Two, or three, years ago, I set up a Facebook account, but I never really did much with it, until Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday, auspiciously, when it occurred to me that I could post a Status statement on Facebook, daily. This would enable me to express myself regarding the meaning of forgiveness, and spread the word about the incredible event coming up in the fall, International Forgiveness Week and Weekend of Perfect Peace, September 14-23, 2012, at the Healing Center of Endeavor Academy, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
It was clear to me that each day I could make explicit the meaning of forgiveness in a pithy statement, and at the same time, encourage readers to send in their statements expressing their forgiveness experiences.
We will collect these statements and make them available during the Event, as well as possibly publish them in a book.
Please write about your experience of forgiving thoughts in 600 words, or less, and Submit Your Essay, using this link:
http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php
It was also clear to me that on the first of each month, I would post a blog containing the statements from the preceding month.
These are my Status postings for August, 2012.
8/1
It is very helpful for me to be aware of either seeing through the body’s eyes, comparing and judging and projecting, or seeing through the eyes of Christ, catching a pure reflection of a peaceful state of mind. This passage expresses this peacefulness very nicely.
The mirror is thoroughly egoless and mindless. If a flower comes, it reflects a flower; if a bird comes, it reflects a bird. Everything is revealed as it is. There is no discriminating mind or self-consciousness on the part of the mirror. If something comes, the mirror reflects; if it disappears, the mirror just lets it disappear. . .no traces of anything are left behind. (Zenkei Shibayama (1894-1974, Japan)
Christ's eyes are open, and He will look upon whatever you see with love if you accept His vision as yours. The Holy Spirit keeps the vision of Christ for every Son of God who sleeps. In His sight the Son of God is perfect, and He longs to share His vision with you. He will show you the real world because God gave you Heaven. Through Him your Father calls His Son to remember. The awakening of His Son begins with his investment in the real world, and by this he will learn to re-invest in himself. For reality is one with the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit blesses the real world in Their Name. Chapter 12.VI.4:4-10
8/2
It is so sad that, rather than asking for too much, we ask for so little and settle for practically nothing, while all the time we could be walking the world with full awareness that we are as we were created by God. Nevertheless, it is inevitable that we occasionally catch a glimpse, a Light, a song. And these two passages express it well.
As mortals, we have tried to live in worlds of our own design, pulling many thoughts and moods around ourselves for comfort. Through the centuries and ages and eons with every comfort we cloak ourselves in, we become further from the One; layer upon layer, further and further, until finally, all that’s left to remind us is a memory of the One, a feeling way down underneath, and bits of light peeking out now and then through one another’s eyes. (Karen Goodman, Angel Voices, Simon & Schuster,New York, 1993), p. 101
Listen—perhaps you catch a hint of an ancient state not quite forgotten; dim, perhaps, and yet not altogether unfamiliar, like a song whose name is long forgotten; and the circumstances in which you heard completely unremembered. Not the whole song has stayed with you, but just a little wisp of melody, attached not to a person or a place or anything particular. But you remember, from just this little part, how lovely was the song, how wonderful the setting where you heard it, and how you loved those who were there and listened with you. Chapter 21.1.6
8/3
It is always a matter of awareness. Am I aware of my petty self, perceiving false thought-images, or am I aware of my Self, experiencing a reflection of a peaceful state of mind? Awareness of my self blocks the awareness of my Self.
It is always either/or, Yes/No, Help/Thank You.
When you attack a brother, you proclaim
that he is limited by what you have
perceived in him. You do not look beyond
his errors. Rather, they are magnified,
becoming blocks to your awareness of
the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes,
and past his seeming sins as well as yours.
Lesson 181.1
A brother once said this to me when I first came to Endeavor Academy, and it has always been very helpful to me:
“When I feel conflicted, I ask for Help; when I feel peaceful, I say Thank You.”
8/4
In studies of perception, there is a very helpful way of looking at things: “figure” and “ground.”
If you focus on your hand, say, it becomes “figure” and everything else around you becomes “ground,” say, the computer monitor.
If you shift your focus from your hand and glance at your surroundings, say, the computer monitor, your hand becomes “ground” and the monitor becomes “figure.”
Obviously, we shift our focus thousands of times a day.
It is very useful to keep this distinction in mind while reading this passage in Lesson 181, I trust my brothers who are one with me.
Perception has a focus. It is this
that gives consistency to what you see.
Change but this focus, and what you behold
will change accordingly. Your vision now
will shift, to give support to the intent
which has replaced the one you held before.
Remove your focus on your brother's sins,
and you experience the peace that comes
from faith in sinlessness. This faith receives
its only sure support from what you see
in others past their sins. For their mistakes,
if focused on, are witnesses to sins
in you. And you will not transcend their sight
and see the sinlessness that lies beyond. 2
If I focus on a brother’s “sins,” his Christhood becomes “ground.” When I focus on his Christhood, his “sins” becomes “ground.” This can only happen when I become aware of my own Christhood.
This shift in my perception is forgiveness.
8/5
There is only now. There is only this moment, an interval between the past and the future. I am sitting here, quietly, breathing in and breathing out, my feet planted squarely on the floor, grounded. And in this moment, now, my focus on my false thoughts has gone away, and with pure intent for peace, reaching for the Thoughts of God, focusing on my sinlessness, I am receptive.
Therefore, in practicing today, we first
let all such little focuses give way
to our great need to let our sinlessness
become apparent. We instruct our minds
that it is this we seek, and only this,
for just a little while. We do not care
about our future goals. And what we saw
|an instant previous has no concern
for us within this interval of time
wherein we practice changing our intent.
We seek for innocence and nothing else.
We seek for it with no concern but now.
Lesson 181.3
(And now I’m laughing, because just after writing this peaceful thing, Christine and I had one of those crazy, meaningless arguments about nothing, and I am marveling at how quickly we can lose focus.)
I just told her that prior to the craziness, I was peaceful, and she said she was in Light, and we laughed and hugged, and it was all over.
8/6
I don’t know how often I have said, “Thank God for A Course in Miracles.”
This morning I was in a meeting, and a brother was going on and on about something that made me so angry my stomach started churning.
When the meeting was over, I went home, still seething, and said to myself that I had given myself the next few hours to write and read, and how could I do that in this state of mind?
I sat down on the couch in misery and said I’ve got to read something to pull myself out.
I read this passage from Lesson 181, I trust my brothers who are one with me.
Sure.
So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:
It is not this that I would look upon. 6:3,4
It is obvious that my brother is not the problem; s/he is not “out there.” What I am seeing in him/her is a projection of blocks in my own mind; “I” am the problem, not him/her.
I trust my brothers, who are one with me. 5
And we will also use this thought to keep us safe throughout the day. 7:1
By this practice, we are being kept safe from our own projections.
We do not seek for long-range goals. As each obstruction seems to block the vision of our sinlessness, we seek but for surcease an instant from the misery the focus upon sin will bring, and uncorrected will remain. 7:2,3
Ah, there it is. . .surcease an instant from the misery. . .Now, for a moment, I have that easy, peaceful feeling, and I can keep working it as the day goes on. And now I am able to write this with a clear head.
“Thank God, I learned to forgive through A Course in Miracles.”
8/7
I came across this quotation in Facebook, today.
The more real you get, the more unreal the world gets.
John Lennon
I find that during the day, the more often I sit quietly and experience the peace of God, or do what I do from a grounded state of mind, the more I can see the dream for what it is. Looking out at the world from this perspective, I don’t take quite so seriously the thought-images that appear and disappear in my mind. In respect to A Course in Miracles, my unreality is sinful, i.e., off the mark, separate from God, miserable; however, my reality is in union with God, sinless, joyful, peaceful.
We seek but for surcease an instant from
the misery the focus upon sin
will bring, and uncorrected will remain.
Nor do we ask for fantasies. For what
we seek to look upon is really there.
And as our focus goes beyond mistakes,
we will behold a wholly sinless world.
|When seeing this is all we want to see,
when this is all we seek for in the name
of true perception, are the eyes of Christ
inevitably ours. And the Love
He feels for us becomes our own as well.
This will become the only thing we see
reflected in the world and in ourselves.
Lesson 181.
When I was talking about this with my son, Stephen, the other day, he said, “This is like lucid dreaming.” I like that. Lucid comces from the Latin, lucidus, meaning “light, bright, clear.”
It is quite possible to be “in” the world, and not “of” the world, seeing brightly.
8/8
It is so difficult not to take ego perception and memory for reality, and the following serves as a good reminder. A newspaper columnist, Christian Schneider, begins an article this way.
I can remember my first Milwaukee Brewers baseball game as clearly as if it were a week ago. It was 1981, and the heavily mustachioed Brewers Crew were on their way to their first playoff appearance.
As I walked into County Stadium on that warm night, my eyes grew to the size of manhole covers—I had never been in a stadium packed to capacity before. Tommy John was on the mound for the hated New York Yankees: the Brewers Gorman Thomas hit two home runs, and my dad and I went home as happy and worn out as if we had played the game ourselves.
There’s only one problem with my fondest of memories: None of it is t rue.
I was able to debunk this warm memory of mine within about three clicks of a mouse while surfing the internet. I now wonder how many other formative elements of my childhood are incorrect.
With memories, perception is reality; a strong recollection, even if incorrect, has the force of fact. (“The Internet’s attack on memory,” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 25, 2012, p. 13A)
Schneder provides a most appropriate example of what Jesus is teaching us in His Course in Miracles.
Perhaps you think it is your childhood home
that you would find again. The childhood of
your body, and its place of shelter, are
a memory now so distorted that
you merely hold a picture of a past
that never happened.
Lesson 182.4
And Jesus offers us His Course, so that we can learn to be in touch with our true Child, already, always present in us.
Yet there is a Child
in you Who seeks His Father's house, and knows
that He is alien here. This childhood is
eternal, with an innocence that will
endure forever. Where this Child shall go
is holy ground. It is His Holiness
that lights up Heaven, and that brings to earth
the pure reflection of the light above,
wherein are earth and Heaven joined as one.
Lesson 182.4
8/9
There is no question that we have always been called. The only question is whether or not we hear the call.
Here’s our great American poet, Walt Whitman.
Would you sound below the restless ocean of the entire world? Would you know the dissatisfaction? The urge and spur of every life; the something never still’d—never entirely gone? The invisible need of every seed?
And here is Guy Finley’s commentary:
We’re asked a vital question: is there a part of us that longs to know—that’s willing to seek out—what lies hidden just beneath the thought-tossed surface of ourselves? If our answer is “Yes,” then Mr. Whitman goes on to suggest what awaits us there in that great, undiscovered country of our innermost Self. (The Seeker The Search The Sacred, Weiser Books, San Francisco, CA., 2011), p. 4
Whitman finishes with this sentence.
It is the central urge in every atom to return to its divine source and origin, however distant.
And here’s Finley:
In summary, Walt asks: Are we willing to bear—to share in the being of an unceasing creation—to merge with the highest part of ourselves?
And here’s Jesus in Lesson 182, I will be still an instant and go home.
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. 1
8/10
This lyrical and inspiring passage offers a wonderful introduction to A Course in Miracles.
God introduces the soul that has been made holy to a rhythm of alternate ecstasy, of contentment and of a yearning for an irreducible otherness, so that the soul does not cease to renew its love and spread itself in the inexhaustible store of God’s riches. Olivier Clement (1921-2009, France)
Here is Jesus writing in the “rhythm of alternate ecstasy,” blank verse, the rhythm of the universe.
