.

Lesson 3: I do not understand anything I see.

Lesson 4: These thoughts do not mean anything.

Lesson 5: I am never upset for the reason I think.

Lesson 6: I am upset because I see something that is not there.

Lesson 7: I see only the past.

Jesus instructs you that the Holy Spirit will guide you to let go of your narrow frame of reference, so that you can learn to replace it with the peace of God.

On the 49th day, Jesus presents this Lesson, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Look at how He contrasts the part of your mind you narrowly rely on with the part of your mind in which truth abides.

It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not. It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.

The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son. W-p1.49:1,2

Be vigilant today to hear yourself want things your way, and when you make the connection, ask for help to let it go, so that in the vacancy you can hear the Holy Spirit speaking to you.

Click on the link below to read Lesson 49 in its entirety.

http://acim.home.att.net/workbook049.html

George Bush sees himself as being on a mission from God

I don’t know why it took me so long, but I finally understand why Bush does what he does. I keep re-reading three paragraphs from an article in The New Yorker by Seymour M. Hersh, the brilliant journalist and abrasive critic of Bush, “Up in the Air: Where is the Iraq war headed next?”

Here are the first two:

Current and former military and intelligence officials have told me that the President remains convinced that it is his personal mission to bring democracy to Iraq, and that he is impervious to political pressure, even from fellow Republicans. They also say that he disparages any information that conflicts with his view of how the war is proceeding.
Bush’s closest advisers have long been aware of the religious nature of his policy commitments. In recent interviews, one former senior official, who served in Bush’s first term, spoke extensively about the connection between the President’s religious faith and his view of the war in Iraq. After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the former official said, he was told that Bush felt that “God put me here” to deal with the war on terror. The President’s belief was fortified by the Republican sweep in the 2002 congressional elections; Bush saw the victory as a purposeful message from God that “he’s the man,” the former official said. Publicly, Bush depicted his reëlection as a referendum on the war; privately, he spoke of it as another manifestation of divine purpose.

Since the war on terrorism is Bush’s “personal mission,” he is impervious to political pressure. Of course, he disparages any conflicting views. To sustain his beliefs, he looks for signs that God is supporting his mission, and one such sign was the Republican sweep in the elections.

Paragraph three:

“The President is more determined than ever to stay the course,” the former defense official said. “He doesn’t feel any pain. Bush is a believer in the adage ‘People may suffer and die, but the Church advances.’ ” He said that the President had become more detached, leaving more issues to Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. “They keep him in the gray world of religious idealism, where he wants to be anyway,” the former defense official said. Bush’s public appearances, for example, are generally scheduled in front of friendly audiences, most often at military bases. Four decades ago, President Lyndon Johnson, who was also confronted with an increasingly unpopular war, was limited to similar public forums. “Johnson knew he was a prisoner in the White House,” the former official said, “but Bush has no idea.”

His cause, his mission, is more important than individual lives. He is becoming more and more isolated in his own bubble.

I am not going to do much more with this, except to remind myself, "There, too, but by the Grace of God, go I." I, too, was isolated in a bubble of my own belief system until I got so sick of it that I asked for help and miraculously awakened from my beliefs to the truth of who I am, the holy son of God. And it is ongoing. A belief system is a bad habit that requires willingness, determination, and practice to overcome. It’s always only moment to moment.

After mulling over those three paragraphs, all I wanted to do was take twenty minutes to review the first fifty lessons of Jesus’ Course in Miracles, so that I could remind myself that I am not sustained by my beliefs, but I am sustained by the love of God.

Please click on the link for a review of the first fifty lessons.

http://acim.home.att.net/workbook051.html

Here is the link to Hersh's article.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/051205fa_fact

Today, Tuesday 18 April, 2006, James Reston, Jr., wrote an article with a similar theme: "The American Inquisition." Please click on the link below.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2006-04-17-american-inquisition-edit_x.htm


The New Yorker, Seymour M. Hersh, Bush, terrorism, Cheney

Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory," and experiencing Heaven on earth.

I have yet to see the movie “Capote,” but all the hype surrounding it made me curious to see what he had as a writer. I picked up his short story, "A Christmas Memory," and I was delighted to experience his lyricism in describing scenes and events, and I was stunned to come across a paragraph that expressed a great truth, in fact, so on the mark that it echoed passages from Jesus’ Course in Miracles.

The narrator, Buddy, is seven years old at the time of the story, but he is looking back on it some twenty years later. He describes his loving friendship with his cousin, a woman in her late 60’s, as they prepare for Christmas in the south.

Imagine a morning in late November. A coming of winter morning more than twenty years ago. Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house in a country town. A great black stove is its main feature; but there is also a big round table and a fireplace with two rocking chairs placed in front of it. Just today the fireplace commenced its seasonal roar.

