Sunday, March 18, 2007

Lesson 77~ contemplationshare~

Lesson 77:

I am entitled to miracles… I guess the first thing is ~what is a miracle? Significant in receiving an answer was 'not to think I already know~ to not rely on my interpretations from definitions adopted from sources seemingly outside myself.
This is “A COURSE IN MIRACLES”… lucky for me, right off the bat, the Course redefines the term 'miracle' by detailing 50 principles of miracles. Although one would think that ought to have been more than enough to turn my mind around and redefine it for myself, it wasn't… I didn’t get it. Sure I thought I did… but I didn’t look deeply…I couldn’t hang…I would sort of fog out ~glaze over and secretly; sneakily, slip what it said back in to old categories.
I had this idea that miracles would be some kind of spectacular, one-of–a-kind, ‘stand out’ event and also that my involvement would prove my worthiness.
Now, here’s the thing … events are symbols at best~ and lies most often. They reflect the mind that projects them. And the very idea that something ‘out there’ could be ‘proof’ is the symbol of separation. And the belief that this is actually real is the cover for guilt.
Okay, so due to the irresistibly compelling call of love that the symbol “A Course in Miracles” is, I was signed on and took up a ‘life-time membership’ to its message through my faith and trust. Ya know, a few years along in the itinerary of my relationship with the Course, I felt compelled to revisit the 50 principles at the beginning of the text. I began to study their meaning from a mind that was obviously no longer wholly insane, because much of what I was studying was already being~ in effect in my life. The definition of the miracle was expressing as ‘my inner life’, and ‘showing’ me what it meant… ~talk about a miracle~
The essential metaphysical base of the Course is that there is no world outside us. So, obviously, the miracle has nothing to do with anything external, how could it? There is nothing external… It is only a projection of what is inside us, which means that the central issue always can be found in the mind, and only in the mind.… the mind projects what is within it onto the world; and the world, of course, includes not only the world at large, the universe, but also the world of our personal bodies and so-called lives. A gorgeous line in the Course that defines the miracle perfectly (well, actually there are innumerous ones) is when it is saying: “the holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love…” (T-26.IX.6: 1) Someone whom we hate, hatred being the ego’s way of looking, becomes someone whom we love, and that vision of love is given to us by the Holy Spirit... two different ways of looking at the world and, more specifically, at the relationships in our lives. One is the ego’s way ~seeing separations differences, anger and guilt, justification for anger ….yada, yada, yada… All these perceptions really reinforce the basic ego premise that we are separate from each other and from God. The correction for that is to go from the ego’s way of looking to the Holy Spirit’s way of looking, and it is that shift from the ego the Holy Spirit that is the miracle…
For me, the gradual transformation of mind by the miracle, simultaneously showed me this fact~ that the problem was never what was seemingly ‘outside’ me here in the so-called world, but rather, always what was in my mind; and since that is where the problem is, that is where the answer must be found also. At the same time experientially it taught me the answer to the problem…. That answer is the miracle… A excellent definition of what a miracle is for me, is that it is a correction for a mis-thinking or misperception… now, I’ve always fancied myself as an action sorta-gal, I even trained in the “healing” (and I use the term loosely, here) ‘professions’, which advocates behavior change as a primary method for correction, change and healing. …Tough to surrender this idol, for me~ so much delusion of control here, you see… not much peace, true … and not a lot of evidence of any ‘permanent’ results… but always the drug of ‘next time’… (I find it remarkable how many of these substance-less ego paths I signed on to and re-upped every time it came around, regardless of the glaring evidence of their pathetic failure…) The Holy Spirit enters with the slightest invitation… thank God… and as I began to allow the miracle to penetrate and do or perform me (versus my original plan of my performing them) I saw the futility of efforts spent on behavior… I began to understand what the Course means: miracles are natural, habits, involuntary and each day should be devoted to miracles …and also …’you need do nothing’…
Aahh the deep peace that comes with the surety the miracle brings… It is so freeing to know you can’t f@#! it up; do it right, or wrong…
The Atonement already answered the ‘what-if’ drama of a tiny mad idea…that answer is the Word of God: I AM AS GOD CREATED ME. The miracle systematically undoes the knots in the noose around the neck of humankind and reveals the Christ; every where in everyone and everything… This is the forgiven world I see today, and nothing can disturb the mind of the Holy Son of God… How full and rich is the glorious experience of mind ~ life! All Glory to God and to you, my brothers who are the perfect Christ, shining as mirrors reflecting my projections back to be dissolve into the miracle…
I am entitled to miracles… because of and inherent in the truth of What I am… because of and implicit in What God is… merely a statement of true Identity… It was ensured in creation, and guaranteed by the laws of God…This, we celebrate today…and wait quietly for the assurance that it is granted, as well as, the means by which this is accomplished… There is no room for doubt and uncertainty today… we receive the assurance that we are entitled to miracles...

No comments: