Jesus Postures Our Voices to Speak His Words

I often refer to blank verse in A Course in Miracles, i.e., 10 syllables per line, the rhythm, slack STRESS, iambic, and I do not want to leave the impression that every line is iambic because that would be weak and sing-songy.

Jesus, the Master Poet, uses the poetic metrics that have come down through the centuries to vary the rhythm, so that He can posture our voices to speak the lines as He intended, emphasizing certain words, sound echoing sense.

For illustration I have selected the first stanza of Lesson 157, Into His Presence would I enter now, demonstrating the slack STRESS pattern.

1.    THIS is a/ DAYof/ SI lence/ and of TRUST./

2.    It IS/ a SPE/ cial TIME/ of PROM/ ise IN/

3.    your CAL/ en DAR/ of DAYS./ It IS/ a TIME/

4.    HEAV en/ has SET/ a PART/ to SHINE/ up ON,/

5.    and CAST/ a TIME/ less LIGHT/ up ON/ this DAY,/

6.    when ECH/ oes OF/ e TERN/ i TY/ are HEARD./

7.    THIS DAY/ is HO/ ly, for IT/ USH ers in/

8.    a NEW/ ex PER/ i ENCE;/ a DIF/ ferent KIND/

9.    of  FEEl/ ing AND/ a WARE/ ness. YOU/ have SPENT/

10.long DAYS/ and NIGHTS/ in CEL/ e BRAT/ ing DEATH./

11.to DAY/ you LEARN/ to FEEL/ the JOY/ of LIFE./

As you can see, 8 of these lines are strictly iambic, slack STRESS:  2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 11.

In Line 1, Jesus wants to emphasize this day and silence and trust, and so he purposely broke the iambic pattern with:

/THIS is a/
/DAY of/
/and of TRUST/.

In Line 4, He wants to emphasize heaven:

/HEAV en/

In Line 7, He comes back to this holy day:

THIS DAY/
 /ly, for IT/
/USH ers in/

For a more complete explanation of poetic metrics in the Course, please take a look at my Preface to “The Rhythm and Reason of Reality:  Prose and Poetry in A Course in Miracles.”  In His Course, Jesus shifts from prose to poetry in the Text in Chapter 26, and in the Workbook, in Lesson 98.

http://www.amazon.com/Rhythm-Reason-Reality-Poetry-Miracles/dp/1890648914/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402158265&sr=1-1&keywords=the+rhythm+and+reason+of+reality 

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So, I am sitting on our couch in our Sun Room, looking through the large windows on three sides, gazing at the dark green leaves on the branches gently bowing in the slight breeze, and consciously breathe in and breathe out, my feet firmly grounded on the floor, and slowly read aloud the first stanza of today’s Lesson, 157, Into His Presence would I enter now, the cadence of the blank verse matching the beating of my heart, the tip of my finger on my carotid artery, each beat the STRESS and the space in between, the slack:

when ECH/ oes OF/ e TERN/ i TY/ are HEARD/

This is a day of silence and of trust.

It is a special time of promise in

your calendar of days. It is a time

Heaven has set apart to shine upon,

and cast a timeless light upon this day,

when echoes of eternity are heard.

This day is holy, for it ushers in

a new experience; a different kind

of feeling and awareness. You have spent

long days and nights in celebrating death.

Today you learn to feel the joy of life.

Ours is the power of decision.

Lesson 152, The power of decision is our own.

“Decision” comes from the Latin, decidere, meaning “to cut.”  

Nothing occurs but represents your wish,

and nothing is omitted that you choose.

Here is your world, complete in all details.
(1)

This Chart chart demonstrates that mind is the mechanism of decision.  When we decide for Separation, we experience these consequences, cutting us off from Union.  When we decide for Union, we cut ourselves off from Separation.  There is no in between.  

The Holy Spirit uses our thoughts of Separation to guide us to Union.