There is a light in you which cannot die;
whose presence is so holy that the world
is sanctified because of you. All things
that live bring gifts to you, and offer them
in gratitude and gladness at your feet.
The scent of flowers is their gift to you.
The waves bow down before you, and the trees
extend their arms to shield you from the heat,
and lay their leaves before you on the ground
that you may walk in softness, while the wind
sinks to a whisper round your holy head.
Lesson 156.4
8/11
We are conditioned from birth to think without reservation that “seeing is believing.” We place complete trust in our senses and what our senses in conjunction with our brains show us. In fact, the word evidence comes from the Latin, videre, meaning “to see,” in the sense of proof by appearance.
While all the time, we can see only with true vision, looking through the eyes of Christ.
First, here are examples of the interaction between the brain and the senses.
Sight
But for all the eye’s extraordinary ability, seeing is a function of the brain—humans’ visual cortex is more developed than that of any other mammal.
(To read more, please read my blog post, “Seeing is not Believing,” August 10, 2012). Click on this link:
http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.blogspot.com
8/12
It is hard to believe, as we walk through a world of seeming pain and misery, that it is a result of our thoughts; we are affected only by our thoughts.
Yet, we can say God’s Name, and all these thoughts disappear. It is always a matter of remembering and forgetting.
God's Name can not be heard without response,
nor said without an echo in the mind
that calls you to remember. Say His Name,
and you invite the angels to surround the ground
on which you stand, and sing to you
as they spread out their wings to keep you safe,
and shelter you from every worldly thought
that would intrude upon your holiness.
Lesson 183.2
You can remember what the world forgot,
and offer it your own remembering. 9:3
8/13
Some time ago, I heard one line from a Jeep commercial that knocked me out because of how it echoes A Course in Miracles.
“The things we make, make us.”
Today we learn a lesson which can save you more
delay and needless misery than you
can possibly imagine. It is this:
You make what you defend against, and by
your own defense against it is it real
and inescapable. Lay down your arms,
and only then do you perceive it false.
Lesson 170.2:4-7
You maker of a world that is not so, take rest and comfort in another world where peace abides. Chapter 25.IV.3:1
Thank God that He has provided us a step by step procedure to learn to experience rest and comfort and peace.
In you is all of Heaven. Every leaf that falls is given life in you. Each bird that ever sang will sing again in you. And every flower that ever bloomed has saved its perfume and its loveliness for you. What aim can supersede the Will of God and of His Son, that Heaven be restored to him for whom it was created as his only home? Nothing before and nothing after it. No other place; no other state nor time. Nothing beyond nor nearer. Nothing else. In any form. This can you bring to all the world, and all the thoughts that entered it and were mistaken for a little while. How better could your own mistakes be brought to truth than by your willingness to bring the light of Heaven with you, as you walk beyond the world of darkness into light? 5
8/14
It is not February 14, but here is as valentine for my wife, Christine.
I have often thought this about us, and now I can express it clearly.
The mark of a good relationship is this:
In response to a request, a “Yes” or “No” is equally accepted.
In the context of A Course in Miracles, this is the difference between a special relationship, and a holy one.
In specialness, there are always bargains and comparisons.
Specialness is the seal of treachery upon the gift of love. Not one believer in its potency but seeks for bargains and for compromise that would establish sin love's substitute, and serve it faithfully. And no relationship that holds its purpose dear but clings to murder as safety's weapon, and the great defender of all illusions from the 'threat' of love. Chapter 24.11.8
In forgiveness, it is possible to overcome specialness.
You who would be content with specialness, and seek salvation in a war with love, consider this: The holy Lord of Heaven has Himself come down to you, to offer you your own completion. What is His is yours because in your completion is His Own. He Who willed not to be without His Son could never will that you be brother-less. And would He give a brother unto you except he be as perfect as yourself, and just as like to Him in holiness as you must be? Chapter 24.V.8
8/15
I love to read passages that echo A Course in Miracles, especially in this case, when the writer was born 100 years before Jesus began dictating to Helen.
Listen to James Allen (1864-1912, England).
That which is real cannot be destroyed, but only that which is unreal. When a man finds that within him which is real, which is constant, and abiding, changeless, and eternal, he enters into that Reality, and becomes meek. All the powers of darkness will come against him, but they will do him no hurt, and will at last depart from him.
That which is real cannot be destroyed,
Nothing real can be threatened.
but only that which is unreal.
Nothing unreal exists.
When a man finds that within him which is real, which is constant, and a biding, changeless, and eternal, he enters into that Reality, and becomes meek.
Herein lies the peace of God. ACIM.Introduction.2:2-4
All the powers of darkness will come against him, but they will do him no hurt, and will at last depart from him.
What is described as “meek” is defenselessness in the face of unreality, and with this recognition that all power is his, his defenselessness is his safety.
8/16
In Matthew 23, Jesus uses this phrase three times:
“But woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”
The Greeks used the word “hypocrite” to refer to an actor because the word means “to pretend.”
When I forget that I am the son of God and walk around in an ego state of mind, making up a false world of thought-images, I am like an actor playing a role, being a hypocrite.
8/17
I love reading personal accounts of individuals being “touched by God.” Here is a brief account by Mary C. Neal, MD, describing an event that occurred when she was young from her book, To Heaven and Back.
The tiny two-track road in the remote mountains of Mexico was saturated with rain from the previous night. Our traveling group consisted of the fifteen-year old me, an adult missionary couple, another teenager, and a little baby. Our truck’s spinning wheels were unable to gain traction and the truck quickly sank to its axels. It was imperative that we get the truck back on the road, as we had driven this desolate stretch of road many times over the summer and had never seen another vehicle. As we worked, we began to pray with great fervor and specificity: We prayed that God would “put rock under us,” and soon.
The words had barely floated off our lips when we were shocked to see a rusty old pickup truck rumbling up the road. When told of our predicament, the driver graciously offered to give us as ride to town. The cab was too small to hold all of us, so we eagerly climbed into the truck.
We were filled with joy at the sight of rock, knowing that our prayers had been heard. pp. xv, xvi.
8/18
Since David was a shepherd as a boy, he drew on his experiences as a young shepherd when he wrote Psalm 23, using the analogy that God is to us as a shepherd is to his flock.
A modern-day shepherd named Phillip Keller has written a remarkable book entitled, “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.”
http://www.antipas.org/commentaries/articles/shepherd_psa23/shepherd_01.html
What follows are key lines from Psalm 23, and passages from Keller’s book, demonstrating David’s shepherding analogy.
"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT."
When all is said and done the welfare of any flock is entirely dependent upon the management afforded them by their owner.
I have become increasingly aware of one thing ... It is ... the Master in people's lives who makes the difference in their destiny.
(To read the complete article, please go to my blog post entitled, “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23,” August 17, 2013):
http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.blogspot.com
8/19
Once we have caught a glimpse of the truth of what we are and experience that peace, we can more easily be reminded by occurrences around us. We suddenly look up on a rainy day that seems unusually bright, and we see a rainbow, a multicolor arch across the sky. We hear the soft sound of thunder on a warm spring day, the first spring rain. On a summer night we see fireflies sprinkling the darkness with flecks of light.
And, we can count on the poets to capture these moments. Here is a poem by Chase Twichell, catching a reflection of what is available in our minds, awaiting our awareness.
Tea Mind
Even as a child I could
induce it at will.
I'd go to where the big rocks
stayed cold in the woods all summer,
and tea mind would come to me
like water over stones, pool to pool,
and in that way I taught myself to think.
Green teas are my favorites, especially
the basket-fired Japanese ones
that smell of baled hay.
Thank you, makers of this tea.
Because of you my mind is still tonight,
transparent, a leaf in air.
Now it rides a subtle current.
Now it can finally disappear.
8/20
Sometimes, it doesn’t take much to shake us out of our preoccupation with thoughts running through our minds, thoughts with no source in reality, narrative thoughts telling us, “This is so, deal with it.”
Here is Robert Frost (1874-1963), capturing this shift in awareness from conflict to peace, from rueful brooding to stillness and joy.
Dust of Snow
The way a crow
Shook down on me
The dust of snow
From a hemlock tree
Has given my heart
A change of mood
and saved some part
Of a day I had rued.
8/21
A friend said to me the other day, “So, what’s this A Course in Miracles about?”
I found myself saying, “Namaste, and you say to me, Namaste.”
“Namaste.”
“The Christ in me greets the Christ in you.”
I went on to say that it all comes down to our awareness of the Christ that we are.
The biggest obstacle to our awareness is our preoccupation with our narrative voice, constantly making up what seems to be “out there” with thought-images that are only projected from “in here.” By giving names to things “out there,” we think we are establishing our “reality,” while all the time, “thinking” is our problem.
Yet we have learned that things but represent the thoughts that made them. Lesson 187.2:3
And this narrative voice, the ego, is terrified that you will shift your awareness from it to the Christ within.
What are these names by which the world becomes
a series of discrete events, of things
ununified, of bodies kept apart
and holding bits of mind as separate
awarenesses? You gave these names to them,
establishing perception as you wished
to have perception be. The nameless things
were given names, and thus reality
was given them as well.
Lesson 184.3:1-3
That is why Jesus begins His Lessons as He did.
Lesson 1: Nothing I see means anything.
What I see is meaningless because I made it up with thoughts having no source in “reality.”
His Course is a direct challenge to our narrative voice, thus beginning our journey to true awareness, learning to see through the eyes of Christ.
When I finished, he said, “Thank you. I’ll think about it.”
And I thought to myself, “Aye, therein lies the rub.”
8/22
As I walk through the day, I find it very helpful to say this sentence to myself quite often:
I am “in” the world, and not “of” the world.
That is, I am, indeed, walking around in a body, seeing through the body’s eyes, making it up as I go, being my false self, while all this time I can choose to be aware of my true Self, the holy son of God; it’s always a matter of awareness.
It is this grounding awareness that I ask for help to experience. It is all going on, simultaneously, being “in” and not “of” the world, and it is simply my awareness that counts.
Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy often said: “I don’t care what you do; it’s what’s going on in your mind that matters.”
Here is a helpful passage from Lesson 184, The Name of God is my inheritance.
It would indeed be strange if you were asked
to go beyond all symbols of the world,
forgetting them forever; yet were asked
to take a teaching function. You have need
to use the symbols of the world a while.
But be you not deceived by them as well.
They do not stand for anything at all,
and in your practicing it is this thought
that will release you from them. They become
but means by which you can communicate
in ways the world can understand, but which
you recognize is not the unity
where true communication can be found. 9
8/23
I find that stuff just keeps coming up in my mind—bad stuff, conflicting thoughts, pain and misery. These are just thoughts arising, moving across, and falling from my mind, having no source in reality.
The temptation is to ask for the opposite; I don’t want this; I want that, please help me. And this request keeps us in the duality. While all the time, there is only one thing I want, the peace of God. Asking for the peace of God, not an opposite, is the way out of duality.
To say these words is nothing. But to mean
these words is everything. If you could but
mean them for just an instant, there would be
no further sorrow possible for you
in any form; in any place or time.
Heaven would be completely given back
to full awareness, memory of God
entirely restored, the resurrection
of all creation fully recognized.
Lesson 185.1
No one can mean these words and not be healed.
He cannot play with dreams, nor think he is
himself a dream. He cannot make a hell
and think it real. He wants the peace of God,
and it is given him. For that is all
he wants, and that is all he will receive. 2:1-5
8/24
Endeavor Academy, where Christine and I have been students and teachers for the last 15 years, is located in the Wisconsin Dells. A nice term for this location is a “tourist Mecca,” particularly in the summer months. A not so nice name might be “traffic nightmare.”
At noon on Sunday, after work, flipping eggs at the Cheese Factory Restaurant, I went to a nearby convenience store to buy a newspaper. The young woman working the cash register and I exchanged stories about the traffic and working, and as I was walking away, she said, “Stay home, or be patient.”
This cracked me up, since it echoes in practical terms, A Course in Miracles. Stay home in your mind, a peaceful state, and if you can maintain it walking through the world, you can walk, patiently.
When you are still an instant, when the world
recedes from you, when valueless ideas
cease to have value in your restless mind,
then will you hear His Voice. So poignantly
He calls to you that you will not resist
Him longer. In that instant He will take
you to His home, and you will stay with Him
in perfect stillness, silent and at peace,
beyond all words, untouched by fear and doubt,
sublimely certain that you are at home.
Lesson 182.8
8/25
I have always felt very strongly that the action of personal transformation is very individual. Each individual who wishes to find his way out of the dream into reality is guided in his own direction, and the guidance will be given in the form most useful to him.
For love must give,
and what is given in His Name takes on
the form most useful in a world of form.
Lesson 186.13:5
I can look back and see when a particular book at a particular time guided my next step; or something a person said; or a “synchronistic” event; or a certain move; or a special song; or an “ah hah” moment; or a sleeping dream.
With these thoughts going through my mind, I was just delighted to read this passage from Lesson 185, I want the peace of God.
And when the wish for peace
is genuine, the means for finding it
is given, in a form each mind that seeks
for it in honesty can understand. 6:2
Guidance is given in a form, precisely appropriate, for each individual. It comes down to how genuine is the wish. Genuine means “natural.” The form naturally follows his particular bent.
Whatever form the lesson takes is planned
for him in such a way that he can not
mistake it, if his asking is sincere. 6:3
It fits him, perfectly, if his wish is sincere, meaning, “sound, pure, whole.”
But if he asks without sincerity,
there is no form in which the lesson will
meet with acceptance and be truly learned. 6:4
We must be vigilant because we always get the results of our thinking.
Now, I know why Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy often said, “Don’t let anyone tell you who you are.”
Become your wish for peace fulfilled, naturally, individually.
You choose God’s peace,
or you have asked for dreams. And dreams will come
as you requested them. 9:3,4
8/26
Several years ago, now, I found myself going through complete devastation. It seemed that I was going blind.
Everything became blurry. The internal dialogue was non-stop. Can I read that sign? Who is that walking towards me? I need a bright light to read a book. What’s to become of me?
I found myself on my knees asking for help, asking for healing, asking to see better.
Then, one morning, I realized that I was praying for a particular result; I was asking for help on my own terms.
At this moment, I asked to experience peace, peace of mind. Whatever happened, I asked to experience the peace of God.
And then peace flowed through me like warm water. I was free of all those fearful thoughts.
No one who truly seeks the peace of God
can fail to find it. For he merely asks
that he deceive himself no longer by
denying to himself what is God's Will.
Who can remain unsatisfied who asks
for what he has already? Who could be
unanswered who requests an answer which
is his to give? The peace of God is yours.
Lesson 185.11
From that day forward, my sight seemed to stabilize; it hasn’t gotten better; it hasn’t gotten worse.
And I try to stay vigilant, not to ask for “this” or “that” in the duality; the peace of God is ours, always, already, for the asking.
8/27
I am immensely enjoying reading this book by Mary C. Neal, MD, “To Heaven and Back: A Doctor’s Extraordinary Account of Her Death, Heaven, Angels, and Life Again.”
She was “drowned” when her kayak was forced underwater in the swift rapids, and she was unable to extricate herself from her bindings.
I read her description of her soul leaving her body in the context of this passage from A Course in Miracles.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
ACIM.Review VI.Intro.3:3-5
At the moment my body was released, I felt a “pop.” It felt as if I had finally shaken off my heavy outer layer, freeing my soul. I rose up and out of the river, and when my soul broke through the surface of the water, I encountered a group of fifteen to twenty souls (spirits sent by God), who greeted me with the most overwhelming joy I have ever experienced and could ever imagine. It was joy at an unadulterated core level. They were sort of like a large welcoming committee or a great cloud of witnesses as described in Hebrews 12:1:
Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
This welcoming committee seemed to be wildly cheering for me as I approached the “finish line.” pp. 68,69
8/28
One of the ways that we establish and maintain the illusion, the dream, is to give everything a name. Just think of how strongly we reinforce an infant’s first words, like, “Daddy,” “Mommy.”
Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 184, The Name of God in my inheritance.
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. By this you designate
its special attributes, and set it off
from other things by emphasizing space
surrounding it. This space you lay between
all things to which you give a different name;
all happenings in terms of place and time;
all bodies which are greeted by a name.
Henry Reed (1914-1986) wrote this remarkable poem, “Naming of Parts.” Here is the first stanza:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
(To read the rest of this Status, please click on the link to my blog post, entitled, “Naming of Parts Versus the Peace of God,” August 27, 2012.)
www.throughamirrorbrightly.blogspot.com
8/29
I wonder how many times a day I have to remind myself that I am walking through the world, playing a part, like an actor on a stage, while all the time in time, I am eternal, God’s most holy son?
I am, indeed, “in” the world, and not “of” the world.
I like the way Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) expresses it.
In eternity there is indeed something true and sublime. But all these times and places and occasions are now and here. Time is but a stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it, but when I drink, I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away but eternity remains.
While I find myself “in” the world, I might as well enjoy it, remembering “how shallow it is,” yet “eternity remains.”
8/30
Boy, this title of a newspaper article in the Business Section certainly caught my eye:
Forgiveness is an option.
Here are the first three sentences of the article:
There’s a new type of forgiveness out there. It comes with your car insurance. More auto insurers are offering accident forgiveness, not to factor an accident into the calculation of your premium.
I think I will stick to the “old” type if forgiveness, in here.
Forgiveness recognizes what you thought
your brother did to you has not occurred.
Forgiveness merely sees its falsity,
and therefore lets it go. What then is free
to take its place is now the Will of God.
1. What is Forgiveness? 1
8/31
A couple of mornings ago, I came across this passage in A Course in Miracles, wrote it down, put it in my pocket, and referred to it several times as the day went on.
I need but look upon all things that seem
to hurt me, and with perfect certainty
assure myself, “God wills that I be saved
from this,” and merely watch them disappear.
Lesson 235.1
I also wrote this down because it immediately popped into my mind:
. . .things but represent the thoughts that made them.
Lesson 187.2:2
These passages certainly lightened my burden as the day went on, remembering that I am always dealing only with thoughts. What a relief.
. .
“Pop. Pop. Fizz. Fizz.
Oh, what a relief it is.”
Hmm. Forgiveness is about as simple as taking an Alka-Seltzer.
Saturday, September 01, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Naming of Parts Versus the Peace of God
One of the ways that we establish and maintain the illusion, the dream, is to give everything a name. Just think of how strongly we reinforce an infant’s first words, like, “Daddy,” “Mommy.”
Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 184, The Name of God is my inheritance.
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. By this you designate
its special attributes, and set it off
from other things by emphasizing space
surrounding it. This space you lay between
all things to which you give a different name;
all happenings in terms of place and time;
all bodies which are greeted by a name.
Henry Reed (1914-1986) wrote this remarkable poem, “Naming of Parts.” Here is the first stanza:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
Throughout his poem, Reed contrasts the naming and the training with the narrator’s mind shifting away , looking out the window.
Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens
For me, the narrator is shifting his awareness from the body’s eyes, to Christ vision. This is an interval whereby he escapes the naming of parts, experiencing peace.
Thus what you need are intervals each day
in which the learning of the world becomes
a transitory phase; a prison house
from which you go into the sunlight and
forget the darkness. Here you understand
the Word, the Name which God has given you;
the one Identity which all things share;
the one acknowledgment of what is true.
And then step back to darkness, not because
you think it real, but only to proclaim
its unreality in terms which still
have meaning in the world that darkness rules.
Lesson 184.10
Now, Dear Reader, please enjoy reading the poem within this context.
NAMING OF PARTS
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
It is perfectly easy to bring in the Spring, if we are in the right state of mind.
Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 184, The Name of God is my inheritance.
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. By this you designate
its special attributes, and set it off
from other things by emphasizing space
surrounding it. This space you lay between
all things to which you give a different name;
all happenings in terms of place and time;
all bodies which are greeted by a name.
Henry Reed (1914-1986) wrote this remarkable poem, “Naming of Parts.” Here is the first stanza:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
Throughout his poem, Reed contrasts the naming and the training with the narrator’s mind shifting away , looking out the window.
Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens
For me, the narrator is shifting his awareness from the body’s eyes, to Christ vision. This is an interval whereby he escapes the naming of parts, experiencing peace.
Thus what you need are intervals each day
in which the learning of the world becomes
a transitory phase; a prison house
from which you go into the sunlight and
forget the darkness. Here you understand
the Word, the Name which God has given you;
the one Identity which all things share;
the one acknowledgment of what is true.
And then step back to darkness, not because
you think it real, but only to proclaim
its unreality in terms which still
have meaning in the world that darkness rules.
Lesson 184.10
Now, Dear Reader, please enjoy reading the poem within this context.
NAMING OF PARTS
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
It is perfectly easy to bring in the Spring, if we are in the right state of mind.
Friday, August 17, 2012
A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23
Since David was a shepherd as a boy, he drew on his experiences as a young shepherd when he wrote Psalm 23, using the analogy that God is to us as a shepherd is to his flock.
A modern-day shepherd named Phillip Keller has written a remarkable book entitled, “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.”
http://www.antipas.org/commentaries/articles/shepherd_psa23/shepherd_01.html
What follows are key lines from Psalm 23, and passages from Keller’s book, demonstrating David’s shepherding analogy.
"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT."
When all is said and done the welfare of any flock is entirely dependent upon the management afforded them by their owner.
I have become increasingly aware of one thing ... It is ... the Master in people's lives who makes the difference in their destiny.
"HE MAKETH ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES."
The strange thing about sheep is that because of their very make-up, it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met.
Owing to their timidity, they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear.
Because of the social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind.
If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down. Only when free of these pests can they relax.
Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger.
“HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS.”
Water determines the vitality, strength and vigor of the sheep and is essential to its health and general well-being.
It is the shepherd who with much effort and industry has provided the watering places. And it is to these spots that he leads the flock.
"HE RESTORETH MY SOUL."
A “cast” sheep is an old English shepherd's term for a sheep that has turned over on its back and cannot get up again by itself. A "cast" sheep is a very pathetic sight. Lying on its back, its feet in the air, it flays away frantically struggling to stand up, without success. Sometimes it will bleat a little for help, but generally it lies there lashing about in frightened frustration.
If the owner does not arrive on the scene within a reasonably short time, the sheep will die.
