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.
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 the postings from Monday 9 April through Monday 30 April, 2012.
4/9
You cannot forgive a person, place, or thing. You can forgive only a thought, based on your individual belief system that made the person, place, or thing in the first place.
Forgive what you have made and you are saved. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity and peace. ACIM, Lesson 99
4/10
In a body in time and space, I tend to make decisions between this and that, hot or cold, peace or conflict, good or bad.
When I choose one over the other in this duality, I am actually bargaining, although I find that when I choose the positive over the negative, I call it Forgiveness.
Bargaining is not Forgiveness. When I stand in a place in my mind, a state of mind of the peace of God, the body and time and space slip away and my dream is replaced by the experience of true Forgiveness, letting go of what never was, resting in God.
4/11
In A Course in Miracles, Jesus refers to often to “God’s plan.” This is not some plan, like World Peace; rather, God’s plan is for each of us to learn to forgive our worldly thoughts.
Salvation (Forgiveness) must reverse the mad belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies, which lead separate lives and go their separate ways. It is your function that you find it here, and that you find it now. Lesson 100
4/12
Obviously, our biggest obstacle to Forgiveness is our identification with our bodies and our thought/images projected from our tiny brains. Jesus tells us, repeatedly, in His Course in Miracles:
I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
Garfield pretty much sums it up in this cartoon:
http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2012&addr=120405
4/13
We grow up thinking that our eyes can see and our brains can think. As Jesus makes so clear in His Course in Miracles, this is ludicrous. We make the mistake of investing in this illusion.
And the words “ludicrous” and “illusion” come from the same Latin root, ludere, meaning to play a game. The dream is ludicrous because it’s absurd, and to invest in it is a misleading impression of reality. It’s a deadly game. We can learn to put our toys away.
Forgiveness means to give up the illusion, seeing through it with vision.
Every man takes the limits of his own field of seeing for the limits of the world. Arthur Schopenhauer.
4/14
I walk into a darkened movie theater, sit down, and face a blank screen. The projector comes on, and I enter into the drama of the images on the screen, forgetting where I am, following the images cavorting across the screen, entering fully into the story.
At the end, the lights come on, the credits roll, the screen goes blank. The projector goes off. I stand up and walk out. This is a moment analogous to Forgiveness, letting it all go.
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. ACIM, T-21.Intro.
That change, that shift, is forgiveness.
4/15
In this world we are encouraged by advertisers to trade stamps for merchandise, to redeem pieces of paper for worldly treasures.
This is a helpful analogy for our redemption. We can redeem our attachment to ego thoughts, and in this act of Forgiveness is our redemption.
There will be great joy in Heaven on your homecoming, and the joy will be yours. For the redeemed son of man is the guiltless Son of God, and to recognize him is your redemption. ACIM.Chapter13.ll.9
4/16
Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to a Three-Peat, winning NBA Titles in ’91, ’92, and ’93. Then he abruptly retired to play professional baseball for two years. When he returned in ’95, he had a difficult time regaining his former top-level playing style, until, one day he said to himself, “I’m going to let the game come to me.” He then led the Bulls to another Three-Peat in ’96, ’97, and ’98.
A friend of mine expressed Jordan's insight this way: “I‘m going to participate fully, remembering that I need do nothing.” In other words, once I, my ego-personality, gets out of the way, I can be guided to do the next thing.
Getting out of the way is an act of forgiveness.
This is one way it is expressed in A Course in Miracles, I will step back and let Him lead the way. Title, Lesson 155.
4/17
In his poem, Revelation, Robert Frost (1874-1963) begins:
We make ourselves a place apart
Behind light words that tease and flout,
Our ego personality constructs, or makes, an identity, apart from the awareness of God’s presence, and we defend it with our meaningless thoughts.
In His Course in Miracles, Jesus expresses it this way:
You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be helpless in God’s Presence, and you would save yourself from His Love because you think it would crush you into nothingness. Chapter 13.Section 111.4
Frost finishes the first stanza with these two lines:
But oh, the agitated heart
Till someone find us really out.
And from the Course:
For He will heal every little thought you have kept to hurt you and cleanse it of its littleness, restoring it to the magnitude of God. 7
And when we allow this cleansing to occur, it is an act of forgiveness, and we experience our restoration, our resurrection.
4/18
We tend to believe that our eyes can see and our brains can think. This cherished belief imprisons us.
Samuel T. Coleridge (1777-1834) coined a wonderful phrase that describes being lifted out of this belief:
. . .a willing suspension of disbelief.
While we believe in the reality of the body’s eyes, we disbelieve in the Reality of God. For us, it is always either/or. Coleridge, the Romantic, trusted that poetry could free us, having the power to “awaken the mind’s attention from the lethargy of custom.”
Our willingness to suspend our disbelief in God is an act of forgiveness.
4/19
We are such creatures of habit, always tending to believe in the world we project through our body’s eyes. This habit seems ordinary, customary, normal, automatic, "autonomic," natural, universal, and my favorite, taken for “granite,” whoops, taken for granted.
These habits prevent us from receiving God’s gifts of joy and peace, our natural inheritance.
They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belongs, as substitutes for them. ACIM, Lesson 104.1
Forgiveness is letting go of these substitutes, making ready a place in our minds to receive God’s gifts.
4/20
Since the ego always speaks first, we tend to judge a brother, automatically, seeing him as an “enemy.”
Recognizing this, Ho’oponopono, a great Hawaiian healer, practiced forgiveness, using these four simple statements, and these correspond perfectly with passages in A Course in Miracles, Lesson 105, God’s peace and joy are mine.
“I’m sorry.”
Think of your “enemies” a little while, and tell each one, as he occurs to you: My brother, peace and joy I offer you.
“Please forgive me.”
Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God’s gifts to you, and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today.
“I love you.”
My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.
“Thank you.”
Then bless your brother, thankfully.
In this manner, Ho’oponopono cured a complete ward of criminally insane patients--without ever seeing any of them. He simply studied an inmate's chart and engaged in this process, over and over.
4/21
A little film clip on forgiveness has gone “viral” on the internet. Shawne Duperon, a six-time Emmy Award Winner, produced this clip, featuring a man, Gary Weinstein, who lost his wife and two sons in an auto accident caused by a drunk driver. This clip shows, movingly, Gary’s True Forgiveness, echoing this passage from Lesson110, I am as God created me, in A Course in Miracles.
If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substitute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past. 3
As Gary, remaining as God created him in his mind, experiencing his true Self, recognizes on the clip, he is truly “the boldest man on the planet.”
To view a trailer for the film and donate to Project Forgive, visit http://www.projectforgive.com.
4/22
In one of his early Lessons in His Course in Miracles, Jesus characterizes the ego’s voice as a raucous shriek. His intent in His Course is to slow us down, so that we can learn to reverse our thinking. The title of Lessons 201-220 is I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.
. . .”still.” Hmmmm. Stop a moment. Does that mean, I continue to be as God crated me, or does it mean I am the “stillness” of God’s creation?
The answer is “yes,” and I stopped for a moment.
And in this recognition, all is forgiven.
4/23
Very often in His Course in Miracles, Jesus uses contrast to help us learn to reverse our thinking. For example, the body’s eyes see only their projections, darkness, while seeing with vision enables us to see our peaceful state of mind, light.
The light that makes true vision possible is not the light the body’s eyes behold. It is a state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all. Lesson 108.2
And seeing with light is an act of forgiveness.
4/24
I woke up this morning, trying to remember a dream. It seemed that it was painful, but I just couldn’t find it. While reading Lesson 107, Truth will correct all errors in my mind, I came across this sentence:
And so errors disappear to nothingness, returning whence they came. From dust to dust they come and go, for only truth remains.
And I realized that not finding the dream provides me with a perfect analogy. The dream was to my waking up as my errors, my illusions, are to my awakening mind. . .for only truth remains.
This is an act of forgiveness.
4/25
Often, sitting quietly, thoughts will come to mind, and I know that I am being receptive to God’s Voice, the Holy spirit.
When I grab a notebook and write down these thoughts, I am amazed at the fluidity of receptivity finding expression.
If you will listen with an open mind, then you will hear the mighty voice of truth, quiet in power, strong in stillness, and completely certain in Its messages. Lesson 106.2
These messages are a result of forgiveness, making a place in my mind receptive to the Holy Spirit’s Voice.
4/26
The ego’s voice is very loud. In fact, Jesus in His Course in Miracles, uses the metaphor of thunder.
Listen and hear your Father speak to you through His appointed Voice, Which silences the thunder of the meaningless. Lesson 106.2
The noisy mind chatter is thunderous.
And Joel Goldsmith (1892-1964) wrote a book entitled, The Thunder of Silence (1961). In this case, thunder refers to the wonder of the silence.
The metaphor of thunder in both cases is apt when I remember that the word “astonish” comes from the Latin, tonare, meaning “to thunder.”
Silence is astonishing in reference to noise, and noise is astonishing in reference to silence, and in both cases, experiencing silence is an act of forgiveness.
4/27
At lunch today, I overheard this curious sentence: “If you are climbing a ladder and let go, you will spring into Heaven.”
What? It was only later that I got it when I realized it was an analogy, after all, literally, I saw myself crashing to the ground.
The ladder is analogous to our logical, step-by-step, conceptual mind that perpetuates our world made by our thought/images projected from a part of our mind that has no source in reality. So, when I let go of these thoughts, I do spring into Heaven, the only part of my mind that is real.
The transition into Divine sonship brings about that change from faith in the visible to faith in the Infinite Invisible, in that which can never be seen, hear, tasted, touched, smelled. Joel Goldsmith, The Thunder of Silence, p. 21.
Letting go of the ladder is forgiveness.
4/28
I am sitting here on my couch, early in the morning, reading Joel Goldsmith, and I marvel that I am experiencing the peace of God because of Grace. This passage inspired that thought:
Our spiritual adoption comes through a conscious activity within our own consciousness and at a time when we are prepared for that transition, because the transition from humanhood to spiritual sonship is made only by Grace. The Thunder of Silence, p. 19
By Grace, my wife, Christine, and I came across A Course in Miracles in the fall of 1985, and we crossed the threshold of Endeavor Academy on August 7, 1997.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That Saved a wretch like me./
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see.
By the grace of God, we learned to forgive.
4/29
When I sit down at the computer and place my hands on the keyboard, my index fingers, automatically, rest on the home row, largely because of the raised dots on the “f” key and the “j” key, and now the entire keyboards is available to me simply by touch.
This is a helpful reminder that we can sit down, take a breath, and go home, resting in the peace of God, and now all His bounty is available to me in my stillness.
I will be still an instant and go home. Title, Lesson 182.
In this moment of stillness, all is forgiven, all that never was.
4/30
In His Course in Miracles, not only does Jesus use impeccable prose to direct our personal transformation, he also writes sheer poetry. For example, here is a passage from Lesson 109, I rest in God. Please read it slowly, savoring the “s” sounds.
You rest today. And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. 5
Here Jesus uses a poetic device called consonance, the repetition of consonant sounds. The medium is the message. We are being hushed to rest in God, reassured, shhhh, echoing the song,
Hush little baby, don’t your cry/Momma’s goin’ to sing you a lullaby.
In our resting is forgiveness.
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
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Striding Through the World with Light-hearted Unconcern
I am amazed at how yesterday unfolded. I began the day reading Lesson 92 in A Course in Miracles, Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one. I love being reminded that we think we see with our eyes and think with our brains; as the Course says, we think we think. Duh.
Your ideas of what seeing means is tied in with the body and its eyes and the brain.
You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see; the brain can think. W-p1.92. 1:3,5, 2
Later in the morning, I was leafing through a magazine, The Sun, and I came across this passage by Lewis Thomas(1913-1993 ), the biologist who wrote Lives of a Cell.
We are perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
His phrase, worrying animal reminded me of this wonderful poem by Denise Levertov (1923-1997), Come Into Animal Presence.
Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white rabbit on the roof is a star
twitching its ears at the rain.
The llama intricately
folding its hind legs to be seated
not disdains but mildly
disregards human approval.
What joy when the insouciant
armadillo glances at us and doesn't
quicken his trotting
across the track into the palm brush.
What is this joy? That no animal
falters, but knows what it must do?
