Saturday, March 24, 2007

Lesson 83~mussings~

Lesson 83:
My only function is the one God gave me… means I cannot have conflicting goals. When first looking at these ideas; on this particular topic, I thought, “Is there such a thing as no conflict, is it possible?" I didn't see how. Within this so-called life, all goals conflict with something: if I want this, I can’t have this as well, at least at the same time, or I must sacrifice effort and time, etc. to accomplish the goal. Is there any goal of this world that isn’t set up this way? As long as choices are many and about form… where ‘world' trade is one of sacrifice for specialness~ conflict is inevitable.
However, the correction to all conflict has already been accomplished and the Holy Spirit within my mind holds the memory of this correction. Forgiveness is the function God has given me~ the mechanism by which I let go all judgment, and allow all differences to dissolve into the One purpose. This purpose has shown me that God’s plan is that, truly, all things do work together for good… With one purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. All doubt disappears as I acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave me.
I remember thinking, “I can’t imagine what it would be like to not use doubt to organize my life... and doubt and guilt and fear go hand in hand. And man, the crucial judgment and control necessary to stay one step ahead of, or seemingly ‘avoid’ that awful feeling of defeat inherent (and inevitable) in the concept doubt~ Such a major ingredient in unhappiness, yes? … My happiness and my function are one…the lesson says. Good to know where the solution is, eh? Now, I don’t know about you, but doubt was pretty much the inevitable course of my so-called life, regardless of the seeming successes. It was a primary block to happiness for me. Doubting myself, my choices: their results, doubting others: their trustworthiness, validity, rightness for me… Doubt is truly a prison of fear: worry and regret. Horrible. ~Funny, calling this up~ It's like recalling a movie I long since put out of my mind. Yet, I notice it’s there for the asking, but almost a distant feeling-memory now…

Yes, you see, it is true for me, that trust does handle every situation, now… And it feels so much better too…
To be freed from the prison of doubt… well, that release alone, feels like happiness… It was a leap of faith, taken on faith, for me ~ to trust that my only function is the one God gave me ~ that the Holy Spirit within my mind will guide my every step, along with everyone else’s… and that perhaps, truly my happiness and function are one.
Ah, what a glorious leap that is… not really frightening at all it turns out in actuality (only anticipation frightens).
It is an unmistakable feeling of peace that comes when my will is freed to be as it is in truth~ God’s Will…
God gave Himself ~which is everything of which all is a part and yet the whole, I am so humbled before the realization of this glorious oneness~ I want only to give, in response to the abundant gratitude I feel~ and I give the only thing I have to give ~myself… Hey, this makes me think of that piece at the end of the section in the text called “The Holy Encounter”… Here it is:
“Power and glory belong to God alone. So do you. God gives whatever belongs to Him because He gives of Himself, and everything belongs to Him. Giving of yourself is the function He gave you. Fulfilling it perfectly will let you remember what you of Him, and by this you will remember also what you in Him. You cannot be powerless to do this, because this is your power. Glory is God's gift to you, because that is what He is. See this glory everywhere to remember what you are”. (T-8.III.8)
...There really is nothing to fear or worry about or plan or anything, it has all already been done… we lean back and let Him lead the way while we remember …I thank you for joining in this return together as one… All Glory to God ~

Friday, March 23, 2007

~Lesson 82 ~musings

Lesson 82:
The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness… Let me not forget my function…
I have learned one thing, “If I’m not joyously experiencing LOVE~ permanent, inclusive, penetrating love ~ it’s a forgiveness lesson. ~My role is always the same, to light the world through forgiving it. Where there is even the slightest shadowy obstruction to the experience of love’s awareness~ I am seeing the false. My function is to forgive. Forgiveness is the looking, with the Holy Spirit, beyond the seeming obstruction, to the truth where love remains untouched. My part is to make the one decision for correction (I accept the Atonement for myself) and the Holy Spirit does the rest. Heaven is the decision I must make as long as I believe in decisions, ~ all I need to know is that ‘above all else, I want the truth’ ~ this is the switchover from wrong-minded perception to right-minded perception, and the Holy Spirit is already there within my mind, fulfilling the function of the Atonement, awaiting my slightest invitation to reveal the truth within the light of Who I am.

