For anyone who has learned to perceive truly through A Course in Miracles, it is no surprise that the Course provides a framework for all of our life experiences. In His Introduction to the Workbook, Jesus says:
If true perception has been achieved in connection with any person, situation or event, total transfer to everyone and everything is certain. W-p1.Intro.5:2
This makes it possible to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s true intent in his sonnet is absolutely consistent with the Course.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
The best way for me to approach the meaning of this sonnet is to recognize who is speaking to whom. The speaker is addressing his lover who is saying, basically, you did me wrong by not meeting my demands of romantic love, the requirements of a special relationship. You impeded its fullest development.
Right in the beginning of the sonnet, the speaker shifts the argument for a special relationship to a higher level, the marriage of true minds, a holy relationship.
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.
Shakespeare calls his lover's vague accusations impediments. The word impediment means “to check our progress, to strike against our feet,” coming from the Latin pedis, meaning “foot.” The speaker is saying, I will not allow the admittance of this judgment into my mind to prevent me from the awareness that love is one, the marriage of true minds.
That love is one is echoed in this passage from the Course:
Perhaps you think that different kinds of
love are possible. Perhaps you think there is
a kind of love for this, a kind for that;
a way of loving one, another way
of loving still another. Love is one.
It has no separate parts and no degrees;
no kinds nor levels, no divergencies
and no distinctions. It is like itself,
unchanged throughout.W-p.1.127.1:1-5
Experiencing this oneness is the holy instant.
The holy instant is a time in which you receive and give perfect communication. This means, however, that it is a time in which your mind is open, both to receive and give. It is the recognition that all minds are in communication. It therefore seeks to change nothing, but merely to accept everything. T-15.lV.6:5-8
The holy instant is the Holy Spirit's most useful learning device for teaching you love's meaning. For its purpose is to suspend judgment entirely. Judgment always rests on the past, for past experience is the basis on which you judge. Judgment becomes impossible without the past, for without it you do not understand anything. T-15.V.1:1-4
Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
It never alters with
a person or a circumstance. It is
the Heart of God, and also of His Son.
Love's meaning is obscure to anyone
who thinks that love can change. He does not see
that changing love must be impossible.
And thus he thinks that he can love at times,
and hate at other times. He also thinks
that love can be bestowed on one, and yet
remain itself although it is
withheld from others. To believe these things
of love is not to understand it. If it could
make such distinctions, it would have to judge
between the righteous and the sinner, and
perceive the Son of God in separate parts.
W-p1.127.2
The speaker remains steadfast in his awareness of total love, the marriage of true minds, recognizing that this love does not alter, and he will not bend with his lover to remove that which is not real. His beloved is looking for certainty in specialness. The following passage is particularly powerful if you imagine Jesus addressing the lover expressing grievances.
You cannot love parts of reality and understand what love means. If you would love unlike to God, Who knows no special love, how can you understand it? To believe that special relationships, with special love, can offer you salvation is the belief that separation is salvation. For it is the complete equality of the Atonement in which salvation lies. How can you decide that special aspects of the Sonship can give you more than others? The past has taught you this. Yet the holy instant teaches you it is not so. T-15.V.3
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
This expresses the speaker’s constancy to the marriage of true minds in contrast to altering or bending or removing. To illustrate this constancy Shakespeare uses the metaphor of the Northern Star that over the centuries has provided an ever-fixed mark for mariners, enabling them to orient themselves on the dark ocean, sailing their barks, their boats. Although the distance between the Northern Star and your boat can be measured, his height be taken, its value to mariners is immeasurable, having saved an untold number of lives throughout the generations.
This ever-fixed mark is like a touch of Heaven.
Everyone on earth has formed special relationships, and although this is not so in Heaven, the Holy Spirit knows how to bring a touch of Heaven to them here. In the holy instant no one is special, for your personal needs intrude on no one to make your brothers seem different. Without the values from the past, you would see them all the same and like yourself. Nor would you see any separation between yourself and them. In the holy instant, you see in each relationship what it will be when you perceive only the present. T-15.V.8
The speaker is capable of bringing a touch of Heaven to their special relationship, but his lover is incapable.
Shakespeare also uses this metaphor to express Caesar’s constancy in his play, Julius Caesar. In the Senate on the Ides of March, as the senators and conspirators press in on Caesar, presenting their petitions, he becomes angry and declares that he will not be moved by their pleading, these couchings and these lowly courtesies, as an ordinary man might be. He declares that he is constant.
I could be well moved, if I were as you:
If I could pray to move, prayers would move me:
But I am constant as the northern star,
Of whose true-fix'd and resting quality
There is no fellow in the firmament.
The skies are painted with unnumber'd sparks,
They are all fire and every one doth shine,
But there's but one in all doth hold his place:
So in the world.
Julius Caesar.3.1:58-66
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Because of guilt, all special relationships have elements of fear in them. This is why they shift and change so frequently. They are not based on changeless love alone. And love, where fear has entered, cannot be depended on because it is not perfect. In His function as Interpreter of what you made, the Holy Spirit uses special relationships, which you have chosen to support the ego, as learning experiences that point to truth. Under His teaching, every relationship becomes a lesson in love. T-15.V.4
Special relationships are based on things as they appear to be in time and space, and a love based on these appearances, being Time’s fool, vanishes like men before the Grim Reaper.
The ego's use of relationships is so fragmented that it frequently goes even farther; one part of one aspect suits its purposes, while it prefers different parts of another aspect. Thus does it assemble reality to its own capricious liking, offering for your seeking a picture whose likeness does not exist. For there is nothing in Heaven or earth that it resembles, and so, however much you seek for its reality, you cannot find it because it is not real. T-15.V.7
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
There is no love but God's, and all of love
is His. There is no other principle
that rules where love is not. Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is
the power holding everything as one,
the link between the Father and the Son which holds Them Both forever as the same.
W-p1.127.3:5-8
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
In the couplet, the speaker asserts that he is so sure of what he has just expressed about the nature of the marriage of true minds, that if anyone can prove him wrong, then he never wrote and no one ever loved. This assertion places his lover in an untenable position, knowing that the speaker has written and that others have loved.
To this point, my emphasis has been on the content of the sonnet, but I would be remiss if I did not point out how the meaning of the sonnet is an exquisite blend of content and form, sense and sound, structure and meaning. Shakespeare gave himself the task of both expressing his meaning completely, and following the demands of this particular structure:
1) The sonnet will consist of three sets of four lines, or quatrains, and end with a rhyming couplet.
2) The quatrains will rhyme in a particular pattern. The convention is to assign each rhyme a letter of the alphabet, starting with “a.”
Quatrain 1: a, minds, b, love, a, finds, b, remove
Quatrain 2: c, mark, d, shaken, c, bark, d, taken
Quatrain 3: e, cheeks, f, come, e, weeks, f, doom
Rhyming couplet: g, proved, g, loved
3) The rhythm will be iambic pentameter, meaning five sets of iambs, an iamb is: slack STRESS.
let ME/ not TO/ the MAR/ riage OF/ true MINDS
Shakespeare was a consummate artist in blending content and form, posturing our voices to experience the full meaning of his intent. For example, in the first line of the sonnet he emphasizes ME, from the very beginning contrasting his constancy to the Holy Instant with the young man’s inconstancy, and emphasizing MINDS, not bodies. He is declaring that he will not allow his awareness to dwell on thoughts that prevent him from experiencing the joining of their minds.
As we saw in the passage from Julius Caesar, this also the rhythm of his thirty-seven plays:
but I am CON stant AS the NOR thern STAR
In His Course, Jesus exquisitely postures our voices as we say His words in our minds. In the Text, Chapters 26-31, and in the Workbook, Lessons 99-365 are written in blank verse. Even as we read these passages in prose form, the sheer poetry of His unworldly masterpiece flows on our breaths carrying the words, commingling with the beating of our hearts:
the HUSH of HEAV en HOLDS my HEART to DAY
Please take a look my ten-minute video where I briefly demonstrate how Jesus postures our voices by using blank verse. Go to my web site and click on the title, "The Sheer Poetry of A Course in Miracles." Click here.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Hand in Glove: The Presence Process and A Course in Miracles
I first came across A Course in Miracles in the late fall of 1986. Christine persuaded me to go with her to a Meditation Class that met Sunday evenings at the local community college, Kalamazoo Valley, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. During one of the classes, a woman gave a thirty-minute introduction to the Course. Recently, I had seen the Course in a bookstore, and I looked through it and put it back on the shelf, having no idea what it was about. On Monday, the very next day after her introduction, I went out and bought it and began devouring the Text. In all of my reading prior to that time, I had never come across anything like it. Incidentally, Christine and I were married three years later, and the Course proved to be a firm foundation for our marriage.
I first came across the book, The Presence Process, late last fall. My son, Stephen, thirty-nine, has joined us at Endeavor Academy, and he had begun doing the Presence Process and kept telling me what incredible experiences he was having. I began reading the book in December and Christine and I started the Presence Process Sessions soon after. The first thing that struck me about the book was the writing. Michael Brown’s prose sparkles on the page. The words, sentences and paragraphs lead the reader to powerful experiences.
So what is present moment awareness? It is a state of Being in which we effortlessly integrate the authentic and Divine Presence that we are with each God-given moment that we are in so that we are able to respond consciously to every experience we are having. By accomplishing this, our response is always the same: gratitude—a flow of gratitude that washes us of all our illusions. Entering such a state may sound hard and complicated when we are living in time. It is, however, effortless and completely natural because present moment awareness is our birthright. It is the kingdom of awareness through whose gates the prodigal children return. The hard part has been attempting to find what we did not know we had lost. The best part is realizing that we have been looking for something that has already found us. (Michael Brown, The Presence Process, Namaste Publishing: Vancouver, Canada, 2007), pp. 13, 14
The Presence Process is so powerful because it engages you in a process that integrates perfectly with the Course. The book offers an Introduction and then guides you through 10 seven-day Sessions. Each session has an explanatory chapter, an Activating Statement, e.g., for Session One it is I choose to experience this moment, and two-15 minute Breathing Exercises, one just after awakening in the morning, and the second just before crawling into bed at night.
The Presence Process is a guided journey that contains all the practical technique, perceptual tools, and knowledge required to consciously extract our attention from the illusions and trappings of time in order that we may reenter the present moment of life. (Brown, p. 1)
Now I want to demonstrate the powerful integration of A Course in Miracles and The Presence Process. Rather than demonstrate the connections in abstract terms, I offer a concrete example.
On Tuesday morning, February 10, after doing the 15-minute Breathing Exercise, I first read Lesson 41, God goes with me wherever I go, and then I read the first couple of pages of the explanatory material for Session 10 in The Presence Process. I was astounded at the opportunity for integration, and I realized that I could juxtapose passages from the Lesson with passages from The Presence Process.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Today's idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.
For me, it always comes down to awareness. Is my awareness on my experience of being one with God, or is my awareness on my thoughts that have no source in reality, inevitably causing depression?
The separated ones have invented many "cures" for what they believe to be "the ills of the world." But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real.
When my awareness is on separation, I think that the ills of the world are the cause of my upset.
The universal Law of cause and effect states that “when we seek, we shall find” and “what we ask for, we shall receive.” Therefore, the automatic and unfaltering consequence of this Law is that we will always see only what we are looking for, and all the experiences that we have in our life will always be exactly what we have been asking for. In other words, our life and the way we experience it is the ongoing answer to questions that we have been asking and continue to ask. The reason why this may not immediately be apparent to us is that most of our looking and asking is taking place unconsciously based on a whole range of belief systems (misinterpretations) that we adopted as children. (Brown, p. 253)
This is where the Presence Process is particularly helpful because it reminds us that our belief in separation as cause is a deeply-ingrained belief instilled, or imprinted, in us as children. Like the Course, The Presence Process offers a step-by-step process to help us cleanse our belief systems. This process enables us to bring to the surface our unconscious, imprinted beliefs, recognize them, and ask for help to let them go. In this manner we learn that we are the cause of our reactions to what appears to be the ills out there and these ills are merely effects of our beliefs. We formed these beliefs by the age of seven, and now they can be cleansed.
Here is an example of how the cleansing process works. The other day I passed an acquaintance in the hallway, and her face remained completely expressionless as we nodded in greeting. I walked on with a nervous feeling in my stomach. Her expressionless face had triggered this reaction in me, but she was not the cause.