That the snake has no blemish,
That the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings
in white star-silence? The llama
rests in dignity, the armadillo
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest.
Those who were sacred have remained so,
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence
of bronze, only the sight that saw it
faltered and turned from it.
An old joy returns in holy presence.
In this poem, we are invited into animal presence, a state of mind unconcerned with our body’s eyes and brain, striding lightly through the world, as demonstrated by the armadillo, trotting along his way, insouciantly, meaning with light-hearted unconcern, echoing the French phrase, sans souci, without a care.
Seeing like an animal, coming into animal presence, is an excellent analogy for our capacity to let go of our small body self seeing dark shadows, and embracing our Self as we were created by God, seeing only Its light reflection as we walk through the world, and in this state of mind, we are insouciant.
The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One. W-p1.92.9
Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, the gods immediately placed his or her heart in one pan of a set of scales. In the other pan was a feather. If there was imbalance, if the heart of the deceased weighed more than the feather, he or she was denied admittance to the after world. Only the lighthearted were deemed advanced enough to merit immortality.
We know, of course, that we are immortal beings, God's Creations, having never left Heaven; we only think we did; however, the analogy of a light heart weighing no more than a feather is a powerful image.
And most importantly, as my unfolding day demonstrates, when I am in this feathery state of mind, I am receptive, receptive to the Holy Spirit, God's Voice speaking to me all through the day. Lesson 49
Your ideas of what seeing means is tied in with the body and its eyes and the brain.
You also believe the body's brain can think. If you but understood the nature of thought, you could but laugh at this insane idea. It is as if you thought you held the match that lights the sun and gives it all its warmth; or that you held the world within your hand, securely bound until you let it go. Yet this is no more foolish than to believe the body's eyes can see; the brain can think. W-p1.92. 1:3,5, 2
Later in the morning, I was leafing through a magazine, The Sun, and I came across this passage by Lewis Thomas(1913-1993 ), the biologist who wrote Lives of a Cell.
We are perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal. We worry away our lives, fearing the future, discontent with the present, unable to take in the idea of dying, unable to sit still.
His phrase, worrying animal reminded me of this wonderful poem by Denise Levertov (1923-1997), Come Into Animal Presence.
Come into animal presence.
No man is so guileless as
the serpent. The lonely white rabbit on the roof is a star
twitching its ears at the rain.
The llama intricately
folding its hind legs to be seated
not disdains but mildly
disregards human approval.
What joy when the insouciant
armadillo glances at us and doesn't
quicken his trotting
across the track into the palm brush.
What is this joy? That no animal
falters, but knows what it must do?
That the snake has no blemish,
That the rabbit inspects his strange surroundings
in white star-silence? The llama
rests in dignity, the armadillo
has some intention to pursue in the palm-forest.
Those who were sacred have remained so,
holiness does not dissolve, it is a presence
of bronze, only the sight that saw it
faltered and turned from it.
An old joy returns in holy presence.
In this poem, we are invited into animal presence, a state of mind unconcerned with our body’s eyes and brain, striding lightly through the world, as demonstrated by the armadillo, trotting along his way, insouciantly, meaning with light-hearted unconcern, echoing the French phrase, sans souci, without a care.
Seeing like an animal, coming into animal presence, is an excellent analogy for our capacity to let go of our small body self seeing dark shadows, and embracing our Self as we were created by God, seeing only Its light reflection as we walk through the world, and in this state of mind, we are insouciant.
The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body's eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One. W-p1.92.9
Ancient Egyptians believed that when a person died, the gods immediately placed his or her heart in one pan of a set of scales. In the other pan was a feather. If there was imbalance, if the heart of the deceased weighed more than the feather, he or she was denied admittance to the after world. Only the lighthearted were deemed advanced enough to merit immortality.
We know, of course, that we are immortal beings, God's Creations, having never left Heaven; we only think we did; however, the analogy of a light heart weighing no more than a feather is a powerful image.
And most importantly, as my unfolding day demonstrates, when I am in this feathery state of mind, I am receptive, receptive to the Holy Spirit, God's Voice speaking to me all through the day. Lesson 49
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
An Upset Can be a Set Up for the Action of Forgiveness
Yesterday morning, a person said something to me that made me so angry, so upset.
I was livid. Seething. Pissed off. Grievous. My buttons were pushed.
I wanted to take him out, and I don’t mean, join him in peace and go Home; I mean I had fantasies of kicking his ass.
For a moment, years of mind training went out the window.
And the day went on. I played it over in my mind. I focused on my breathing. I asked for help.
This morning, I woke up and with great gratitude read the perfect Lesson in A Course in Miracles for my recovery from my insanity, Lesson 78, Let miracles replace all grievances.
Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead. W-p1.78.1
I began to breathe easier.
We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. 4:4
You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. 5:1
That was easy.
And then, earnestly, I said to myself:
Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him. 7:3
Ah, yes, it is working, a dark cloud of bitterness is passing away.
The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Him will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. 8:4-7
And it becomes increasingly clear to me that in every moment, I decide to be aware of either my conflicts or my peace. It is always my choice. Why would I allow “this” to replace the peace of God. “This” is of my own making, and I can choose to let it go.
Duh. Why would I ever choose not to be peaceful?
Now, I realize that not only does the Holy Spirit answer our prayers with just the right thought at just the right time, the Holy Spirit also sets up apparently “negative” situations that can provide an opportunity for forgiveness and growth.
You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved. 8:8
This is how I experience this quotation from the Lesson:
As I earnestly asked for help and did the Lesson, I allowed the Holy Spirit to give “him” the perfect role, just as the Holy Spirit fulfilled the role given Him by God, so that I might be saved from my thoughts that have no source in Reality, and experience the peace of God.
This afternoon, I saw “him” at a distance, and I was amazed that I felt no twinge of a grievance. It was over. He is, indeed, my savior.
I was livid. Seething. Pissed off. Grievous. My buttons were pushed.
I wanted to take him out, and I don’t mean, join him in peace and go Home; I mean I had fantasies of kicking his ass.
For a moment, years of mind training went out the window.
And the day went on. I played it over in my mind. I focused on my breathing. I asked for help.
This morning, I woke up and with great gratitude read the perfect Lesson in A Course in Miracles for my recovery from my insanity, Lesson 78, Let miracles replace all grievances.
Perhaps it is not yet quite clear to you that each decision that you make is one between a grievance and a miracle. Each grievance stands like a dark shield of hate before the miracle it would conceal. And as you raise it up before your eyes, you will not see the miracle beyond. Yet all the while it waits for you in light, but you behold your grievances instead. W-p1.78.1
I began to breathe easier.
We will select one person you have used as target for your grievances, and lay the grievances aside and look at him. 4:4
You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already. 5:1
That was easy.
And then, earnestly, I said to myself:
Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him. 7:3
Ah, yes, it is working, a dark cloud of bitterness is passing away.
The Holy Spirit leans from him to you, seeing no separation in God's Son. And what you see through Him will free you both. Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior. No dark grievances obscure the sight of him. 8:4-7
And it becomes increasingly clear to me that in every moment, I decide to be aware of either my conflicts or my peace. It is always my choice. Why would I allow “this” to replace the peace of God. “This” is of my own making, and I can choose to let it go.
Duh. Why would I ever choose not to be peaceful?
Now, I realize that not only does the Holy Spirit answer our prayers with just the right thought at just the right time, the Holy Spirit also sets up apparently “negative” situations that can provide an opportunity for forgiveness and growth.
You have allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved. 8:8
This is how I experience this quotation from the Lesson:
As I earnestly asked for help and did the Lesson, I allowed the Holy Spirit to give “him” the perfect role, just as the Holy Spirit fulfilled the role given Him by God, so that I might be saved from my thoughts that have no source in Reality, and experience the peace of God.
This afternoon, I saw “him” at a distance, and I was amazed that I felt no twinge of a grievance. It was over. He is, indeed, my savior.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Me, My Self, and I: Learning to be in the Right Part of my Mind
Little did I know, those many years ago, walking around the playground at my one-room schoolhouse, a little boy, chanting, “Me, my Self , and I,” that I was laying out the typography of my tripartite mind. It took me much too long to come to understand that I had spent a good part of my life knowing full well only one part of my mind, “Me,” the ego, thereby blocking my awareness of my “Self,” not realizing that “I,” the decision-maker, was automatically, habitually, in alliance with “Me,” rather than in union with my “Self.”
Thank God all that changed when I came across A Course in Miracles, and began to undergo the mind training so superbly set out by Jesus.
This all came to mind a few days ago when I did one of my favorite Lessons, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. This Lesson, like all the Lessons and the Text, is a reminder for me to pay very close attention to pronoun references. For example, look at the beginning of the Lesson.
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
There… whether you are aware of it or not. The pronoun reference for you is the mechanism of decision. Jesus is addressing “I,” the decision maker with the pronoun “you.”
This “You” is always deciding between allying with the “Me,” the ego, or uniting with the “Self,” I am one Self, united with my Creator. (Lesson 95, Title) Now I know that full well, but for far too long I did not realize that “I” had a choice.
The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. T-8-1V.5:5-8
And now, Dear Reader, look at how Jesus characterizes “Me,” my egotistic state of mind.
It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.
By contrast, here is a description of my “Self.”
The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.
The great value of looking very closely at the pronoun references is to slow down my mind, so that I am receptive to hear the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day. And now, let us proceed slowly.
“Me,” the egoistic state of mind.
The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind.
In the following passage, “I,” the mechanism of decision, is referred to as “you,” the implied you, as Jesus uses the Imperative form of the verb, i.e., do this, do that.
Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.
Finally, in reference to pronouns, Jesus is with us, right here, right now, helping us to hear God’s Voice, using the pronoun “We.”
We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today, and more if possible. We will try actually to hear God's Voice reminding you of Him and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest of thoughts with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with the Will of God. He wants you to hear His Voice. He gave It to you to be heard.
Jesus is addressing our mechanism of decision, "I," holding our hands, leading us to God, lovingly directing us with the Imperative, the implied "You."
Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God.
While these ideas were going through my mind in preparation for writing this essay, I came across this passage echoing these ideas from I AM THAT by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private, Take it to be a dream and be done with it. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.
I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imaginings. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world, common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all. (Sri Maharaj, I AM THAT, The Acorn Press: Durham, North Carolina, 1973, p. 17)
I wrote this draft yesterday, and today I heard this song, It’s Only a Paper Moon, and took it as an inspiration to include it in this essay. Here is the first stanza.
It's only a paper moon
sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Listening to this lyric, I automatically began to play with the pronoun references. What if believing in me referred to Jesus? In that moment “I” am uniting with my Self, the Christ within, and I am experiencing the peace of God. Now, when I look out at the world, I see a reflection of the peace of God, seeing through paper moons and cardboard seas, just as Sri Maharaj expresses it,
In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all.
And now let us continue reading the lyrics.
It's only a canvas sky
hanging over a muslin tree,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without your love,
It's a honky-tonk parade.
Without your love,
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.
Without experiencing the love and peace of God, we see only our own projections, throwing out thought/images from "Me," not experiencing the reflection of our Self.
It's a Barnum and Bailey world,
Just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without experiencing the love of God, we live in a circus.
The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of God.
W-p1. 53.4
And looking at this reflection is the meaning of forgiveness.
And now, I invite you to enjoy the song sung by Frank Sinatra.
Please click here.
Thank God all that changed when I came across A Course in Miracles, and began to undergo the mind training so superbly set out by Jesus.
This all came to mind a few days ago when I did one of my favorite Lessons, God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. This Lesson, like all the Lessons and the Text, is a reminder for me to pay very close attention to pronoun references. For example, look at the beginning of the Lesson.
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
There… whether you are aware of it or not. The pronoun reference for you is the mechanism of decision. Jesus is addressing “I,” the decision maker with the pronoun “you.”
This “You” is always deciding between allying with the “Me,” the ego, or uniting with the “Self,” I am one Self, united with my Creator. (Lesson 95, Title) Now I know that full well, but for far too long I did not realize that “I” had a choice.
The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. Your mind is the means by which you determine your own condition, because mind is the mechanism of decision. It is the power by which you separate or join, and experience pain or joy accordingly. T-8-1V.5:5-8
And now, Dear Reader, look at how Jesus characterizes “Me,” my egotistic state of mind.
It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.
By contrast, here is a description of my “Self.”
The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.
The great value of looking very closely at the pronoun references is to slow down my mind, so that I am receptive to hear the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day. And now, let us proceed slowly.
“Me,” the egoistic state of mind.
The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind.
In the following passage, “I,” the mechanism of decision, is referred to as “you,” the implied you, as Jesus uses the Imperative form of the verb, i.e., do this, do that.
Try today not to listen to it. Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.
Finally, in reference to pronouns, Jesus is with us, right here, right now, helping us to hear God’s Voice, using the pronoun “We.”
We will need at least four five-minute practice periods today, and more if possible. We will try actually to hear God's Voice reminding you of Him and of your Self. We will approach this happiest and holiest of thoughts with confidence, knowing that in doing so we are joining our will with the Will of God. He wants you to hear His Voice. He gave It to you to be heard.
Jesus is addressing our mechanism of decision, "I," holding our hands, leading us to God, lovingly directing us with the Imperative, the implied "You."
Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. Go past all the raucous shrieks and sick imaginings that cover your real thoughts and obscure your eternal link with God. Sink deep into the peace that waits for you beyond the frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds of this insane world. You do not live here. We are trying to reach your real home. We are trying to reach the place where you are truly welcome. We are trying to reach God.
While these ideas were going through my mind in preparation for writing this essay, I came across this passage echoing these ideas from I AM THAT by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.
The world you can perceive is a very small world indeed. And it is entirely private, Take it to be a dream and be done with it. Your world is mind-made, subjective, enclosed within the mind, fragmentary, temporary, personal, hanging on the thread of memory.
I live in a world of realities, while yours is of imaginings. Your world is personal, private, unshareable, intimately your own. Nobody can enter it, see as you see, hear as you hear, feel your emotions and think your thoughts. In your world you are truly alone, enclosed in your ever-changing dream, which you take for life. My world is an open world, common to all, accessible to all. In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all. (Sri Maharaj, I AM THAT, The Acorn Press: Durham, North Carolina, 1973, p. 17)
I wrote this draft yesterday, and today I heard this song, It’s Only a Paper Moon, and took it as an inspiration to include it in this essay. Here is the first stanza.
It's only a paper moon
sailing over a cardboard sea,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Listening to this lyric, I automatically began to play with the pronoun references. What if believing in me referred to Jesus? In that moment “I” am uniting with my Self, the Christ within, and I am experiencing the peace of God. Now, when I look out at the world, I see a reflection of the peace of God, seeing through paper moons and cardboard seas, just as Sri Maharaj expresses it,
In my world there is community insight, love, real quality; the individual is the total, the totality—in the individual. All are one and the One is all.
And now let us continue reading the lyrics.
It's only a canvas sky
hanging over a muslin tree,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without your love,
It's a honky-tonk parade.
Without your love,
It's a melody played in a penny arcade.
Without experiencing the love and peace of God, we see only our own projections, throwing out thought/images from "Me," not experiencing the reflection of our Self.
It's a Barnum and Bailey world,
Just as phony as it can be,
But it wouldn't be make believe
If you believed in me.
Without experiencing the love of God, we live in a circus.
The world I see holds my fearful self-image in place, and guarantees its continuance. While I see the world as I see it now, truth cannot enter my awareness. I would let the door behind this world be opened for me, that I may look past it to the world that reflects the Love of God.
W-p1. 53.4
And looking at this reflection is the meaning of forgiveness.
And now, I invite you to enjoy the song sung by Frank Sinatra.
Please click here.
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Setting the Grounding Line is an Act of Forgiveness
Since I am totally grounded in A Course in Miracles, I am always fascinated to come across writing that expresses the principles of the Course, using a different set of metaphors. Lately, I have been totally immersed the work of Jim Self. In his book, The Shift, he demonstrates how we are shifting from the third-dimension into the fourth and fifth dimensions.
The transformation that is occurring within us is shifting our thoughts and beliefs, and changing the ways in which we experience the world around us. Until now, most of us have measured ourselves by the outside world. Our beliefs about how we look, what is acceptable, what we think, and how we act have all been influenced and established by the third-dimensional world outside ourselves.
Our thoughts create our beliefs, our beliefs create our habits and our habits create our lives. Our beliefs then connect the thoughts that run through our experiences, forming our conclusions. However, many of the thoughts that we think and the beliefs that we hold are actually not our own thoughts or beliefs; they were given to us by mom, dad, teacher, minister and the third-dimensional reality outside of our-selves. It’s not that mom and dad or anyone else around us set out deliberately to mislead us; they were simply passing on what their parents and their parent’s parents (along with most of the rest of society) had taught them to accept as the “truth.” Jim Self, The Shift, (Mastering Alchemy, 2009), pp. 13-14.
In common parlance, "Your father was a liar from the beginning."
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos. T-In.21.1
Our mind, healed and holy, is our inner guidance system.
There are three main characteristics of the third dimension. The first is the Law of Attraction.
If you believe something is or you believe some-thing is not, the Law of Attraction will respond accordingly. If you amplify your thoughts or beliefs with a charge of emotion, the Law of Attraction will provide you with more of the same in a quicker, fuller manner. What you put your attention on with a charged emotion is what you will receive. Absolutely guaranteed.
The sick attraction of guilt must be recognised for what it is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it, to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes has value. T-15.Vll.3:1-3
The second characteristics is time.
Most of humanity has been taught and believes that time is fixed and linear - past, present, future, and then you die. Although this is the generally accepted belief, it is incorrect. In the third-dimension time operates as a loop. It consists of a flow of thoughts and experiences that we label positive or negative. Either we embrace these experiences and hope they happen again or we resist them and hope they do not. To keep it simple, we take our past experiences and project them into our future and then step into that experience in a future-present-time moment to feel it all over again in a different size, shape or color.
I see only the past. Lesson 7, Title.
And the third is duality.
As we began to experience third-dimensional consciousness, we added into duality the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, and should and should not. We learned “us and them” and we learned to resist “them.” These concepts of judgment, separation, good and bad, right and wrong and should/should not created a rigid, unforgiving structure that does not allow for flexibility or choice. This third-dimensional belief system bound our thoughts and emotions, creating extreme beliefs in “never” and “always”; rigid thought forms with very little opportunity for change, ease or well-being. In this rigid belief system of heavy thought-form, fear and pain were anchored. (The Shift, pp. 18-22)
In His Course, Jesus begins His Lessons by helping us learn to undo these conditioned, habitual thought patterns. Just look at the titles of His first 7 Lessons.
1. Nothing I see means anything.
2. I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.
3. I do not understand anything I see.
4. These thoughts do not mean anything.
5. I am never upset for the reason I think.
6. I am upset because I see something that is not there.
7. I see only the past.
Jesus teaches that the only way out of this habit of thinking is forgiveness.
Similarly, in their follow up book, Spirit Matters, Down to Earth Tools for a Spirited Life, Jim Self and Roxane Burnett, introduce 16 Energy Tools to facilitate this shift, this action of forgiveness, and the one I find most useful in experiencing forgiveness is the Grounding Line.
Grounding is not a thought; it is an action, a tool to dissipate noisy thoughts, anxiety and undesirable emotions that run through our bodies. From my perspective, this tool is the most valuable.
And Dear Reader, I urge you to practice it, now.
Energy Tool #1
Grounding Line
1. Recognize when your mind is being bombarded with uncomfortable thoughts. This may sound like an obvious first step, but most people do not pay attention to what is going in their heads and continue to be affected by the chatter. There is a one-to-one relationship between mind and body, balance and imbalance. When the mind is noisy or uncertain, the body is tight and anxious.
2. Find a quiet, undisturbed place to sit down for a few moments.
3. Breathe. A simple, deep breath will begin to effortlessly change direction of your thoughts. Your body will begin to quiet. Intrusive thoughts will begin to lose their grip on you.
4. Bring your attention to the lowest tip of your spine (your coccyx bone). Now is the time to pretend, imagine or make-believe as you did when you were a child. Imagine a line connecting the lower tip of your spine to the center of the earth (it’s not that far away). This
line could be a beam of light, a tree trunk, a chain, a rope or any image that you find amusing.
5. Strongly secure the Grounding Line at both ends. You may visualize welding it, stapling it, tying it or any other method of attaching.
6. Now be aware of your feet on the ground. Create a sensation that your feet are cemented to the earth. Feel connected to the earth through your feet and the Grounding Line. Take a couple of breaths. Notice if you have a sense of feeling solid, or taller, or more certain about yourself. Notice if your awareness has become more defined.
7. Pretend to widen your Grounding Line to a diameter of six to nine inches. You are creating a pathway through which the noise will soon be leaving.
8. Give the instruction to this Grounding Line to become magnetic. You also might pretend there is a switch or handle near the lower tip of your spine that when flipped, will activate the line. When activated, the Grounding Line will automatically begin to magnetically attract the unpleasant thoughts, physical sensations and emotions and draw them down, out of your space, into the earth. This step works best when you don’t try to make it happen. Rather, just allow it to do its job.
9. As you notice specific people, thoughts and concerns passing through your mind, simply grab them with your imaginary hand and toss them down your Grounding Line. These don’t belong to you and they will be much happier in their own heads. Jim Self, Roxane Burnett, Spirit Matters: Down to Earth Tools for a Spiritual Life, (Tree of Life Press, 2008), pp. 21-22.
And now you can see why I gave this essay this title:
Setting the Grounding Line is an Act of Forgiveness; this action is the heart of the Course.
Forgiveness is only experienced now, in a still mind.
Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away. T-p1.31.12
It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation. W-62.1
By setting the Grounding Line, we let go of all thoughts of attack arising and falling in our brains, allowing these thoughts to be replaced, enabling us to come into the awareness of the peace and love of God.
Remember that in every attack you call upon your own weakness, while each time you forgive you call upon the strength of Christ in you. Do you not then begin to understand what forgiveness will do for you? It will remove all sense of weakness, strain and fatigue from your mind. It will take away all fear and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness. W-62.3
As often as I can remember, I simply set my Grounding Line as my day unfolds, and my days are becoming increasingly peaceful, no matter what seems to be going on.
I became totally immersed in these books, and only at the end of the second book, did I come across the source of Jim Self’s knowledge.
Since childhood, Jim has retained a conscious awareness and ability to recall his experiences within the sleep state. Over the last ten years, this awareness has expanded into relationships
with the Archangels, Ascended Masters and Teachers of Light. (Spirit Matters, p. 163)
And finally, here is Jesus encouraging us to set the Grounding Line.
Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is;
all concepts you have learned about the world;
all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad,
of every thought it judges worthy, and
all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you
one thought the past has taught, nor one belief
you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God. W-189.7
The transformation that is occurring within us is shifting our thoughts and beliefs, and changing the ways in which we experience the world around us. Until now, most of us have measured ourselves by the outside world. Our beliefs about how we look, what is acceptable, what we think, and how we act have all been influenced and established by the third-dimensional world outside ourselves.
Our thoughts create our beliefs, our beliefs create our habits and our habits create our lives. Our beliefs then connect the thoughts that run through our experiences, forming our conclusions. However, many of the thoughts that we think and the beliefs that we hold are actually not our own thoughts or beliefs; they were given to us by mom, dad, teacher, minister and the third-dimensional reality outside of our-selves. It’s not that mom and dad or anyone else around us set out deliberately to mislead us; they were simply passing on what their parents and their parent’s parents (along with most of the rest of society) had taught them to accept as the “truth.” Jim Self, The Shift, (Mastering Alchemy, 2009), pp. 13-14.
In common parlance, "Your father was a liar from the beginning."
Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it, nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind, the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world. Perception is a result and not a cause. And that is why order of difficulty in miracles is meaningless. Everything looked upon with vision is healed and holy. Nothing perceived without it means anything. And where there is no meaning, there is chaos. T-In.21.1
Our mind, healed and holy, is our inner guidance system.
There are three main characteristics of the third dimension. The first is the Law of Attraction.
If you believe something is or you believe some-thing is not, the Law of Attraction will respond accordingly. If you amplify your thoughts or beliefs with a charge of emotion, the Law of Attraction will provide you with more of the same in a quicker, fuller manner. What you put your attention on with a charged emotion is what you will receive. Absolutely guaranteed.