This one thing I have learned, THERE IS ONLY LOVE; and while we still dream a mind that split, we recognize this fact as LOVE and the CALL FOR LOVE… the answer and the call are really one in the same…'The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness’…
I have heard the call to return my mind to God ~ the great ‘wake-up call’… I have answered…

Yes!, is all I can say now… Forgiveness is the function given me to discern the false and allow the Holy Spirit to correct all misperceptions in the light of truth. It is the gentle prompting to reality by the Holy Spirit. It corresponds to my little willingness to ‘let all things be exactly as they are’, and the opening of my eyes to the light within; just a blink really, and looking again I see only Christ, everywhere in everyone and everything, lit by this One Light… So simple really: my function of forgiveness brings peace to every mind because my presence shines the light of love on all creation. When this is not pure, I have forgotten who I am, which is a call for love. I see this call reflected around me as people and situations, etc., and I can see it because you are Christ, doing your part….
The recognition of this has not only been life changing, in the sense, that waking began, but actually, the prevailing experience of light infiltrating and expanding, filling every darkened place, dissolving definition and leaving in its place, peace and certainty and joy… it’s an experience of re-formatting, behind the scenes of my so-called life… Tada! Miracle!
Today, right now, let me remember … What do I want? Do I want to know the truth? Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth? When the answer is YES~ Love or fear: translates to Love or the call for Love.
Can I do just this one thing? Let I not forget my function… that I may bring peace to every mind through my forgiveness… Unequivocally Yes! And simply showers of love and gratitude, on and on ~

Thursday, March 22, 2007

Review II lesson 81~

Review II lesson 81:
I am the light of the world
How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the world. Let met be still before my holiness…. and in its peace, remember who I am…
This experience of the being the light, the very light of the world, was one taken on faith, until the recognition of Self dawned. Vision and light are one. By following, implementing through practicing the ‘procedure’ for awakening, which is flawlessly designed and laid-out in A Course in Miracles, one sees that the inner and the outer are one in the same… In fact, I, as light, am the reason all is not darkness…

For me, pulling out of the addiction of ‘physical sight’(which is a representation of interpretation at best) and into the experience of being with the ‘unknown’ within the mind was a leap of faith. I sensed the ‘truth’ was available to me through this book ACIM, and I wanted it. I wanted the answer… I wanted peace… I wanted God… The words, of course, weren’t different than the language I was familiar with. The way they were used was. And the meaning was completely beyond I could comprehend at the time. And in the beginning I wasn’t really sure how utterly "out of this world" my experience really was. I was sure I was having an experience I had never had before. A deep sense of homecoming seemed to suck me inward and at the same time, pull me toward some kind of meaning. And yet I couldn’t really put my finger on it… It was a feeling somewhat like remembering something really important.
Reading the Course gave me such a feeling of peace and contentment. I noticed I was reading it with faith… not really trying the ‘understand’ it so much, but allowing it to carry me along… I felt a new kind of trust developing. As I began the ‘practical application’ aspect of the course, through the lessons and experience the basic integration of the material, I began to see the dynamics of the addictive mechanism employed by the ego to keep me from actually implementing the principles of the course in my life.
The ego would allow me plenty of “ahha” moments and a prideful sense of “getting it’, but there was always a distraction~ always something I had to do~ always ‘too busy”~ always forgetting. There were addictions I had to address, a life to build: you know, bigger, stronger, faster and all that. Then there was the guilt for what I judged as weakness, not being sincere, ‘obviously not caring enough’… always interpreting rather than ‘seeing’. Still, I simply couldn’t deny that some kind of transformation was taking place inside me and I would return to the course and it’s principles as soon as I could. Often as I did the lessons, I was sure I wasn’t ‘getting it’ or I wasn’t sure what I was ‘supposed’ to be experiencing and if what I was experiencing, I was just making up…. Well, yeah…that’s what the mind does…
I remember approaching a lesson or a review group (which is probably why this came to mind today~ beginning a new review) with a plan to get it right. What I noticed was how very resistant to peace I really was… I never would have guessed. (The first obstacle to peace ~the desire to get rid of it) It was very difficult for me to be present and I had all kinds of ideas of what that was (I was wrong, incidently). The compulsion to distract was overwhelming at first. And yet the desire to return again and again was undeniable... And I would, again and again.
Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world… It feels good to forgive~ to look with the Holy Spirit past the false and see only Christ...