The cause was in my early childhood. I remember my father as being stoic, his face usually expressionless, regardless of what was going on. I often felt that I should be en garde around him, not knowing what was going on with him as far as my behavior. Obviously, I am still affected to this day by this unconscious belief. Now it is simply a matter of bringing this to the surface and cleansing it.
In The Presence Process, this requires four steps.
1. Dismiss the messenger. Rather than dwell on the woman who walked by, dismiss her from my thoughts, immediately. She is effect, not cause.
Internally, we can thank her for her great service and let her be on her way. (Brown, p. 200)
2. Get the message. Find one word that captures the emotional reaction: nervousness.
3. Experience the message. Feel it to heal it.
Our choice to now be present with whatever upsets us enables us to realize that we can physically feel within our body what we initially thought was happening” out there.”
(Brown, p. 201)
4. Ask for help to let it go, recognizing its unreality, becoming aware of the peace of God, knowing that God goes with me wherever I go. Once we can feel this emotional blockage as a physical sensation within our own body, we are ready to transmute it with “divine alchemy” by moving it out of our body by applying the power of our compassionate Presence. (Brown, p. 201)
The idea for today has the power to end all this foolishness forever. And foolishness it is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take.
Therefore, if we do not like what we see or the quality of what we are experiencing, it is our responsibility to go within to access and then change our unconscious causal beliefs. No one can do this for us. Having the ability to do this for ourselves is exactly what free will is. This is exactly what freedom is. This is what true responsibility is. This is what The Presence Process has given us the opportunity to accomplish. (Brown, p. 253)
Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.
You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness because its Source goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer because the Source of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing can destroy your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.
We understand that you do not believe all this. How could you, when the truth is hidden deep within, under a heavy cloud of insane thoughts, dense and obscuring, yet representing all you see?
And these insane thoughts are unconscious, until I bring them to the surface.
There is a gap between every other human being and us. This gap is the space between us. This gap appears real because of our physical body. In the gap between everyone else and us is where the world manifests. What we call “our world” is this gap.
It is obvious that the woman in the hallway is the Christ. But by focusing my awareness on her expression, I am making the gap real, preventing us from joining.
Because our physical body leads us to believe that this gap is real, we automatically believe that we can be separated from others. We believe that our body is separate from the bodies of others and that we therefore have our own physical sensations. We believe that we have our own mind and therefore our own thoughts. We believe that we have our own heart and therefore our own emotions. We believe that we have our own spirit and therefore our own spiritual experiences. This perception leads us to believe that when we are not in the company of another human being, we are therefore on our own. Having a physical body allows us to believe that we can be alone. (Brown, p. 253)
Today we will make our first real attempt to get past this dark and heavy cloud, and to go through it to the light beyond.
We have thought of someone and then bumped into him or her or received a phone call from them within minutes. We have felt something behind us and turned around to see someone watching us. We have found that as we are about to utter a thought, someone standing next to us has expressed it for us. We have been about to confide in someone as to how we feel emotionally when they have pre-empted us by telling us that they are having the same emotional experience. We have also had spiritual or philosophical insights, experiences or realizations that we thought were unique to our experience, only to hear others verbalizing that they had just recently had the same experience, insight, or realization.
We can call these “Oneness Experiences” being psychic, transference, intuition, empathy, telepathy, or the outcome of being sensitive. It does not matter what name we give them; what matters is that we adjust our beliefs about the nature of our paradigm according to the ongoing proof that is being laid before us by these “Oneness Experiences.” The proof inherent in the Oneness experiences reveals to us:
That our physical bodies, though appearing separate, are not; they are connected energetically somehow to every other body.
That our mind is not the physical brain in our head; its capacities extend beyond the confines of our physical body to any distance that we care to think about.
That our emotional experiences are not confined to us alone; they are shared by the world around us. That our ongoing and unfolding spiritual awareness is not personal or exclusive; it is universal and inclusive. (Brown, p. 254)
The Presence in me is One with the Presence in the woman in the hallway. Since we are One, I can realize that the Presence activated her behavior, giving me an opportunity to bring to the surface and cleanse an unconscious belief, freeing me up to experience our Oneness, making it clear that I am the cause, I am responsible, thereby holding her harmless.
Brown makes a helpful play on words, when he turns around the word "upset," making it "set up," enabling me to realize that the Presence uses my upset to set me up, so that I can take the opportunity to cleanse it.
There will be only one long practice period today. In the morning, as soon as you get up if possible, sit quietly for some three to five minutes, with your eyes closed. At the beginning of the practice period, repeat today's idea very slowly.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Then make no effort to think of anything. Try, instead, to get a sense of turning inward, past all the idle thoughts of the world. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind, keeping it clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention.
From time to time, you may repeat the idea if you find it helpful. But most of all, try to sink down and inward, away from the world and all the foolish thoughts of the world. You are trying to reach past all these things. You are trying to leave appearances and approach reality.
Appearances are caused by my unconscious beliefs, but the awareness of reality is always present.
It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy, because it is the most natural thing in the world. You might even say it is the only natural thing in the world. The way will open, if you believe that it is possible. This exercise can bring very startling results even the first time it is attempted, and sooner or later it is always successful. We will go into more detail about this kind of practice as we go along. But it will never fail completely, and instant success is possible.
As we approach the experience of Oneness, which is the intimate connectedness of our Inner Presence with each other and all life, we must keep in mind that we are all still unconsciously enslaved by ancient limited belief systems that have been diligently passed down through the generations. From the moment we entered our present life experience, we automatically inherited these ancient beliefs from our parents. Let us begin, therefore, by acknowledging that by their very nature, these ancient beliefs about “how the world is” are completely out of date. Even though they are familiar and therefore comfortable to the mind, they are ineffectual. We can acknowledge that they may at one point in our evolution have served us, but now they no longer do. Now they limit us and maintain the mistaken illusion that we are separate from one another, that we can be alone, and that we must “go out and get ours” or else we will go without.
These outdated belief systems are the foundations of all our present experiences of lack. They are also the foundations of all fear, anger, and grief. With the proof that our present day Oneness experiences have placed and continue placing before us, maintaining the belief that we are separate from each other on any levels madness. It is delusional. It is denial. It is the same as believing that the earth is flat when we can clearly see the curve of the open horizon before us. (Brown, p. 255)
Throughout the day use today's idea often, repeating it very slowly, preferably with eyes closed.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Think of what you are saying; what the words mean. Concentrate on the holiness that they imply about you; on the unfailing companionship that is yours; on the complete protection that surrounds you.
The best way to approach this massive updating of our perception is that we can accommodate the experience of Oneness is to consciously invite the experience of the Oneness paradigm to come flooding into our awareness. We can begin this process effortlessly by choosing from this moment onward to believe that we are One with all life around us. In the same breath, we can invite our daily occurrences to confirm this for us through personal experience.
Ask and you will receive.
In other words, we can activate The Law of Cause and Effect; we can consciously look for evidence that we are one body, one mind, one heart, and one spirit. By looking for it, we will see it because The Law of Cause and Effect states that we will always see what we are looking for.
Seek and you will find. (Brown, p. 256)
You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go.
Every time we have a Oneness experience and contain it, we will digest it. The nutritional benefit of holding these experiences within will be that our faith in the Oneness paradigm will grow into a “knowing” that will permeate our consciousness and daily experience in spite of what the world may believe is so.
“Faith” does not require outside support: only “belief” does.
After agreeing to contain and digest what we experience, we can then accelerate the process of inviting this Oneness paradigm to flood our awareness. We can accomplish this by taking an active step towards having this paradigm confirmed for us; we can choose to live this way on purpose. Accomplishing this is simple. Accomplishing this is what The Presence Process has been leading us towards. This is the invitation inherent in experiencing our own Inner Presence. Oneness is the terrain of present moment awareness. (Brown, p. 257)
God goes with me wherever I go.
I first came across the book, The Presence Process, late last fall. My son, Stephen, thirty-nine, has joined us at Endeavor Academy, and he had begun doing the Presence Process and kept telling me what incredible experiences he was having. I began reading the book in December and Christine and I started the Presence Process Sessions soon after. The first thing that struck me about the book was the writing. Michael Brown’s prose sparkles on the page. The words, sentences and paragraphs lead the reader to powerful experiences.
So what is present moment awareness? It is a state of Being in which we effortlessly integrate the authentic and Divine Presence that we are with each God-given moment that we are in so that we are able to respond consciously to every experience we are having. By accomplishing this, our response is always the same: gratitude—a flow of gratitude that washes us of all our illusions. Entering such a state may sound hard and complicated when we are living in time. It is, however, effortless and completely natural because present moment awareness is our birthright. It is the kingdom of awareness through whose gates the prodigal children return. The hard part has been attempting to find what we did not know we had lost. The best part is realizing that we have been looking for something that has already found us. (Michael Brown, The Presence Process, Namaste Publishing: Vancouver, Canada, 2007), pp. 13, 14
The Presence Process is so powerful because it engages you in a process that integrates perfectly with the Course. The book offers an Introduction and then guides you through 10 seven-day Sessions. Each session has an explanatory chapter, an Activating Statement, e.g., for Session One it is I choose to experience this moment, and two-15 minute Breathing Exercises, one just after awakening in the morning, and the second just before crawling into bed at night.
The Presence Process is a guided journey that contains all the practical technique, perceptual tools, and knowledge required to consciously extract our attention from the illusions and trappings of time in order that we may reenter the present moment of life. (Brown, p. 1)
Now I want to demonstrate the powerful integration of A Course in Miracles and The Presence Process. Rather than demonstrate the connections in abstract terms, I offer a concrete example.
On Tuesday morning, February 10, after doing the 15-minute Breathing Exercise, I first read Lesson 41, God goes with me wherever I go, and then I read the first couple of pages of the explanatory material for Session 10 in The Presence Process. I was astounded at the opportunity for integration, and I realized that I could juxtapose passages from the Lesson with passages from The Presence Process.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Today's idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.
For me, it always comes down to awareness. Is my awareness on my experience of being one with God, or is my awareness on my thoughts that have no source in reality, inevitably causing depression?
The separated ones have invented many "cures" for what they believe to be "the ills of the world." But the one thing they do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real.
When my awareness is on separation, I think that the ills of the world are the cause of my upset.
The universal Law of cause and effect states that “when we seek, we shall find” and “what we ask for, we shall receive.” Therefore, the automatic and unfaltering consequence of this Law is that we will always see only what we are looking for, and all the experiences that we have in our life will always be exactly what we have been asking for. In other words, our life and the way we experience it is the ongoing answer to questions that we have been asking and continue to ask. The reason why this may not immediately be apparent to us is that most of our looking and asking is taking place unconsciously based on a whole range of belief systems (misinterpretations) that we adopted as children. (Brown, p. 253)
This is where the Presence Process is particularly helpful because it reminds us that our belief in separation as cause is a deeply-ingrained belief instilled, or imprinted, in us as children. Like the Course, The Presence Process offers a step-by-step process to help us cleanse our belief systems. This process enables us to bring to the surface our unconscious, imprinted beliefs, recognize them, and ask for help to let them go. In this manner we learn that we are the cause of our reactions to what appears to be the ills out there and these ills are merely effects of our beliefs. We formed these beliefs by the age of seven, and now they can be cleansed.
Here is an example of how the cleansing process works. The other day I passed an acquaintance in the hallway, and her face remained completely expressionless as we nodded in greeting. I walked on with a nervous feeling in my stomach. Her expressionless face had triggered this reaction in me, but she was not the cause.
The cause was in my early childhood. I remember my father as being stoic, his face usually expressionless, regardless of what was going on. I often felt that I should be en garde around him, not knowing what was going on with him as far as my behavior. Obviously, I am still affected to this day by this unconscious belief. Now it is simply a matter of bringing this to the surface and cleansing it.
In The Presence Process, this requires four steps.
1. Dismiss the messenger. Rather than dwell on the woman who walked by, dismiss her from my thoughts, immediately. She is effect, not cause.
Internally, we can thank her for her great service and let her be on her way. (Brown, p. 200)
2. Get the message. Find one word that captures the emotional reaction: nervousness.
3. Experience the message. Feel it to heal it.
Our choice to now be present with whatever upsets us enables us to realize that we can physically feel within our body what we initially thought was happening” out there.”
(Brown, p. 201)
4. Ask for help to let it go, recognizing its unreality, becoming aware of the peace of God, knowing that God goes with me wherever I go. Once we can feel this emotional blockage as a physical sensation within our own body, we are ready to transmute it with “divine alchemy” by moving it out of our body by applying the power of our compassionate Presence. (Brown, p. 201)
The idea for today has the power to end all this foolishness forever. And foolishness it is, despite the serious and tragic forms it may take.