"HE LEADETH ME IN THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE."
Sheep are notorious creatures of habit. If left to themselves they will follow the same trails until they become ruts; graze the same hills until they turn to desert wastes; pollute their own ground until it is corrupt with disease and parasites.
The greatest single safeguard which a shepherd has in handling his flock is to keep them on the move... they dare not be left on the same ground too long.
"YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEYOF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR NO EVEIL; FOR THOU ARE WITH ME."
The long treks into the high country take place in the summer. Their summer will be spent in the close companionship and solitary care of the good shepherd.
With the approach of autumn, early snow settles on the highest ridges, relentlessly forcing the flock to withdraw back down to lower elevations. Finally, toward the end of the year as fall passes, the sheep are driven home to the ranch headquarters where they will spend the winter.
It is well to remember that all of this is done against a dramatic background of wild mountains, rushing rivers, alpine meadows and high rangelands. All the dangers of rampaging rivers in flood; avalanches; rock slides; poisonous plants; the ravages of predators that raid the flock or the awesome storms of sleet and hail and snow were too familiar to him. He was fully prepared to safeguard his flock and tend them with skill under every circumstance.
"THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME."
The rod was what he relied on to safeguard both himself and his flock in danger. And it was, furthermore, the instrument he used to discipline and correct any wayward sheep that insisted on wandering away.
...an interesting sidelight on the word "rod" ... the slang term "rod" has been applied to hand-guns such as pistols and revolvers which were carried by cowboys, and other westerners. The connotation is exactly the same as that used in this Psalm.
He opens the fleece with the rod; he runs his skillful hands over the body; he feels for any sign of trouble; he examines the sheep with care to see if all is well.
We turn now to discuss and consider the shepherd's staff. In a sense, the staff, more than any other item of his personal equipment, identifies the shepherd as a shepherd. It is designed, shaped and adapted especially to the needs of sheep.
The staff is essentially a symbol of the concern, the compassion that a shepherd has for his charges. No other single word can better describe its function on behalf of the flock than that it is for their "comfort."
The staff is also used for guiding sheep. Again and again I have seen a shepherd use his staff to guide his sheep gently into a new path or through some gate or along dangerous, difficult routes.
“THOU PREPAREST A TABLE BEFORE ME IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES:
In thinking about this statement, it is well to bear in mind that the sheep are approaching the high mountain country of the summer ranges. These are known as alplands or tablelands, so much sought after by sheepmen.
In some of the finest sheep country of the world, especially in the Western United States and Southern Europe, the high plateaus of the sheep ranges were always referred to as "mesas" -- the Spanish word for "tables."
There is another chore which the sheepman takes care of on the tableland. He clears out the water holes, springs and drinking places for his stock. He has to clean out the accumulated debris of leaves, twigs, stones and soil which may have fallen into the water source during the autumn and winter.
"THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL; MY CUP RUNNETH OVER."
As one meditates on this magnificent poem it is helpful to keep in mind that the poet is recounting the salient events of the full year in a sheep's life. He takes us with him from the home ranch where every need is so carefully supplied by the owner, out into the green pastures, along the still waters, up through the mountain valleys to the high tablelands of summer.
Here, now, where it would appear the sheep are in a sublime setting on the high meadows; where there are clear running springs; where the forage is fresh and tender; where there is the intimate close contact with the shepherd; suddenly we find "a fly in the ointment," so to speak.
For relief from this agonizing annoyance, sheep will deliberately beat their heads against trees, rocks, posts, or brush. They will rub them in the soil and thrash around against woody growth. In extreme cases of intense infestation, a sheep may even kill itself.
At the very first sign of flies among the flock, he will apply an antidote to their heads. I always preferred to use a homemade remedy composed of linseed oil, sulphur and tar which was smeared over the sheep's nose and head as a protection against nose flies.
What an incredible transformation this would make. Once the oil had been applied to the sheep's head, there was an immediate change in behavior. The sheep would start to feed quietly again, then soon lie down in peaceful contentment.
"SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCEY SHALL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE: AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER.”
All the care, all the work, all the alert watchfulness, all the skill, all the concern, all the self-sacrifice are born of His love -- the love of One who loves His sheep, loves His work, loves His role as a Shepherd.
In ancient literature sheep were referred to as "those of the golden hooves" -- simply because they were regarded and esteemed so highly for their beneficial effect on the land. In my own experience as a sheep rancher I have, in just a few years, seen two derelict ranches restored to high productivity and usefulness. More than this, what before appeared as depressing eyesores became beautiful, park-like properties of immense worth.
In other words, goodness and mercy had followed my flocks. They left behind them something worthwhile, productive, beautiful and beneficial to both themselves, others and me.
A modern-day shepherd named Phillip Keller has written a remarkable book entitled, “A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23.”
http://www.antipas.org/commentaries/articles/shepherd_psa23/shepherd_01.html
What follows are key lines from Psalm 23, and passages from Keller’s book, demonstrating David’s shepherding analogy.
"THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD, I SHALL NOT WANT."
When all is said and done the welfare of any flock is entirely dependent upon the management afforded them by their owner.
I have become increasingly aware of one thing ... It is ... the Master in people's lives who makes the difference in their destiny.
"HE MAKETH ME TO LIE DOWN IN GREEN PASTURES."
The strange thing about sheep is that because of their very make-up, it is almost impossible for them to be made to lie down unless four requirements are met.
Owing to their timidity, they refuse to lie down unless they are free of all fear.
Because of the social behavior within a flock, sheep will not lie down unless they are free from friction with others of their kind.
If tormented by flies or parasites, sheep will not lie down. Only when free of these pests can they relax.
Lastly, sheep will not lie down as long as they feel in need of finding food. They must be free from hunger.
“HE LEADETH ME BESIDE THE STILL WATERS.”
Water determines the vitality, strength and vigor of the sheep and is essential to its health and general well-being.
It is the shepherd who with much effort and industry has provided the watering places. And it is to these spots that he leads the flock.
"HE RESTORETH MY SOUL."
A “cast” sheep is an old English shepherd's term for a sheep that has turned over on its back and cannot get up again by itself. A "cast" sheep is a very pathetic sight. Lying on its back, its feet in the air, it flays away frantically struggling to stand up, without success. Sometimes it will bleat a little for help, but generally it lies there lashing about in frightened frustration.
If the owner does not arrive on the scene within a reasonably short time, the sheep will die.
"HE LEADETH ME IN THE PATHS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR HIS NAME'S SAKE."
Sheep are notorious creatures of habit. If left to themselves they will follow the same trails until they become ruts; graze the same hills until they turn to desert wastes; pollute their own ground until it is corrupt with disease and parasites.
The greatest single safeguard which a shepherd has in handling his flock is to keep them on the move... they dare not be left on the same ground too long.
"YEA, THOUGH I WALK THROUGH THE VALLEYOF THE SHADOW OF DEATH, I WILL FEAR NO EVEIL; FOR THOU ARE WITH ME."
The long treks into the high country take place in the summer. Their summer will be spent in the close companionship and solitary care of the good shepherd.
With the approach of autumn, early snow settles on the highest ridges, relentlessly forcing the flock to withdraw back down to lower elevations. Finally, toward the end of the year as fall passes, the sheep are driven home to the ranch headquarters where they will spend the winter.
It is well to remember that all of this is done against a dramatic background of wild mountains, rushing rivers, alpine meadows and high rangelands. All the dangers of rampaging rivers in flood; avalanches; rock slides; poisonous plants; the ravages of predators that raid the flock or the awesome storms of sleet and hail and snow were too familiar to him. He was fully prepared to safeguard his flock and tend them with skill under every circumstance.
"THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME."
The rod was what he relied on to safeguard both himself and his flock in danger. And it was, furthermore, the instrument he used to discipline and correct any wayward sheep that insisted on wandering away.
...an interesting sidelight on the word "rod" ... the slang term "rod" has been applied to hand-guns such as pistols and revolvers which were carried by cowboys, and other westerners. The connotation is exactly the same as that used in this Psalm.
He opens the fleece with the rod; he runs his skillful hands over the body; he feels for any sign of trouble; he examines the sheep with care to see if all is well.
We turn now to discuss and consider the shepherd's staff. In a sense, the staff, more than any other item of his personal equipment, identifies the shepherd as a shepherd. It is designed, shaped and adapted especially to the needs of sheep.
The staff is essentially a symbol of the concern, the compassion that a shepherd has for his charges. No other single word can better describe its function on behalf of the flock than that it is for their "comfort."
The staff is also used for guiding sheep. Again and again I have seen a shepherd use his staff to guide his sheep gently into a new path or through some gate or along dangerous, difficult routes.
“THOU PREPAREST A TABLE BEFORE ME IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES:
In thinking about this statement, it is well to bear in mind that the sheep are approaching the high mountain country of the summer ranges. These are known as alplands or tablelands, so much sought after by sheepmen.
In some of the finest sheep country of the world, especially in the Western United States and Southern Europe, the high plateaus of the sheep ranges were always referred to as "mesas" -- the Spanish word for "tables."
There is another chore which the sheepman takes care of on the tableland. He clears out the water holes, springs and drinking places for his stock. He has to clean out the accumulated debris of leaves, twigs, stones and soil which may have fallen into the water source during the autumn and winter.
"THOU ANOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL; MY CUP RUNNETH OVER."
As one meditates on this magnificent poem it is helpful to keep in mind that the poet is recounting the salient events of the full year in a sheep's life. He takes us with him from the home ranch where every need is so carefully supplied by the owner, out into the green pastures, along the still waters, up through the mountain valleys to the high tablelands of summer.
Here, now, where it would appear the sheep are in a sublime setting on the high meadows; where there are clear running springs; where the forage is fresh and tender; where there is the intimate close contact with the shepherd; suddenly we find "a fly in the ointment," so to speak.
For relief from this agonizing annoyance, sheep will deliberately beat their heads against trees, rocks, posts, or brush. They will rub them in the soil and thrash around against woody growth. In extreme cases of intense infestation, a sheep may even kill itself.
At the very first sign of flies among the flock, he will apply an antidote to their heads. I always preferred to use a homemade remedy composed of linseed oil, sulphur and tar which was smeared over the sheep's nose and head as a protection against nose flies.
What an incredible transformation this would make. Once the oil had been applied to the sheep's head, there was an immediate change in behavior. The sheep would start to feed quietly again, then soon lie down in peaceful contentment.
"SURELY GOODNESS AND MERCEY SHALL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE: AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER.”
All the care, all the work, all the alert watchfulness, all the skill, all the concern, all the self-sacrifice are born of His love -- the love of One who loves His sheep, loves His work, loves His role as a Shepherd.
In ancient literature sheep were referred to as "those of the golden hooves" -- simply because they were regarded and esteemed so highly for their beneficial effect on the land. In my own experience as a sheep rancher I have, in just a few years, seen two derelict ranches restored to high productivity and usefulness. More than this, what before appeared as depressing eyesores became beautiful, park-like properties of immense worth.
In other words, goodness and mercy had followed my flocks. They left behind them something worthwhile, productive, beautiful and beneficial to both themselves, others and me.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Seeing is not Believing
We are conditioned from birth to think without reservation that “seeing is believing.” We place complete trust in our senses and what our senses in conjunction with our brains show us. In fact, the word evidence comes from the Latin, videre, meaning “to see,” in the sense of proof by appearance.