I notice everywhere I go, people want to love, want a chance to move beyond defense and express the love that they are. Lighting the world through forgiveness, I notice, brings this chance around…
Turns out, the light is what I am. Sinking back behind all the definitions and physical proofs of light, into my mind allowes me to begin to experience the light, as it is, always, already there within me, shining meaning. Ultimately light IS… When the blocks to loves awareness were forgiven, the darkness goes… In sinking inward, to that still point of light at the center of my mind, from which I draw out the world …and then sinking still further where the still point is all there is and light is the embodiment of being, I realize a Holy Self, at one with my brothers already, and one with my Creator. Now, from this place, this quiet stillness I rest, and from there another world is drawn and out pictured…
Forgiveness is our function as the Light of the word … it’s a beautiful sight in gratitudes glow...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Lesson 80~Contemplationshare~

Lesson 80:
Let me recognize my problems have been solved…
One problem ~ One Solution…
The Atonement answered the ‘tiny mad idea at which the Son of God remembered not to laugh’ with the single, unequivocal reason to remember to laugh… Nothing not of God the Father, Creator and therefore creation alike, could leave its source ~ nor could separate off and still exist… Nothing not of God could exist at all… Without the Source of life there is no life. Period. And life is all there is since that is the state of all that is … being only what gave life to it…extending forever and ever being life itself… God… itself.

Ideas leave not their source is a central theme continually revisited in the Course and all other teaching are encompassed within it. If this be true, and reason tells us it is the only possibility, then one must relent and allow what must be, be revealed at some point. Our very being folds us in on ourselves and we soften and open our sight to the fact: God is … And that is all...
Once looked at squarely, all other possibilities simply disappear. Once we accept this one thought that reason proves to us time and time again, how can we really take seriously the “problems”~ big and small which beg to and even seem to require our attention and resolution… It must be that these are dreams and I sleep...
Certainty replaces questioning as re-membe-ring through forgiveness revels the essesnce of what we are in truth beneath the flimsy fabric of the ancient dream, and the dreamer revealed and released. Once seen as the dreamer, they are merely vain imaginings of a dream in which not only can I hardly remember nor find even worth trying to recount, anymore… Anything I seem to drum-up as real, let alone problematic (oh yeah, anything not of God, is, by design, problematic)just can’t get very far with the mind that has accepted the Truth.
I have accepted the Atonement for myself, and here you are with me ~indeed, One Self…
The past is gone and we remember only the loving thoughts forgiveness brings that flesh out the seeming reality of the ‘real world.

Let me attempt to share one such waking-up experience which comes to mind... In a holy instant there was complete release and one recognized the truth. It was so complete during the experience that I forgot the world and self entirely, yet it was a Self so massive and complete, save it to say that this 'Reality' so far supersedes any imagining whatever, that all vein attemppts easily slip away... (I have no point of reference in words I find give me the capability to describe this experience). Yet it is an experience that became what is now an always present ocean of calm waving out the tides of my so-called life ~ it is the way of life... This particular moment, in time, now rising to the forefront of my memory, of which I am referring, was crystallized in the words of the Course lesson I was practicing during my first go-around with the Workbook… Since then I have often said it was one of my favorite lessons, thoroughly aware of the symbolic representation, but nonetheless, so beautiful and powerful are its symbols, I would love to share a brief piece from it now, if you’ll join me here in the solution…
“Truth must be true throughout, if it be true. It cannot contradict itself, nor be in parts uncertain and in others sure. You cannot walk the world apart from God, because you could not be without Him. He is what your life is. Where you are He is. There is one life. That life you share with Him. Nothing can be apart from Him and live…Yet where He is, there must be holiness as well as life. No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives. What lives is holy as Himself, because what shares His life is part of Holiness…The past is gone, with all its fantasies... As you step back, the light in you steps forward and encompasses the world… In lightness and in laughter is sin gone, because its quaint absurdity is seen. It is a foolish thought, a silly dream, not frightening, ridiculous perhaps, but who would waste an instant in approach to God Himself for such a senseless whim? (W-156.3-7)
Let us not waste another instant pretending, together we stand at the gates of Heaven, each holding the key for the other, which in recognition, swings the gates wide open… And this is so because the solution and the problem were brought together ~seeing that only the truth could be true and we are it…