The sick attraction of guilt must be recognised for what it is. For having been made real to you, it is essential to look at it clearly, and by withdrawing your investment in it, to learn to let it go. No one would choose to let go what he believes has value. T-15.Vll.3:1-3
The second characteristics is time.
Most of humanity has been taught and believes that time is fixed and linear - past, present, future, and then you die. Although this is the generally accepted belief, it is incorrect. In the third-dimension time operates as a loop. It consists of a flow of thoughts and experiences that we label positive or negative. Either we embrace these experiences and hope they happen again or we resist them and hope they do not. To keep it simple, we take our past experiences and project them into our future and then step into that experience in a future-present-time moment to feel it all over again in a different size, shape or color.
I see only the past. Lesson 7, Title.
And the third is duality.
As we began to experience third-dimensional consciousness, we added into duality the concepts of right and wrong, good and bad, and should and should not. We learned “us and them” and we learned to resist “them.” These concepts of judgment, separation, good and bad, right and wrong and should/should not created a rigid, unforgiving structure that does not allow for flexibility or choice. This third-dimensional belief system bound our thoughts and emotions, creating extreme beliefs in “never” and “always”; rigid thought forms with very little opportunity for change, ease or well-being. In this rigid belief system of heavy thought-form, fear and pain were anchored. (The Shift, pp. 18-22)
In His Course, Jesus begins His Lessons by helping us learn to undo these conditioned, habitual thought patterns. Just look at the titles of His first 7 Lessons.
1. Nothing I see means anything.
2. I have given everything I see all the meaning it has for me.
3. I do not understand anything I see.
4. These thoughts do not mean anything.
5. I am never upset for the reason I think.
6. I am upset because I see something that is not there.
7. I see only the past.
Jesus teaches that the only way out of this habit of thinking is forgiveness.
Similarly, in their follow up book, Spirit Matters, Down to Earth Tools for a Spirited Life, Jim Self and Roxane Burnett, introduce 16 Energy Tools to facilitate this shift, this action of forgiveness, and the one I find most useful in experiencing forgiveness is the Grounding Line.
Grounding is not a thought; it is an action, a tool to dissipate noisy thoughts, anxiety and undesirable emotions that run through our bodies. From my perspective, this tool is the most valuable.
And Dear Reader, I urge you to practice it, now.
Energy Tool #1
Grounding Line
1. Recognize when your mind is being bombarded with uncomfortable thoughts. This may sound like an obvious first step, but most people do not pay attention to what is going in their heads and continue to be affected by the chatter. There is a one-to-one relationship between mind and body, balance and imbalance. When the mind is noisy or uncertain, the body is tight and anxious.
2. Find a quiet, undisturbed place to sit down for a few moments.
3. Breathe. A simple, deep breath will begin to effortlessly change direction of your thoughts. Your body will begin to quiet. Intrusive thoughts will begin to lose their grip on you.
4. Bring your attention to the lowest tip of your spine (your coccyx bone). Now is the time to pretend, imagine or make-believe as you did when you were a child. Imagine a line connecting the lower tip of your spine to the center of the earth (it’s not that far away). This
line could be a beam of light, a tree trunk, a chain, a rope or any image that you find amusing.
5. Strongly secure the Grounding Line at both ends. You may visualize welding it, stapling it, tying it or any other method of attaching.
6. Now be aware of your feet on the ground. Create a sensation that your feet are cemented to the earth. Feel connected to the earth through your feet and the Grounding Line. Take a couple of breaths. Notice if you have a sense of feeling solid, or taller, or more certain about yourself. Notice if your awareness has become more defined.
7. Pretend to widen your Grounding Line to a diameter of six to nine inches. You are creating a pathway through which the noise will soon be leaving.
8. Give the instruction to this Grounding Line to become magnetic. You also might pretend there is a switch or handle near the lower tip of your spine that when flipped, will activate the line. When activated, the Grounding Line will automatically begin to magnetically attract the unpleasant thoughts, physical sensations and emotions and draw them down, out of your space, into the earth. This step works best when you don’t try to make it happen. Rather, just allow it to do its job.
9. As you notice specific people, thoughts and concerns passing through your mind, simply grab them with your imaginary hand and toss them down your Grounding Line. These don’t belong to you and they will be much happier in their own heads. Jim Self, Roxane Burnett, Spirit Matters: Down to Earth Tools for a Spiritual Life, (Tree of Life Press, 2008), pp. 21-22.
And now you can see why I gave this essay this title:
Setting the Grounding Line is an Act of Forgiveness; this action is the heart of the Course.
Forgiveness is only experienced now, in a still mind.
Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away. T-p1.31.12
It is your forgiveness that will bring the world of darkness to the light. It is your forgiveness that lets you recognize the light in which you see. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. Therefore, in your forgiveness lies your salvation. W-62.1
By setting the Grounding Line, we let go of all thoughts of attack arising and falling in our brains, allowing these thoughts to be replaced, enabling us to come into the awareness of the peace and love of God.
Remember that in every attack you call upon your own weakness, while each time you forgive you call upon the strength of Christ in you. Do you not then begin to understand what forgiveness will do for you? It will remove all sense of weakness, strain and fatigue from your mind. It will take away all fear and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness. W-62.3
As often as I can remember, I simply set my Grounding Line as my day unfolds, and my days are becoming increasingly peaceful, no matter what seems to be going on.
I became totally immersed in these books, and only at the end of the second book, did I come across the source of Jim Self’s knowledge.
Since childhood, Jim has retained a conscious awareness and ability to recall his experiences within the sleep state. Over the last ten years, this awareness has expanded into relationships
with the Archangels, Ascended Masters and Teachers of Light. (Spirit Matters, p. 163)
And finally, here is Jesus encouraging us to set the Grounding Line.
Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside
all thoughts of what you are and what God is;
all concepts you have learned about the world;
all images you hold about yourself.
Empty your mind of everything it thinks
is either true or false, or good or bad,
of every thought it judges worthy, and
all the ideas of which it is ashamed.
Hold onto nothing. Do not bring with you
one thought the past has taught, nor one belief
you ever learned before from anything.
Forget this world, forget this course, and come
with wholly empty hands unto your God. W-189.7
Sunday, November 27, 2011
What I Have Come to Know: A Distillation
A couple of days before Thanksgiving, I was sitting on the couch in our Sun Room early in the morning, reading the day’s Lesson 325, All things I think I see reflect ideas, enjoying the warmth of the wood-burning stove and watching the birds at our feeders, and the thought came in, “What does it all boil down to, after all these years of reading A Course in Miracles, learning from Master Teacher at Endeavor Academy, reading the New Testament, and going to Sessions almost daily at the Academy? What, exactly, is the distillate from the heat of this transformative process?
And then these words and sentences came into my mind, and I grabbed my notebook and scribbled them down.
Awareness
I am seeing either through the body’s eyes, or through the eyes of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the bridge.
Forgiveness
Receptivity
God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49
Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?
Help
Intention
Gratitude
Then it came to me that Lesson 325 provided a perfect context for expressing this transformative distillation.
The question is always, just where is my awareness. This Lesson makes it clear right away, that my salvation is my awareness of the source of my ideas.
All things I think I see reflect ideas. Lesson 325
This is salvation's keynote: What I see
reflects a process in my mind, which starts
with my idea of what I want.
I am seeing either through the body’s eyes. . .and now the Lesson makes it clear the process I engage in when I am seeing through the body’s eyes and brain.
From there,
the mind makes up an image of the thing
the mind desires, judges valuable,
and therefore seeks to find. These images
are then projected outward, looked upon,
esteemed as real and guarded as one's own.
From insane wishes comes an insane world.
From judgment comes a world condemned.
What I am seeing through the body’s eyes is a projection of what is in my mind, first; I am, literally, “throwing” out of my mind images, and then I “catch” them, thinking they are in the world, first. Not only are they second, but I initially judged the image, choosing this one over that one. Not recognizing the source of the image in my mind is insanity.
. . .or through the eyes of Christ.
And from
forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God,
to offer him a kindly home where he
can rest a while before he journeys on,
and help his brothers walk ahead with him,
and find the way to Heaven and to God.
When I am aware that I am seeing my insane projections, I ask for help, asking the Holy Spirit to bridge the gap between my world and the Real world.
With His strength, I am able to forgive, to relinquish, my insane thoughts that have no source in reality, and my dream vanishes, to be replaced by seeing through the eyes of Christ. This is a reflection of the peace of mind I am now experiencing.
Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth,
and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams.
Let me behold what only Yours reflect,
for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.
And now in this peaceful state, I am receptive to the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day.
For me, this is absolute key. When I manage to remember to ask for help to step back and be aware of God’s Voice, I trust that I will receive His Thoughts.
Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?
The root meaning of conduct is crucial here. It comes from the Latin con, “with” and ducere, “to lead.” I am being led through the world by listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit.
And now I know what my intention is. Intention comes from the Latin intendere, meaning “ to stretch towards.” I ask for help in a peaceful, receptive state of mind, stretching upwards to receive guidance coming down from the Holy Spirit.
And now I experience gratitude, a warmth in my chest, and I am exceedingly receptive to the Holy Spirit's intention.
And that is exactly what happened a little while ago when I began receiving thoughts about this distillate and grabbed my notebook and began scribbling down these thoughts coming into my mind.
And now that my intention is realized and honored, taking this particular form, I can stop writing, right now.
And then these words and sentences came into my mind, and I grabbed my notebook and scribbled them down.
* * *
Awareness
I am seeing either through the body’s eyes, or through the eyes of Christ.
The Holy Spirit is the bridge.
Forgiveness
Receptivity
God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. Lesson 49
Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?
Help
Intention
Gratitude
* * *
Then it came to me that Lesson 325 provided a perfect context for expressing this transformative distillation.
The question is always, just where is my awareness. This Lesson makes it clear right away, that my salvation is my awareness of the source of my ideas.
All things I think I see reflect ideas. Lesson 325
This is salvation's keynote: What I see
reflects a process in my mind, which starts
with my idea of what I want.
I am seeing either through the body’s eyes. . .and now the Lesson makes it clear the process I engage in when I am seeing through the body’s eyes and brain.
From there,
the mind makes up an image of the thing
the mind desires, judges valuable,
and therefore seeks to find. These images
are then projected outward, looked upon,
esteemed as real and guarded as one's own.
From insane wishes comes an insane world.
From judgment comes a world condemned.
What I am seeing through the body’s eyes is a projection of what is in my mind, first; I am, literally, “throwing” out of my mind images, and then I “catch” them, thinking they are in the world, first. Not only are they second, but I initially judged the image, choosing this one over that one. Not recognizing the source of the image in my mind is insanity.
. . .or through the eyes of Christ.
And from
forgiving thoughts a gentle world comes forth,
with mercy for the holy Son of God,
to offer him a kindly home where he
can rest a while before he journeys on,
and help his brothers walk ahead with him,
and find the way to Heaven and to God.
When I am aware that I am seeing my insane projections, I ask for help, asking the Holy Spirit to bridge the gap between my world and the Real world.
With His strength, I am able to forgive, to relinquish, my insane thoughts that have no source in reality, and my dream vanishes, to be replaced by seeing through the eyes of Christ. This is a reflection of the peace of mind I am now experiencing.
Our Father, Your ideas reflect the truth,
and mine apart from Yours but make up dreams.
Let me behold what only Yours reflect,
for Yours and Yours alone establish truth.
And now in this peaceful state, I am receptive to the Holy Spirit, the Voice for God, speaking to me all through the day.
For me, this is absolute key. When I manage to remember to ask for help to step back and be aware of God’s Voice, I trust that I will receive His Thoughts.
Since I am in the world, and not of the world, how do I conduct myself while I am walking in the world?
The root meaning of conduct is crucial here. It comes from the Latin con, “with” and ducere, “to lead.” I am being led through the world by listening to the Voice of the Holy Spirit.
And now I know what my intention is. Intention comes from the Latin intendere, meaning “ to stretch towards.” I ask for help in a peaceful, receptive state of mind, stretching upwards to receive guidance coming down from the Holy Spirit.
And now I experience gratitude, a warmth in my chest, and I am exceedingly receptive to the Holy Spirit's intention.
And that is exactly what happened a little while ago when I began receiving thoughts about this distillate and grabbed my notebook and began scribbling down these thoughts coming into my mind.