A woman with shorn white hair is standing at the kitchen window. She is wearing tennis shoes and a shapeless gray sweater over a summery calico dress. She is small and sprightly, like a bantam hen; but, due to a long youthful illness, her shoulders are pitifully hunched. Her face is remarkable—not unlike Lincoln's, craggy like that, and tinted by sun and wind; but it is delicate too, finely boned, and her eyes are sherry-colored and timid. "Oh my," she exclaims, her breath smoking the windowpane, "it's fruitcake weather!"


They scrimp all year, saving up pennies at a time, to make the thirty fruitcakes. He tells of gathering the ingredients, including buying whiskey from a scary Indian, making the cakes, distributing them, sharing the whiskey afterwards, two ounces each, decorating the house, and then going deep into the woods for the perfect Christmas tree, making each other special gifts: kites, and then flying them on Christmas Day.

"Buddy, the wind is blowing."

The wind is blowing, and nothing will do till we've run to a Pasture below the house where Queenie has scooted to bury her bone (and where, a winter hence, Queenie will be buried, too). There, plunging through the healthy waist-high grass, we unreel our kites, feel them twitching at the string like sky fish as they swim into the wind. Satisfied, sun-warmed, we sprawl in the grass and peel Satsumas and watch our kites cavort. Soon I forget the socks and hand-me-down sweater. I'm as happy as if we'd already won the fifty-thousand-dollar Grand Prize in that coffee-naming contest.

And now, here is the stunning paragraph.

"My, how foolish I am!" my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. "You know what I've always thought?" she asks in a tone of discovery and not smiling at me but a point beyond. "I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord. And I imagined that when he came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling. But I'11 wager it never happens. I'11 wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself. That things as they are"—her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone—"just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."

This from a woman who read only the funny papers and the Bible.

She discovers that it is always Heaven on earth, if you look through the eyes of Christ. She experiences a holy instant, and in that moment, things forever change for her, and it is implied for Buddy, too.

And now, look at the juxtaposition of lines from this paragraph and passages from A Course in Miracles.

"My, how foolish I am!" my friend cries, suddenly alert, like a woman remembering too late she has biscuits in the oven. "You know what I've always thought?" she asks in a tone of discovery

Is it not a happy discovery to find that you can escape?
W-p1.22.2:3

and not smiling at me but a point beyond. "I've always thought a body would have to be sick and dying before they saw the Lord.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all. W-p1.188.1:1-4

And I imagined that when he came it would be like looking at the Baptist window: pretty as colored glass with the sun pouring through, such a shine you don't know it's getting dark. And it's been a comfort: to think of that shine taking away all the spooky feeling.

This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there? W-p1.188.2:1,2

But I'11 wager it never happens. I'11 wager at the very end a body realizes the Lord has already shown Himself.

The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. W-p1.188.3:1,2

That things as they are"

Let all things be exactly as they are. Lesson 268, Title

—her hand circles in a gesture that gathers clouds and kites and grass and Queenie pawing earth over her bone—"just what they've always seen, was seeing Him. As for me, I could leave the world with today in my eyes."

The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well. W-p1.188.4:1

The shining in his friend’s mind reminded Buddy of what he had forgotten, in that moment as a seven-year old, and now at twenty-seven as he looks back. He shared her holy instant, the restoration of the memory. This accounts for his lyricism. His lyrical passages stop to caress each living thing.

The kitchen is growing dark. Dusk turns the window into a mirror: our reflections mingle with the rising moon as we work by the fireside in the firelight.

Now a nude December fig branch grates against the window. The kitchen is empty, the cakes are gone; yesterday we carted the last of them to the post office, where the cost of stamps turned our purse inside out. We're broke. That rather depresses me, but my friend insists on celebrating—with two inches of whiskey left in Haha's bottle. Queenie has a spoonful in a bowl of coffee (she likes her coffee chicory-flavored and strong). The rest we divide between a pair of jelly glasses. We're both quite awed at the prospect of drinking straight whiskey; the taste of it brings screwedup expressions and sour shudders. But by and by we begin to sing, the two of us singing different songs simultaneously. I don't know the words to mine, just: Come on along, come on along, to the dark-town strutters' ball. But I can dance: that's what I mean to be, a tap dancer in the movies. My dancing shadow rollicks on the walls; our voices rock the chinaware; we giggle: as if unseen hands were tickling us. Queenie rolls on her back, her paws plow the air, something like a grin stretches her black lips. Inside myself, I feel warm and sparky as those crumbling logs, carefree as the wind in the chimney. My friend waltzes round the stove, the hem of her poor calico skirt pinched between her fingers as though it were a party dress: Show me the way to go home, she sings, her tennis shoes squeaking on the floor. Show me the way to go home.

