Saturday, October 20, 2007

Lesson 294:

My body is a wholly neutral thing…

Neutral, having no agenda of its own, the body is at the service of where I place my mind. Will I be hostage to the ego or host to God? This is a question served up in the text that I have use throughout my process to zero me back to a place where I could get honest and begin to question the meaning I had given the particular circumstance I was in…

Returning the mind to the service of the Holy Spirit when I had been engaged in body fantasies to hurt myself did not come so easily, for me. I felt: ‘I got myself into this, I better get myself out.’ Shame ruled the day. Even after I had felt the hand of the Holy Spirit on my heart, I still forgot and allowed myself to get totally caught up in body-identity… For the longest time, I saw body importance as a particularly unworthy form of worship that I had become, unfortunately, completely addicted to, and not only the problem, but solving it. It was undeniably a nightmare on the horror scale… but, it was nothing more.

The thing about our nightmares, or dreams of any kind, is that they are not real… and when we wake up, who we are has not been altered in any way. Merely a part of the mind made up another scenario for a second, while we remained as we always were…

The thing for me was that I got tired of being a loser, in the win-lose body world… And what I noticed is that if I stayed out of the body piece of it altogether, like “here, you deal with this. I can’t handle it right now,” and focused exclusively on my mind and returning it to the Holy Spirit; bringing every belief and value I held, up for review and correction, the body identity dropped away, as spirit identity took its place.

What interests me now about the body is how and if it is useful in communicating with my brothers and our communing with our Father… I am all about the love and how we can drop the façade and experience our Self as we truly are as God created…

Please join me in today’s lesson’s prayer:

“The body, Father, cannot be Your Son. And what is not created cannot be sinful nor sinless; neither good nor bad. Let us, then, use this dream to help Your plan that we awaken from all dreams we made.”

Friday, October 19, 2007

Lesson 293:

All fear is past. And only love is here…

All fear is past. Now that’s an interesting statement. And one that I overlooked for the longest time… Actually, until I was no longer under the influence of fear; gone sober in the face of Love, if you will… completely died to time and in the brilliant reality of now… and the all that remained was LOVE; pure, incessant, constant Love…

Here’s what I noticed; when I no longer valued fear, it was no where to be found. In awakening to now; to Love’s ever-present awareness, I realized that I had been so ‘hooked’ on fear as a means of organizing my life that I had come to rely on it from the subtle to the bold; from restlessness and boredom, from to irritation and out-right anger, to anxiety, guilt and downright immobilization… I was absolutely dependent… Now, of course I didn’t know I was sourcing myself to death instead of life… That’s the thing about addiction; denial is the primary symptom… I had denied my Self, my love and my Life-Source, which incidentally, remained safe, untouched by the false, in the one place where fear could not go~ the present moment… right here, right now…

Stop everything; everything you thought you knew or believed up to this moment~ empty out completely and join me right here, right now, in this present moment… Feel it… Love is so REAL it cannot be missed. It radiates within and throughout; collapsing all previous ideas of what the moment might hold, into what Love would have it be…

It is so compelling and so natural and it feels so yummy; the natural devotion to each other rises up and guides us in our holy encounter… How glorious it is to no longer believe fear’s lies… to place anything that seems or attempts to make real, what could never be, or tries to wedge its way into love’s unending peace, is seen as an opportunity to forgive and join…

Love is the opening of our eye; our sight, and the light that shines upon our day today, for fear is past…

”Father, let Your holy world escape our sight today. Nor let our ears be deaf to all the hymns of gratitude the world is singing underneath the sounds of fear. There is a real world which the present holds safe from all past mistakes. And we would see only this world before our eyes today.”

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Lesson 292:

A happy outcome to all things is sure…

This is another way of saying the Atonement. God created us in perfect joy. Here’s my experience and awareness…

All of us know what its like to feel really happy; that kind of joy that fosters oneness. The kind of happiness that makes you feel like you’re going to burst from the seams with such appreciation and bliss, that you just can’t keep it to yourself… you must share it… you, your joy and whomever you share with, just deserve it. And the funny part is, that if a so-called current loved one isn’t available at that moment to share with, we give up all selectivity, and gab whoever, and maybe everyone to share with, and share and share and share…. Don’t we…

This is the very nature of creation. God in the Joy of His Love, extended Himself forth, and bingo~ His Son, us, created just like Him…

Sure, we’ve made-up and played-out some twisted, upside-down scenarios in our dreams… like this dream of separation, scarcity and fear, i.e. the world. And sure, we placed, as it is our nature, our faith in what we made… because, we are like our Father in attitude~ due to what we are in truth. And God has perfect faith in all His creations.