And now that my intention is realized and honored, taking this particular form, I can stop writing, right now.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
We Do Not Forgive People "Out There;" We Forgive Thoughts In Our Minds
Recently, my friend, Pat Connor, came across a web site calling for papers for a Conference on this subject: Forgiveness, Probing the Boundaries. The Conference will be held at Mansfield College, Oxford, England, July 11-13, 2012.
The Conference organizers are calling for papers on Forgiveness. The abstracts for the papers are to be limited to 300 words, and they must be submitted by Friday, January 13, 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the Conference, a full draft of the paper must be submitted by Friday, May 11.
I am not sure that I want to prepare a paper to present at the Conference in England, but I like the challenge of capturing in 300 words, or less, what forgiveness means to me. Here is my writing exercise, weighing in at 281 words.
Forgiveness is an idea terribly misunderstood in this world. It usually takes the form of an individual saying to himself, “She wronged me, but I forgive her.” And in his "forgiveness," he feels superior. This is more like bargaining than forgiving; the wrong may be overlooked this time, but you owe me.
Forgiveness has nothing to do with another person "out there." Forgiveness is letting go of a thought in here, in the mind. Forgiveness is letting go of a thought/image projected outward. These thoughts are based on our individual judgments, stemming from our personal, past memories. A person standing next to you would see the situation differently. Forgiveness is liberation from these thoughts, these personal judgments.
That is why in The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus links trespassing to forgiveness. When I project my thought/images onto another, who is, in fact, the Christ, it is as if I am encroaching on His property, His Christhood.
Forgiveness is a shift from seeing thought/images through the eyes of the ego to seeing the reflection of an inner peace, seeing through the eyes of Christ. It is a shift from a state of mind of conflict, to a state of peace, a shift from seeing projected thought/images, to seeing a bright reflection of the Truth of what we are, the Christ.
Forgiveness is looking at your brother and saying to yourself, “Namaste, the Christ in me greets the Christ in you.”
And now I will walk into the world, inspired by this sentence from today’s Lesson in A Course in Miracles.
I have no purpose for today except
to look upon a liberated world,
set free from all the judgments I have made.
Lesson 312
The Conference organizers are calling for papers on Forgiveness. The abstracts for the papers are to be limited to 300 words, and they must be submitted by Friday, January 13, 2012. If an abstract is accepted for the Conference, a full draft of the paper must be submitted by Friday, May 11.
I am not sure that I want to prepare a paper to present at the Conference in England, but I like the challenge of capturing in 300 words, or less, what forgiveness means to me. Here is my writing exercise, weighing in at 281 words.
* * *
Forgiveness is an idea terribly misunderstood in this world. It usually takes the form of an individual saying to himself, “She wronged me, but I forgive her.” And in his "forgiveness," he feels superior. This is more like bargaining than forgiving; the wrong may be overlooked this time, but you owe me.
Forgiveness has nothing to do with another person "out there." Forgiveness is letting go of a thought in here, in the mind. Forgiveness is letting go of a thought/image projected outward. These thoughts are based on our individual judgments, stemming from our personal, past memories. A person standing next to you would see the situation differently. Forgiveness is liberation from these thoughts, these personal judgments.
That is why in The Lord’s Prayer, Jesus links trespassing to forgiveness. When I project my thought/images onto another, who is, in fact, the Christ, it is as if I am encroaching on His property, His Christhood.
Forgiveness is a shift from seeing thought/images through the eyes of the ego to seeing the reflection of an inner peace, seeing through the eyes of Christ. It is a shift from a state of mind of conflict, to a state of peace, a shift from seeing projected thought/images, to seeing a bright reflection of the Truth of what we are, the Christ.
Forgiveness is looking at your brother and saying to yourself, “Namaste, the Christ in me greets the Christ in you.”
And now I will walk into the world, inspired by this sentence from today’s Lesson in A Course in Miracles.
I have no purpose for today except
to look upon a liberated world,
set free from all the judgments I have made.
Lesson 312
Friday, September 30, 2011
A Sleeping Dream's Affirmative Message for my Waking Dream
A couple of nights ago, I had this dream:
I am dressed up in a black sport coat, button-down collar, blue shirt, no tie, and gray slacks. I am about to go on stage as a main character, but I realize I have not memorized any lines. I am familiar with the play, but I don't know my lines. I think that, perhaps, I could carry the script on stage, but that doesn't seem right.
I have been puzzled by this dream ever since, and when I mentioned it today, my wife, Christine, over lunch, she immediately said, "That's good. It means that now you are in the waking dream, and you don't have a script. You are open and receptive to be guided." That's it! She cut right to it. I realized that lately I have been walking around, saying to myself, "Just be present, ask for help, breathe, let go of thoughts about what to do, resist the temptation to plan, trusting that I will be guided."
And, of course, the Holy Spirit is always offering guidance, whispering to us, and it is just a matter of making a space in our minds to hear His Voice, and letting go of our script is the way to make that space.
Your healing Voice protects all things today,
and so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak and what to say to him,
what thoughts to think, what words to give the world.
W-p.ll.275.2:1-4
When I look back at my sleeping dream, I see now why I was not the least bit upset about not knowing my lines. I was surprised, curious, but not concerned about what would happen. That mirrors my state of mind, now. I am trusting that all is well, and that all will be well, as long as I let my script go.
What do your scripts reflect except your plans
for what the day should be? And thus you judge
disaster and success, advance, retreat,
and gain and loss. These judgements all are made
according to the roles the script assigns.
The fact they have no meaning in themselves
is demonstrated by the ease with which
these labels change with other judgements, made
on different aspects of experience.
T-30.Vlll.2:1-4
I remember that not long ago, I was sitting on the couch, looking out the window at the falling leaves, sinking into deep peace, and I said to myself as I was coming out of it, "This is all I have to do, be present, let it all go; that is my only function, remembering that I am in the world, and not of the world. " What a relief.
In my sleeping dream, the play is a good analogy for the illusory world. Being without a script in a play is analogous to not following the dictates of my ego voice in the illusion. This creates a space in my mind for receiving the Voice for God, letting go of the temptation to follow the voice of the ego.
It is most appropriate to end with excerpts from Lesson 49, God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
Here is whee my script comes in:
It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.
Help me hear the next part:
The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.
Script:
The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it.
The Holy Spirit:
Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.
W-p1.49.1,2
Now, listen up!
I am dressed up in a black sport coat, button-down collar, blue shirt, no tie, and gray slacks. I am about to go on stage as a main character, but I realize I have not memorized any lines. I am familiar with the play, but I don't know my lines. I think that, perhaps, I could carry the script on stage, but that doesn't seem right.
I have been puzzled by this dream ever since, and when I mentioned it today, my wife, Christine, over lunch, she immediately said, "That's good. It means that now you are in the waking dream, and you don't have a script. You are open and receptive to be guided." That's it! She cut right to it. I realized that lately I have been walking around, saying to myself, "Just be present, ask for help, breathe, let go of thoughts about what to do, resist the temptation to plan, trusting that I will be guided."
And, of course, the Holy Spirit is always offering guidance, whispering to us, and it is just a matter of making a space in our minds to hear His Voice, and letting go of our script is the way to make that space.
Your healing Voice protects all things today,
and so I leave all things to You. I need
be anxious over nothing. For Your Voice
will tell me what to do and where to go;
to whom to speak and what to say to him,
what thoughts to think, what words to give the world.
W-p.ll.275.2:1-4
When I look back at my sleeping dream, I see now why I was not the least bit upset about not knowing my lines. I was surprised, curious, but not concerned about what would happen. That mirrors my state of mind, now. I am trusting that all is well, and that all will be well, as long as I let my script go.
What do your scripts reflect except your plans
for what the day should be? And thus you judge
disaster and success, advance, retreat,
and gain and loss. These judgements all are made
according to the roles the script assigns.
The fact they have no meaning in themselves
is demonstrated by the ease with which
these labels change with other judgements, made
on different aspects of experience.
T-30.Vlll.2:1-4
I remember that not long ago, I was sitting on the couch, looking out the window at the falling leaves, sinking into deep peace, and I said to myself as I was coming out of it, "This is all I have to do, be present, let it all go; that is my only function, remembering that I am in the world, and not of the world. " What a relief.
In my sleeping dream, the play is a good analogy for the illusory world. Being without a script in a play is analogous to not following the dictates of my ego voice in the illusion. This creates a space in my mind for receiving the Voice for God, letting go of the temptation to follow the voice of the ego.
It is most appropriate to end with excerpts from Lesson 49, God's Voice speaks to me all through the day.
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
Here is whee my script comes in:
It is the other part of your mind that functions in the world and obeys the world's laws. It is this part that is constantly distracted, disorganized and highly uncertain.
Help me hear the next part:
The part that is listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is.
Script:
The other part is a wild illusion, frantic and distraught, but without reality of any kind. Try today not to listen to it.
The Holy Spirit:
Try to identify with the part of your mind where stillness and peace reign forever. Try to hear God's Voice call to you lovingly, reminding you that your Creator has not forgotten His Son.
W-p1.49.1,2
Now, listen up!
Friday, August 05, 2011
My Passion for Creative Writing: How and When it was Aroused in Me
In the preceding blog post (13 July 2011), I invited readers to participate in the upcoming event at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells, The Passion of Creative Mind, 16 September -25 September, 2011, particularly in the writing portion of the Event.
The invitation is to write about an extraordinary experience in your life when you were Touched by God.
Meanwhile, I have been conducting Writing Workshops with members of the Academy, helping them learn how to express themselves in the written word. This has been an extraordinary experience for me and for them. Their essays are coming in, and we are collecting them in a book that will be available during the Event.
The experience has been extraordinary for me because it has triggered memories of how and when I became passionate about creative writing.
I was as freshman at Kalamazoo College, a small, liberal arts school in Michigan, founded in 1833.
This is me in the fall of my freshman year.
I am scared. No one in my family had ever gone to college, and I did not know what to expect. Not only that, but the Chicago Tribune had recently reported that Kalamazoo College ranked in the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the nation whose graduates went on to earn MD’s, and I had absolutely no scientific aptitude.
In fact, my primary concern is how I will measure up as a football player, having already been practicing for two weeks before school started. Yet, between me and the practice field are courses, five of them:
The History of Western Civilization
Freshman Biology
Russian
Introduction to Art
Freshman Composition
I had no confidence. I remember walking into my room in Harmon Hall after the first week, my desk littered with five syllabi and textbooks and notebooks, and I was already hopelessly behind.
One day in The History of Western Civilization, Lester Start was talking about euthanasia, and I wrote in my notebook: “youth in Asia.”
And then Larry Barrett threw me a life line.
Twenty of us gathered in Dr. Laurence Barrett’s classroom in Bowen Hall for Freshman Comp. Larry Barrett. Ph.D., Princeton; special field of study: John Milton. He is sitting on his desk, cross-legged, making searing eye contact with each of us in turn. He has the haircut of the times, a short flat top, his sport coat is dusted with chalk, his shirt collar ends are pointing up, his tie is awry across his chest, and he holds forth in a gruff, but loving manner. I loved it that his vocabulary is occasionally laced with mild profanity, like damn, piss and shit.
Here is the context for my inspiration. The standing assignment is this: Every two weeks, write an essay. No assigned topic. Write about what is important to you. It reminds me now of the opening stanza from Langston Hughes’ poem, Theme for English B.
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
The way Larry handled these tender pages was inspired and inspiring. He asked us to type our essays on mimeograph masters. He would then run them off, each one identified with a number instead of a name. He handed out these precious packets, and he lovingly taught us how to read and write, using our own writing. Over the course of the semester, in spite of the anonymity of the numbers rather than our names, we began to recognize each others’ distinctive writing voices that were slowly developing.
So, one day, while reading through a packet, Larry came to my essay. He read the first three paragraphs without stopping for a comment, or correction. Then he looked up and said, “Do you know what that means? You bet your bootstraps you know what that means.” He went on to say that it was a model of coherence.
Well, that was it, and that was everything.
At that moment, I breathed in the divine, and that is the root meaning of the word inspiration, from the Latin, inspirare.
After class, I walked out of Bowen Hall, headed across the quad, and resolutely said to myself, “If I can write for Larry Barrett, I can write for anybody.”