And, now, Dear Reader, we are lit up, too, looking through the eyes of Christ and experiencing the peace of God as we gaze into the precious things surrounding us, Heaven on earth.

Click on the link below to read the complete story.

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9352/christmas-capote.html

A Savior's Dialectic

Reading the first paragraph of today’s lesson, 333, Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here, I was struck again by Jesus’ simple, clear, precise, step by step guidance in just four sentences: 1) to resolve your conflict, 2) don’t do this, 3) do this, and 4) your apparent conflict will disappear.

Conflict must be resolved. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.

When I came across this phrase, where it is thought to be, this line flashed into my mind:

Sorrow’s springs are the same.

This comes from a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) entitled, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child.

Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?
Leaves, like the things of man, you
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?
Ah! as the heart grows older
It will come to such sights colder
By & by, nor spare a sigh
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;
And yet you wíll weep & know why.
Now no matter, child, the name:
Sorrow's springs are the same.
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:
It is the blight man was born for,
It is Margaret you mourn for.

Margaret may think she is depressed and grieving simply because of what she sees outside of her—the falling, dying leaves, Goldengrove unleaving, and worlds of wanwood leafmeal laying about, and the melancholy of a day in the fall. And the narrator knows that she will grow up, adjust to these sights, become hardened, and come to such sights colder. But he asks in the first sentence, are these external things really what she is upset about? He knows that her sorrow springs always from the same thing, conflicting thoughts that start inside and paint a sad picture outside. He answers his question in the last two lines, saying that this is the blight for which she was born. This is emphasized in rhyming born for and mourn for. The certain result of being born into the human condition is mourning.

To his credit the narrator identifies the problem, the thoughts in her mind, and yet he is incapable of offering a solution.

Right here is where we can engage the narrator and Margaret in a savior’s dialectic. That is what Jesus does throughout His Course in Miracles, and particularly in today’s lesson. (I am grateful to my friend, Jane Wiltshire, who first introduced me to this idea.) Dialectic means “dialogue, the art of arriving at the truth by the exchange of logical arguments.” Although argument has taken on negative connotations—couples argue, parents and children argue, friends argue, the word comes from the Latin, arguere, meaning “to make clear.” With an awakened mind, the mind of the savior, we can engage Margaret in a dialogue that will make clear that she is not who she thinks she is, that her thoughts have no source in reality.

We can demonstrate to her that no matter what she thinks,

What heart heard of, ghost guessed

Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.

Margaret, in your separated state you are, indeed, born to mourn, but that is not the truth of what you are. You are the holy child of God, and you can be reborn through forgiveness. As Jesus tells us in today’s lesson, conflict is only thought into existence, and you can learn to change your thoughts.

This brings us back to the beginning, Jesus’ step by step guidance.

1. Conflict must be resolved.

Resolve means “to make a firm decision about.” You have the power of decision to decide between your sorrow, or the peace of God.

2. It cannot be
evaded, set aside, denied, disguised,
seen somewhere else, called by another name,
or hidden by deceit of any kind,
if it would be escaped.

Jesus knows that we will do everything possible to keep the conflict, while all the time refusing to face it directly, engaging in evasive tactics. This ensures that the conflict remains as a defense against the love of God. Margaret, this is what I did in my most recent devastation. I sat down on the couch, grabbed a pen and notebook, and wrote down each thought exactly as it entered my mind—It must be seen exactly as it is. By simply setting down each thought, I faced it head on, not evading it, not setting it aside, and so forth. After filling up four pages, I realized that my inner dialogue disappeared into the nothingness it is, and I was free because it was replaced by my own dialogue with my Self, telling me the truth of what I am, the holy child of God.

3. It must be seen
exactly as it is, where it is thought
to be, in the reality which has
been given it, and with the purpose that
the mind accorded it.

The devastation was simply heightened conflict, and conflict, Margaret, is where it is thought to be, thought into existence, and these thoughts have only one purpose—preoccupying you to such an extent that you will not turn towards the light.

4. For only then
are its defenses lifted, and the truth
can shine upon it as it disappears.

And now as the dark defense lifts by your forgiving thoughts, you can see the glory of autumn as purely a reflection of your Self, shining brightly in everything you look upon.

Father, forgiveness is the light You chose
to shine away all conflict and all doubt,
and light the way for our return to You.
No light but this can end our evil dream.
No light but this can save the world. For this
alone will never fail in anything,
being Your gift to Your beloved Son.


Finally, think of light as understanding.

Understanding is light, and light leads to knowledge.
T-5.111.7:5

Now, you understand that you seemed to be born to mourn, yet you can ask for help to be reborn by changing your mind, forgiving conflicting thoughts, and experiencing the knowledge of peace and joy.