Therefore, if we do not like what we see or the quality of what we are experiencing, it is our responsibility to go within to access and then change our unconscious causal beliefs. No one can do this for us. Having the ability to do this for ourselves is exactly what free will is. This is exactly what freedom is. This is what true responsibility is. This is what The Presence Process has given us the opportunity to accomplish. (Brown, p. 253)
Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them.
You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness because its Source goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer because the Source of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing can destroy your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.
We understand that you do not believe all this. How could you, when the truth is hidden deep within, under a heavy cloud of insane thoughts, dense and obscuring, yet representing all you see?
And these insane thoughts are unconscious, until I bring them to the surface.
There is a gap between every other human being and us. This gap is the space between us. This gap appears real because of our physical body. In the gap between everyone else and us is where the world manifests. What we call “our world” is this gap.
It is obvious that the woman in the hallway is the Christ. But by focusing my awareness on her expression, I am making the gap real, preventing us from joining.
Because our physical body leads us to believe that this gap is real, we automatically believe that we can be separated from others. We believe that our body is separate from the bodies of others and that we therefore have our own physical sensations. We believe that we have our own mind and therefore our own thoughts. We believe that we have our own heart and therefore our own emotions. We believe that we have our own spirit and therefore our own spiritual experiences. This perception leads us to believe that when we are not in the company of another human being, we are therefore on our own. Having a physical body allows us to believe that we can be alone. (Brown, p. 253)
Today we will make our first real attempt to get past this dark and heavy cloud, and to go through it to the light beyond.
We have thought of someone and then bumped into him or her or received a phone call from them within minutes. We have felt something behind us and turned around to see someone watching us. We have found that as we are about to utter a thought, someone standing next to us has expressed it for us. We have been about to confide in someone as to how we feel emotionally when they have pre-empted us by telling us that they are having the same emotional experience. We have also had spiritual or philosophical insights, experiences or realizations that we thought were unique to our experience, only to hear others verbalizing that they had just recently had the same experience, insight, or realization.
We can call these “Oneness Experiences” being psychic, transference, intuition, empathy, telepathy, or the outcome of being sensitive. It does not matter what name we give them; what matters is that we adjust our beliefs about the nature of our paradigm according to the ongoing proof that is being laid before us by these “Oneness Experiences.” The proof inherent in the Oneness experiences reveals to us:
That our physical bodies, though appearing separate, are not; they are connected energetically somehow to every other body.
That our mind is not the physical brain in our head; its capacities extend beyond the confines of our physical body to any distance that we care to think about.
That our emotional experiences are not confined to us alone; they are shared by the world around us. That our ongoing and unfolding spiritual awareness is not personal or exclusive; it is universal and inclusive. (Brown, p. 254)
The Presence in me is One with the Presence in the woman in the hallway. Since we are One, I can realize that the Presence activated her behavior, giving me an opportunity to bring to the surface and cleanse an unconscious belief, freeing me up to experience our Oneness, making it clear that I am the cause, I am responsible, thereby holding her harmless.
Brown makes a helpful play on words, when he turns around the word "upset," making it "set up," enabling me to realize that the Presence uses my upset to set me up, so that I can take the opportunity to cleanse it.
There will be only one long practice period today. In the morning, as soon as you get up if possible, sit quietly for some three to five minutes, with your eyes closed. At the beginning of the practice period, repeat today's idea very slowly.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Then make no effort to think of anything. Try, instead, to get a sense of turning inward, past all the idle thoughts of the world. Try to enter very deeply into your own mind, keeping it clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention.
From time to time, you may repeat the idea if you find it helpful. But most of all, try to sink down and inward, away from the world and all the foolish thoughts of the world. You are trying to reach past all these things. You are trying to leave appearances and approach reality.
Appearances are caused by my unconscious beliefs, but the awareness of reality is always present.
It is quite possible to reach God. In fact it is very easy, because it is the most natural thing in the world. You might even say it is the only natural thing in the world. The way will open, if you believe that it is possible. This exercise can bring very startling results even the first time it is attempted, and sooner or later it is always successful. We will go into more detail about this kind of practice as we go along. But it will never fail completely, and instant success is possible.
As we approach the experience of Oneness, which is the intimate connectedness of our Inner Presence with each other and all life, we must keep in mind that we are all still unconsciously enslaved by ancient limited belief systems that have been diligently passed down through the generations. From the moment we entered our present life experience, we automatically inherited these ancient beliefs from our parents. Let us begin, therefore, by acknowledging that by their very nature, these ancient beliefs about “how the world is” are completely out of date. Even though they are familiar and therefore comfortable to the mind, they are ineffectual. We can acknowledge that they may at one point in our evolution have served us, but now they no longer do. Now they limit us and maintain the mistaken illusion that we are separate from one another, that we can be alone, and that we must “go out and get ours” or else we will go without.
These outdated belief systems are the foundations of all our present experiences of lack. They are also the foundations of all fear, anger, and grief. With the proof that our present day Oneness experiences have placed and continue placing before us, maintaining the belief that we are separate from each other on any levels madness. It is delusional. It is denial. It is the same as believing that the earth is flat when we can clearly see the curve of the open horizon before us. (Brown, p. 255)
Throughout the day use today's idea often, repeating it very slowly, preferably with eyes closed.
God goes with me wherever I go.
Think of what you are saying; what the words mean. Concentrate on the holiness that they imply about you; on the unfailing companionship that is yours; on the complete protection that surrounds you.
The best way to approach this massive updating of our perception is that we can accommodate the experience of Oneness is to consciously invite the experience of the Oneness paradigm to come flooding into our awareness. We can begin this process effortlessly by choosing from this moment onward to believe that we are One with all life around us. In the same breath, we can invite our daily occurrences to confirm this for us through personal experience.
Ask and you will receive.
In other words, we can activate The Law of Cause and Effect; we can consciously look for evidence that we are one body, one mind, one heart, and one spirit. By looking for it, we will see it because The Law of Cause and Effect states that we will always see what we are looking for.
Seek and you will find. (Brown, p. 256)
You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go.
Every time we have a Oneness experience and contain it, we will digest it. The nutritional benefit of holding these experiences within will be that our faith in the Oneness paradigm will grow into a “knowing” that will permeate our consciousness and daily experience in spite of what the world may believe is so.
“Faith” does not require outside support: only “belief” does.
After agreeing to contain and digest what we experience, we can then accelerate the process of inviting this Oneness paradigm to flood our awareness. We can accomplish this by taking an active step towards having this paradigm confirmed for us; we can choose to live this way on purpose. Accomplishing this is simple. Accomplishing this is what The Presence Process has been leading us towards. This is the invitation inherent in experiencing our own Inner Presence. Oneness is the terrain of present moment awareness. (Brown, p. 257)
God goes with me wherever I go.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Barack Obama: A New Consciousness
In my preceding blog post, I used the image of a star to convey our Oneness with our Father in our Creation. And this morning I began reading an article by Jeshua (Jesus) channeled through Judith at Oakbridge University in Tacoma, WA. Here are the first two paragraphs:
Beloved one, do you know you have brought forth a new consciousness? It is a consciousness which, truly, has been in process for some time, both for you individually and for the collective. You have been, again, the one who has been on the cutting edge, on the crest of the wave. The master that you are, you have come one more time to participate in an evolutionary step in the realization of Oneness. We have spoken in previous times of how this reality is based upon an experiment, if you will, of starseeds, each and every one of you having come from different star constellations and having been the descendants of ones from other star constellations, bringing with you remembrance of life and cultures in other places and other realities.
I am amazed at the timing, because tomorrow is the inauguration of Barack Obama, and here is paragraph # 7 from the article.
Some months ago in your timing, there came along a gathering of energy in the embodiment of one person, who said, "It is possible to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It is possible that there can be equality and respect and honor for each and every voice." And he began gathering to himself others who wanted to have hope, who wanted to believe in the best of what could be possible. He even chose a certain saying that you have heard the brothers and sisters chanting: "Yes, we can. Yes, we can." It is very powerful. Yes, you can do what you envision.
I invite you to read the article in its entirety by clicking here.
Beloved one, do you know you have brought forth a new consciousness? It is a consciousness which, truly, has been in process for some time, both for you individually and for the collective. You have been, again, the one who has been on the cutting edge, on the crest of the wave. The master that you are, you have come one more time to participate in an evolutionary step in the realization of Oneness. We have spoken in previous times of how this reality is based upon an experiment, if you will, of starseeds, each and every one of you having come from different star constellations and having been the descendants of ones from other star constellations, bringing with you remembrance of life and cultures in other places and other realities.
I am amazed at the timing, because tomorrow is the inauguration of Barack Obama, and here is paragraph # 7 from the article.
Some months ago in your timing, there came along a gathering of energy in the embodiment of one person, who said, "It is possible to be inclusive rather than exclusive. It is possible that there can be equality and respect and honor for each and every voice." And he began gathering to himself others who wanted to have hope, who wanted to believe in the best of what could be possible. He even chose a certain saying that you have heard the brothers and sisters chanting: "Yes, we can. Yes, we can." It is very powerful. Yes, you can do what you envision.
I invite you to read the article in its entirety by clicking here.
Monday, January 12, 2009
The A, B, C's of Reality: Creation, Sin, and Salvation
Finding a way to express the truth of what I am is not that difficult; coming into the awareness of that truth is another thing. The fact is that I am as God created me, but I wandered into the temptation of thinking I could do it my way, separating from God, wandering in the wilderness, longing for home, and, finally, fell to my knees and asked for help to become aware of my true Self, praying for my salvation, and coming home at last.
So, that is a one-sentence expression, and what follows leads me into the awareness that I am as God created me.
A. Creation
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1:26
This passage from the Urtext helps me understand what it means to say that I am in the image and likeness of God.
"God created man in his own image and likeness" is correct in meaning, but the words are open to considerable misinterpretation. This is avoided, however, if "image" is understood to mean "thought," and "likeness" is taken as "of a like quality." God DID create the Son in His own Thought, and of a quality like to His own. There IS nothing else. (URTEXT, The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart Of Jesus Christ of Nazareth), p. 72
The original name for "thought" and "word" was the same. The quotation should read "In the beginning was the thought, and the thought was with God, and the thought WAS God." How beautiful indeed are the thoughts of God, who live in His light. Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. (p. 73)
As early as Lesson 16, I have no neutral thoughts, Jesus introduces the terms create and likeness.
Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.
W-p1.16.1:4-7
We are always either making up false thoughts, or creating true thoughts.
In my mind, buried under layers of ego-thoughts, is the Thought of God. It is a state of mind, eternal, instantly available to my awareness, the moment my awareness shifts away from its preoccupation with ego-thoughts.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27
And Jesus expresses it this way in His Course in Miracles.
Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts,
in number infinite, and everywhere
without all limit. Only Love creates,
and only like Itself. There was no time
when all that It created was not there.
Nor will there be a time when anything
that It created suffers any loss.
Forever and forever are God's Thoughts
exactly as they were and as they are,
unchanged through time and after time is done.
God's Thoughts are given all the power that
their own Creator has. For He would add
to Love by its extension. Thus His Son
shares in creation, and must therefore share
in power to create. What God has willed
to be forever one will still be one
when time is over; and will not be changed
throughout the course of time, remaining as
it was before the thought of time began.
W-pII. II. What is Creation? 1, 2
In my mind are God's Thoughts, extensions of His Love, Heaven.
I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
In me is His creation sanctified
and guaranteed eternal life. In me
is love perfected, fear impossible,
and joy established without opposite.
I am the holy home of God Himself.
I am the Heaven where His Love resides.
I am His holy Sinlessness Itself,
for in my purity abides His Own.
W-pII. 14 What am I? 1
This is an attempt to represent, graphically, the fact that we are God's Creation, simply His extension. And the color yellow seems to represent, naturally, the fact that we are light, that we are the light of the world that we are an extension of God. To represent this graphically, the star should be exactly the same color as that from which it extends, but to see the outline of the star it was necessary to introduce the white shading.
The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come.
T-15.XI.2:1,2
As the ideas for this essay took shape, I began to think of shooting stars streaking across the sky. I imagined all shooting stars as emanating from the same planet, all of the same substance, and it was easy to see Creation as an analogy, the stars and the planet, and man and God. We are all One.
In addition, I found myself asterisking the passage about the star of Christmas and most of the passages that follow to remind myself to use them in writing this essay. The root mean of asterisk * comes from the Greek, asterikos, meaning "little star."
Also, in respect to the "star" in today's lesson (Lesson 14, God did not create a meaningless world) Jesus uses this example in the exercise:
God did not create that disaster (specify), and so it is not real.
In each case, name the disaster" quite specifically.
"Disaster" means "ill-starred," coming for the Italian dis, "away" plus astro, "star." The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet. (But we know that a disaster is, in fact, the result of an unfavorable position of our ego-mind.)
B. What is Sin?
Unfortunately, I made my own life a disaster by striking off on my own, pursuing my own thoughts, making up a world of sights and sounds and touch and smell and taste. I found myself looking in my mind and watching an oddly assorted procession going by (Lesson 10) and thinking that this procession of thought-images was true, all the time eating from the tree of knowledge.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16,17
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. Genesis 3:4
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. Genesis 3:6
When my awareness shifts from the Thoughts of God, the tree of life, to the thought-images in my mind, the tree of knowledge, I separate from God, replacing truth with illusions. This separation is sin.
Sin is insanity. It is the means
by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks
to let illusions take the place of truth.
And being mad, it sees illusions where
the truth should be, and where it really is.
Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there
the sinless would behold? What need have they
of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear
or reach to grasp? What would they sense at all?
To sense is not to know. And truth can be
but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
W-p11. 12 What is Sin? 1
Through the centuries, "sin" has become a loaded word. From the Aramaic, it is, in fact, an archer's term, simply meaning "off the mark." My arrow, my awareness, simply misses the target, and I am off the mark. Jesus expresses this shift in awareness as a tiny, mad idea.
Into eternity, where all is one,
there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which
the Son of God remembered not to laugh.
In his forgetting did the thought become
a serious idea, and possible
of both accomplishment and real effects.
Together, we can laugh them both away,
and understand that time cannot intrude
upon eternity. It is a joke
to think that time can come to circumvent
eternity, which means there is no time.
T-27.VIII.6:2-5
As early as Lesson 4 in His mind-training manual, Jesus teaches us that These thoughts do not meaning anything.
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place. I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.
W-p1.51.4
In each life, I see the separation occurring as a child begins to acquire language. When the child begins naming objects, s/he separates by shifting his/her awareness from God to man, from unity to separation.
You live by symbols. You have made up names
for everything you see. Each one becomes
a separate entity, identified
by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity.
W-p11.184.1:1-3
I am reminded of the story of the little girl who went into the bedroom to see her new-born sister in the crib and stared into her eyes. Her mother asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I am looking into her eyes because I know they last looked on God."
This is an attempt to represent, graphically, the separation.
The dark lines forming the borders represent how our awareness of our insane thought-images seem to separate us from God. The borders form an imaginary prison. There are only the Thoughts of God, and our meaningless thoughts separate us from Them.
Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.Genesis 3:23,24
The fact is that man exiled himself from the Garden of Eden; man, himself, ate of the tree of knowledge, turning his back on the tree of life. God did not exile him. This is a good thing. Since man, himself, chose to shift his awareness from life to death, he can choose again for life. Since he is solely responsible for death, he is solely responsible for life.
I just love the metaphor Joel Goldsmith uses to express man's life, journeying off the mark.
One mystic described this life as “a parenthesis in eternity.” This life! Observing life objectively and using the circle as symbolic of all life, it is obvious that we have come from the past into a parenthesis in the circle, and when this parenthesis is removed—the one marking birth and the other marking death—we will be on our way into another parenthesis, or what is called the future. This should help us to understand that our present life on earth is only an interval in eternity. (Joel Goldsmith, A Parenthesis in Eternity, HarperOne, New York, 1963, Chapter IX, An Interval in Etrnity, p. 100)
In spite of ourselves, since we are as God created us, we cannot help but know at some level that we are wandering on a journey far from home, and we cannot help but experience from time to time that we are more than what our ego-thoughts are showing us, that there must be more to life than what is in our awareness. We are haunted by the idea that we are more than we seem to be.
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-pII.1821
Here's a depiction of catching a glimpse of home.
This is an attempt to express that our separating thoughts are a very thin veil obscuring the Thoughts of God. We have all had glimpses of Heaven, no matter how the dark boundaries of ego-thoughts tried to prevent our becoming aware of the shining Thoughts of God. We have all, inevitably, experienced this melting into this shining light.
C. Salvation
In the beginning was the Word that I am as God created me. God keeps His promises.
Salvation is a promise, made by God,
that you would find your way to Him at last.
It cannot but be kept. It guarantees
that time will have an end, and all the thoughts
that have been born in time will end as well.
God's Word is given every mind which thinks
that it has separate thoughts, and will replace
these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace.
W-pII. 2 What is Salvation? 1
. . . let go the thoughts you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. . .this can truly be called salvation. (Lesson 14)
This letting go is called forgiveness.
This is salvation’s keynote:
And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God,
to offer him a kindly home where he
can rest a while before he journeys on,
and help his brothers walk ahead with him,
and find the way to Heaven and to God.
W-pII.325.6
My sourceless thought-images that separate me from the awareness of God exist for only one purpose, for giving away.
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in that view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin,
except a false idea about God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
W-pII. 1 What is Forgiveness? 1
This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which we join in glad awareness that the Son of God is risen from the past, and has awakened to the present. Now is he free, unlimited in his communion with all that is within him. Now are the lilies of his innocence untouched by guilt, and perfectly protected from the cold chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike.
T-20.II.10
In our forgiveness is our salvation, as we become aware of our creation as God's most holy Son, joining the household of God in Joel Goldsmith's felicitous phrase.
The household of God is composed not only of people who are here on earth, or of those who have passed: the household of God encompasses the universe. The household of God is embodied in our consciousness, and we are embodied in the consciousness of the household of God.
Those who love God are brought into one household, one family, one companionship, into a sharing with one another; (The Course uses the term, mighty companions) and just as we are sharing with those coming into the Light, so somebody with an even higher consciousness is sharing with us. (Goldsmith, p. 111)
In the beginning was the Word. . .
And now we experience ourselves, again, as we were at the beginning, an extension of God.
The fact is that we are always only one thought away. When we are aware of peace, we are one thought away from conflict. Awareness of conflict is one thought from peace. Experiencing peace is a holy instant.
The sudden expansion of awareness that takes place with your desire for it is the irresistible appeal the holy instant holds. It calls to you to be yourself, within its safe embrace. There are the laws of limit lifted for you, to welcome you to openness of mind and freedom. Come to this place of refuge, where you can be yourself in peace. Not through destruction, not through a breaking out, but merely by a quiet melting in. For peace will join you there, simply because you have been willing to let go the limits you have placed upon love, and joined it where it is and where it led you, in answer to its gentle call to be at peace.
T-18.VI.14
. . . a quiet melting in as the imaginary boundaries collapse.
And now we end where we began with Creation, the Father and the Son linked eternally by prayer.
Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation. It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share; the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. Endless the harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each Other. And in this, creation is extended. God gives thanks to His extension in His Son. His Son gives thanks for his creation, in the song of his creating in his Father’s Name. The Love They share is what all prayer will be throughout eternity, when time is done. For such it was before time seemed to be.
Song of Prayer, Introduction. 1
So, that is a one-sentence expression, and what follows leads me into the awareness that I am as God created me.
A. Creation
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Genesis 1:26
This passage from the Urtext helps me understand what it means to say that I am in the image and likeness of God.
"God created man in his own image and likeness" is correct in meaning, but the words are open to considerable misinterpretation. This is avoided, however, if "image" is understood to mean "thought," and "likeness" is taken as "of a like quality." God DID create the Son in His own Thought, and of a quality like to His own. There IS nothing else. (URTEXT, The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart Of Jesus Christ of Nazareth), p. 72
The original name for "thought" and "word" was the same. The quotation should read "In the beginning was the thought, and the thought was with God, and the thought WAS God." How beautiful indeed are the thoughts of God, who live in His light. Your worth is beyond perception because it is beyond doubt. (p. 73)
As early as Lesson 16, I have no neutral thoughts, Jesus introduces the terms create and likeness.
Thoughts are not big or little; powerful or weak. They are merely true or false. Those that are true create their own likeness. Those that are false make theirs.
W-p1.16.1:4-7
We are always either making up false thoughts, or creating true thoughts.
In my mind, buried under layers of ego-thoughts, is the Thought of God. It is a state of mind, eternal, instantly available to my awareness, the moment my awareness shifts away from its preoccupation with ego-thoughts.
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him: male and female created he them. Genesis 1:27
And Jesus expresses it this way in His Course in Miracles.
Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts,
in number infinite, and everywhere
without all limit. Only Love creates,
and only like Itself. There was no time
when all that It created was not there.
Nor will there be a time when anything
that It created suffers any loss.
Forever and forever are God's Thoughts
exactly as they were and as they are,
unchanged through time and after time is done.
God's Thoughts are given all the power that
their own Creator has. For He would add
to Love by its extension. Thus His Son
shares in creation, and must therefore share
in power to create. What God has willed
to be forever one will still be one
when time is over; and will not be changed
throughout the course of time, remaining as
it was before the thought of time began.
W-pII. II. What is Creation? 1, 2
In my mind are God's Thoughts, extensions of His Love, Heaven.
I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
In me is His creation sanctified
and guaranteed eternal life. In me
is love perfected, fear impossible,
and joy established without opposite.
I am the holy home of God Himself.
I am the Heaven where His Love resides.
I am His holy Sinlessness Itself,
for in my purity abides His Own.
W-pII. 14 What am I? 1
This is an attempt to represent, graphically, the fact that we are God's Creation, simply His extension. And the color yellow seems to represent, naturally, the fact that we are light, that we are the light of the world that we are an extension of God. To represent this graphically, the star should be exactly the same color as that from which it extends, but to see the outline of the star it was necessary to introduce the white shading.
The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come.T-15.XI.2:1,2
As the ideas for this essay took shape, I began to think of shooting stars streaking across the sky. I imagined all shooting stars as emanating from the same planet, all of the same substance, and it was easy to see Creation as an analogy, the stars and the planet, and man and God. We are all One.
In addition, I found myself asterisking the passage about the star of Christmas and most of the passages that follow to remind myself to use them in writing this essay. The root mean of asterisk * comes from the Greek, asterikos, meaning "little star."
Also, in respect to the "star" in today's lesson (Lesson 14, God did not create a meaningless world) Jesus uses this example in the exercise:
God did not create that disaster (specify), and so it is not real.
In each case, name the disaster" quite specifically.
"Disaster" means "ill-starred," coming for the Italian dis, "away" plus astro, "star." The sense is astrological, of a calamity blamed on an unfavorable position of a planet. (But we know that a disaster is, in fact, the result of an unfavorable position of our ego-mind.)
B. What is Sin?
Unfortunately, I made my own life a disaster by striking off on my own, pursuing my own thoughts, making up a world of sights and sounds and touch and smell and taste. I found myself looking in my mind and watching an oddly assorted procession going by (Lesson 10) and thinking that this procession of thought-images was true, all the time eating from the tree of knowledge.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Genesis 2:16,17
And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. Genesis 3:4
And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. Genesis 3:6
When my awareness shifts from the Thoughts of God, the tree of life, to the thought-images in my mind, the tree of knowledge, I separate from God, replacing truth with illusions. This separation is sin.
Sin is insanity. It is the means
by which the mind is driven mad, and seeks
to let illusions take the place of truth.
And being mad, it sees illusions where
the truth should be, and where it really is.
Sin gave the body eyes, for what is there
the sinless would behold? What need have they
of sights or sounds or touch? What would they hear
or reach to grasp? What would they sense at all?
To sense is not to know. And truth can be
but filled with knowledge, and with nothing else.
W-p11. 12 What is Sin? 1
Through the centuries, "sin" has become a loaded word. From the Aramaic, it is, in fact, an archer's term, simply meaning "off the mark." My arrow, my awareness, simply misses the target, and I am off the mark. Jesus expresses this shift in awareness as a tiny, mad idea.
Into eternity, where all is one,
there crept a tiny, mad idea, at which
the Son of God remembered not to laugh.
In his forgetting did the thought become
a serious idea, and possible
of both accomplishment and real effects.
Together, we can laugh them both away,
and understand that time cannot intrude
upon eternity. It is a joke
to think that time can come to circumvent
eternity, which means there is no time.
T-27.VIII.6:2-5
As early as Lesson 4 in His mind-training manual, Jesus teaches us that These thoughts do not meaning anything.
The thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything because I am trying to think without God. What I call "my" thoughts are not my real thoughts. My real thoughts are the thoughts I think with God. I am not aware of them because I have made my thoughts to take their place. I am willing to recognize that my thoughts do not mean anything, and to let them go. I choose to have them be replaced by what they were intended to replace. My thoughts are meaningless, but all creation lies in the thoughts I think with God.
W-p1.51.4
In each life, I see the separation occurring as a child begins to acquire language. When the child begins naming objects, s/he separates by shifting his/her awareness from God to man, from unity to separation.
You live by symbols. You have made up names
for everything you see. Each one becomes
a separate entity, identified
by its own name. By this you carve it out of unity.
W-p11.184.1:1-3
I am reminded of the story of the little girl who went into the bedroom to see her new-born sister in the crib and stared into her eyes. Her mother asked her what she was doing, and she said, "I am looking into her eyes because I know they last looked on God."
This is an attempt to represent, graphically, the separation.
The dark lines forming the borders represent how our awareness of our insane thought-images seem to separate us from God. The borders form an imaginary prison. There are only the Thoughts of God, and our meaningless thoughts separate us from Them.Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.
So he drove out the man: and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.Genesis 3:23,24
The fact is that man exiled himself from the Garden of Eden; man, himself, ate of the tree of knowledge, turning his back on the tree of life. God did not exile him. This is a good thing. Since man, himself, chose to shift his awareness from life to death, he can choose again for life. Since he is solely responsible for death, he is solely responsible for life.
I just love the metaphor Joel Goldsmith uses to express man's life, journeying off the mark.
One mystic described this life as “a parenthesis in eternity.” This life! Observing life objectively and using the circle as symbolic of all life, it is obvious that we have come from the past into a parenthesis in the circle, and when this parenthesis is removed—the one marking birth and the other marking death—we will be on our way into another parenthesis, or what is called the future. This should help us to understand that our present life on earth is only an interval in eternity. (Joel Goldsmith, A Parenthesis in Eternity, HarperOne, New York, 1963, Chapter IX, An Interval in Etrnity, p. 100)
In spite of ourselves, since we are as God created us, we cannot help but know at some level that we are wandering on a journey far from home, and we cannot help but experience from time to time that we are more than what our ego-thoughts are showing us, that there must be more to life than what is in our awareness. We are haunted by the idea that we are more than we seem to be.
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-pII.1821
Here's a depiction of catching a glimpse of home.
This is an attempt to express that our separating thoughts are a very thin veil obscuring the Thoughts of God. We have all had glimpses of Heaven, no matter how the dark boundaries of ego-thoughts tried to prevent our becoming aware of the shining Thoughts of God. We have all, inevitably, experienced this melting into this shining light.C. Salvation
In the beginning was the Word that I am as God created me. God keeps His promises.
Salvation is a promise, made by God,
that you would find your way to Him at last.
It cannot but be kept. It guarantees
that time will have an end, and all the thoughts
that have been born in time will end as well.
God's Word is given every mind which thinks
that it has separate thoughts, and will replace
these thoughts of conflict with the Thought of peace.
W-pII. 2 What is Salvation? 1
. . . let go the thoughts you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. . .this can truly be called salvation. (Lesson 14)
This letting go is called forgiveness.
This is salvation’s keynote:
And from forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God,
to offer him a kindly home where he
can rest a while before he journeys on,
and help his brothers walk ahead with him,
and find the way to Heaven and to God.
W-pII.325.6
My sourceless thought-images that separate me from the awareness of God exist for only one purpose, for giving away.
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in that view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin,
except a false idea about God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
W-pII. 1 What is Forgiveness? 1
This is the way to Heaven and to the peace of Easter, in which we join in glad awareness that the Son of God is risen from the past, and has awakened to the present. Now is he free, unlimited in his communion with all that is within him. Now are the lilies of his innocence untouched by guilt, and perfectly protected from the cold chill of fear and withering blight of sin alike.
T-20.II.10
In our forgiveness is our salvation, as we become aware of our creation as God's most holy Son, joining the household of God in Joel Goldsmith's felicitous phrase.
The household of God is composed not only of people who are here on earth, or of those who have passed: the household of God encompasses the universe. The household of God is embodied in our consciousness, and we are embodied in the consciousness of the household of God.
Those who love God are brought into one household, one family, one companionship, into a sharing with one another; (The Course uses the term, mighty companions) and just as we are sharing with those coming into the Light, so somebody with an even higher consciousness is sharing with us. (Goldsmith, p. 111)
In the beginning was the Word. . .
And now we experience ourselves, again, as we were at the beginning, an extension of God.
The fact is that we are always only one thought away. When we are aware of peace, we are one thought away from conflict. Awareness of conflict is one thought from peace. Experiencing peace is a holy instant.The sudden expansion of awareness that takes place with your desire for it is the irresistible appeal the holy instant holds. It calls to you to be yourself, within its safe embrace. There are the laws of limit lifted for you, to welcome you to openness of mind and freedom. Come to this place of refuge, where you can be yourself in peace. Not through destruction, not through a breaking out, but merely by a quiet melting in. For peace will join you there, simply because you have been willing to let go the limits you have placed upon love, and joined it where it is and where it led you, in answer to its gentle call to be at peace.
T-18.VI.14
. . . a quiet melting in as the imaginary boundaries collapse.
And now we end where we began with Creation, the Father and the Son linked eternally by prayer.
Prayer is the greatest gift with which God blessed His Son at his creation. It was then what it is to become; the single voice Creator and creation share; the song the Son sings to the Father, Who returns the thanks it offers Him unto the Son. Endless the harmony, and endless, too, the joyous concord of the Love They give forever to Each Other. And in this, creation is extended. God gives thanks to His extension in His Son. His Son gives thanks for his creation, in the song of his creating in his Father’s Name. The Love They share is what all prayer will be throughout eternity, when time is done. For such it was before time seemed to be.
Song of Prayer, Introduction. 1
Sunday, December 21, 2008
'Tis the Season to Remember that You Never Walk Alone
For a good part of my life, I felt completely alone. I mean I had family and friends and acquaintances and coaches and teammates and students, but I felt alone in that if I couldn’t get it done, it wouldn’t get done. If I were not up to the task, I had no sense that I had anything else in myself to rely upon. It was always a case of my personal toughness, and I suppose, I took a certain amount of pride in being able to get it done, although I did become very weary.
This misplaced pride in standing alone is expressed in this poem that has, unfortunately, served as a rallying cry for getting it done, personally, individually.
Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
. . .master of my fate. Sure. Finally, when I was about fifty-six years old, I experienced for the first time that I am not alone. A few years earlie, I had come across A Course in Miracles, but it did not really penetrate until one day I was in devastation, and I went to my room, and just stood there in the middle of the room, refusing to do anything to sedate, to relieve me from the pain. After a while, a thought came into my mind, “Pick up the Course and open it at random.”
I stepped across to my desk, picked up the Course, and “happened” to open it to Chapter 18, Section VII, I need do nothing. I sat down and read it, sobbing. These passages, in particular, showed me that I was not alone.
To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides. He will remain when you forget, and the body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind.
Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it. T-18.VII.7:7-9, 8
Those were tears of recognition and of gratitude. I felt the Presence within that always has been and always will be there.
And now, at Christmas time, I simply want to look again at inspiring passages that I have recently, miraculously, come across, expressing this Presence that is in all of us, uniting us all in Oneness.
From the Course.
The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of Holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him.T-15.XI.2
And here is Jesus speaking in John.
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
John 14:18-20
Jesus reassures us in Lesson 70.
Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:2-4
Awareness of His Presence enables us to be in the world, but not of the world. This is how Michael Brown expresses it in The Presence Process.
Awareness of the Presence is a state of Being in which we effortlessly integrate the authentic and Divine Presence that we are with each God-given moment that we are in so that we are able to respond consciously to every experience we are having. By accomplishing this, our response is always the same: gratitude—a flow of gratitude that washes us of all our illusions. Entering such a state may sound hard and complicated when we are living in time. It is, however, effortless and completely natural because this awareness is our birthright. It is the kingdom of awareness through whose gates the prodigal children return. The hard part has been attempting to find what we did not know we had lost. The best part is realizing that we have been looking for something that has already found us. (Michael Brown, The Presence Process (Namaste Publishing, Vancouver, Canada, 2005), p. 13.
In His Urtext, Jesus demonstrates to Helen how He activates those around her to communicate to her what she needs to learn for herself. In the following example, she would have been late to work because of her focus on Jesus’s dictation of the Course.
The reason you have been late recently for work is because you were taking dictation merely because you didn't remember to ask me when to stop. I prompted that call from Jack (the taxi man who couldn’t pick Helen up) to show you that this is not necessary. Also, the other man needed the money more today. Scribes must learn Christ-control to replace their former habits, which did produce scarcity rather than abundance. Urtext, The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript as it Emanated from the Mind and Heart of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, p. 14
In another situation, Jesus says to Helen:
I inspired Bob, the elevator man, to make that remark to you. Urtext, p. 35.
When I first read, I inspired Bob, the elevator man, it exploded off the page and stayed with me for a long time. It is so clear how Jesus activates those around us to assist in our awakening to the recognition that we are truly One.
And from the Epilogue.
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-pII.Epilogue
When I look back at this essay, I can see how Jesus inspired me. While I was sitting on the couch, next to the wood-burning stove, looking out the window on a cold, snowy day, with my notebook in hand, thinking about the ideas that had been running through my mind for the past couple of days, into my mind came most of the passages that I quoted, above. In particular, my chest warmed with gratitude when it came into my mind to look at the Epilogue. You do not walk alone is the theme of this essay, and the last line echoes comfortless in John.
Finally, this song comes to me from over the years, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark.
Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.
And now, Dear Reader, here is the last line of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One.
And God Bless you, Master Teacher.
To listen to a recording of You'll Never Walk alone, click here.
This misplaced pride in standing alone is expressed in this poem that has, unfortunately, served as a rallying cry for getting it done, personally, individually.
Invictus
OUT of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow'd.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
. . .master of my fate. Sure. Finally, when I was about fifty-six years old, I experienced for the first time that I am not alone. A few years earlie, I had come across A Course in Miracles, but it did not really penetrate until one day I was in devastation, and I went to my room, and just stood there in the middle of the room, refusing to do anything to sedate, to relieve me from the pain. After a while, a thought came into my mind, “Pick up the Course and open it at random.”
I stepped across to my desk, picked up the Course, and “happened” to open it to Chapter 18, Section VII, I need do nothing. I sat down and read it, sobbing. These passages, in particular, showed me that I was not alone.
To do nothing is to rest, and make a place within you where the activity of the body ceases to demand attention. Into this place the Holy Spirit comes, and there abides. He will remain when you forget, and the body's activities return to occupy your conscious mind.
Yet there will always be this place of rest to which you can return. And you will be more aware of this quiet center of the storm than all its raging activity. This quiet center, in which you do nothing, will remain with you, giving you rest in the midst of every busy doing on which you are sent. For from this center will you be directed how to use the body sinlessly. It is this center, from which the body is absent, that will keep it so in your awareness of it. T-18.VII.7:7-9, 8
Those were tears of recognition and of gratitude. I felt the Presence within that always has been and always will be there.
And now, at Christmas time, I simply want to look again at inspiring passages that I have recently, miraculously, come across, expressing this Presence that is in all of us, uniting us all in Oneness.
From the Course.
The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in darkness. See it not outside yourself, but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come. He comes demanding nothing. No sacrifice of any kind, of anyone, is asked by Him. In His Presence the whole idea of sacrifice loses all meaning. For He is Host to God. And you need but invite Him in Who is there already, by recognizing that His Host is One, and no thought alien to His Oneness can abide with Him there. Love must be total to give Him welcome, for the Presence of Holiness creates the holiness that surrounds it. No fear can touch the Host Who cradles God in the time of Christ, for the Host is as holy as the perfect Innocence which He protects, and Whose power protects Him.T-15.XI.2
And here is Jesus speaking in John.
I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
John 14:18-20
Jesus reassures us in Lesson 70.
Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:2-4
Awareness of His Presence enables us to be in the world, but not of the world. This is how Michael Brown expresses it in The Presence Process.
Awareness of the Presence is a state of Being in which we effortlessly integrate the authentic and Divine Presence that we are with each God-given moment that we are in so that we are able to respond consciously to every experience we are having. By accomplishing this, our response is always the same: gratitude—a flow of gratitude that washes us of all our illusions. Entering such a state may sound hard and complicated when we are living in time. It is, however, effortless and completely natural because this awareness is our birthright. It is the kingdom of awareness through whose gates the prodigal children return. The hard part has been attempting to find what we did not know we had lost. The best part is realizing that we have been looking for something that has already found us. (Michael Brown, The Presence Process (Namaste Publishing, Vancouver, Canada, 2005), p. 13.
In His Urtext, Jesus demonstrates to Helen how He activates those around her to communicate to her what she needs to learn for herself. In the following example, she would have been late to work because of her focus on Jesus’s dictation of the Course.
The reason you have been late recently for work is because you were taking dictation merely because you didn't remember to ask me when to stop. I prompted that call from Jack (the taxi man who couldn’t pick Helen up) to show you that this is not necessary. Also, the other man needed the money more today. Scribes must learn Christ-control to replace their former habits, which did produce scarcity rather than abundance. Urtext, The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript as it Emanated from the Mind and Heart of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, p. 14
In another situation, Jesus says to Helen:
I inspired Bob, the elevator man, to make that remark to you. Urtext, p. 35.
When I first read, I inspired Bob, the elevator man, it exploded off the page and stayed with me for a long time. It is so clear how Jesus activates those around us to assist in our awakening to the recognition that we are truly One.
And from the Epilogue.
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-pII.Epilogue
When I look back at this essay, I can see how Jesus inspired me. While I was sitting on the couch, next to the wood-burning stove, looking out the window on a cold, snowy day, with my notebook in hand, thinking about the ideas that had been running through my mind for the past couple of days, into my mind came most of the passages that I quoted, above. In particular, my chest warmed with gratitude when it came into my mind to look at the Epilogue. You do not walk alone is the theme of this essay, and the last line echoes comfortless in John.
Finally, this song comes to me from over the years, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
When you walk through the storm
Hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm
There's a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark.
Walk on, through the wind
Walk on, through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never walk alone.
And now, Dear Reader, here is the last line of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One.
And God Bless you, Master Teacher.
To listen to a recording of You'll Never Walk alone, click here.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
We Truly Are Surrounded by Angels
We had about three inches of snow fall overnight here in Wisconsin Dells. Walking to Session at Endeavor Academy this morning, I fell, slipping on the ice beneath the snow, and landed perfectly on my back. Walking home, I fell again, but this time I landed on my right side, my arm jammed against my ribs. I laid there for a moment, unable to move, and I was surprised by a young woman’s voice because I hadn’t seen anyone around. She looked deeply into my eyes, being completely present, and asked if I were OK. I got up slowly and said that I might have broken my ribs. She asked if I wanted a ride, but I said I’d better walk it off.
Then she said do you want to pray and I said yes, and she held out her hands and I clasped them, and she prayed this long, spontaneous prayer, beginning “Dear God”, asking that I be healed and that my family be well and so forth. I actually felt much better, felt healed, and I thanked this angel profusely, knowing that we truly are surrounded by angels.
God's Name can not be heard without response,
nor said without an echo in the mind
that calls you to remember. Say His Name,
and you invite the angels to surround
the ground on which you stand, and sing to you
as they spread out their wings to keep you safe,
and shelter you from every worldly thought
that would intrude upon your holiness.
W-p1.183:2
I turned and walked away with a grateful heart, never looking back. I don’t know where she came from, or where she went, or where her car was.
Then she said do you want to pray and I said yes, and she held out her hands and I clasped them, and she prayed this long, spontaneous prayer, beginning “Dear God”, asking that I be healed and that my family be well and so forth. I actually felt much better, felt healed, and I thanked this angel profusely, knowing that we truly are surrounded by angels.
God's Name can not be heard without response,
nor said without an echo in the mind
that calls you to remember. Say His Name,
and you invite the angels to surround
the ground on which you stand, and sing to you
as they spread out their wings to keep you safe,
and shelter you from every worldly thought
that would intrude upon your holiness.
W-p1.183:2
I turned and walked away with a grateful heart, never looking back. I don’t know where she came from, or where she went, or where her car was.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
It is Always, Simply and Profoundly, a Matter of Awareness
Yesterday morning I woke up around 8 o’clock and faced the rather pleasant prospect of allowing the morning to unfold as it would because I had no particular agenda. I sat down with a cup of coffee and read the day’s Lesson. Everything was moving slowly, as I just sat quietly, looking out the window watching the pine branches swaying in the wind, listening to the wind chimes, seeing the first feathery flakes of snow falling, tentatively.
Then a Thought came to mind, “”Read something, randomly, from the Manual for Teachers.” I opened to, What is the Peace of God? I read it very slowly, lingering over each paragraph, sitting quietly between each one.
Then I came across this astonishing passage.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. In this one sentence is our course explained. In this one sentence is our practicing given its one direction. And in this one sentence is the Holy Spirit’s whole curriculum specified exactly as it is. (M-20.5:7-10)
When I looked back at the words forgive, world, create, and the Holy Spirit, I was inspired to read the first paragraph of each of these four instructions on a theme of special relevance, as stated in the Introduction to Part II of the Workbook:
1. What is Forgiveness? 3. What is the World? 11. What is Creation? 7. What is the Holy Spirit?
1. What is Forgiveness?
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in that view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin,
except a false idea about God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
3. What is the World?
The world is false perception. It is born
of error, and it has not left its source.
It will remain no longer than the thought
that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought
of separation has been changed to one
of true forgiveness, will the world be seen
in quite another light; and one which leads
to truth, where all the world must disappear
and all its errors vanish. Now its source
has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
11. What is Creation?
Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts,
in number infinite, and everywhere
without all limit. Only love creates,
and only like itself. There was no time
when all that it created was not there.
Nor will there be a time when anything
that it created suffers any loss.
Forever and forever are God's Thoughts
exactly as they were and as they are,
unchanged through time and after time is done.
7. What is the Holy Spirit?
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.
In the beginning of this essay, I said that a Thought came to me, and I capitalized Thought because the Thought was from God. It all comes down to awareness. In each moment, where is my awareness? Am I aware only of God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit speaking to me all through the day, or am I aware only of the incessant chatter of my separated mind?
It is always, either/or, on or off, wholeness or separation, Heaven or the world, Everything or nothing, Thoughts or thoughts, Love or fear, Real or unreal.
It always comes down to my awareness. When I am aware only of the peace of God, so be it, I am grateful for the grace of God, experiencing what is Real. When I am aware of fear, I ask the Holy Spirit for help to forgive my fear thoughts, so that I can be aware, again, of the peace of God, letting go of the unreal.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real.
Then a Thought came to mind, “”Read something, randomly, from the Manual for Teachers.” I opened to, What is the Peace of God? I read it very slowly, lingering over each paragraph, sitting quietly between each one.
Then I came across this astonishing passage.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real. In this one sentence is our course explained. In this one sentence is our practicing given its one direction. And in this one sentence is the Holy Spirit’s whole curriculum specified exactly as it is. (M-20.5:7-10)
When I looked back at the words forgive, world, create, and the Holy Spirit, I was inspired to read the first paragraph of each of these four instructions on a theme of special relevance, as stated in the Introduction to Part II of the Workbook:
1. What is Forgiveness? 3. What is the World? 11. What is Creation? 7. What is the Holy Spirit?
1. What is Forgiveness?
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
It does not pardon sins and make them real.
It sees there was no sin. And in that view
are all your sins forgiven. What is sin,
except a false idea about God's Son?
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
3. What is the World?
The world is false perception. It is born
of error, and it has not left its source.
It will remain no longer than the thought
that gave it birth is cherished. When the thought
of separation has been changed to one
of true forgiveness, will the world be seen
in quite another light; and one which leads
to truth, where all the world must disappear
and all its errors vanish. Now its source
has gone, and its effects are gone as well.
11. What is Creation?
Creation is the sum of all God's Thoughts,
in number infinite, and everywhere
without all limit. Only love creates,
and only like itself. There was no time
when all that it created was not there.
Nor will there be a time when anything
that it created suffers any loss.
Forever and forever are God's Thoughts
exactly as they were and as they are,
unchanged through time and after time is done.
7. What is the Holy Spirit?
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.
In the beginning of this essay, I said that a Thought came to me, and I capitalized Thought because the Thought was from God. It all comes down to awareness. In each moment, where is my awareness? Am I aware only of God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit speaking to me all through the day, or am I aware only of the incessant chatter of my separated mind?
It is always, either/or, on or off, wholeness or separation, Heaven or the world, Everything or nothing, Thoughts or thoughts, Love or fear, Real or unreal.
It always comes down to my awareness. When I am aware only of the peace of God, so be it, I am grateful for the grace of God, experiencing what is Real. When I am aware of fear, I ask the Holy Spirit for help to forgive my fear thoughts, so that I can be aware, again, of the peace of God, letting go of the unreal.
Forgive the world, and you will understand that everything that God created cannot have an end, and nothing He did not create is real.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Catching a Glimpse of the Truth Increases My Awareness of the Presence of God.
Just after I turned forty, I was taken by complete surprise when I was told by my Dean that I was terminated from my job. I was coaching and teaching at a small college, and he had invited me to lunch at a rather nice restaurant. Just after our food was served, he informed me of my termination with very little explanation. I felt ambushed, and having lost my appetite, I stood up and left. To that point in my life, I had never felt such devastation and shame and fear. I rationalized that we had just brought in a new college president, and I had been caught in faculty politics.
On a practical level, I still had mortgage payments and bills and a family to take care of. On an emotional level, I was facing shame and unworthiness and a complete lack of identity. I remember walking home from the restaurant with tears in my eyes saying to myself, “If I’m not a coach and a teacher, who am I?” Further, I had nothing to fall back on as far as faith, or spirituality, never having gone to church or taken a spiritual path. My life was becoming increasingly difficult, and I was in the early stages of undergoing psychotherapy.
To fill my days, I would walk the three miles from my home to downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, go to the library, look for jobs, and read all morning, go to lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then return to the library for the afternoon, and walk home in the evening—all the time wounded and depressed and lonely.
One day I was walking into town, and the words “sea change” came into my mind. Through therapy, I had begun to pay attention to such “free associations,” and as soon as I arrived at the library, I looked it up. It comes from a song by Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a play I had studied in college as an English major.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
(Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1, ii,399-404)
This was my first break since the termination. I felt buoyed up, I felt there was hope, I felt that, perhaps, even I, a shameful bottom-feeder, could be transformed into something rich and strange, just as eyes turned to pearls and bones turned to coral. I love that “sea change” means “a profound transformation.”
At about the same time, I read an article where the columnist explained the meaning of the Chinese ideograms that make up the meaning of the word, “Crisis.” (An ideogram is a symbol used in some writing systems, e.g., those of Japan and China, that directly but abstractly represents a thing or concept itself rather than the word for it.) It seems that in Chinese two ideograms are used to express it, one means danger and the other opportunity. I saw that the danger in my crisis would be to continue looking at the world as I always had, that it was a given, and I was a victim, and that the only thing I could do was to adjust to it, always trying to find more peace and less conflict, that I would always be facing such dualities, there being no alternative.
Or I could see this as an opportunity to look at things differently. I could begin to trust ideas that came to mind, ideas that were glimpses of Truth beyond the world I saw. I could begin to trust that I was not alone. I could trust that there is an alternative to this way of looking at the world, that, perhaps, this is all a dream, as Prospero says in The Tempest.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(The Tempest, IV, I,156-158)
Looking back, I realize that the termination truly turned into an opportunity. I began seriously searching for truth beyond my sensory experiences. I focused on my therapy, I read books, voraciously, like Lao Tzu's The Way, The Bhagavad Gita, and Krishnamurti, and Jung, and books on Zen. I joined “New Age” groups, I meditated, and finally, five years after the crisis, I came across A Course in Miracles, in fact, my wife, Christine, gave me the Course on Christmas Day, 1986, and seventeen years after the termination, I crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells.
In retrospect, I am grateful for that “fateful” lunch and realize that my Dean was, indeed, my savior. I was saved from my investment in the dream, the illusion, the mirage, the mass hypnotism projected from my limited, egoic self, and I began to catch more and more glimpses of the true alternative that I am the holy Son of God, Himself.
This all came back to me yesterday while reading a chapter in a book by Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964) entitled, The Art of Spiritual Healing. He reminds me that I do not really hear the truth until I feel hopeless, until I am on my knees.
Spiritual healing often has far greater success with incurable diseases than with the curable ones because when a doctor says, “I’ve done all I can do,” the patient gives up hope of a cure from material medica and, in his hopelessness, he is receptive and responsive to the spiritual impulse. (Joel Goldsmith, The Art of of Spiritual Healing, Chapter V, "What Did Hinder You!", p. 57)
And “sea change” was, indeed, a spiritual impulse. That was the beginning of my awakening, a process continuing to this day, the initial realization that I am dreaming.
Just for a moment imagine that you are experiencing an unpleasant night dream: You are in the ocean, swimming; you have gone out too far; you look back toward the shore and see that there is very little hope of rescue. Even though you shout your lungs, no one can hear you. And so you are seized with fear. You struggle and strive to reach the shore, and, of course, the harder you fight the harder the ocean fights you. There is only one thing left for you to do—drown. Yes, drown—but wait! In your fight, you shouted and someone heard you, came over and shook you, woke you up, and behold the miracle! The drowning self disappeared; the ocean disappeared; the struggle disappeared. You awakened and found that you had never left your comfortable home. All that was necessary in order to be released from the struggle was to awaken. This is the nature of spiritual healing. Whether you are struggling with some form of sin, false appetite, disease, poverty, unemployment, or unhappiness, stop struggling and wake up. Wake up to your true identity. You are not a swimmer in a deep ocean; you are not a sufferer in sin and disease; you are not a coach, teacher; you are the Christ-consciousness, a child of God, and the very error you are fighting, you are perpetuating by that fighting. (Goldsmith, p. 58)
. . . unemployment.
Whatever the form it takes, I need constant reminders that “This is not so, I am dreaming, Help!”
I have come to learn through A Course in Miracles that reminders of the Truth of what I am, God’s holy Son, are always available, and that these spiritual impulses will come into my awareness when I stand still for a moment and ask for help. I have learned to trust that they will come into my mind just as “sea change” came to mind, gifts, infused with the power of God. These reminders come to me in a variety of forms: Reason, Forgiveness, Trust,
Gratitude, Peace, Receptivity, and God’s Will.
REASON
Reason helps me sort out the true from the false in respect to the premises, or foundations, of my thinking process. The clearest way to look at this process is to consider a syllogism, for example:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
A syllogism demonstrates that if the first two premises are valid, then the conclusion is valid. Of course, the irony here is that philosophers through the generations have used this syllogism as a good example of establishing validity, when, in fact, it is completely invalid because all men are immortal. It is also ironic that they would use Socrates because he said these words about his immortality at his trial:
If death is a removal from here to some other place, and if what we are told is true, that all the dead are there, what greater blessing could there be than this, gentlemen? . . .How much would one of you give to meet Orpheus and Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer? I am willing to die ten times over if this account is true. . .They are now immortal for the rest of time, if what we are told is true. (The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Pantheon Books, New York, 1961, “The Apology,” p. 25)
Jesus begins the Lessons of His Course by establishing a valid premise in the title to Lesson 1:
Nothing I see means anything.
We learn through His systematic mind-training how to complete the syllogism:
I see a tree.
Therefore, the tree means nothing.
Jesus teaches us from the beginning that what is visible is unreal, meaning nothing, and He leads us to experience that what is invisible is real, meaning everything.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein, lies the peace of God.
Jesus begins where He does because He knows that for our entire lives we have taken for granted that seeing means something, basing our lives on this syllogism:
Everything I see means something.
I see a tree.
That tree means something.
And, of course, what the tree means depends on my past—memories and judgments and associations, and what it means to you depends on your particular memories and judgments and associations. And we think we can communicate with each other on this level?
Thank God for A Course in Miracles. It is a systematic mind-training that reverses our habitual, conditioned way of seeing falsely, so that we can learn to see truly. That complete reversal is what a “sea change” means, a sudden reversal of the tide.
Fidelity to premises is a law of the mind and everything God created is faithful to His laws. But fidelity to other laws is also possible not because they are true, but because you made them. (The Urtext, p. 128)
FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is a shift in awareness from the dream, the unreal, the past, to the awareness of the truth, the real, the present, the peace of God.
Unless the past is over in my mind,
the real world must escape my sight. For I
am really looking nowhere; seeing but
what is not there. How can I then perceive
the world forgiveness offers? This the past
was made to hide, for this the world that can
be looked on only now. It has no past.
For what can be forgiven but the past,
and if it is forgiven it is gone.
(W-pII.289.1)
Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon, and which he thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you, until you learned to see it for yourself. And all his teaching leads to seeing it and giving thanks with him.
This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth. The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross, that you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.
(T-17.II.1,2)
GRATITUDE
I know I am experiencing gratitude when my chest becomes infused with warmth, and I tear up, and my mind is still, my heart filling with love.
Walk, then, in gratitude the way of love.
For hatred is forgotten when we lay
comparisons aside. What more remains
as obstacles to peace? The fear of God
is now undone at last, and we forgive
without comparing. Thus we cannot choose
to overlook some things, and yet retain
some other things still locked away as "sins."
When your forgiveness is complete you will
have total gratitude, for you will see
that everything has earned the right to love
by being loving, even as your Self.
Our gratitude will pave the way to Him,
and shorten our learning time by more
than you could ever dream of. Gratitude
goes hand in hand with love, and where one is
the other must be found. For gratitude
is but an aspect of the Love which is
the Source of all creation. God gives thanks
to you, His Son, for being what you are;
His Own completion and the Source of love,
along with Him. Your gratitude to Him
is one with His to you. For love can walk
no road except the way of gratitude,
and thus we go who walk the way to God.
(W-pII.195.8,10)
TRUST
And now I trust that no matter how I feel while my awareness is on seeing through the body’s eyes, using false premises, experiencing pain and despair, I know that I can shift to another awareness, knowing that “This is not so.” There is only the peace of God, that nothing I see means anything, even though there may be a gap between the recognition and the peace.
For an expression of trust, I am turning to a little book, God Calling. In 1932, a woman came across a book entitled For Sinners by A. J. Russell. Reading the book, she was led to believe that if she were to sit down with a good friend, a “spiritual” woman with “pencil and paper in hand, “ they would receive messages from Jesus. And, indeed, they did. In this little book are messages for each day of the year. Here is the message of October 6, entitled "A Child’s Hand."
Yes, cling. Your trust shall be rewarded. Do you not know what it means to feel a little trusting hand in yours, to know a child's confidence? Does that not draw out our Love and desire to protect, to care? Think what My Heart feels, when in your helplessness you turn to Me, clinging, desiring My Love and Protection. Would you fail that child, faulty and weak as you are? Could I fail you? Just know it is not possible. Know all is well. You must not doubt. You must be sure. There is no eleventh-hour rescue I cannot accomplish. (A. J. Russell (Ed.), God Calling (Barbour, Ohio, 1989, October 6)
And this is Jesus speaking:
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. (W-p1.70.9:3,4)
PEACE
One morning I was sitting on the couch looking out the window, absent-mindedly running through the events of the coming day, and all of a sudden I was overcome by utter peacefulness; I was lifted out. Then, this came into my mind, “This is my only function, this is my only purpose.” I realized that while I walk in the world, but not of it, my only function is to come into this state of mind, the awareness of the peace of God. This is my only purpose, and this is simple. I came into full understanding of Brother Laurence’s phrase, “It’s not what you do, it’s the state of mind in which you do it.”
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.
(W-pII.188.3)
While you stand to one side as a witness or a beholder, eventually a state of peace will come. Then you will catch a glimpse of God as Is—not a power over anything, just God is. You begin to understand that no power does anything to anyone, and you become a beholder as reality begins to appear. All problems fade out in proportion as you develop this ability to be quiet, to behold, and to witness divine harmony unfold. (Goldsmith, p. 68)
Please read the following passage aloud and hear Jesus saying to you, The hush of heaven holds my heart today, (Lesson 286), as you would soothe a crying baby, “Hush, shhhhh.” Listen to Jesus’s soothing “s” sounds.
In Him you have no cares and no concerns,
no burdens, no anxiety, no pain,
no fear of future and no past regrets.
In timelessness you rest, while time goes by
without its touch upon you, for your rest
can never change in any way at all.
You rest today. And as you close your eyes,
sink into stillness. Let these periods
of rest and respite reassure your mind
that all its frantic fantasies were but
the dreams of fever that has passed away.
Let it be still and thankfully accept
its healing. No more fearful dreams will come,
now that you rest in God. Take time today
to slip away from dreams and into peace.
(W-pII.109.5)
RECEPTIVITY
When I am experiencing the peace of God, I am receptive to God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit. Often, during the day, I experience an idea coming to me, unbidden. It’s the having of wonderful ideas.
. . . “sea change.”
Let every voice but God's be still in me.
Father, today I would but hear Your Voice.
In deepest silence I would come to You,
to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word.
I have no prayer but this: I come to You
to ask You for the truth. And truth is but
Your Will, which I would share with You today.
Today we let no ego thoughts direct
our words or actions. When such thoughts occur,
we quietly step back and look at them,
and then we let them go. We do not want
what they would bring with them. And so we do
not choose to keep them. They are silent now.
And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love,
God speaks to us and tells us of our will,
as we have chosen to remember Him.
(W-pII.254)
And so, in conversation with a friend, perhaps one who has come to me for help, I simply listen, step back, and often find myself saying, “This just came to mind,” and I trust that whatever it is, it will be helpful for both of us.
Your healing Voice protects all things today,
and so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak and what to say to him,
what thoughts to think,
what words to give the world.
The safety that I bring is given me.
Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.
(W-pII.275.2)
GOD’S WILL
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
When I get out of the way, God’s will and mine are one; not mine but Thine.
Your will be done, you holy child of God.
It does not matter if you think you are
in earth or Heaven. What your Father wills
of you can never change. The truth in you
remains as radiant as a star, as pure
as light, as innocent as love itself.
And you are worthy that your will be done!
(T-31.VI.7)
God does not know of learning. Yet His Will
extends to what He does not understand,
in that He wills the happiness His Son
inherited of Him be undisturbed;
eternal and forever gaining scope,
eternally expanding in the joy
of full creation, and eternally
open and wholly limitless in Him.
That is His Will. And thus His Will provides
the means to guarantee that it is done.
(W-pII.193.1)
Wherever I am, the Father within me is; therefore, wherever I am, the Father within me is about His business. (Goldsmith, p. 41)
These reminders, literally, "bring to mind again" the remembrance that I am God's most holy Son in whom He is well pleased.
On a practical level, I still had mortgage payments and bills and a family to take care of. On an emotional level, I was facing shame and unworthiness and a complete lack of identity. I remember walking home from the restaurant with tears in my eyes saying to myself, “If I’m not a coach and a teacher, who am I?” Further, I had nothing to fall back on as far as faith, or spirituality, never having gone to church or taken a spiritual path. My life was becoming increasingly difficult, and I was in the early stages of undergoing psychotherapy.
To fill my days, I would walk the three miles from my home to downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, go to the library, look for jobs, and read all morning, go to lunch at a nearby restaurant, and then return to the library for the afternoon, and walk home in the evening—all the time wounded and depressed and lonely.
One day I was walking into town, and the words “sea change” came into my mind. Through therapy, I had begun to pay attention to such “free associations,” and as soon as I arrived at the library, I looked it up. It comes from a song by Ariel in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, a play I had studied in college as an English major.
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea change
Into something rich and strange.
(Shakespeare, The Tempest, 1, ii,399-404)
This was my first break since the termination. I felt buoyed up, I felt there was hope, I felt that, perhaps, even I, a shameful bottom-feeder, could be transformed into something rich and strange, just as eyes turned to pearls and bones turned to coral. I love that “sea change” means “a profound transformation.”
At about the same time, I read an article where the columnist explained the meaning of the Chinese ideograms that make up the meaning of the word, “Crisis.” (An ideogram is a symbol used in some writing systems, e.g., those of Japan and China, that directly but abstractly represents a thing or concept itself rather than the word for it.) It seems that in Chinese two ideograms are used to express it, one means danger and the other opportunity. I saw that the danger in my crisis would be to continue looking at the world as I always had, that it was a given, and I was a victim, and that the only thing I could do was to adjust to it, always trying to find more peace and less conflict, that I would always be facing such dualities, there being no alternative.
Or I could see this as an opportunity to look at things differently. I could begin to trust ideas that came to mind, ideas that were glimpses of Truth beyond the world I saw. I could begin to trust that I was not alone. I could trust that there is an alternative to this way of looking at the world, that, perhaps, this is all a dream, as Prospero says in The Tempest.