I remembered a line we had read from E. B. White’s 1947 essay, The Second Tree from the Corner:
In the jungle of my fear I glimpsed the flashy tail feathers of the bird courage.
In this case, it was confidence, and this gave me courage for the days and nights ahead.
Soon after reading my paper in class, Larry called me into his office about another essay, one whose topic was, of all things, the lack of school spirit. I had written a sentence something like, “On a Saturday afternoon, instead of going to the football game, pallid science majors head across the quad to Upton Hall, the science building, with slide rules strapped to their sides.” He read that sentence aloud, then he said. “Give me some more of that.” I began seeing images in my mind, and immediately turned them into sentences, as he nodded in approval.
Then it happened again. Breathing in the divine. I got it that writing is simply paying attention to the first thoughts going through your mind, trusting them, and turning them into sentences. Writing is standing back, listening, and then stepping up. It is not just the province of dead white men in anthologies. You and I can write, right now.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
In the fall of 2002, Christine and I had been at the Academy for five years. One day I received a call from a woman who said she was Larry Barrett’s daughter, that he had recently died, and that in going through his papers she came across this note:
“Ask Ray Comeau to give my eulogy.”
A few days later, I stood at the lectern of Stetson Chapel that crested a small hill, crowning the beautiful campus of Kalamazoo College, reading his eulogy. As I was coming to the end of my reading, I felt an insertion of Light, and I stepped aside from the lectern and said, “Larry didn’t really go anywhere, he is with us now in spirit.”
After that luminous moment in the Chapel, I stepped back behind the lectern and finished my eulogy.
What Larry extended to me as a freshman, and what he is extending to us in this moment, is Love and Love is Eternal. His Love is in this room at this time. His loving presence is in our thoughts. In this respect, there is no death. There is only the peace of God. The Son of God is free and loving and eternal.
Hold Larry in your thoughts, as I read this sonnet from A Course in Miracles, the incomparable modern day scripture:
The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees
are budding now, and birds have come to live
within their branches. Earth is being born
again in new perspective. Night has gone,
and we have come together in the light.
From here we give peace to the world,
for it is here peace was received.
The song of our rejoicing is the call
to all the world that Love is eternal,
that time is almost over, and God’s Son
has but an instant more to wait until
His Father is remembered, dreams are done,
eternity has shined away the world,
and only heaven now exists at all.
Incidentally, the motto for Kalamazoo College, adorning its walls and its letterhead, is this Latin word:
Luxesto.
Let there be Light.
Christine and I returned to the Academy, and as we walked in for Session on a Monday morning, we saw that Dear One was teaching in the Reading room. When he saw me enter, he said, “Did you know I was there?”
I realized, then, that it was his presence that filled the Chapel with Light, and I cracked up saying, “Yes,” and he rolled back on the couch, his feet came up, cycling in the air, as he laughed uproariously.
Thank you, Larry. Thank you, Dear One. Thank you, Father.
The invitation is to write about an extraordinary experience in your life when you were Touched by God.
Meanwhile, I have been conducting Writing Workshops with members of the Academy, helping them learn how to express themselves in the written word. This has been an extraordinary experience for me and for them. Their essays are coming in, and we are collecting them in a book that will be available during the Event.
The experience has been extraordinary for me because it has triggered memories of how and when I became passionate about creative writing.
* * *
I was as freshman at Kalamazoo College, a small, liberal arts school in Michigan, founded in 1833.
This is me in the fall of my freshman year.
I am scared. No one in my family had ever gone to college, and I did not know what to expect. Not only that, but the Chicago Tribune had recently reported that Kalamazoo College ranked in the top 10 liberal arts colleges in the nation whose graduates went on to earn MD’s, and I had absolutely no scientific aptitude.
In fact, my primary concern is how I will measure up as a football player, having already been practicing for two weeks before school started. Yet, between me and the practice field are courses, five of them:
The History of Western Civilization
Freshman Biology
Russian
Introduction to Art
Freshman Composition
I had no confidence. I remember walking into my room in Harmon Hall after the first week, my desk littered with five syllabi and textbooks and notebooks, and I was already hopelessly behind.
One day in The History of Western Civilization, Lester Start was talking about euthanasia, and I wrote in my notebook: “youth in Asia.”
And then Larry Barrett threw me a life line.
Twenty of us gathered in Dr. Laurence Barrett’s classroom in Bowen Hall for Freshman Comp. Larry Barrett. Ph.D., Princeton; special field of study: John Milton. He is sitting on his desk, cross-legged, making searing eye contact with each of us in turn. He has the haircut of the times, a short flat top, his sport coat is dusted with chalk, his shirt collar ends are pointing up, his tie is awry across his chest, and he holds forth in a gruff, but loving manner. I loved it that his vocabulary is occasionally laced with mild profanity, like damn, piss and shit.
Here is the context for my inspiration. The standing assignment is this: Every two weeks, write an essay. No assigned topic. Write about what is important to you. It reminds me now of the opening stanza from Langston Hughes’ poem, Theme for English B.
The instructor said,
Go home and write
a page tonight
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
The way Larry handled these tender pages was inspired and inspiring. He asked us to type our essays on mimeograph masters. He would then run them off, each one identified with a number instead of a name. He handed out these precious packets, and he lovingly taught us how to read and write, using our own writing. Over the course of the semester, in spite of the anonymity of the numbers rather than our names, we began to recognize each others’ distinctive writing voices that were slowly developing.
So, one day, while reading through a packet, Larry came to my essay. He read the first three paragraphs without stopping for a comment, or correction. Then he looked up and said, “Do you know what that means? You bet your bootstraps you know what that means.” He went on to say that it was a model of coherence.
Well, that was it, and that was everything.
At that moment, I breathed in the divine, and that is the root meaning of the word inspiration, from the Latin, inspirare.
After class, I walked out of Bowen Hall, headed across the quad, and resolutely said to myself, “If I can write for Larry Barrett, I can write for anybody.”
I remembered a line we had read from E. B. White’s 1947 essay, The Second Tree from the Corner:
In the jungle of my fear I glimpsed the flashy tail feathers of the bird courage.
In this case, it was confidence, and this gave me courage for the days and nights ahead.
Soon after reading my paper in class, Larry called me into his office about another essay, one whose topic was, of all things, the lack of school spirit. I had written a sentence something like, “On a Saturday afternoon, instead of going to the football game, pallid science majors head across the quad to Upton Hall, the science building, with slide rules strapped to their sides.” He read that sentence aloud, then he said. “Give me some more of that.” I began seeing images in my mind, and immediately turned them into sentences, as he nodded in approval.
Then it happened again. Breathing in the divine. I got it that writing is simply paying attention to the first thoughts going through your mind, trusting them, and turning them into sentences. Writing is standing back, listening, and then stepping up. It is not just the province of dead white men in anthologies. You and I can write, right now.
And let that page come out of you—
Then, it will be true.
* * *
In the fall of 2002, Christine and I had been at the Academy for five years. One day I received a call from a woman who said she was Larry Barrett’s daughter, that he had recently died, and that in going through his papers she came across this note:
“Ask Ray Comeau to give my eulogy.”
A few days later, I stood at the lectern of Stetson Chapel that crested a small hill, crowning the beautiful campus of Kalamazoo College, reading his eulogy. As I was coming to the end of my reading, I felt an insertion of Light, and I stepped aside from the lectern and said, “Larry didn’t really go anywhere, he is with us now in spirit.”
After that luminous moment in the Chapel, I stepped back behind the lectern and finished my eulogy.
What Larry extended to me as a freshman, and what he is extending to us in this moment, is Love and Love is Eternal. His Love is in this room at this time. His loving presence is in our thoughts. In this respect, there is no death. There is only the peace of God. The Son of God is free and loving and eternal.
Hold Larry in your thoughts, as I read this sonnet from A Course in Miracles, the incomparable modern day scripture:
The grass is pushing through the soil, the trees
are budding now, and birds have come to live
within their branches. Earth is being born
again in new perspective. Night has gone,
and we have come together in the light.
From here we give peace to the world,
for it is here peace was received.
The song of our rejoicing is the call
to all the world that Love is eternal,
that time is almost over, and God’s Son
has but an instant more to wait until
His Father is remembered, dreams are done,
eternity has shined away the world,
and only heaven now exists at all.
Incidentally, the motto for Kalamazoo College, adorning its walls and its letterhead, is this Latin word:
Luxesto.
Let there be Light.
* * *
Christine and I returned to the Academy, and as we walked in for Session on a Monday morning, we saw that Dear One was teaching in the Reading room. When he saw me enter, he said, “Did you know I was there?”
I realized, then, that it was his presence that filled the Chapel with Light, and I cracked up saying, “Yes,” and he rolled back on the couch, his feet came up, cycling in the air, as he laughed uproariously.
Thank you, Larry. Thank you, Dear One. Thank you, Father.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Experiencing The Thought of God While Wandering in the Dream: A Writing Assignment
Dear Reader,
I am extending to you an invitation to participate in The Creative Communication of Writing and Sound for the upcoming event at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells, September 16-September 25, The Passion of Creative Mind.
This is an opportunity to share with us an extraordinary incident in your life, experiencing the Thought of God, as you wandered through your dream. Since we are God’s perfect Creations, it is inevitable that we will experience our inheritance, no matter how much we try to maintain the dream.
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 165.2:6,7
When I was talking with my wife, Christine, about the inevitability of experiencing the Thought of God, she said, “Oh, yes, I remember being very young when it happened,” and here is how she expressed it.
When I was a small child, I went to a funeral home for the first time, not for the funeral, but a visitation. I am holding my mother’s hand in this room filled with people. It is very quiet. People are speaking in whispers. My mom walks up to Grampa Percy and, letting go of my hand, hugs him and whispers something to him. He looks sad. She takes my hand and leads me up to what looks like a huge jewelry box where my Grandma is lying. I remember everything being pink. We are standing in front of the casket. My mom is looking in. I am too small to be able to look in. I can only see the outline of her form.
Then, I see my Grandma peaking around from behind the casket. She sees me and has this mischievous look on her face. Her eyes are sparkling, and she looks happy. I look up at my mom, and she is still looking into the casket and does not see that Grandma is not in the casket. When I look back at Grandma, she is holding her index finger over her lips as though “shushing” me in a conspiratorial way, and then she was gone.
Here are excerpts from an example written by my friend, Doris.
One night, a very clear memory of Home came to my mind while I was asleep: I dreamed of Heaven.
There was a song. It was the most beautiful melody I ever heard. Only thinking about it makes me cry. I remember Home.
Angels sang that song for me, me the holy Son of God who is at Home at last. They sang only out of joy that I am created as God created me.
They sang to praise me and to praise God. And sometimes when I am united with my brothers in that memory of Home, I hear them sing again for me.
Doris
I am quite sure that an incident has already come to mind for you. Here is an opportunity to share with us your experience of a Thought of God.
Please describe it in one page, or less, and send it along with your name, location, and e-mail address.
Please send it to me: chris.ray@charter.net
We will be publishing these articles in a book that will be available at the event, and through Amazon.
Please submit as soon as possible, no later than August 15.
Click here for the web site of The Passion of Creative Mind.
Thank you.
Ray Comeau
I am extending to you an invitation to participate in The Creative Communication of Writing and Sound for the upcoming event at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells, September 16-September 25, The Passion of Creative Mind.
This is an opportunity to share with us an extraordinary incident in your life, experiencing the Thought of God, as you wandered through your dream. Since we are God’s perfect Creations, it is inevitable that we will experience our inheritance, no matter how much we try to maintain the dream.
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 165.2:6,7
When I was talking with my wife, Christine, about the inevitability of experiencing the Thought of God, she said, “Oh, yes, I remember being very young when it happened,” and here is how she expressed it.
When I was a small child, I went to a funeral home for the first time, not for the funeral, but a visitation. I am holding my mother’s hand in this room filled with people. It is very quiet. People are speaking in whispers. My mom walks up to Grampa Percy and, letting go of my hand, hugs him and whispers something to him. He looks sad. She takes my hand and leads me up to what looks like a huge jewelry box where my Grandma is lying. I remember everything being pink. We are standing in front of the casket. My mom is looking in. I am too small to be able to look in. I can only see the outline of her form.