Discovering a sonnet by Jesus

Yesterday morning, while reading the day’s lesson, Lesson 329, I have already chosen what you will, I found the prayer to be particularly poetic and began wondering if this were a sonnet by Jesus, hidden in the prose, one of several I have found sprinkled throughout the Text and Workbook.

Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. This am I, and this will never change. As You are One, so am I one with You. And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. That choice was made for all eternity. It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.

Curiously, I started at the beginning of the prayer, counting ten syllables, then starting a new line, Et Voila! fourteen lines emerged from the prose, a sonnet marching stately across the page in a gentle cadence.

FATH er, i THOUGHT i WAN dered FROM your WILL,
de FIED it, BROKE its LAWS, and IN ter POSED
a second will more powerful than Yours.

Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will,
extended and extending. This am I,
and this will never change. As You are One,
so am I one with You. And this I chose
in my creation, where my will became
forever one with Yours. That choice was made
for all eternity. It cannot change,
and be in opposition to itself.

Father, my will is Yours. And I am safe,
untroubled and serene, in endless joy,
because it is Your Will that it be so.

This rhythm is iambic pentameter, five sets of iambs, slack STRESS. The one exception is FATH er, which is a trochee, STRESS slack.

Trust your ear to find the stresses, five per line, and then read it slowly aloud, finding a soft, stately cadence, and soon your heartbeat, ta DUM, ta DUM, will align with Jesus’ slack STRESS, slack STRESS, and you will discover:

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

Notice how Jesus uses the convention to blend the rhythm and the sense in this sentence:

As YOU are ONE,
so AM i ONE with YOU.

In the first clause, YOU and ONE receive the stress, emphasizing Oneness, and in the second clause, ONE is stressed, but not the i. If the i were stressed, it would prevent the blending into Oneness:

so I am ONE with YOU.

This particular sonnet is divided into three parts. In part one, the separation is emphasized. In part two, the Oneness is expressed, and in part three, the consequence of Oneness is emphasized: safety, serenity, and joy.

Now, I will contrast Jesus’ sonnet with a sonnet by Shakespeare, selecting one of my favorites, Sonnet 55.

Not MAR ble, NOR the GILD ed MON u MENTS
of PRIN ces, SHALL out LIVE this POWR’ ful RHYME;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword, nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death, and all oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.

So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

The Shakespearian sonnet, and it is hard to believe that he wrote 154 of them, is divided into three 4 line stanzas, and a rhyming couplet. The rhythm is iambic pentameter.

If you have a keen eye, you may have seen the irregularity of the iambic pattern in line 11:

Even in the eyes of all posterity

It scans like this:

E ven /in the EYES /of ALL /pos TER /i TY

Sometimes, Shakespeare varies the rhythm. In this case the first foot (E ven) is a trochee, STRESS slack, like FATH er, and the second (in the EYES) is an anapest, slack slack STRESS, and the last three are iambs.

Notice that the end rhymes of each stanza follow a certain pattern: the first and third rhyme
(-ments. –tents), and second and fourth (rhyme, time).

As far as content, this sonnet is a testament to the power of the sonnet form, whether Jesus’ or Shakespeare’s. This powerful form will outlive monuments in space and time. Wars will not wipe it out. As long as there are readers, the sonnet lives, and his beloved lives as well. She attains immortality in these lines. She lives again as we read it, now.

In fact, Shakespeare uses the word “live”, or a form of it, four times:

line 2, outlive; line 8, living; line 9, oblivious; and line 14, live

In Jesus’ sonnet, the lines live in us as we read them, hearing Him speak to us from within, His voice as rhythmic as our beating heart, and we hear Him speaking not about immortality, but of resurrection. Each moment we experience Oneness, we resurrect, relinquishing the crucifixion of wandering from God’s will.

THANK you, FATH er.

"We have met the enemy, and they is us," Pogo.

You know, it all just comes down to a bad habit. We have the habit of looking out into the world and finding ourselves a victim of what we see, thinking that what we see out there is separate from us, and furthermore, that what we see is the cause of what we experience within. We think we are the effect of an external cause.

For example, we cross paths with a person who seems to be our enemy, and we react with anger and contempt. This is just a bad habit because it turns out that there are no enemies outside of us, except what we project from our minds. We look within, first, to see what is without, and what is without always is secondary. We are, in fact, the cause of an external effect.