While all the time, we can see only with true vision, looking through the eyes of Christ.
First, here are examples of the interaction between the brain and the senses.
Sight
But for all the eye’s extraordinary ability, seeing is a function of the brain—humans’ visual cortex is more developed than that of any other mammal.
Hearing
Our brain processes sounds a thousand times faster than images and registers sounds even as we sleep. This constant bath of noise affects everything from our concentration to our health.
Taste
In a part of the brain known as the anterior cingulated, tastes get married to an emotional reaction: disgust for rotten meat, say, or delight for a sweet strawberry.
Touch
With hundreds of nerve endings in every square inch of skin, your body functions like an antenna, receiving a constant stream of information ranging from the firmness of the chair you’re sitting on to the heat of the sun through the window.
Smell
And because smells are processed by the same part of the brain that handles memories and emotions—the temporal lobe—we respond to them with rare intensity. Decades later, a passing scent may summon a memory of our first-grade classroom, one so vivid that we seem transported across time and space. (Jennifer
Kahn, What Your Nose Knows, Parade Magazine, July 29, 2012), pp. 6-8
If we weren’t so caught up in habit, perhaps we could learn to listen to reason.
Reason would tell you that the world you see through eyes that are not yours must make no sense to you. To whom would seeing such as this send back its messages? Surely not you, whose sight is wholly independent of the eyes that look upon the world. If this is not your vision, what can it show to you? The brain cannot interpret what your vision sees. This you would understand. The brain interprets to the body, of which it is a part. But what it says you cannot understand. Yet you have listened to it. And long and hard you tried to understand its messages.
ACIM, Chapter 22.1.2:3-12
Now, perhaps, we can be more reasonable and listen quietly to a part of our mind untouched by the roar of the senses.
Reason will tell you that our projections must have been seen through a vision not of the body, and communicated in a language the body does not speak. Nor could it be a fearful sight or sound that drew them gently into one. Rather, in each the other saw a perfect shelter where his Self could be reborn in safety and in peace. Such did his reason tell him; such he believed because it was the truth. 9:6-9
While all the time, we can see only with true vision, looking through the eyes of Christ.
First, here are examples of the interaction between the brain and the senses.
Sight
But for all the eye’s extraordinary ability, seeing is a function of the brain—humans’ visual cortex is more developed than that of any other mammal.
Hearing
Our brain processes sounds a thousand times faster than images and registers sounds even as we sleep. This constant bath of noise affects everything from our concentration to our health.
Taste
In a part of the brain known as the anterior cingulated, tastes get married to an emotional reaction: disgust for rotten meat, say, or delight for a sweet strawberry.
Touch
With hundreds of nerve endings in every square inch of skin, your body functions like an antenna, receiving a constant stream of information ranging from the firmness of the chair you’re sitting on to the heat of the sun through the window.
Smell
And because smells are processed by the same part of the brain that handles memories and emotions—the temporal lobe—we respond to them with rare intensity. Decades later, a passing scent may summon a memory of our first-grade classroom, one so vivid that we seem transported across time and space. (Jennifer
Kahn, What Your Nose Knows, Parade Magazine, July 29, 2012), pp. 6-8
If we weren’t so caught up in habit, perhaps we could learn to listen to reason.
Reason would tell you that the world you see through eyes that are not yours must make no sense to you. To whom would seeing such as this send back its messages? Surely not you, whose sight is wholly independent of the eyes that look upon the world. If this is not your vision, what can it show to you? The brain cannot interpret what your vision sees. This you would understand. The brain interprets to the body, of which it is a part. But what it says you cannot understand. Yet you have listened to it. And long and hard you tried to understand its messages.
ACIM, Chapter 22.1.2:3-12
Now, perhaps, we can be more reasonable and listen quietly to a part of our mind untouched by the roar of the senses.
Reason will tell you that our projections must have been seen through a vision not of the body, and communicated in a language the body does not speak. Nor could it be a fearful sight or sound that drew them gently into one. Rather, in each the other saw a perfect shelter where his Self could be reborn in safety and in peace. Such did his reason tell him; such he believed because it was the truth. 9:6-9
Shifting from Seeing with the Body's Eyes to Seeing with Christ Vision
One of the ways that we establish and maintain the illusion, the dream, is to give everything a name. Just think of how strongly we reinforce an infant’s first words, like, “Daddy,” “Mommy.”
Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 184, The Name of God in my inheritance.
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. By this you designate
its special attributes, and set it off
from other things by emphasizing space
surrounding it. This space you lay between
all things to which you give a different name;
all happenings in terms of place and time;
all bodies which are greeted by a name. 1
Henry Reed (1914-1986) wrote this remarkable poem, “Naming of Parts.” Here is the first stanza:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
In each stanza of his poem, Reed contrasts the training with the narrator’s mind shifting away, looking out the window.
Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens
For me, the narrator is shifting his awareness from the body’s eyes to Christ vision. This is an interval whereby he escapes the naming of parts.
Thus what you need are intervals each day
in which the learning of the world becomes
a transitory phase; a prison house
from which you go into the sunlight and
forget the darkness. Here you understand
the Word, the Name which God has given you;
the one Identity which all things share;
the one acknowledgment of what is true.
And then step back to darkness, not because
you think it real, but only to proclaim
its unreality in terms which still
have meaning in the world that darkness rules. 11
Now, Dear Reader, please enjoy reading the poem within this context.
NAMING OF PARTS
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
Please write about your experience of forgiving thoughts in 600 words, or less, and Submit Your Essay, using this link:
http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php
Here is the first paragraph of Lesson 184, The Name of God in my inheritance.
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. By this you designate
its special attributes, and set it off
from other things by emphasizing space
surrounding it. This space you lay between
all things to which you give a different name;
all happenings in terms of place and time;
all bodies which are greeted by a name. 1
Henry Reed (1914-1986) wrote this remarkable poem, “Naming of Parts.” Here is the first stanza:
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
In each stanza of his poem, Reed contrasts the training with the narrator’s mind shifting away, looking out the window.
Japonica glistens like coral in all the neighboring gardens
For me, the narrator is shifting his awareness from the body’s eyes to Christ vision. This is an interval whereby he escapes the naming of parts.
Thus what you need are intervals each day
in which the learning of the world becomes
a transitory phase; a prison house
from which you go into the sunlight and
forget the darkness. Here you understand
the Word, the Name which God has given you;
the one Identity which all things share;
the one acknowledgment of what is true.
And then step back to darkness, not because
you think it real, but only to proclaim
its unreality in terms which still
have meaning in the world that darkness rules. 11
Now, Dear Reader, please enjoy reading the poem within this context.
NAMING OF PARTS
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
Please write about your experience of forgiving thoughts in 600 words, or less, and Submit Your Essay, using this link:
http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
Making Explicit the True Meaning of Forgiveness: My Facebook Statuses for July, 2012
Two, or three, years ago, I set up a Facebook account, but I never really did much with it, until Sunday 8 April, Easter Sunday, auspiciously, when it occurred to me that I could post a Status statement on Facebook, daily. This would enable me to express myself regarding the meaning of forgiveness, and spread the word about the incredible event coming up in the fall, International Forgiveness Week and Weekend of Perfect Peace, September 14-23, 2012, at the Healing Center of Endeavor Academy, Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
It was clear to me that each day I could make explicit the meaning of forgiveness in a pithy statement, and at the same time, encourage readers to send in their statements expressing their forgiveness experiences.
We will collect these statements and make them available during the Event, as well as possibly publish them in a book.
Please write about your experience of forgiving thoughts in 600 words, or less, and Submit Your Essay, using this link:
http://www.forgivenessweek.org/writing.php
It was also clear to me that on the first of each month, I would post a blog containing the statements from the preceding month.
These are my Status postings for July, 2012.
7/1
In Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” after staging a play within the play, Prospero says these lines:
Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
as I foretold you, were all spirits and
are melted into air, into thin air.
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
the cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
the solemn temples, the great globe itself,
ye all which it inherit, shall dissolve.
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
as dreams are made on, and our little life
is rounded with a sleep. Act 4, Scene 1
Of course, this is a powerful analogy. For the players on stage, the play within a play has disappeared; for the spectators in the audience, the play, too, will fade away.
What the members of the audience may also believe is that that the dream they are living, the world they are seeing with the body’s eyes, will also disappear, and their lives will end in death, “rounded with a sleep.”
For us, though, we know that there is no death, and this passage from a Lesson in A Course in Miracles triggered this memory of “The Tempest,” countering its sentiments.
Lesson 162, I am as God created me.
This single thought, held firmly in the mind,
would save the world. From time to time we will
repeat it, as we reach another stage
in learning. It will mean far more to you
as you advance. These words are sacred, for
they are the words God gave in answer to
the world you made. By them it disappears,
and all things seen within its misty clouds
and vaporous illusions vanish as
these words are spoken. For they come from God. 1
7/2
While reading Lesson 157, Into His Presence would I enter now, I came across this sentence.
Today it will be given you to feel
a touch of Heaven, though you will return
to paths of learning. 3
And the image of a signpost came to mind, a sign pointing the way.
And then I thought of all the books I had read, all the people I had met, all the workshops I had gone to, all the therapy sessions along the way. Although, in retrospect, they were not the answer in themselves, they were simply pointing me in the right direction. I was moving along the right path. I was learning as I went.
Everything is used.
And I am still learning. I am now being led by the Course and Jesus and the Holy Spirit and Master Teacher to an experience beyond learning.
Today it will be given you to feel
a touch of Heaven, though you will return
to paths of learning. Yet you have come far
enough along the way to alter time
sufficiently to rise above its laws,
and walk into eternity a while.
This you will learn to do increasingly,
as every lesson, faithfully rehearsed,
brings you more swiftly to this holy place
and leaves you, for a moment, to your Self. 3
And in my gratitude is my salvation.
7/3
We saw the most extraordinary movie last night, simply entitled “Café” (2010), directed by Marc Erlbaum. Almost the entire movie takes place in a café. I do not want to give the movie away. I simply want to put it in the context of A Course in Miracles.
One of the characters, Craig, is working on his laptop, when its screen suddenly goes blank, and then a girl appears, telling him that he is an “avatar,” and everything around him does not exist, except as a “programmed reality.”
This, of course, is exactly where Jesus begins His Lessons.
Lesson 1, Nothing I see means anything.
As the movie goes on, there are so many difficult relationships and situations, and tragic events, that you wonder how it can all possibly be resolved.
At the end, the “programmer” informs Craig that if he is willing to let it all go and die to the “programmed reality,” the illusion, he will save it all. For us this means to unite with his True Self and experience his second coming.
For every one who ever came to die,
or yet will come or who is present now,
is equally released from what he made.
In this equality is Christ restored
as one Identity, in which the Sons
of God acknowledge that they all are one.
And God the Father smiles upon His Son,
His one creation and His only joy.
9. What is the Second Coming? 4
No Spoiler Alert necessary; I am going to stop here.
7/4
How automatically we tend to stamp figures in our dreams with our projections. How quickly we characterize them: enemy, friend, number 1 enemy, best friend, tolerable, intolerable, and so forth.
I just came across for the first time the meaning of the word “character.”
Roman artisans, highly skilled in working with some kinds of metal, developed a special tool for stamping and marking. The name of this tool passed through Old French into English as “character.”