Then, I see my Grandma peaking around from behind the casket. She sees me and has this mischievous look on her face. Her eyes are sparkling, and she looks happy. I look up at my mom, and she is still looking into the casket and does not see that Grandma is not in the casket. When I look back at Grandma, she is holding her index finger over her lips as though “shushing” me in a conspiratorial way, and then she was gone.
Here are excerpts from an example written by my friend, Doris.
One night, a very clear memory of Home came to my mind while I was asleep: I dreamed of Heaven.
There was a song. It was the most beautiful melody I ever heard. Only thinking about it makes me cry. I remember Home.
Angels sang that song for me, me the holy Son of God who is at Home at last. They sang only out of joy that I am created as God created me.
They sang to praise me and to praise God. And sometimes when I am united with my brothers in that memory of Home, I hear them sing again for me.
Doris
I am quite sure that an incident has already come to mind for you. Here is an opportunity to share with us your experience of a Thought of God.
Please describe it in one page, or less, and send it along with your name, location, and e-mail address.
Please send it to me: chris.ray@charter.net
We will be publishing these articles in a book that will be available at the event, and through Amazon.
Please submit as soon as possible, no later than August 15.
Click here for the web site of The Passion of Creative Mind.
Thank you.
Ray Comeau
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Escaping the Self-Made Matrix and Resting in God
When I first awakened yesterday morning, I found myself in a state of mind where I had no sense of identity.
This is difficult to express; I was in a state of total, let's say, blankness. I did not begin saying to myself, "Well, today, I'll do this, I'll do that." I was totally blank. I felt totally relieved. Words can hardly express this sense of relief.
My sense of identity, or Ray, my limited self, narrating my life, was simply not in my awareness.
There was an experience of a state of mind that was still, limitless, changeless, and eternal.
There. That's more like it; no sense of an identity as a person, as a body, commenting on its state of mind.
My experience while waking up in this manner provides a clear reference point for certain passages in A Course in Miracles. For example, here is a helpful sentence from Lesson 161:
Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. W-p1.161.2:1
This is a reminder that complete abstraction is natural; my state that identifies with my self, my ego, is totally unnatural.
While this post was still in draft form, I read the Lesson for the day, 129, Beyond this world is a world I want, and this passage leaped off the page.
Communication, unambiguous
and plain as day, remains unlimited
for all eternity. And God Himself
speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him.
Their language has no words, for what They say
cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is
direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
How far away from this are you who stay
bound to this world. And yet how near are you,
when you exchange it for the world you want.
W-pl.129.4
My experience while waking up is the reference point for this passage, as well.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-pl.Review Vl.Intro.3:3-5
And Jesus stops our minds for a moment in His effort to slow us down, by the two meanings, simultaneously, of the word "still;" I continue to be as God created me, and I am the stillness of God's creation.
Here is another sentence for which we now have a reference point.
I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-pll.14.What am I?1:1
When I was reflecting on these ideas, I was driving down the highway. While idly driving along, I glanced at a passing billboard that said, "After you die, you will find God." Chuckling, I said to myself, "That's funny, I don't think I'm going to have to wait that long, I found God this morning."
That brought to mind, two phrases.
An ancient Hermetic precept stating, "Know ye not ye are gods?"
And St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily," meaning that he experiences daily a state of mind of limitlessness, changelessness, thereby dying to limitation and change and mortality that we now refer to as the matrix.
It is no surprise that this experience occurred the day after an extraordinary weekend conference entitled, Out of the Matrix that took place at the Unity Church of the Heights, in Cleveland Heights, OH, May 20-22, 2011. This is a powerful program designed to be taken into schools and colleges and universities and prisons, enabling participants to transform their minds to come into a state of mind where they can take personal responsibility for constructing the matrix they find themselves in. This program is solidly based on the principles of A Course in Miracles, and they are expressed in secular metaphors, so that the illusion, or dream is the matrix, the Holy Spirit is the Inner Guide, and God's Son is What you Be, limitless, changeless, eternal.
In the sessions, worksheets are used to enable us as participants to recognize, own, and let go of limiting core beliefs. This emphasis is on learning to let go of our projections that constitute our self-made matrix. By learning to take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs, we come into an awareness of our Being, and we are then able to walk in the matrix, knowing we are not of the matrix. To illustrate this, we were shown a clip from the movie, The Matrix, where Morpheus is taking Neo for a walk through the matrix, and all the time while walking through crowds, Morpheus, knowing he is in but not of the matrix, walks smoothly, his head half-turned to talk with Neo, gliding through, while Neo is constantly bumping into people, often distracted, particularly by an attractive woman walking by in a red dress.
The two men who presented during the weekend, Tony Senf and Christ Lauretig , were outstanding in articulating in straight-forward, clear language, often citing personal examples, the basic principles of A Course in Miracles, using parallel matrix metaphors that could easily sink into the ears of the person in the street. Their presentation was well-illustrated with a large number of salient clips from movies, slide presentations, worksheets, and all the time questions and comments were encouraged from the participants. Each participant was shepherded by a mentor each step of the way.
On Sunday morning, Rev. Tony delivered a powerful lesson entitled, "It's All a Dream," frequently quoting A Course in Miracles, demonstrating that the basic principles of the Out of the Matrix Program are soundly grounded in the Course.
Sunday afternoon during the conference, Chris, after making it crystal clear that our beliefs and thoughts are the foundation of our self-made matrix, these beliefs having been imprinted in us over the years by those conditioned by the matrix, said that he often had the thought that he should come in with a baseball bat, call us up one at a time, and hit us up aside the head; when we woke up, we would experience amnesia, and be open to experiencing our Being. We would forget our imprinting and conditioning, and no longer automatically construct the matrix.
For a moment this morning, I experienced complete amnesia, and thank God, I didn't need to be hit aside the head to experience it.
Amnesia is a powerful metaphor, demonstrating that forgetting what we wrought in the first place is liberating. Walking in the world, and recognizing that we are not of it because we realize that we constructed the nothingness of it is the true meaning of forgiveness, letting go of what never occurred, the dream, the matrix. And in this act of forgiveness, we rest in God.
This is the day of peace. You rest in God,
and while the world is torn by winds of hate
your rest remains completely undisturbed.
Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances
cannot intrude on you. You call to all
to join you in your rest, and they will hear
and come to you because you rest in God.
They will not hear another voice than yours
because you gave your voice to God, and now
you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.
W-pl.109.4
And now, after the weekend, experiencing the peace of God while waking up the other morning, I am increasingly receptive to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit, talking to me all through the day, and trusting, and the more I trust the more I am hearing the guidance.
For more information on the Out of the Matrix Program, please click here.
An Out of the Matrix Conference is scheduled to be held in the Wisconsin Dells, August 26-28, 2011.
For more information, please contact me: chris.ray@charter.net, 608 254-2320
For registration, please contact Cindy Stanley: cindy@outofthematrix.org, 330-284-1025
Payment plans are available through Cindy.
This is difficult to express; I was in a state of total, let's say, blankness. I did not begin saying to myself, "Well, today, I'll do this, I'll do that." I was totally blank. I felt totally relieved. Words can hardly express this sense of relief.
My sense of identity, or Ray, my limited self, narrating my life, was simply not in my awareness.
There was an experience of a state of mind that was still, limitless, changeless, and eternal.
There. That's more like it; no sense of an identity as a person, as a body, commenting on its state of mind.
My experience while waking up in this manner provides a clear reference point for certain passages in A Course in Miracles. For example, here is a helpful sentence from Lesson 161:
Complete abstraction is the natural condition of the mind. W-p1.161.2:1
This is a reminder that complete abstraction is natural; my state that identifies with my self, my ego, is totally unnatural.
While this post was still in draft form, I read the Lesson for the day, 129, Beyond this world is a world I want, and this passage leaped off the page.
Communication, unambiguous
and plain as day, remains unlimited
for all eternity. And God Himself
speaks to His Son, as His Son speaks to Him.
Their language has no words, for what They say
cannot be symbolized. Their knowledge is
direct and wholly shared and wholly one.
How far away from this are you who stay
bound to this world. And yet how near are you,
when you exchange it for the world you want.
W-pl.129.4
My experience while waking up is the reference point for this passage, as well.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
W-pl.Review Vl.Intro.3:3-5
And Jesus stops our minds for a moment in His effort to slow us down, by the two meanings, simultaneously, of the word "still;" I continue to be as God created me, and I am the stillness of God's creation.
Here is another sentence for which we now have a reference point.
I am God's Son, complete and healed and whole,
shining in the reflection of His Love.
W-pll.14.What am I?1:1
When I was reflecting on these ideas, I was driving down the highway. While idly driving along, I glanced at a passing billboard that said, "After you die, you will find God." Chuckling, I said to myself, "That's funny, I don't think I'm going to have to wait that long, I found God this morning."
That brought to mind, two phrases.
An ancient Hermetic precept stating, "Know ye not ye are gods?"
And St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:31, "I die daily," meaning that he experiences daily a state of mind of limitlessness, changelessness, thereby dying to limitation and change and mortality that we now refer to as the matrix.
It is no surprise that this experience occurred the day after an extraordinary weekend conference entitled, Out of the Matrix that took place at the Unity Church of the Heights, in Cleveland Heights, OH, May 20-22, 2011. This is a powerful program designed to be taken into schools and colleges and universities and prisons, enabling participants to transform their minds to come into a state of mind where they can take personal responsibility for constructing the matrix they find themselves in. This program is solidly based on the principles of A Course in Miracles, and they are expressed in secular metaphors, so that the illusion, or dream is the matrix, the Holy Spirit is the Inner Guide, and God's Son is What you Be, limitless, changeless, eternal.
In the sessions, worksheets are used to enable us as participants to recognize, own, and let go of limiting core beliefs. This emphasis is on learning to let go of our projections that constitute our self-made matrix. By learning to take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs, we come into an awareness of our Being, and we are then able to walk in the matrix, knowing we are not of the matrix. To illustrate this, we were shown a clip from the movie, The Matrix, where Morpheus is taking Neo for a walk through the matrix, and all the time while walking through crowds, Morpheus, knowing he is in but not of the matrix, walks smoothly, his head half-turned to talk with Neo, gliding through, while Neo is constantly bumping into people, often distracted, particularly by an attractive woman walking by in a red dress.
The two men who presented during the weekend, Tony Senf and Christ Lauretig , were outstanding in articulating in straight-forward, clear language, often citing personal examples, the basic principles of A Course in Miracles, using parallel matrix metaphors that could easily sink into the ears of the person in the street. Their presentation was well-illustrated with a large number of salient clips from movies, slide presentations, worksheets, and all the time questions and comments were encouraged from the participants. Each participant was shepherded by a mentor each step of the way.
On Sunday morning, Rev. Tony delivered a powerful lesson entitled, "It's All a Dream," frequently quoting A Course in Miracles, demonstrating that the basic principles of the Out of the Matrix Program are soundly grounded in the Course.
Sunday afternoon during the conference, Chris, after making it crystal clear that our beliefs and thoughts are the foundation of our self-made matrix, these beliefs having been imprinted in us over the years by those conditioned by the matrix, said that he often had the thought that he should come in with a baseball bat, call us up one at a time, and hit us up aside the head; when we woke up, we would experience amnesia, and be open to experiencing our Being. We would forget our imprinting and conditioning, and no longer automatically construct the matrix.
For a moment this morning, I experienced complete amnesia, and thank God, I didn't need to be hit aside the head to experience it.
Amnesia is a powerful metaphor, demonstrating that forgetting what we wrought in the first place is liberating. Walking in the world, and recognizing that we are not of it because we realize that we constructed the nothingness of it is the true meaning of forgiveness, letting go of what never occurred, the dream, the matrix. And in this act of forgiveness, we rest in God.
This is the day of peace. You rest in God,
and while the world is torn by winds of hate
your rest remains completely undisturbed.
Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances
cannot intrude on you. You call to all
to join you in your rest, and they will hear
and come to you because you rest in God.
They will not hear another voice than yours
because you gave your voice to God, and now
you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.
W-pl.109.4
And now, after the weekend, experiencing the peace of God while waking up the other morning, I am increasingly receptive to hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit, talking to me all through the day, and trusting, and the more I trust the more I am hearing the guidance.
For more information on the Out of the Matrix Program, please click here.