This is classically expressed in Walt Kelly’s comic strip, “Pogo,” on Earth Day, 1970, when Pogo says, “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”

Since seeing the enemy out there happens so rapidly and unconsciously, we need to slow it down so that we can become aware of exactly how the projection occurs. First, we start with your mind, and in your mind are only two states, one unreal, and one real. The unreal is a state of mind of conflict, through which the ego sees. The real is the state of mind of the peace of God, through which the Christ sees. When you see an enemy out there, it is because you made a choice, automatically, rapidly, and unconsciously to project from the state of mind of conflict and see through the eyes of the ego. When the enemy is transformed before your very eyes into your brother, your neighbor, it is because you chose to ask for help to extend love and see through the eyes of Christ. Jesus says it this way in His unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles.

I said before that what you project or extend is up to you, but you must do one or the other, for that is a law of mind, and you must look in before you look out. As you look in, you choose the guide for seeing. And then you look out and behold his witnesses. This is why you find what you seek. What you want in yourself you will make manifest, and you will accept it from the world because you put it there by wanting it. T-12.V11.7:1-5

In a remarkable poem, The Man He Killed, Thomas Hardy (1840-1928), gives us an example of how the narrator makes the shift from projecting the enemy to extending the Christ.


"Had he and I but met
By some old ancient inn,
We should have set us down to wet
Right many a nipperkin!

But ranged as infantry,
And staring face to face,
I shot at him as he at me,
And killed him in his place.

I shot him dead because--
Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was;
That's clear enough; although

He thought he'd 'list, perhaps,
Off-hand like--just as I--
Was out of work--had sold his traps--
No other reason why.

Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat, if met where any bar is,
Or help to half a crown."

The poem begins with the narrator reflecting on the action, at some point after it occurred. I imagine the narrator to be in a bar right now, wetting many small beer glasses. In the first stanza, he is looking back and seeing through the eyes of Christ the man he killed as a brother, as a neighbor. In the second stanza, he recalls how he first saw him on the battlefield as the enemy, after all, he had been trained to kill his enemy. The remarkable thing about stanza three is that you can see the shift beginning to occur.

“I shot him dead because—

And now the ordinarily automatic, rapid thought is slowed down; he can’t find the answer, and then he does come up with it because of his conditioning.


Because he was my foe,
Just so: my foe of course he was

Look at how slow that line moves, as if he’s trying to push away cobwebs. I read it stressing each of these words and pausing after each: so:, foe, course, was.

That’s clear enough, although

But he can’t maintain the thought, the rationalization, the projection is loosening, as the although takes him to his kinship with his “enemy.”

--just as I—

In the last stanza, the projection slips, and he sees him through the eyes of Christ.

The quotation marks around the poem show that he is telling this as a story, giving away his hard-earned truth in order to keep it. You hold onto it by giving it away. You learn by teaching.

His enemy was never out there, separate from the narrator’s thoughts. When his thoughts came from conflict, he saw his enemy; when they came from love, he saw someone exactly like himself, the Christ. We are asked only to be still, to slow down our thoughts, as the narrator did, and ask for help from the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, to make the shift to the state of mind of the peace of God. If we don’t learn to slow down, as the narrator did in stanza three, we will crucify our “enemies,” when all the time we have the power of decision to resurrect.

Now, you and I are blessed to be able to hear Jesus speak to us through His Course in Miracles, and give us precise, clear instructions on how to make this shift in our minds, knowing now that what is within only appears as without.

Select one brother, symbol of the rest,
and ask salvation of him. See him first
as clearly as you can, in that same form
to which you are accustomed. See his face,
his hands and feet, his clothing. Watch him smile,
and see familiar gestures which he makes
so frequently. Then think of this: What you
are seeing now conceals from you the sight
of one who can forgive you all your sins;
whose sacred hands can take away the nails
which pierce your own, and lift the crown of thorns
which you have placed upon your bleeding head.
Ask this of him, that he may set you free:

Give me your blessing, holy Son of God.
I would behold you with the eyes of Christ,
and see my perfect sinlessness in you.

And He will answer Whom you called upon.
For He will hear the Voice for God in you,
and answer in your own. Behold him now,
whom you have seen as merely flesh and bone,
and recognize that Christ has come to you.
Today's idea is your safe escape
from anger and from fear. Be sure you use
it instantly, should you be tempted to
attack a brother and perceive in him
the symbol of your fear. And you will see
him suddenly transformed from enemy
to savior; from the devil into Christ.
W-p1.161.11,12

Finally, for a fuller treatment of exactly how you naturally project and how you can learn to extend, read Jesus' words in His Course in Miracles, Chapter 12, Section 7, "Looking Within."

http://acim.home.att.net/text-12-07.html

Informed by the formless

It is possible for me now to walk through the world knowing that I am in the world, but not of the world. This awareness can also be expressed as entering into time and space from out of time. This is experienced as being in the state of mind of the peace of God and simply observing what is unfolding before my eyes. Objects come and go, time passes, the dream figures pass by, and I walk through the emphemeral rooted in the peace of God.