Let us remember our holy heritage, together, this instant and recognize we have been release and all problems have been solved… All Glory to God Who answered every seeming ’whim’ with the all mighty strength and power of Love… Ah, gratitude dissolves me Now… I can’t thank you enough for your doing your part in the ultimate awakening to the Atonement…where God (metaphorically) takes the final step… I am ~so in Love…. thank-you, thank-you, thank-you…

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Lesson 79~ contemplationshare~

Lesson 79:
Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved….
The problem is in the mind that believed it could be separate from its Source, i.e. ‘We think we’re separate from God”. The answer is in the return to Mind, to the remembrance of Who we are: Christ; the holy Son of God, that could not be but what His heritage is… ONE PROBLEM… ONE SOLUTION.
This is too simple for the ego to control in the moment of instantaneous recognition. So keeping one from recognition is essential for ego control. And, awareness of it is of such crucial importance, that the ego will do anything to keep the mind from bringing the problem and resolution together, as keeping these separate (problem and solution) is necessary for its survival, because once brought together, the reality of its having already been solved becomes obvious, and the mind becomes free from the mindless seeking and analyzing intrinsic in the ego thought system… “Seek and do not find”… This is the ego’s secret creed designed to keep the mind too busy with ‘critical, important, life choices, how-to’s, must do’s, rules and regulations, with statistics to consider and probable consequences and rewards, all to be weighed with every choice. And then there’s time; will there be enough, do it now or miss the window…all situations; that if the problem is not focused on, might mean loss, disappointment, even possibly disaster.
Some might say that that is just the way life is, but I would say (from personal experience) that it is the dance of death. It is a slow meting out of life force, rendering one exhausted and looking for any kind of break (once the vital stuff is handled, of course), a brief escape, (perhaps a drink or two, a new romance, a weekend vacation…), futility is death.
Talk about the problem and the solution being found in the same place… Throughout this drama of a so-called life, there is a nagging feeling (what Morpheous in The Matrix referred to as a splinter in your mind) that something is off, something just isn’t right about this life of stealing time and paying for it with guilt and blaming something outside yourself to alleviate the pain intrinsic in guilt, to restore a semblance of innocence to the mind before it goes completely mad…only to repeat the cycle again another day…
There must be a reason we desperately ‘need’ to feel blameless~ released from incrimination~ innocent. Could it be, because, WE ARE! An error is not a sin, regardless of the mass hallucination surrounding it. There is no sin, and only one error...
The Course teaches that there are many answers we have received but have not heard. The solution cannot be accepted until the problem is accurately recognized as being in the mind. This lesson invites us into the first step in releasing the ego temptation to analyze the situation or the appearance and to allow the Holy Spirit to remind us that every problem is a perceptual problem. The course refers to this as ‘looking through the darkened glass, and perceiving a distorted world’. It is a problem with the lens of the projector, which is in the mind, which is where all perception comes from. Projection makes perception. Here’s where the ego really takes over. It gives substantiation to the projection’s validity by telling us,” I’ll take it from here and we’ll figure this out together. Come down here with me and look at the happenings on the screen, get the details right...”
What the miracle does is to allow us to observe this happening in our mind and prompts us to give it over to the Holy Spirit to change the lens. And this formula is good for whatever the problem seems to be in form, until the reassignment of perception is whole. We turn it over to the Holy Spirit, lean back into the easy chair of peace and trust… Trust would settle every problem Now, the Course tells us. This, sometimes this alone has been a true companion for me through the undoing of my identification with “danét”, and the recognition of my identity in God… When all else fails (as all else inevitably will), trust the Holy Spirit to know the true source of the problem and the true source to its answer… Ahh, the peace that comes with this surrender…
This is how I can devote each day to miracles, which means I attempt to approach each situation with the humble awareness that ‘I truly ‘do not know what anything means or what it is for~ but, He does. I’ll leave it to Him Whose role it is to complete the plan of Atonement. And this, in turn, increases my ability to trust. With trust and the evidence of the Holy Spirit~ miracles~ I am no longer afraid to look squarely on the obstacles to Love’s presence... I can approach Truth by being willing to recognize what is false, first.
The course says, “The more you look at fear, the less you see of it.” This has been true for me; it was really all one big boogieman. This is the gift of the Atonement plan; through forgiveness, we identify the problem as the belief in the ego, or separation, which is in the mind, which pulls all projections back to where the solution is. At this point we are ready to look with the Holy Spirit beyond the error entirely… the error is exposed as exactly where it is and what it is in the mind, the error is released~ This is the process of forgiveness and the return to sanity. First we withdraw the projections, then giving all attack thoughts over to the Holy Spirit…
Atonement is answering Yes (that’s, not no) to the last unanswered question; “Do I want to see what I denied because it is the truth?” For me the answer is truly unequivocally ‘YES’! And within this answer I have found that all questions are answered~ leaving me in the still, quiet witness and awareness of our ‘true identity’ as Christ.
It’s easy to see from this clear spacious mind ~ the one decision I must make… I accept the Atonement for myself (which turns out to include us all as ONE). I know this is the one irreversible decision. It means I allow oneness to replace separation, being as the Atonement is the correction to the belief in separation~ that silly little mad idea…The problem in the mind and the Correction have been brought together, and only the correction remains. Illusion has been brought to truth, and the Atonement lights The Truth: Love is real and has no opposite.
So we join together in this prayer; Let us recognize the problem so we can let it be solved and realize… Nothing real can be threatened ~ nothing unreal exists… Hear in lies the Peace of God… and there we are… foreverone~