An Out of the Matrix Conference is scheduled to be held in the Wisconsin Dells, August 26-28, 2011.
For more information, please contact me: chris.ray@charter.net, 608 254-2320
For registration, please contact Cindy Stanley: cindy@outofthematrix.org, 330-284-1025
Payment plans are available through Cindy.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Breathing in the Breath of God: The Holy Spirit
I remember taking a class in graduate school that I found fascinating at the time, and I find myself today still drawing benefits from it, particularly as I read Jesus’ unworldly masterpiece, A Course in Miracles. The class was phonetics, a study of special speech sounds and their production.
I learned that each language operates from a set of phonemes, the smallest unit of sound. For example, in English, although the alphabet consists of only 26 letters, these letters represent 42 different sounds, or phonemes. For example, the letter /a/ is pronounced in two different ways, depending on the context. There's the /a/ in gap, and the /a/ in gape. This is one reason English is a difficult language to learn by a foreign speaker, same letters, different sounds.
One reason I am fascinated by phonetics is that it drives home the fact that words are air, i.e., each word is air passing from our lungs through our larynx and shaped by our tongue, lips, teeth, and cheeks. For example, the word “voice” consists of 4 phonemes, and each phoneme can be described. There is formal way to describe what happens in the mouth for each phoneme, and the following is a crude description.
/v/ vee
The upper front teeth touch the inner part of the lower lip and the air is forced out.
/o/ oh
The teeth release and the inside of the mouth constricts and the lips form a circle, emitting air, while the vocal chords in the larynx vibrate.
/i/ ee
The tongue rests on the back teeth, the front of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, and raises up, and the lips are slightly open.
/ce/ hiss
The lips widen, the teeth almost close, the tip of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, raises up and a hissing sound pours through the narrow slit formed by the teeth.
Now, I hear the word “voice” in a whole new way; my voice is truly air, a breath of air.
The reason for this unusual foray into phonetics is to lay the groundwork for this powerful connection: inspire and spirit have the same root meaning. Both words spring from the same Latin root: spirare, meaning “to breathe.” When I am inspired, I am breathing spirit, the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. His Voice is always speaking to me, and I am reminded of this each time I speak, knowing that my voice is breath.
God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. (Title, Lesson 49)
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
W-p1.491:1,2
The part that listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. W-p1.49.2:1,2
Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. W-p1.49.4:1,2
This reminds me of a passage from the Urtext. Jesus is talking to Helen, and He says to her:
I inspired Bob (refer to elevator man who took Helen down from her apartment) to make that remark to you. (Urtext: The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth, p. 38)
This is so encouraging because it is as reminder that Jesus, indeed, is walking with us all the time.
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:3,4
As far as breathing, yesterday I came across a brief review of a new book of poetry by the American poet, Robert Pinsky. The reviewer just happened to quote the first stanza of his poem, Song.
Air is an instrument of the tongue,
The tongue an instrument Of the body.
The body
An instrument of spirit,
The spirit a being of the air.
Reading today’s Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today, brings it all back to me, the phonetics, the breathing, the words, and I note once again the connection between my past experiences, e.g., the phonetics class, and the present, and how sometimes I feel I have been directed all along.
Since we come to the Course to learn to reverse our thinking, the first thing we need to do is to slow down.
Three times today, at times most suitable
for silence, give ten minutes set apart
from listening to the world, and choose instead
a gentle listening to the Word of God.
W-p1.1257:1
First, as we read this passage aloud, we, unconsciously, structure our breathing, i.e., we can only speak the lines by breathing out, and we are silent as we breathe in, preparing to breathe out. Isn’t that amazing? It is so habitual that we have forgotten that we breathe in in order to breathe out.
Secondly, Jesus postures our voice by the way He orders His words. For example, read the title of the Lesson aloud:
In quiet I receive God’s Word today.
First, Jesus is using only 10 syllables for each line; He has been doing this since Lesson 98, and He will continue using this convention for each line of each lesson until the end, Lesson 365. Not only that, but He postures our voice to speak each line by placing each syllable in a particular way, some are STRESSED and some are slack.
In QUI/ et I/ re CEIVE/ GOD’S VOICE/ to DAY
Five sets of syllables, basically in a slack STRESS, or iambic pattern. And Jesus, not only slows us down with this rhythmic pattern, but He postures our voice to say the words as He intends. GOD’S VOICE is what’s important here, and we find ourselves emphasizing those two words, whether we know it or not. And at one level, we certainly know it, and this is a reminder.
Only be quiet. You will need no rule
but this, to let your practicing today
lift you above the thinking of the world,
and free your vision from the body's eyes. W-p1.125.7:1,2
When I am looking through my body’s eyes, I am making up a world, unconsciously and habitually, and listening to the wrong voice, my narrative voice, associating, judging, separating, but when I slow down and listen to the Voice of God soothing me into silence, I slow down my breathing, and I can begin to see with vision, seeing a bright reflection of my silent mind.
For the past several weeks, I have been facilitating a class here at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells. The class is called, “Listen, Learn, and Write.” It is highly interactive because we are doing writing exercises that enable us to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to express ourselves. At the end of the class a couple of days ago, we were sitting quietly, listening to music after sharing our inspired writing, and suddenly and spontaneously, Peg Elizabeth, a woman who has been at the Academy for some time, said to no one in particular, “Boy, in this class it is easy to get in touch with your soul.” That pretty much sums up what it means to open up and be receptive to spirit.
Peg Elizabeth's sentiment is echoed in a article I came across in the Wisconsin State Journal about Maggie Delaney-Potthoff who teaches voice in a class offered through UW-Madison Continuing Studies. What caught my eye is that she starts and ends her training with emphasis on breathing.
Someone looking in the window of the church’s gathering room, where the class is held, might easily mistake this for a yoga class or some kind of new-age meditation session. (Wisconsin State Journal, May 1, 2011, Section G, Unleash the Scream, Andrea Azni, p. 1.)
Delaney-Potthoff says, “Our voice is directly connected to our soul. The voice is the ultimate instrument. . .I am looking for that natural voice that’s behind the curtain, and all singing takes place through the third eye.” (Azni, p. 2)
Breathe in, breathe out, knowing that you are spirit, the holy breath of God.
I learned that each language operates from a set of phonemes, the smallest unit of sound. For example, in English, although the alphabet consists of only 26 letters, these letters represent 42 different sounds, or phonemes. For example, the letter /a/ is pronounced in two different ways, depending on the context. There's the /a/ in gap, and the /a/ in gape. This is one reason English is a difficult language to learn by a foreign speaker, same letters, different sounds.
One reason I am fascinated by phonetics is that it drives home the fact that words are air, i.e., each word is air passing from our lungs through our larynx and shaped by our tongue, lips, teeth, and cheeks. For example, the word “voice” consists of 4 phonemes, and each phoneme can be described. There is formal way to describe what happens in the mouth for each phoneme, and the following is a crude description.
/v/ vee
The upper front teeth touch the inner part of the lower lip and the air is forced out.
/o/ oh
The teeth release and the inside of the mouth constricts and the lips form a circle, emitting air, while the vocal chords in the larynx vibrate.
/i/ ee
The tongue rests on the back teeth, the front of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, and raises up, and the lips are slightly open.
/ce/ hiss
The lips widen, the teeth almost close, the tip of the tongue slightly touches the back of the lower teeth, raises up and a hissing sound pours through the narrow slit formed by the teeth.
Now, I hear the word “voice” in a whole new way; my voice is truly air, a breath of air.
The reason for this unusual foray into phonetics is to lay the groundwork for this powerful connection: inspire and spirit have the same root meaning. Both words spring from the same Latin root: spirare, meaning “to breathe.” When I am inspired, I am breathing spirit, the Holy Spirit, the breath of God. His Voice is always speaking to me, and I am reminded of this each time I speak, knowing that my voice is breath.
God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day. (Title, Lesson 49)
It is quite possible to listen to God's Voice all through the day without interrupting your regular activities in any way. The part of your mind in which truth abides is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not.
W-p1.491:1,2
The part that listening to the Voice for God is calm, always at rest and wholly certain. It is really the only part there is. W-p1.49.2:1,2
Listen in deep silence. Be very still and open your mind. W-p1.49.4:1,2
This reminds me of a passage from the Urtext. Jesus is talking to Helen, and He says to her:
I inspired Bob (refer to elevator man who took Helen down from her apartment) to make that remark to you. (Urtext: The Original Unexpurgated Manuscript As It Emanated From The Mind And Heart of Jesus Christ Of Nazareth, p. 38)
This is so encouraging because it is as reminder that Jesus, indeed, is walking with us all the time.
If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy. W-p1.70.9:3,4
As far as breathing, yesterday I came across a brief review of a new book of poetry by the American poet, Robert Pinsky. The reviewer just happened to quote the first stanza of his poem, Song.
Air is an instrument of the tongue,
The tongue an instrument Of the body.
The body
An instrument of spirit,
The spirit a being of the air.
Reading today’s Lesson 125, In quiet I receive God’s Word today, brings it all back to me, the phonetics, the breathing, the words, and I note once again the connection between my past experiences, e.g., the phonetics class, and the present, and how sometimes I feel I have been directed all along.
Since we come to the Course to learn to reverse our thinking, the first thing we need to do is to slow down.
Three times today, at times most suitable
for silence, give ten minutes set apart
from listening to the world, and choose instead
a gentle listening to the Word of God.
W-p1.1257:1
First, as we read this passage aloud, we, unconsciously, structure our breathing, i.e., we can only speak the lines by breathing out, and we are silent as we breathe in, preparing to breathe out. Isn’t that amazing? It is so habitual that we have forgotten that we breathe in in order to breathe out.
Secondly, Jesus postures our voice by the way He orders His words. For example, read the title of the Lesson aloud:
In quiet I receive God’s Word today.
First, Jesus is using only 10 syllables for each line; He has been doing this since Lesson 98, and He will continue using this convention for each line of each lesson until the end, Lesson 365. Not only that, but He postures our voice to speak each line by placing each syllable in a particular way, some are STRESSED and some are slack.
In QUI/ et I/ re CEIVE/ GOD’S VOICE/ to DAY
Five sets of syllables, basically in a slack STRESS, or iambic pattern. And Jesus, not only slows us down with this rhythmic pattern, but He postures our voice to say the words as He intends. GOD’S VOICE is what’s important here, and we find ourselves emphasizing those two words, whether we know it or not. And at one level, we certainly know it, and this is a reminder.
Only be quiet. You will need no rule
but this, to let your practicing today
lift you above the thinking of the world,
and free your vision from the body's eyes. W-p1.125.7:1,2
When I am looking through my body’s eyes, I am making up a world, unconsciously and habitually, and listening to the wrong voice, my narrative voice, associating, judging, separating, but when I slow down and listen to the Voice of God soothing me into silence, I slow down my breathing, and I can begin to see with vision, seeing a bright reflection of my silent mind.
For the past several weeks, I have been facilitating a class here at Endeavor Academy in the Wisconsin Dells. The class is called, “Listen, Learn, and Write.” It is highly interactive because we are doing writing exercises that enable us to be inspired by the Holy Spirit to express ourselves. At the end of the class a couple of days ago, we were sitting quietly, listening to music after sharing our inspired writing, and suddenly and spontaneously, Peg Elizabeth, a woman who has been at the Academy for some time, said to no one in particular, “Boy, in this class it is easy to get in touch with your soul.” That pretty much sums up what it means to open up and be receptive to spirit.
Peg Elizabeth's sentiment is echoed in a article I came across in the Wisconsin State Journal about Maggie Delaney-Potthoff who teaches voice in a class offered through UW-Madison Continuing Studies. What caught my eye is that she starts and ends her training with emphasis on breathing.
Someone looking in the window of the church’s gathering room, where the class is held, might easily mistake this for a yoga class or some kind of new-age meditation session. (Wisconsin State Journal, May 1, 2011, Section G, Unleash the Scream, Andrea Azni, p. 1.)
Delaney-Potthoff says, “Our voice is directly connected to our soul. The voice is the ultimate instrument. . .I am looking for that natural voice that’s behind the curtain, and all singing takes place through the third eye.” (Azni, p. 2)
Breathe in, breathe out, knowing that you are spirit, the holy breath of God.
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