It is always a matter of forgetting and remembering. When I find myself walking through the world forgetting that I have come here from out of time, I ask for help to remember that I am not from here. That moment of recognition is a miracle. It is a miracle to know the difference.

When I do find myself remembering that I am from Heaven, I say “Thank You.”

In the state of mind of remembering, I am receptive to the Voice for God, and I ask:

What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?
W-p1.71.9:3-5

In this manner, I walk through form informed by the formless.

And now, there is only now, the world shines brightly because it reflects the light of Heaven, the light of the formless.

Yes, Dear Reader, you can experience this for yourself.

Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
W-p1.188.6

And now enjoy in blank verse Lesson 188, The Peace of God is shining in me now.

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light
are merely covering their eyes. The light
is in them now. Enlightenment is but
a recognition, not a change at all.
Light is not of the world, yet you who bear
the light in you are alien here as well.
The light came with you from your native home,
and stayed with you because it is your own.
It is the only thing you bring with you
from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you
because it lights your home, and leads you back
to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find
it in the future, or believe it has
been lost already, or was never there?
It can so easily be looked upon
that arguments which prove it is not there
become ridiculous. Who can deny
the presence of what he beholds in him?
It is not difficult to look within,
for there all vision starts. There is no sight,
be it of dreams or from a truer Source,
that is not but the shadow of the seen
through inward vision. There perception starts,
and there it ends. It has no source but this.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and from your heart extends around the world.
It pauses to caress each living thing,
and leaves a blessing with it that remains
forever and forever. What it gives
must be eternal. It removes all thoughts
of the ephemeral and valueless.
It brings renewal to all tired hearts,
and lights all vision as it passes by.
All of its gifts are given everyone,
and everyone unites in giving thanks
to you who give, and you who have received.
The shining in your mind reminds the world
of what it has forgotten, and the world
restores the memory to you as well.
From you salvation radiates with gifts
beyond all measure, given and returned.
To you, the giver of the gift, does God
Himself give thanks. And in His blessing does
the light in you shine brighter, adding to
the gifts you have to offer to the world.
The peace of God can never be contained.
Who recognizes it within himself
must give it. And the means for giving it
are in his understanding. He forgives
because he recognized the truth in him.
The peace of God is shining in you now,
and in all living things. In quietness
is it acknowledged universally.
For what your inward vision looks upon
is your perception of the universe.
Sit quietly and close your eyes. The light
within you is sufficient. It alone
has power to give the gift of sight to you.
Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts
fly to the peace within. They know the way.
For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream
of worldly things outside yourself, become
the holy messengers of God Himself.
These thoughts you think with Him. They recognize
their home. And they point surely to their Source,
Where God the Father and the Son are One.
God's peace is shining on them, but they must
remain with you as well, for they were born
within your mind, as yours was born in God's.
They lead you back to peace, from where they came
but to remind you how you must return.
They heed your Father's Voice when you refuse
to listen. And they urge you gently to
accept His Word for what you are, instead
of fantasies and shadows. They remind
you that you are the co-creator of
all things that live. For as the peace of God
is shining in you, it must shine on them.
We practice coming nearer to the light
in us today. We take our wandering thoughts,
and gently bring them back to where they fall
in line with all the thoughts we share with God.
We will not let them stray. We let the light
within our minds direct them to come home.
We have betrayed them, ordering that they
depart from us. But now we call them back,
and wash them clean of strange desires and
disordered wishes. We restore to them
the holiness of their inheritance.
Thus are our minds restored with them, and we
acknowledge that the peace of God still shines
in us, and from us to all living things
that share our life. We will forgive them all,
absolving all the world from what we thought
it did to us. For it is we who make
the world as we would have it. Now we choose
that it be innocent, devoid of sin
and open to salvation. And we lay
our saving blessing on it, as we say:

The peace of God is shining in me now.
Let all things shine upon me in that peace,
And let me bless them with the light in me.

Lesson 308, This instant is the only time there is.

You may find yourself increasingly dissatisfied with you life, and while looking for satisfaction, you may find comfort in the idea that you are on a journey, and in time you will find what you’re looking for.

What you have forgotten is that there is only now. Whoops! That now moment is gone, and there’s only now. Right now is this interval from what appears to be past to what appears to be the future. Now is a shift in your mind from the state of conflict to the state of the peace of God. In this state of mind you look through the eyes of Christ and experience only the reflection of the peace of God, now. The now is experienced as the absence of a chattering voice narrating you life of conflict. There is only the stillness of now.