Mind of God

A Thought of God

Consciousness

For I am still as God created me

Frequency

Energy

Mind

Mind is mechanism of decision

Split-mind

SEPARATION                                                                              UNION

self                                                                                               Self

Body’s eyes                                                                                 Christ Vision

Projection                                                                                    Reflection

Time/space                                                                                   Eternity

Unreal                                                                                          Real

self-centered                                                                                Relationship                                        

Illusion                                                                                        Reality

Falsity                                                                                          Truth

Fear                                                                                             Love

Doubt                                                                                           Certainty

Judgment                                                                                     Forgiveness

The Holy Spirit’s lessons will enable you to bridge the gap between illusions and truth.  (Lesson 151.9:7)

This is summarized in a sonnet:

Now do we join in glad acknowledgment

that lies are false, and only truth is true.

We think of truth alone as we arise,

and spend five minutes practicing its ways,

encouraging our frightened minds with this:

The power of decision is my own.

This day I will accept myself as what

my Father's Will created me to be.

Then will we wait in silence, giving up

all self-deceptions, as we humbly ask

our Self that He reveal Himself to us.

And He Who never left will come again

to our awareness, grateful to restore

His home to God, as it was meant to be.
(11)

NDE’s: The Necessity for Metaphor

I have long known the value of a metaphor.  Its meaning is, literally, “to carry beyond.”  While reading accounts of Near-Death Experiences, I see the individuals struggling to use terms from “this side” to express to the reader what they are experiencing on the “other side.”

Here are some examples from “90 Minutes in Heaven” by Donald Piper.  He is forced to use “earthly terms” to express “heavenly experiences.”

As soon as I stopped gazing at the people’s faces, I realized that everything around me glowed with a dazzling intensity.  In trying to describe the scene, words are totally inadequate, because human words can’t express the feelings of awe and wonder at what I beheld.

I wasn’t blinded, but I was amazed that the luster and intensity continually increased.  Strange as it seems, as brilliant as everything was, each time I stepped forward, the splendor increased.  The farther I walked, the brighter the light.  The light engulfed me, and I had the sense that I was being ushered into the presence of God.  Although our earthly eyes must gradually adjust to light or darkness, my heavenly eyes saw with absolute ease.  In heaven, each of our senses is immeasurably heightened to take it all in.  And what a sensory celebration.

I was home, I was where I belonged.  I wanted to be there more than I had ever wanted to be anywhere on earth.  Time had slipped away, and I was simply present in heaven.  All worries, anxieties, and concerns vanished.  I had no needs, and I felt perfect.

Time had no meaning.  However, for clarity, I’ll relate this experience in terms that refer to time.

As I try to explain this, my words seem weak and hardly adequate, because I have to use earthly terms to refer to unimaginable joy, excitement, warmth, and total happiness.

Everything I experienced was like a first-class buffet for the senses.  I had never felt such powerful embraces or feasted my eyes on such beauty.  Heaven’s light and texture defy earthly eyes or explanation.  Warm, radiant light engulfed me.  As I looked around, I could hardly grasp the vivid, dazzling colors.  Every hue and tone surpassed anything I had ever seen. The best way I can explain it is to say that I felt as if I were in another dimension.  Never, even in my happiest moments, had I ever felt so fully alive.

It was as if each step I took intensified the glowing luminosity.  I didn’t know how it could get more dazzling, but it did.  It would be like cracking open the door of a dark room and walking into the brightness of  a noonday sun.  As the door swings open, the full rays of the sun burst forth, and we’re momentarily blinded.

As a young boy I spent a lot of time out in the country and woods.  When walking through waist-high dried grass, I often surprised a covey of birds and flushed them out of their nests on the ground.  A whooshing sound accompanied their wings as they flew away.

My most vivid memory of heaven is what I heard.  I can only describe it as a holy swoosh of wings.

But I’d have to magnify that thousands of times to explain the effect of the sound in heaven.

A second sound remains, even today, the single most vivid memory I have of my entire heavenly experience.  I call it music but it differed from anything I had ever heard or ever expect to hear on the earth.  The melodies of praise filled the atmosphere.  The nonstop intensity and endless variety overwhelmed me.

Even back on earth, sometimes I still hear faint echoes of that music.  I still have flashbacks, although they’re different from what we normally refer to as flashbacks.  Mine are more flashbacks of the sounds than the sights.

One thing did surprise me:  On earth, whenever I thought of heaven, I anticipated that one day I’d see a gate made of pearls.  The gate wasn’t made of pearls, but was pearlescent—perhaps iridescent may be more descriptive.  To me, it looked as if someone had spread pearl icing on a cake.  The gate glowed and shimmered.