Medieval courts used a character to brand a convicted lawbreaker so that person could never again pass as an upright citizen. The letter A was burned upon a woman guilty of adultery; the letter M marked a murderer; and the letter T was burned upon the forehead or shoulder of a thief. By the sixteenth century, “character” had come to stand for the sum total of one’s qualities. (What’s In A Word? Webb Garrison (Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, TN, 2000), p. 37.
Thank God, Jesus designed His 365 Lessons in A Course in Miracles, so that we can learn to forgive the “characters” that we have stamped in our dream.
Each lesson has a central thought, the same
in all of them. The form alone is changed,
with different circumstances and events;
with different “characters” and different themes,
apparent but not real. They are the same
in fundamental content. It is this:
Forgive, and you will see this differently.Lesson 193. 3:3-7
HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!
7/5
In one of his “The Infinite Way Letters, 1959,” Joel Goldsmith talks about “personalizing errors.”
In our unenlightened state, seeing only the appearance, we may judge of one, “You are a killer,” of another, “You are a thief,” of another, “You are an adulterer,” or of yet another one, “You are disagreeable;” and in doing this we are bearing false witness against our neighbor because God is our neighbor.
“Personalize” comes from the Latin, “per,” meaning through, and “son” meaning sound. In the ancient Greek theaters, actors wore wooden masks, so that sound could be amplified throughout the amphitheater. So, when we personalize errors, we are putting a mask on our own projections, stamping them, characterizing them them, as “killer,” “thief,” “adulterer.” Goldsmith urges us not to defend ourselves from the projections of our carnal minds, but rather, recognize their non-existence.
The carnal mind is not something to be fought, overcome, risen above, or destroyed: It is simply to be recognized as nothingness, never personal.
7/6
I am in the world, and not of the world; you are in the world, and not of the world.
It is quite possible, right now, to sit back, breathe in and breathe out, and experience being not of this world.
I love the metaphors that Jesus uses to describe e this state:
silence
ancient peace
sense of holiness
rewards
your treasure
your rest
There is a silence into which the world
can not intrude. There is an ancient peace
you carry in your heart and have not lost.
There is a sense of holiness in you
the thought of sin has never touched. All this
today you will remember. Faithfulness
in practicing today will bring rewards
so great and so completely different from
all things you sought before, that you will know
that here your treasure is, and here your rest.
Lesson 164.4
7/7
While reading Lesson 185, I want the peace of God, I came across this sentence:
To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. 5
This reminds me of an article in the newspaper in which the writer was extolling the virtues of daydreaming. He said that while he was on his way to work in the morning, he imagined running the Boston Marathon, closing in on a runner at the end and passing him. The man he passed was Bill Rodgers who won the Boston Marathon four times.
The writer said he walked into work highly motivated.
This is clearly a dream within a dream, and it provides a useful context for this passage, demonstrating that choosing one illusion over another can only be escaped by truly wanting the peace of God, stepping out of the dream, entirely.
To mean you want the peace of God is to
renounce all dreams. For no one means these words
who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks
the means which bring illusions. He has looked
on them, and found them wanting. Now he seeks
to go beyond them, recognizing that
another dream would offer nothing more
than all the others. Dreams are one to him.
And he has learned their only difference
is one of form, for one will bring the same
despair and misery as do the rest.
7/8
This morning, early, after my shower, sitting on my couch with a cup of coffee, I felt utterly peaceful, just gazing through the windows, seeing through the appearance of the trees and bird feeders and cloudless sky, and I said to myself, “This is all there is, this moment, being present.”
What time but now can truth be recognized? Lesson 164.1
(Seeing through the eyes of Christ is truth; seeing through the body’s eyes is false).
The present is the only time there is.
And so today, this instant, now, we come
to look upon what is forever there;
not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ.
He looks past time, and sees eternity
as represented there.
(“Re-presented,” the ego always sees first through the body’s eyes; the eyes of Christ see truth presented, again.)
He hears the sounds
the senseless, busy world engenders, yet
He hears them faintly.
(I am in the world, yet not of the world, and in this state of mind, the sounds of the world are heard faintly).
For beyond them all
He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice
for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.
And now, sitting quietly, I am receptive to hear the Holy Spirit, speaking to me all through the day.
7/9
“How does one become a butterfly?” she asked pensively. “You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar.” (Bill and Judy Guggenheim, Hello from Heaven)
When I read this, my first thought was this: the first 7 Lessons of A Curse in Miracles represent the caterpillar.
Nothing I see means anything.
I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.
I do not understand anything I see.
These thoughts do not mean anything.
I am never upset for the reason I think.
I am upset because I see what is not there.
I see only the past.
The first paragraph of What am I? represents the butterfly.
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.
The Guggenheims follow the caterpillar/butterfly quotation with this paragraph, in which I substitute in my mind, “this book” as A Course in Miracles.
If you are willing to read this book with an open mind and an open heart, you will completely eliminate your fear of death. As a caterpillar once limited to the ground, you will undergo an inner transformation and become like a butterfly free to soar. This new freedom will allow you to live your life fully and joyously, with a sense of peace.
7/10
In His Introduction to the Workbook of A Course in Miracles, Jesus tells us that its purpose is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. 4
One way He does this is to slow us down by posturing our voice to read His words. He puts words together in such a way that our voice assumes a particular posture to read them, as we read silently, or out loud.
|For example, please read this sentence in Lesson 185, I want the peace of God.
He wants the peace of God,
and it is given him. For that is all
he wants, and that is all he will receive.
First, this is written in blank verse, the accent on every other syllable,
He WANTS the PEACE of GOD
And, “that” is accented each time, and “that” is followed by a caesura, a break, or a pause, indicated by this symbol: //. Please read the passage gain, becoming aware of your posture. . . of your voice, that is.
He wants the peace of God,
and it is given him. For THAT // is all
he wants, and THAT // is all he WILL receive.
And he will receive it because he WILLs it.
When you see what Jesus is doing in just two sentences, you can marvel at how He manages to slow us down throughout His Text and Workbook, enabling us to step out, for a moment, from our habitual, automatic, unconscious way of perceiving, giving us an opportunity to train our minds, systematically, to “a different perception of everyone and everything in the world.”
7/11
One of my favorite ways to look at “mind” is to say that part of it splits off, allying with the ego, looking through the body’s eyes, making up a false, illusory world. While all the time, it could decide to unite with the Self, melting into the peace of God, looking through the eyes of Christ.
I just came across a great simile to describe this split-mind, a bat, in this poem “Mind,” by Richard Wilbur (b. 1921).
I just love it because I grew up with the expression, “Bats in a belfry,” describing our insane mind, usually accompanied by pointing a circling index finger next to the head.
Mind in its purest play is like some bat
That beats about in caverns all alone,
Contriving by a kind of senseless wit
Not to conclude against a wall of stone.
It has no need to falter or explore;
Darkly it knows what obstacles are there.
And so may weave and flitter, dip and soar
In perfect courses through the blackest air.
And has this simile a like perfection?
The mind is like a bat. Precisely. Save
That in the very happiest intellection
A graceful error may correct the cave.
At the end of the poem, I was thrown for a moment, by the word, “error,” meaning a deviation from accuracy, a mistake. It comes from the Latin, errare, to wander.
But, then I realized, that deciding to unite with the Self makes the world, the “cave” disappear, and this is only an “error” from the point of view of the egoistic mind, and in fact, it is a wandering into truth by the Grace of God.
7/12
William O. Douglas (1898-1980) was a Justice on the Supreme Court from 1939-1975. In looking back at his life, he wrote:
During moments of sadness or frustration, I often think of the time when I was seven years old when my mother told me about my father’s illness and death. His last words to her before going into a fatal operation were these:
“If I die, it will be glory; if I live, it will be grace.”
I marveled at how this echoes A Course in Miracles.
. . .it will be glory.
Our Father, bless our eyes today. We are Your messengers, and we would look upon the glorious reflection of Your Love which shines in everything. We live and move in You alone. We are not separate from Your eternal life. There is no death, for death is not Your Will. And we abide where You have placed us, in the life we share with You and with all living things, to be like You and part of You forever. We accept Your Thoughts as ours, and our will is one with Yours eternally. Amen. Lesson 163.9
. . .it will be grace.
Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
Father, I come to you. And You will come
to me who ask. I am the Son You love.
Lesson 168.6
7/13
You are as God created you; and the reference to “you” is mind, consciousness, awareness. And your mind is the mechanism of decision, deciding in every moment to see through the body’s eyes, or see through the eyes of Christ. “Decision” comes from the Latin, decidere, meaning to cut away, as in incision, incisor. When you decide for the body’s eyes, you cut away any awareness of Christ’s vision; when you decide for Christ’s vision, you cut away any awareness of the body’s eyes.
This all came to mind when I read this passage from “The Shift” by Jim Self. This is a beautiful, incisive, look at the results of deciding for peace and love.
Choice creates opportunity.
Opportunity allows for well-being.
Well-being awakens happiness, openness and the inner smile within the Heart.
From your open heart, your single purpose is within your grasp. p. 28
7/14
After reading a passage in A Course in Miracles, I had this thought, “You CAN take it with you;” obviously, this plays on the common phrase, “You can’t take it with you,” meaning material things into Heaven. However, you CAN take Heaven with you as you walk into the world.
Here’s the passage.
What time but now can truth be recognized?
The present is the only time there is.
And so today, this instant, now, we come
to look upon what is forever there;
not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ.
He looks past time, and sees eternity
as represented there. He hears the sounds
the senseless, busy world engenders, yet
He hears them faintly. For beyond them all
He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice
for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.
Lesson 164.1
Sitting here, peacefully, breathing in and breathing out, I can stand up, take the next step, and carry this peace into the world, receptive to the Voice for God, letting the light do the work.
7/15
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6:19-21
This has come to us over the centuries to remind us to focus on the truth behind the curtain of this illusory world.
This passage came to mind when I read this in A Course in Miracles.
This is the day when vain imaginings
part like a curtain, to reveal what lies
beyond them. Lesson 164.5:1
Open the curtain in your practicing
by merely letting go all things you think
you want. Your trifling treasures put away,
and leave a clean and open space within
your mind where Christ can come, and offer you
the treasure of salvation. He has need
of your most holy mind to save the world.
Is not this purpose worthy to be yours?
Is not Christ's vision worthy to be sought
above the world's unsatisfying goals?
Lesson 164.8
In His incomparable “How To” Manual, Jesus provides the opportunity for us to practice, moment by moment, HOW to keep our treasures foremost in our mind.
Obviously, this is the same Jesus, speaking to us 2000 years ago, and whispering in our ears now, right now.
7/16
The Thought of God protects you, cares for you,
makes soft your resting place and smooth your way,
lighting your mind with happiness and love.
Eternity and everlasting life
shine in your mind, because the Thought of God
has left you not, and still abides with you.
Lesson 165.2
Just after reading this, I marveled that I came across a passage that gives personal, specific references to the Thought of God.