These thoughts were inspired by today’s lesson.

http://acim.home.att.net/workbook308.html

“Conceive” comes from the Latin, concipere, meaning “to take in.” Through the eyes of the ego, we assume that what is outside is real, and we “take it in” and give it meaning. That is our conception of time. We look at the hands moving on a clock and make it real, while all the time this defeats our aim of experiencing the Christ being born in us, an expression for experiencing peace through the eyes of Christ, requiring simply a shift of mind from conflict to peace.
The purpose of the illusion of time is to use it to spring into Heaven. You can choose, you can elect now, to see through the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ and experience now. This action of the mind is called forgiveness. Since there are only two emotions, love and fear, you can forgive fear and experience only love; fear is no more real than time. There is no world other than how I conceive it. When I forgive my conceptions, I experience salvation.

Here is Lesson 308 in blank verse. Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambic, slack STRESS. (For a fuller explanation of blank verse, please see the preceding blog on Lesson 304)

Enjoy.

Lesson 308

This instant is the only time there is.

I have conceived of time in such a way
that I defeat my aim. If I elect
to reach past time to timelessness, I must
change my perception of what time is for.
Time's purpose cannot be to keep the past
and future one. The only interval
in which I can be saved from time is now.
For in this instant has forgiveness come
to set me free. The birth of Christ is now,
without a past or future. He has come
to give His present blessing to the world,
restoring it to timelessness and love.
And love is ever-present, here and now.

Thanks for this instant, Father. It is now
I am redeemed. This instant is the time
You have appointed for Your Son's release,
and for salvation of the world in him.

Lesson 304: Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.

For the past several weeks, I keep coming back to this five-step formulation of the utter simplicity of salvation. I often sit back and run these steps through my mind, rehearsing them, and then when the drama begins, when the director says “Action,” I am ready.

1. When I find myself experiencing fear and pain, I say to myself, “This certainly seems fearful, but it is not so. In my mind there are only two states, one is the state of mind of the peace of God, and this state is the only one real; the other state is one of ear and conflict, and it has no source in reality.”

2. Further, I make it very concrete by using the metaphor of seeing: When I look out at the world, what I see mirrors, either the state of mind of fear, or the state of mind of peace. What I see, then, is seen through, either the eyes of the ego, or the eyes of Christ.

3. Since this is all going on only in my mind, I have the power, I have the responsibility, to choose the eyes through which I see. I remind myself that what I am seeing through the eyes of the ego is not real, and in fact, no longer exists. What I see through the eyes of Christ is real and loving and eternal.

4. Now, it is just a matter of asking for help to let go of, relinquish, forgive that which is not real, so that I can shift from the false state of mind to the true. It is simply an action of the mind.

5. Finally, if I do not immediately experience forgiveness in the next moment, and sometimes I do with a warm wave of gratitude, then I trust that I am God’s beloved Son, and the lag time will soon pass, and I will soon see again with the eyes of Christ, mirroring the peace of God.

Remembering these lines in my daily drama, I was astonished and grateful to read Jesus’ words today in Lesson 304, Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ.

I can obscure my holy sight, if I intrude my world upon it. Nor can I behold the holy sights Christ looks upon, unless it is His vision that I use. Perception is a mirror, not a fact. And what I look on is my state of mind, reflected outward. I would bless the world by looking on it through the eyes of Christ. And I will look upon the certain signs that all my sins have been forgiven me.

You lead me from the darkness to the light; from sin to holiness. Let me forgive, and thus receive salvation for the world. It is Your gift, my Father, given me to offer to Your holy Son, that he may find again the memory of You, and of Your Son as You created him.

To obscuremeans to hide, or veil meaning. Seeing through the eyes of the ego presents a world that veils the truth of what I am, what we are, and when one of us sees truly, it is a gift to all our brothers.

Hidden in the prose version of this lesson is a special gift from Jesus, the lesson in the sheer poetry of blank verse, meaning ten syllables per line in a particular pattern called iambs, slack STRESS. Try scanning the lines to find the rhythm, for example: chris TINE.

Let not my world obscure the sight of Christ

I can obscure my holy sight, if I
intrude my world upon it. Nor can I
behold the holy sights Christ looks upon,
unless it is His vision that I use.
Perception is a mirror, not a fact.
And what I look on is my state of mind,
reflected outward. I would bless the world
by looking on it through the eyes of Christ.
And I will look upon the certain signs
that all my sins have been forgiven me.

You lead me from the darkness to the light;
from sin to holiness. Let me forgive,
and thus receive salvation for the world.
It is Your gift, my Father, given me
to offer to Your holy Son, that he
may find again the memory of You,
and of Your Son as You created him.

Here you go:



let NOT my WORLD ob SCURE the SIGHT of CHRIST

i CAN ob SCURE my HO ly SIGHT, if I

You can practice scanning the rest of the lines.

in trude my world up on it. Nor can I

4. be hold the ho ly sights CHRIST LOOKS up on,

un less it is His vis ion that I use.

Per cep tion is a mir ror, not a fact.

And what I look on is my state of mind,

re flect ed out ward. I would bless the world

by look ing on it through the eyes of Christ.

And I will look upon the cer tain signs

that all my sins have been for giv en me.

12. YOU LEAD me from the dark ness to the light;

from sin to hol i ness. Let me for give,

and thus re ceive sal va tion for the world.

It is Your gift, my Fath er, giv en me

to of fer to Your ho ly Son, that he

may find a gain the mem or y of You,

and of Your Son as You cre at ed him.

In lines 4 and 12, Jesus breaks the pattern to emphasize His meaning by using a particular pattern called spondees, STRESS STRESS.

In the Workbook from Lesson 98 to 365, Jesus’ lessons are all in blank verse, and in the Text, from Chapter 26 to 31 His chapters are in blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.

I express my gratitude for Jesus’ Course in Miracles in this poem of blank verse.

Jesus speaks and Helen scribes, precisely,
so that not one syllable goes astray,
marching stately across the pages in
blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.

True Security, the peace of God

I was inspired to write this blog by reading a column in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, entitled Security is an Elusive Mental Blanket by Philip Chard, a psychotherapist and regular columnist for the Sentinel.

Please read Philip's column by clicking on this link:

http://www.jsonline.com/lifestyle/advice/oct05/365340.asp

Dear Philip,

I rather enjoyed yesterday’s column on Security. I began tracking you right away when you emphasized “illusion” in your first paragraph. Illusion comes from the Latin ludere, meaning “to play, to mock.” An illusion is a mockery of truth. I began tracking you in the sense that a correspondence was set up in my mind between my terminology based on Jesus’ Course in Miracles and yours. “Small picture” is an illusion projected from within by a self that has no source in reality. It is an internal state of mind, the ego mind, projected to appear out there. When it seems to be out there, we make adjustments regarding money, relationships, and fixed patterns of behavior, not recognizing that we are responsible because there is no out there separate from in here, in the mind. There is only my mind. Since there is no out there, only in here, I have the responsibility of choosing to see from the “small picture” state of mind, or from the state of mind of the peace of God, the “big picture.” I also like the word “elusive” in the title; our focus out there on the “small picture” is an evasion of reality, of the truth.

The “big picture” is simply the recognition of a state of mind of the peace of God that is our natural inheritance as children of God. The recognition that the peace of God is shining in me now is seeing the “big picture.” This is our only security because any investment in the “small picture” is an investment in an illusion, a mockery of truth.

That’s why I like your paragraph that begins, “True security grows from an abiding faith. . .”

Now, I think you will find this incredible. Here is the title for the lesson for today from Jesus’ Course in Miracles, Lesson 299: Eternal holiness abides in me. Your use of the word “abide” is inspired. My mind, your mind, is the abode of God’s holiness. Here’s the lesson:

My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.
Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.
Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.

Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.
It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.
It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.

These comments came to mind regarding the lesson in the context of your column.


My holiness is far beyond my own
ability to understand or know.

Holiness is synonymous with the “big picture.” We can know it by recognizing it, but we cannot understand it from the ego perspective.

Yet God, my Father, Who created it,
acknowledges my holiness as His.

The state of mind of the peace of God is an extension of God.

Our Will, together, understands it. And
our Will, together, knows that it is so.

My will is only to experience the peace of God, to look through the illusion and say, “This is not so.” Only the peace of God is so. The letting go of the “small picture” is forgiveness.

Father, my holiness is not of me.
It is not mine to be destroyed by sin.

“Sin” comes from the Aramaic, Jesus’ language, and it is an archery term. To be on the mark is to hit the target. To be off the mark is to miss, to sin. Isn’t that amazing! Sin has nothing to do with violating a church code; sin simply means to invest in the illusion.

It is not mine to suffer from attack.
Illusions can obscure it, but can not
put out its radiance, nor dim its light.

I am, you are, the light of the world. We are very holy.

It stands forever perfect and untouched.
In it are all things healed, for they remain
as You created them. And I can know
my holiness. For Holiness Itself
created me, and I can know my Source
because it is Your Will that You be known.

So, I begin each day looking forward to reading the lesson for the day. Today’s is 299, meaning the 299th day since lesson 1 on January 1, 2005. And how do you think Jesus helps us begin our great undoing, investing in the “small picture?” His first lesson title forces us to take a direct look at it, and say to ourselves: Nothing I see means anything.

So there you are. You fired me up. Thank you.

Take care.

To place this blog in the context of Jesus' teaching, please read my "Latest Article," entitled Yours is the Power of Decision on my website:

http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.com/