Monday, March 19, 2007

Lesson 78~ contemplationshare~

Lesson 78:

Let miracles replace all grievances…

It’s always, all or nothing, isn’t it? Either I allow miracles to show me what I see… or I see nothing at all. Sure, I can make the other choice; see bodies and persons and situations and all manner of hierarchical arrangements, and judge them worthy or not of my alignment…. But once again~ I’ve been down that road and I know where it leads… This lesson really invites us into the importance of each other in each other’s lives.
As bodies/persons, I can only see what I have placed there in you (regardless of how unconscious of this, I may be). But why am I able to see even this? Because of Who You Are in Truth~ CHRIST: The Holy Son of God. You are the light in which I see ~and this is always what we are really doing for each other, whether we are aware of it or not. Having forgotten the tiny mad idea we bought into, we now operate from its premise, and don’t recognize what’s right in front of our faces, closer, actually. Here’s sort of a little parable, making its way to me… let’s see how it goes…
Now, due to the nature to create, (being fathered by The Creator and all), and the impulse to express miracles, which is how the Holy Spirit shows up here, an attempt at explanation seems imperative for the authentication of my existence. I made up one up, and I thought it was pretty good, too…
All that I have made (I=ego) is like drawings, writing; points to be made and learned within context of ‘my’ curriculum are like drawn on those clear plastic, flimsy, overhead sheets, to be placed on the overhead projector for the presentation of danét’s so-called life. Without light, all of everything I’ve made, regardless of seeming hours of preparation and effort and substantiating facts, mean nil. Pretty flimsy body, eh? Basically, the sheets containing my presentation are pretty much irrelevant with no light to see… So, indeed my reliance on you is significant, to say the least. If I value my presentation sheets above all else, due to my investment in their creation, what will I do to insure the light? Must I beg, borrow and steal from you for my survival? No…You come willingly… It is your nature. So natural in fact, I am not even aware it comes from you… I take for granted that the light is mine to use as I please. (And, it is.) Now here’s where the decision part comes in. Am I happy with what I’ve made? Does it stand alone in producing happiness for me? Doesn’t a presentation need an audience to corroborate its validity? Let’s test it by the criteria of eternity, shall we? Within this presentation, am I happy; with unfailing surety, unending peace and joy that has no attachments and cannot change? Do I experience love always, in, around, and as me? Is there nothing I want or need? Or do I feel restless, unfulfilled, unworthy and unloved. Do I ‘need something’ – anything? Hummm… release perhaps… loose the world from all I thought it was… I need a new set of overlays. Ones that won’t obscure the changeless experience of my true nature and yours, my brother, who brings this awareness and deliverance to me… that is my only need…my happiness is inherent in it.
Turns out there is another set of overlays, carefully drawn out by the Holy Spirit always present within my mind; correcting each misdirected miracle impulse back to its original purpose, simultaneously with my danét presentation details and purpose (which, by the way, I can’t remember what the purpose I set for it was, of course). After attempting to get the Holy Spirit ‘s overlays to blend with the ones ‘I really liked’ of my so-called life, and failing miserably to meet the criteria of perfect peace, and therefore authenticity and actually ‘reality’, I simply junked the thing in the abyss of nothingness. The decision for me, at last, was to totally trade in every single overlay~ not one that I would keep, for the Holy Spirit’s. Here’s what came with that decision…. A joy so rich it permeates and penetrates and blends with everyone and everything in every situation... I see clearly now that every seeming one of these is a decision about who and what I am. The decision for miracles instead of grievances is a no-brainer (literally), and this discernment shows me the clear purpose of each. I notice that, indeed, as the lesson says, my seeing is reversed as I am allowing sight to be continuous~ unimpeded by judgment, preference, need, and agendas…grievances… I look instead out toward truth, away from fear. I see only Christ ~even if sometimes it is only a background glow ~I am never without awareness of the light and its purpose for truth. This Holy Relationship is ours… Because of What we are, I can see the choice to ‘look again’ and see Christ, my savior-brother, in you; which I had formerly hidden from myself. And there you are, already doing your part in God’s plan. Thank you… The gratitude I feel for you is beyond description, yet I trust you know what I mean… as we are all in this as One. Let’s visit the contemplative ~well really; unrestrained communication~ the exercise in today’s lesson invites us into… “Let us ask of Him Who knows this Son of God in his reality and truth, that we may look on him a different way, and see our savior shining in the light of true forgiveness, given unto us. We ask Him in the holy Name of God and of His Son, as holy as Himself:

"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".
The feeling of blessed oneness is thoroughly uplifting as we blend into our Father’s Will for perfect happiness for us and His plan for its accomplishment. It’s so obvious that our coming together this instant in His Name, WILL NOT BE MISSED, isn’t it…right here…right now… we are the Love we were searching for all along… Turns out, we can only know it together…these excerpts from the text seem apropos to wrap up with…
“Your sight was given you, along with everything that you can understand. You will perceive no difficulty in understanding what this vision tells you, for everyone sees only what he thinks he is. And what your sight would show you, you will understand it is the truth. Only your vision can convey to you what you can see. It reaches you directly, without a need to be interpreted to you.” (T-22.I.4-5)

“And so you and your brother stand, here in this holy place, before the veil of sin that hangs between you and the face of Christ. Let it be lifted! Raise it together with your brother, for it is but a veil that stands between you. Either you or your brother alone will see it as a solid block, nor realize how thin the drapery that separates you now. Yet it is almost over in your awareness, and peace has reached you even here, before the veil. Think what will happen after. The Love of Christ will light your face, and shine from it into a darkened world that needs the light. And from this holy place He will return with you, not leaving it nor you. You will become His messenger, returning Him unto Himself.” (T-22.IV.3)

“How easy is it to offer this miracle to everyone! No one who has received it for himself could find it difficult. For by receiving it, he learned it was not given him alone… hold out your hand, joined with your brother's, and touch this heavy-seeming block, and you will learn how easily your fingers slip through its nothingness. It is no solid wall. And only an illusion stands between you and your brother, and the holy Self you share together”. (T-22.IV.7)

Miracles replace all grievances…

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...