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
(The Tempest, IV, I,156-158)
Looking back, I realize that the termination truly turned into an opportunity. I began seriously searching for truth beyond my sensory experiences. I focused on my therapy, I read books, voraciously, like Lao Tzu's The Way, The Bhagavad Gita, and Krishnamurti, and Jung, and books on Zen. I joined “New Age” groups, I meditated, and finally, five years after the crisis, I came across A Course in Miracles, in fact, my wife, Christine, gave me the Course on Christmas Day, 1986, and seventeen years after the termination, I crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells.
In retrospect, I am grateful for that “fateful” lunch and realize that my Dean was, indeed, my savior. I was saved from my investment in the dream, the illusion, the mirage, the mass hypnotism projected from my limited, egoic self, and I began to catch more and more glimpses of the true alternative that I am the holy Son of God, Himself.
This all came back to me yesterday while reading a chapter in a book by Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964) entitled, The Art of Spiritual Healing. He reminds me that I do not really hear the truth until I feel hopeless, until I am on my knees.
Spiritual healing often has far greater success with incurable diseases than with the curable ones because when a doctor says, “I’ve done all I can do,” the patient gives up hope of a cure from material medica and, in his hopelessness, he is receptive and responsive to the spiritual impulse. (Joel Goldsmith, The Art of of Spiritual Healing, Chapter V, "What Did Hinder You!", p. 57)
And “sea change” was, indeed, a spiritual impulse. That was the beginning of my awakening, a process continuing to this day, the initial realization that I am dreaming.
Just for a moment imagine that you are experiencing an unpleasant night dream: You are in the ocean, swimming; you have gone out too far; you look back toward the shore and see that there is very little hope of rescue. Even though you shout your lungs, no one can hear you. And so you are seized with fear. You struggle and strive to reach the shore, and, of course, the harder you fight the harder the ocean fights you. There is only one thing left for you to do—drown. Yes, drown—but wait! In your fight, you shouted and someone heard you, came over and shook you, woke you up, and behold the miracle! The drowning self disappeared; the ocean disappeared; the struggle disappeared. You awakened and found that you had never left your comfortable home. All that was necessary in order to be released from the struggle was to awaken. This is the nature of spiritual healing. Whether you are struggling with some form of sin, false appetite, disease, poverty, unemployment, or unhappiness, stop struggling and wake up. Wake up to your true identity. You are not a swimmer in a deep ocean; you are not a sufferer in sin and disease; you are not a coach, teacher; you are the Christ-consciousness, a child of God, and the very error you are fighting, you are perpetuating by that fighting. (Goldsmith, p. 58)
. . . unemployment.
Whatever the form it takes, I need constant reminders that “This is not so, I am dreaming, Help!”
I have come to learn through A Course in Miracles that reminders of the Truth of what I am, God’s holy Son, are always available, and that these spiritual impulses will come into my awareness when I stand still for a moment and ask for help. I have learned to trust that they will come into my mind just as “sea change” came to mind, gifts, infused with the power of God. These reminders come to me in a variety of forms: Reason, Forgiveness, Trust,
Gratitude, Peace, Receptivity, and God’s Will.
REASON
Reason helps me sort out the true from the false in respect to the premises, or foundations, of my thinking process. The clearest way to look at this process is to consider a syllogism, for example:
All men are mortal.
Socrates is a man.
Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
A syllogism demonstrates that if the first two premises are valid, then the conclusion is valid. Of course, the irony here is that philosophers through the generations have used this syllogism as a good example of establishing validity, when, in fact, it is completely invalid because all men are immortal. It is also ironic that they would use Socrates because he said these words about his immortality at his trial:
If death is a removal from here to some other place, and if what we are told is true, that all the dead are there, what greater blessing could there be than this, gentlemen? . . .How much would one of you give to meet Orpheus and Musaeus, Hesiod and Homer? I am willing to die ten times over if this account is true. . .They are now immortal for the rest of time, if what we are told is true. (The Collected Dialogues of Plato, Pantheon Books, New York, 1961, “The Apology,” p. 25)
Jesus begins the Lessons of His Course by establishing a valid premise in the title to Lesson 1:
Nothing I see means anything.
We learn through His systematic mind-training how to complete the syllogism:
I see a tree.
Therefore, the tree means nothing.
Jesus teaches us from the beginning that what is visible is unreal, meaning nothing, and He leads us to experience that what is invisible is real, meaning everything.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein, lies the peace of God.
Jesus begins where He does because He knows that for our entire lives we have taken for granted that seeing means something, basing our lives on this syllogism:
Everything I see means something.
I see a tree.
That tree means something.
And, of course, what the tree means depends on my past—memories and judgments and associations, and what it means to you depends on your particular memories and judgments and associations. And we think we can communicate with each other on this level?
Thank God for A Course in Miracles. It is a systematic mind-training that reverses our habitual, conditioned way of seeing falsely, so that we can learn to see truly. That complete reversal is what a “sea change” means, a sudden reversal of the tide.
Fidelity to premises is a law of the mind and everything God created is faithful to His laws. But fidelity to other laws is also possible not because they are true, but because you made them. (The Urtext, p. 128)
FORGIVENESS
Forgiveness is a shift in awareness from the dream, the unreal, the past, to the awareness of the truth, the real, the present, the peace of God.
Unless the past is over in my mind,
the real world must escape my sight. For I
am really looking nowhere; seeing but
what is not there. How can I then perceive
the world forgiveness offers? This the past
was made to hide, for this the world that can
be looked on only now. It has no past.
For what can be forgiven but the past,
and if it is forgiven it is gone.
(W-pII.289.1)
Can you imagine how beautiful those you forgive will look to you? In no fantasy have you ever seen anything so lovely. Nothing you see here, sleeping or waking, comes near to such loveliness. And nothing will you value like unto this, nor hold so dear. Nothing that you remember that made your heart sing with joy has ever brought you even a little part of the happiness this sight will bring you. For you will see the Son of God. You will behold the beauty the Holy Spirit loves to look upon, and which he thanks the Father for. He was created to see this for you, until you learned to see it for yourself. And all his teaching leads to seeing it and giving thanks with him.
This loveliness is not a fantasy. It is the real world, bright and clean and new, with everything sparkling under the open sun. Nothing is hidden here, for everything has been forgiven and there are no fantasies to hide the truth. The bridge between that world and this is so little and so easy to cross, that you could not believe it is the meeting place of worlds so different. Yet this little bridge is the strongest thing that touches on this world at all. This little step, so small it has escaped your notice, is a stride through time into eternity, beyond all ugliness into beauty that will enchant you, and will never cease to cause you wonderment at its perfection.
(T-17.II.1,2)
GRATITUDE
I know I am experiencing gratitude when my chest becomes infused with warmth, and I tear up, and my mind is still, my heart filling with love.
Walk, then, in gratitude the way of love.
For hatred is forgotten when we lay
comparisons aside. What more remains
as obstacles to peace? The fear of God
is now undone at last, and we forgive
without comparing. Thus we cannot choose
to overlook some things, and yet retain
some other things still locked away as "sins."
When your forgiveness is complete you will
have total gratitude, for you will see
that everything has earned the right to love
by being loving, even as your Self.
Our gratitude will pave the way to Him,
and shorten our learning time by more
than you could ever dream of. Gratitude
goes hand in hand with love, and where one is
the other must be found. For gratitude
is but an aspect of the Love which is
the Source of all creation. God gives thanks
to you, His Son, for being what you are;
His Own completion and the Source of love,
along with Him. Your gratitude to Him
is one with His to you. For love can walk
no road except the way of gratitude,
and thus we go who walk the way to God.
(W-pII.195.8,10)
TRUST
And now I trust that no matter how I feel while my awareness is on seeing through the body’s eyes, using false premises, experiencing pain and despair, I know that I can shift to another awareness, knowing that “This is not so.” There is only the peace of God, that nothing I see means anything, even though there may be a gap between the recognition and the peace.
For an expression of trust, I am turning to a little book, God Calling. In 1932, a woman came across a book entitled For Sinners by A. J. Russell. Reading the book, she was led to believe that if she were to sit down with a good friend, a “spiritual” woman with “pencil and paper in hand, “ they would receive messages from Jesus. And, indeed, they did. In this little book are messages for each day of the year. Here is the message of October 6, entitled "A Child’s Hand."
Yes, cling. Your trust shall be rewarded. Do you not know what it means to feel a little trusting hand in yours, to know a child's confidence? Does that not draw out our Love and desire to protect, to care? Think what My Heart feels, when in your helplessness you turn to Me, clinging, desiring My Love and Protection. Would you fail that child, faulty and weak as you are? Could I fail you? Just know it is not possible. Know all is well. You must not doubt. You must be sure. There is no eleventh-hour rescue I cannot accomplish. (A. J. Russell (Ed.), God Calling (Barbour, Ohio, 1989, October 6)
And this is Jesus speaking:
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. (W-p1.70.9:3,4)
PEACE
One morning I was sitting on the couch looking out the window, absent-mindedly running through the events of the coming day, and all of a sudden I was overcome by utter peacefulness; I was lifted out. Then, this came into my mind, “This is my only function, this is my only purpose.” I realized that while I walk in the world, but not of it, my only function is to come into this state of mind, the awareness of the peace of God. This is my only purpose, and this is simple. I came into full understanding of Brother Laurence’s phrase, “It’s not what you do, it’s the state of mind in which you do it.”
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.
(W-pII.188.3)
While you stand to one side as a witness or a beholder, eventually a state of peace will come. Then you will catch a glimpse of God as Is—not a power over anything, just God is. You begin to understand that no power does anything to anyone, and you become a beholder as reality begins to appear. All problems fade out in proportion as you develop this ability to be quiet, to behold, and to witness divine harmony unfold. (Goldsmith, p. 68)
Please read the following passage aloud and hear Jesus saying to you, The hush of heaven holds my heart today, (Lesson 286), as you would soothe a crying baby, “Hush, shhhhh.” Listen to Jesus’s soothing “s” sounds.
In Him you have no cares and no concerns,
no burdens, no anxiety, no pain,
no fear of future and no past regrets.
In timelessness you rest, while time goes by
without its touch upon you, for your rest
can never change in any way at all.
You rest today. And as you close your eyes,
sink into stillness. Let these periods
of rest and respite reassure your mind
that all its frantic fantasies were but
the dreams of fever that has passed away.
Let it be still and thankfully accept
its healing. No more fearful dreams will come,
now that you rest in God. Take time today
to slip away from dreams and into peace.
(W-pII.109.5)
RECEPTIVITY
When I am experiencing the peace of God, I am receptive to God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit. Often, during the day, I experience an idea coming to me, unbidden. It’s the having of wonderful ideas.
. . . “sea change.”
Let every voice but God's be still in me.
Father, today I would but hear Your Voice.
In deepest silence I would come to You,
to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word.
I have no prayer but this: I come to You
to ask You for the truth. And truth is but
Your Will, which I would share with You today.
Today we let no ego thoughts direct
our words or actions. When such thoughts occur,
we quietly step back and look at them,
and then we let them go. We do not want
what they would bring with them. And so we do
not choose to keep them. They are silent now.
And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love,
God speaks to us and tells us of our will,
as we have chosen to remember Him.
(W-pII.254)
And so, in conversation with a friend, perhaps one who has come to me for help, I simply listen, step back, and often find myself saying, “This just came to mind,” and I trust that whatever it is, it will be helpful for both of us.
Your healing Voice protects all things today,
and so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak and what to say to him,
what thoughts to think,
what words to give the world.
The safety that I bring is given me.
Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.
(W-pII.275.2)
GOD’S WILL
Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
When I get out of the way, God’s will and mine are one; not mine but Thine.
Your will be done, you holy child of God.
It does not matter if you think you are
in earth or Heaven. What your Father wills
of you can never change. The truth in you
remains as radiant as a star, as pure
as light, as innocent as love itself.
And you are worthy that your will be done!
(T-31.VI.7)
God does not know of learning. Yet His Will
extends to what He does not understand,
in that He wills the happiness His Son
inherited of Him be undisturbed;
eternal and forever gaining scope,
eternally expanding in the joy
of full creation, and eternally
open and wholly limitless in Him.
That is His Will. And thus His Will provides
the means to guarantee that it is done.
(W-pII.193.1)
Wherever I am, the Father within me is; therefore, wherever I am, the Father within me is about His business. (Goldsmith, p. 41)
These reminders, literally, "bring to mind again" the remembrance that I am God's most holy Son in whom He is well pleased.
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