So, in answer to the dream of separation, scarcity and fear, God instilled the Atonement principle, which is the remembrance of our full abundance, within the mind of the Son, (Holy Spirit) forever prompting us, through the way we feel, to gently awaken us, to the truth…

This ‘splinter-in-the-mind’, as the Matrix calls it, that something is not right, that we feel, all the time, in the background of everything in our lives… We feel it haunting us… well, really unless we are feeling that joyous happiness we just referred to, actually.

We pray for miracles (in whatever way we might pray, often disguised even to ourselves) to rid us of that frightening off-ness we experience… and we receive them in a new perception, seeing something we never notice before in a situation that weaves meaning to it or a characteristic in the ‘other guy’ that brings familiarity and therefore compassion…

And the miracles collapse time, giving us a sense that time itself isn’t quite what we once thought…Each miracle makes us feel connected to everyone involved and the sense that we just might be wrong about how we are viewing the world; that we might have more ‘in-common’ that un-common.

Then we notice that our entire perception is doing an about-face; the things we used to care about, have lost there meaning and what matters is the joy of loving ones brother as Oneself…

As we finally accept the Atonement for ourselves, we begin experiencing the ‘happy outcome to all things’ as a sort of pre-empting of the opportunity to forgive. And the ‘real’ and happy purpose of the world, to use it to correct our unbelief, finally has come to be our way of life… We are letting love tell us what to do, where to go, the words to use, people to see, and circumstances; forgiving and joining… Yes! A happy out come to all things is sure! It certainly is…

Remember this guide from the beginning of the text:

“All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:

Perfect love casts out fear.
If fear exists,
Then there is not perfect love.

But:

Only perfect love exists.
If there is fear,
It produces a state that does not exist.

Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.” (T-1.VI.5)

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

8. What is the real world?

This section of takes the hand of those whom are ready, and gently steps beyond the world of hell, once so familiar and unquestioned and accepted as real, shedding it like lovers clothes, allowing trust to answer every question and eyes of forgiveness to rest upon all things…

This is a glorious time in the curriculum, for we are more identified with the truth, more comfortable with the happy dream as home than the antiquated script of fear, the competition for control, and death. Joyously I invite you into my every thought… The fantasy of private minds and special relationships have been replace by the compellingly appealing beauty of the face of Christ, our oneness, and the mighty chorus of love’s gratitude…

Each of the lessons in this section gives a touchstone in which to rest in the real world without resistance, re-membering our home in Heaven, Now…

Lesson 291:

This is a day of stillness and of peace…

This is the zero point ~ the touchstone. The place we begin and end our day. If we don’t start here, what can we expect? The goal belongs at the outset… We dump all thoughts that try to tell us what the day is about into the Holy Spirit’s hands and rest in stillness and peace… We need do nothing; we have released our agendas because trust is now our guide… Inspiration moves us to action, yet we remain still and peaceful within the center of our being... And what we do today we do joyously from this place of inner knowing that whatever it is, it is for the good of all…

Let’s launch this day, by joining in the lesson’s prayer:

“This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me.”


Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Lesson 290:

My present happiness is all I see…

This is what I notice; there is no place but here. There’s no such thing as better or worse, I am no longer interested in ‘improving’ the dream. All those old stand-by’s validate time for changing are now seen as silly delay tactics employed by a false identity to hang on as long as it could. The thing is, that that identity was false. It never actually had a place in the mind of God’s Son, save it be dreaming… I have lost interest in figuring anything out. I don’t care about the story and only stories feel something which seems different than love; happiness peace and oneness…

I have seen that there is no way to do it right … or wrong… there’s no place and nothing to get… The Atonement answered the idea of separation completely! Simply by accepting the Atonement for myself, the goal is changed. I am interested only in God’s Will, which is my will, for perfect happiness for all, and what I see is how the Holy Spirit orchestrates every minute detail for ever one to complete in our awareness the accomplishment of the universal experience of happy truth…

When the seeking was done, and my happiness was felt exclusively within; the joy present was the presence of Self, everywhere and in everyone…

The past and future have no home here. In my here/now, only the present lives and gives life; in other words, Love’s presence and my awareness and identification with it. I have no interest in what yesterday means and when I notice a conversation going in that direction, the obvious red-flag question arises: for what possible reason would we reference past, whatever’s? To substantiate now? The past is gone and what it seemingly contains that we would apparently discuss, are the dynamics of a time/space continuum which has no basis in reality… The present is complete, Now, stands on its own. The present is where forgiveness sees past the current dream-character identification into the ever-present eyes of love; giving and receiving as one… And it is always, already, a state of happy enough-ness…

My present happiness is all I see because any variation on that, is merely an opportunity to fulfill my function of forgiveness, which instantly puts me in touch with my function of perfect happiness present now…

I accept the Atonement as my only function here and everything is enough. The certainty of the peace of God yield no need… I can no longer see any ‘needs improvement’ signs.


Monday, October 15, 2007

Lesson 289:

The past is over. It can touch me not…

Is there anything that can seemingly be experienced as fear, or pain, or negativity, save it be the droll dirge of the ever-resuscitated past dragged into present mind? I think not. False Evidence Appearing Real…

There is no fear in love, and love is the natural and ‘real’ state of the Son of God… That’s us. The self concept requires time in which to develop and improve itself. Clue~ can what God created perfect and complete, actually need development or improvement? Could that possibly be? No! What is perfect cannot be rendered imperfect… period!

So whatever it is that I am telling myself “I will do better next time” about, can’t possibly be real… What I’m seeing instead is what I am believing. And I am apparently believing in the small fragment of ‘false-mind’ sectioned out and place under the microscope of dense perception, viewing merely an appearance; a concept of a self that is part of an entire false thought system of illusion made to feel solid by a concept called time and space … What interests me is NOW! The eternal vastness of Self, present and indefinable and unmistakable when fully present~ here and now~

I’m fascinated with the mind… fascinated with that which facilitates access to Mind within my so-called personal mind experience; the small contracted areas as well as the expanded. Forgiveness is that key…

Through forgiving the past and with it my attachment to its meanings, the Holy Spirit within mind unfolds true meaning through true perception; gently puzzle-pieces together coherent, understandable, shining brilliant ideas and awareness’s, resulting in experiences of unity and peace where aloneness and fear once reigned…

What a joy it is to watch the show from the huge, wild mind of love… the dreamer of the dream of past and its simulated spawn; future and the brilliant forgiveness of it…

This is forgiveness’s gift… a quiet dis-identification with past belief’s concepts which receive the miracle and bless all concerned, allowing me to fulfill my function of perfect happiness through the Atonement, here, now…in Heaven where I am at home...

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Lesson 288:

Let me forget my brother’s past today…

How joyous it is to be present! Each holy moment is all moments, each encounter holy… We have our being in this moment, right here, right now… This is why it is imperative to accept the Atonement for ourSelf; offer our little willingness to the miracle and let forgiveness heal our sight… And oh my gosh, for me, the beauty of our brother which reveals itself as I have shed the false identity I placed him under… when the only goal is to see the face of Christ… and, as I increasingly loosened my attachment to guilt and its bed-partner shame, which kept the personhood identity alive in my mind and therefore in us both, as I look in the mirror of your eyes; I see but my own true face… And the past is nowhere to be found…

The groovy thing about forgiveness is that it truly acts as ‘past-memory-eraser… As wounds heal and dissolve into the healed perspective, the specifics of a given circumstance become vague and certainly usurped by the unifying balm of oneness. Hurt feelings have no meaning and what seemed to separate is, instead seen as a necessary re-membering of each aspect of the Sonship’s holy glory in truth…

Sanity and Joy and unity and all-ness replace ancient stories of nothingness, disguised as separate persons and things in a chaotic world that makes no sense… And peace pervades as the background music… always!

Let us forget our brother’s past today. Let’s be honest, is not worth keeping, once the goal of truth is set… Let’s instead, join in offering today’s prayer:

This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. I cannot come to You without my brother. And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. My brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You. My brother is my savior. Let me not attack the savior You have given me. But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that It is my own.