God allowed me to feel His presence—whether by the warmth that filled my belly like hot chocolate on a cold afternoon, or that voice, whenever I found myself in the tempest of life’s storms, telling me (even when I was told I was “nothing”) that I was something, that I was His, and that even amid the desertion of the man who gave me his name and his DNA and little else, I might find in Him sustenance, simply feeling his breath, heartbeat, presence. (John W. Fountain, The God Who Embraced Me, This I Believe, Jay Allison, Dan Gediman (Picador, New York, 2006), p. 69
7/17
There is great excitement in the scientific community because of the recent discovery of the “God Particle.” In quantum physics, this discovery is heralded as a great breakthrough, providing evidence for what Peter Higgs theorized in 1964.
Apparently, the “God Particle” explains the origin of mass. Here is a description by Karl Giberson.
The Standard Model explained the origin of mass as the result of a field existing everywhere -- a sort of universal fog through which moving particles have to plough. This fog -- if it exists -- impedes moving particles, like millions of tiny arms reaching out and grabbing at the particles as they pass. The slowing created by this creates the phenomenon of mass.
Enter the Higgs Boson. Fields in physics have particles associated with them and the existence of the particles provides evidence that the fields are real. After several months of peeking its head around corners at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the particle has been definitively sighted. (“God and the God Particle,” Huff Post Religion, July 9, 2012.)
To read more, please go to my blog post by clicking on the link, below:
http://www.throughamirrorbrightly.blogspot.com
7/18
I like this passage by James Van Praagh, a medium.
You see, when people shed their physical bodies at death, their spiritual selves see life from a whole new perspective. It’s as if they’ve had Lasik surgery—they can finally do without their glasses and can see more clearly. Spirits understand why certain situations had to happen, what they had to learn from them. They also realize how they could have skipped certain mistakes by not letting their egos get in the way. After passing into the light, spirits are eager to share their new found knowledge with the living.
It’s a lot about being responsible for your thoughts and choices. Your thoughts have power. The life you are living right now is the result of your thoughts. Thoughts are energy—they are real things. It is because of the power of our thoughts that spirits encourage us to forgive even when it’s the hardest thing to do and to push through your fears. Our spiritual friends want us to contribute to life, to be happy and to finish any unfinished business before we reach the time when we step through the threshold of light and return home. (Unfinished Business, HarperOne, New York, NY., 2009), pp. 2,3
This reminds me of this passage from the Bible.
For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to f ace:
Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1Corinthians 14:12
Thank God for A Course in Miracles. We have learned to “see life from a whole new perspective,” here, now; we have learned to experience the light, yet remain in our bodies, as we live out our time on this earth, guided by the light.
7/19
Master Teacher of Endeavor Academy often called us “Associations.” I realized that he was characterizing us by the way we think. We, habitually, automatically, free associate as we picture a world made up of our thought-images.
My thoughts are images that I have made.
Title, Lesson 15
Temple Grandin shows us, exactly, how this occurs in her mind in slow motion.
Because I have autism, I live by concrete rules instead of abstract beliefs. And because I have autism, I think in pictures and sounds.
Here’s how my brain works: It’s like the search engine Google for images. If you say the word “love” to me, I’ll surf the Internet inside my brain. Then, a series of images poops (OK, I can’t help it; that’s a typo, but I can’t change it because it’s perfectly appropriate, and besides, I can see Master Teacher laughing.) into my head. What I’ll see is a picture of a mother horse with a foal; or I think of “Herbie, the Love Bug;” scenes from the movie Love Story; or the Beatles song, “Love love, all you need is love. . .” (“Seeing in Beautiful, Precise Pictures,” This I Believe, Picador, New York, 2006), p. 87
The first step in letting thought-images go is to recognize their occurrence, right, here, right now.
7/20
I have always loved this passage in A Course in Miracles because it helps me quiet my busy mind.
The miracle comes quietly into
the mind that stops an instant and is still.
It reaches gently from that quiet time,
and from the mind it healed in quiet then,
to other minds to share its quietness.
And they will join in doing nothing to
prevent its radiant extension back
into the Mind Which caused all minds to be.
Born out of sharing, there can be no pause
in time to cause the miracle delay
in hastening to all unquiet minds,
and bringing them an instant's stillness, when
the memory of God returns to them.
Their own remembering is quiet now,
and what has come to take its place will not
be wholly unremembered afterwards. Chapter 28.1.11
And then I came across this passage by Deborah Hall, a psychologist, in her essay, “The Power of Presence,” and it provides a powerful juxtaposition.
Presence is a noun, not a verb; it is a state of being, not doing. States of being are not highly valued in a culture that places a high priority on doing. Yet, true presence of “being with” another person carries with it a silent power—to bear witness to a passage, to help carry an emotional burden, or to begin a healing process. In it, there is an intimate connection with another that is perhaps too seldom felt in a society that strives for every-faster “connectivity.” (This I Believe, Picador, New York, 2006), p. 101
7/21
When I read this passage in “My Personal Prayer Book,” it reminded me of a practical distinction that Jesus makes in His Course, pointing out the difference between “making” and “creating.”
O Lord! Forgive my foolish pride that seeks to enhance my images. I posture and pretend in order to impress people I fear will reject me. Really, God, these efforts are just lies—exaggerations and illusions I foolishly make and then desperately try to maintain. I’m tired of acting this way, Lord. I’m tired of being afraid of being found out. Set me free to be who I truly am. I am willing to gain the peace of mind that truth will bring. (Christine A. Ballman, Margaret Ann Huffman, Publications International, Lincolnwood, IL., 2009), July 12.
And this passage from the Course.
The mind can make the belief in separation very real and very fearful. It is powerful, active, destructive and clearly in opposition to God, because it literally denies His Fatherhood. Look at your life and see what you have made. But realise that this making will surely dissolve in the light of truth, because its foundation is a lie. Your creation by God is the only Foundation that cannot be shaken, because the light is in it. Your starting point is truth, and you must return to your Beginning. Much has been seen since then, but nothing has really happened. Your Self is still in peace, even though your mind is in conflict.
Chapter 3.VII.5;1-8
Only the oneness of knowledge is free of conflict. Your kingdom is not of this world because it was given you from beyond this world. Only in this world is the idea of an authority problem meaningful. The world is not left by death but by truth, and truth can be known by all those for whom the Kingdom was created, and for whom it waits. 6:8-11
7/22
I am going to juxtapose two wonderful passages, one from the Bible, and the other from A Course in Miracles.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:11-13
The wearying, dissatisfying gods
you made are blown-up children's toys. A child
is frightened when a wooden head springs up
as a closed box is opened suddenly,
or when a soft and silent woolly bear
begins to squeak as he takes hold of it.
The rules he made for boxes and for bears
have failed him, and have broken his 'control'
of what surrounds him. And he is afraid,
because he thought the rules protected him.
Now must he learn the boxes and the bears
did not deceive him, broke no rules, nor mean
his world is made chaotic and unsafe.
He was mistaken. He misunderstood
what made him safe, and thought that it had left.
Chapter 30.IV.2
I can get pretty intense about my slippage into the dream, forgetting who I AM, and so I find it helpful to realize that I can learn to have a playful attitude about my childish ways of looking at the world; I can LIGHTen up and stop taking it so seriously.
7/23
I have performed many wedding ceremonies, and one of my favorite passages in the ceremony is this one.
Love would set a feast before you, on a table covered with a spotless cloth, set in a quiet garden where no sound but singing and a softly joyous whispering is ever heard. This is a feast that honors your holy relationship, and at which everyone is welcomed as an honored guest. And in a holy instant grace is said by everyone together, as they join in gentleness before the table of communion. And Christ will join you there as long ago He promised and promises still. For in your new relationship, is Christ made welcome. And where Christ is made welcome, there He shall be. Chapter 19.IV.A.16
This came to mind when I read this passage in A Course in Miracles.
Grace becomes inevitable instantly in those who have prepared a table where it can be gently laid and willingly received; an altar clean and holy for the gift. Lesson 169.1:3
My only function is to prepare a place in my mind to receive the Word of God by the grace of God.
7/24
Over 400 years ago, Shakespeare wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. In Sonnet 55, he predicted that his rhyme would outlive “gilded monuments” and “sluttish time.” Here is the first quatrain.
Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this pow’rful rhyme,
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time. 1-4
He is confident that this sonnet will immortalize his beloved.
Since Shakespeare has lasted this long, it makes me wonder just how long Jesus’ unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles, making explicit the immortality the True Self, will last. It will last forever because of content alone, and in addition, almost 20% of His Text and 75% of His Workbook are rendered in blank verse.
Here, for example, is just one of His Sonnets.
This world you seem to live in is not home
to you. And somewhere in your mind you know
that this is true. A memory of home
keeps haunting you, as if there were a place
that called you to return, although you do
not recognize the voice, nor what it is
the voice reminds you of. Yet still you feel
an alien here, from somewhere all unknown.
Nothing so definite that you could say
with certainty you are an exile here.
Just a persistent feeling, sometimes not
more than a tiny throb, at other times
hardly remembered, actively dismissed,
but surely to return to mind again.
Lesson 182.1
To read my blog post on “prose and Poetry in A Course in Miracles,” please click on the link below:
http://throughamirrorbrightly.blogspot.com/2007/12/prose-and-poetry-in-course-in-miracles.html
7/25
While reading an essay by Robert Kurson in “The Book that Changed my Life,” I came across two paragraphs that totally amazed me because they captured the common, ordinary, universal way of thinking in the human condition.
During a series of insomniac nights as a college sophomore, I pondered what it meant to be dead. The idea of not existing, and worse, not existing forever, was terrifying in ways daytime thoughts never can be. Would it be silent? Cold? Lonely? It seemed too much for the mind to grasp. I got to wondering how people walked around every day with equanimity when such a gargantuan and terrible and inescapable fate awaited. (Gotham Books, New York, NY, 2006) p. 93
I kept reading his essay, thinking that he would make a breakthrough that would free him of his fears, but, alas, he found only a way to justify his fears, actually finding solace in knowing that he would die.
I read Ernest Becker’s “The Denial of Death” three times that year. I found answers to nearly every question I can think to ask about being human and about being in the world. In it, I found explanation for why men do what they do. It may sound odd to suggest that there is comfort to be found in a book about knowing our own mortality, but that is the beauty of Becker, and his gift is to show us that it is the beauty of ourselves. p. 94
After reading this, I resisted the urge to run and take a shower, and instead, I read these passages from Lesson 163, There is no death. The Son of God is free.
Death is a thought that takes on many forms,
often unrecognized. It may appear
as sadness, fear, anxiety or doubt;
as anger, faithlessness and lack of trust;
concern for bodies, envy, and all forms
in which the wish to be as you are not
may come to tempt you. All such thoughts are but
reflections of the worshiping of death
as savior and as giver of release. 1
Our worshipping of death is an obstacle, defending us against God.
What would you see without the fear of death? What would you feel and think if death held no attraction for you? Very simply, you would remember your Father. Chapter 19.IV.D. 1
7/26
Describing the human condition as a “trial” is an excellent metaphor, and this is its origin.
Among the most vexatious problems for farmers in the Middle Ages was the separation of trash and impurities from the fruits of harvest. Grain was sifted and blown to remove chaff, while wool was handpicked to rid it of burrs and other impurities. From the colloquial Latin word “trier” (to sort), any act of separating good from bad was termed a “trial.” (Webb Harrison, What’s In A Word?, Rutledge Hill Press, Nashville, TN., 2000), p. 41
Jesus uses “trial” in His Course in Miracles to describe the duality.
There is no pain, no trial, no fear that teaching this curriculum can fail to overcome. The power of God Himself supports this teaching, and guarantees its limitless results. Chapter 14.V.6:6,7
You have no problems that He cannot solve by offering you a miracle. Miracles are for you. And every fear or pain or trial you have has been undone. Chapter 14.XI.9:2-4
Jesus tells us that seeing life as a duality is seeing life with your mind asleep.
Let us today be children of the truth,
and not deny our holy heritage.
Our life is not as we imagine it.
Who changes life because he shuts his eyes,
or makes himself what he is not because
he sleeps, and sees in dreams an opposite
to what he is? We will not ask for death
in any form today. Nor will we let
imagined opposites to life abide
even an instant where the Thought of life
eternal has been set by God Himself.
|Lesson 167.10
7/27
In Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us to “turn the other cheek.”
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matthew 5:39
This can be easily misunderstood, for example, there is a lot of bullying going on in the schools today, and turning the other cheek may suggest a kind of passivity in facing a bully.
But the power of what Jesus is advocating becomes clear when you read this passage from His Course in Miracles.
You make what you defend against, and by
your own defense against it is it real
and inescapable. Lay down your arms,
and only then do you perceive it false.
|Lesson 170.2
You make what you defend against, and this is the evil; it’s simply a thought. And by not resisting it, you have an opportunity to see it for what it is and let it go. In our defenselessness, we can let it go, forgive it.
It seems to be the enemy without
that you attack. Yet your defense sets up
an enemy within; an alien thought
at war with you, depriving you of peace,
splitting your mind into two camps which seem
wholly irreconcilable. 3
By “laying down my arms,” I am surrendering my false thought-image, the bully standing there, and I can now experience peace.
7/28
Brian Castner, a Marquette University graduate, just published a book entitled, “The Long Walk: A Story of War and the Life that Follows.” He served as an Air Force EOD specialist (explosive ordinance device) for eight years, 1999-2007. Here is his vivid description of the preparation for the Long Walk.
Armor on, girded with breastplate and helm and leggings and collar. Eighty pounds of mailed Kevlar. No one can put on the bomb suit alone: Your brother has to dress you, overalls pulled up, massive jacket tucked earnest in his careful thoroughness. One last check, face shield down, and then into the breach alone. No one takes the Long Walk lightly. Only after every other option is extinguished. Only after robots fail and recourses dwindle. The last choice. Always.
This passage came to mind when I read this paragraph in His Course in Miracles, where Jesus assures us that He is walking with us, always.
I take the journey with you. For I share
your doubts and fears a little while, that you
may come to me who recognize the road
by which all fears and doubts are overcome.
We walk together. I must understand
uncertainty and pain, although I know
they have no meaning. Yet a savior must
remain with those he teaches, seeing what
they see, but still retaining in his mind
the way that led him out, and now will lead
you out with him. God's Son is crucified
until you walk along the road with me.
|Review V.6
I juxtaposed these two passages to demonstrate that the road we walk without inviting Jesus to walk with us is just as dangerous as the Long Walk to disarm an EOD. It is a hyperbolic comparison, meaning an excessive exaggeration, but a walk no less perilous than the Long Walk. After all, Jesus does tell us that we crucify ourselves, if we don’t walk with Him.
7/29
Jesus is so precise in his use of words in His Course in Miracles. Just look at the root meanings of these three words and see how He uses them to communicate fully in the passage that follows.
“Intent,” purpose, from the Latin, intentus, a stretching out, to lean toward
“Dedication,” set apart, from the Latin, dedicare, consecrate, proclaim, affirm
“Attain,” to succeed in reaching, from the Latin, attainder, to come up to, reach, and my favorite, ENDEAVOR
Our next few lessons make a special point
of firming up your willingness to make
your weak commitment strong; your scattered goals
blend into one “intent.” You are not asked
for total “dedication” all the time
as yet. But you are asked to practice now
in order to “attain” the sense of peace
such unified commitment will bestow,
if only intermittently. It is
experiencing this that makes it sure
that you will give your total willingness
to following the way the course sets forth.
Introduction to Lessons 181-220
Obviously, being attentive to words is just a step, and it’s a step in the right direction, leading to the experience.
Jesus goes on to say:
Words alone cannot
convey the sense of liberation which
their lifting brings. But the experience
of freedom and of peace that comes as you
give up your tight control of what you see
speaks for itself. 2
7/30
I just love reading personal accounts of individuals being touched by God, demonstrating the truth of what we are, expressing what it is like just beyond the thin veil of illusions we have made.
I was alone upon the seashore as all these thoughts flowed over me, liberating and reconciling; and now again, as once before, in distant days in the Alps of Dauphine, I was impelled to kneel down, this time before the illimitable ocean, symbol of the infinite. I prayed as I’ve never prayed before, and knew now what prayer really is: to return from the solitude of individuation into the consciousness of unity with all that is, to kneel down as one passes away, and to rise up as one imperishable. Earth, heaven, and sea resounded as in one vast world encircling harmony. It was as if the chorus of all the greats who ever lived were about me. I felt myself one with them, and it appeared as if I heard the greeting: “Thou too belongst to the company of those who overcome.” (Richard Bucke, Cosmic Consciousness)
7/31
In a book by Guy Finley, entitled The Seeker, The search, The Sacred, he lists three stages of the journey to awakening that seem to characterize, as well, the steps that Jesus uses in His Course in Miracles.
Discrimination: the ability to discern what is true from what is false.
Intention: the will to act upon and clarify one’s discoveries.
Illumination: the realization of a new order of being freed from the bondage of self-induced limitations.
And then Finley nicely illustrates them.
Discrimination: One day in the midst of that misery born of being in some kind of abusive relationship, a new idea enters into this woman’s mind. A simple truth rocks her world: patterns can’t change themselves! Now she knows that to remain where she is guarantees she will remain a victim.
Intention: She must act! An inescapable intention is born that gives birth to a glad day when she walks out.
Illumination: A short time later, over a quiet cup of tea, a Light appears in her mind. It comes in the form of a simple, but grand realization: Only when one is comfortable, content with being alone, can one be true to another. (WeiserBooks, San Francisco, CA., 2011), pp. XX11,XX111
A miracle is a correction. It
does not create, nor really change at all.
It merely looks on devastation, and
reminds the mind that what it sees is false.
What is a Miracle. 1:1-3
Sunday, July 15, 2012
The "God Particle" is the Thought of God
There is great excitement in the scientific community because of the recent discovery of the “God Particle.” In quantum physics, this discovery is heralded as a great breakthrough, providing evidence for what Peter Higgs theorized in 1964.
Apparently, the “God Particle” explains the origin of mass. Here is a description by Karl Giberson.
The Standard Model explained the origin of mass as the result of a field existing everywhere -- a sort of universal fog through which moving particles have to plough. This fog -- if it exists -- impedes moving particles, like millions of tiny arms reaching out and grabbing at the particles as they pass. The slowing created by this creates the phenomenon of mass.
Enter the Higgs Boson. Fields in physics have particles associated with them and the existence of the particles provides evidence that the fields are real. After several months of peeking its head around corners at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the particle has been definitively sighted. (“God and the God Particle,” Huff Post Religion, July 9, 2012.)
I am chuckling at the irony that a particular particle would be singled out and named the “God Particle.” All sub-atomic particles are created by God extending.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Review VI. Intro. 2:3-5
God created me, not as a body, but as the extension of His Thoughts; I am a Thought of God.
The statement “God created man in his own image and likeness” needs reinterpretation. “Image” can be understood as “thought,” and “likeness” as “of a like quality.” God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality like to His Own. There is nothing else. Chapter 3.V.7:1-4
The reference for the Thought of God, for the likeness of God, is sub-atomic particles. These particles provide the underlying structure of the universe. These particles take different forms, e.g., flowers, trees, tables, bodies, because of different frequencies.
As a Thought of God, “I” can operate at a light, high frequency, or at a dense, slow frequency.
It is all a matter of awareness.
I can become aware of being a Thought of God by sitting here quietly, breathing in and breathing out, grounded, present. Or, I can allow my thoughts to take me into a denser, lower frequency—Thought or thoughts, my choice.
The Thought of God created you.
It left you not, nor have you ever been apart
from it an instant. It belongs to you.
By it you live. It is your Source of life,
holding you one with it, and everything
is one with you because it left you not.
The Thought of God protects you, cares for you,
makes soft your resting place and smooth your way,
lighting your mind with happiness and love.
Eternity and everlasting life
shine in your m mind, because the Thought of God
has left you not, and still abides with you.
Lesson 165.2
The Thought of God is our Source, our Self, our Holiness, our Life. Experiencing this frequency is our awakening.
There is one life, and that I share with God. Title, Lesson 167
There are not different kinds of life, for life
is like the truth. It does not have degrees.
It is the one condition in which all
that God created share. Like all His Thoughts,
it has no opposite. 1
We are all “God Particles,” the Thoughts God Who is our Source.
Apparently, the “God Particle” explains the origin of mass. Here is a description by Karl Giberson.
The Standard Model explained the origin of mass as the result of a field existing everywhere -- a sort of universal fog through which moving particles have to plough. This fog -- if it exists -- impedes moving particles, like millions of tiny arms reaching out and grabbing at the particles as they pass. The slowing created by this creates the phenomenon of mass.
Enter the Higgs Boson. Fields in physics have particles associated with them and the existence of the particles provides evidence that the fields are real. After several months of peeking its head around corners at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the particle has been definitively sighted. (“God and the God Particle,” Huff Post Religion, July 9, 2012.)
I am chuckling at the irony that a particular particle would be singled out and named the “God Particle.” All sub-atomic particles are created by God extending.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Review VI. Intro. 2:3-5
God created me, not as a body, but as the extension of His Thoughts; I am a Thought of God.
The statement “God created man in his own image and likeness” needs reinterpretation. “Image” can be understood as “thought,” and “likeness” as “of a like quality.” God did create spirit in His Own Thought and of a quality like to His Own. There is nothing else. Chapter 3.V.7:1-4
The reference for the Thought of God, for the likeness of God, is sub-atomic particles. These particles provide the underlying structure of the universe. These particles take different forms, e.g., flowers, trees, tables, bodies, because of different frequencies.
As a Thought of God, “I” can operate at a light, high frequency, or at a dense, slow frequency.
It is all a matter of awareness.
I can become aware of being a Thought of God by sitting here quietly, breathing in and breathing out, grounded, present. Or, I can allow my thoughts to take me into a denser, lower frequency—Thought or thoughts, my choice.
The Thought of God created you.
It left you not, nor have you ever been apart
from it an instant. It belongs to you.
By it you live. It is your Source of life,
holding you one with it, and everything
is one with you because it left you not.
The Thought of God protects you, cares for you,
makes soft your resting place and smooth your way,
lighting your mind with happiness and love.
Eternity and everlasting life
shine in your m mind, because the Thought of God
has left you not, and still abides with you.
Lesson 165.2
The Thought of God is our Source, our Self, our Holiness, our Life. Experiencing this frequency is our awakening.
There is one life, and that I share with God. Title, Lesson 167
There are not different kinds of life, for life
is like the truth. It does not have degrees.
It is the one condition in which all
that God created share. Like all His Thoughts,
it has no opposite. 1
We are all “God Particles,” the Thoughts God Who is our Source.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)