Lesson 352:

Judgment and love are opposites. From one come all the sorrows of the world. But from the other comes the peace of God Himself…

All of us actually know this simple truth and know it in actuality… Every time we judge, we can feel our heart constrict, yes? And in that instant of judgment, we can not feel the love we have, nor the love we are….

Pick a judgment; any judgment. Now try to hang on to that judgment as reality and feel the love that you are, simultaneously… Can’t be done, can it? Now, feel the deepest love you can within yourself; whether you identify this with your relationship with Self, with God, your children, Jesus, or whatever… just rest there in that yummy place of peace within~ This is the present moment~ the presence of God… Now try to judge, and stay in touch with that feeling of now… Doesn’t work, does it?

Judgment is a characteristic of time; founded in fear and fleshed out in memory… We simply have to leave the present to get to it…

The Course tells us that we don’t need judgment to organize our lives and that the letting go of judgment is the obvious prerequisite for hearing the Voice for God… We need but be still and present an instant… Then love will direct our actions …

When we can let all things be exactly as they are, we easily live in the now; in the presence of love…

There is now way to get love. Love is what we are, and therefore love is the way! Simply Love Now! And the rest will fall into place for the good of all…

Lesson 347:

Anger must come from judgment. Judgment is the weapon I would use against myself, to keep the miracle away from me…

All judgment is self judgment. Every decision we make in our live is based on what we believe we are. Am I what I made of myself through the criteria of judgments the ego laid out? In other words, am I a body in a world of survival of the fittest...

Or, am I as God created me through extending His Love? Which would make me, basically, Love; the essence of life itself… What I decide determines what I will see. In the former, my perception comes after manifestation; leaving me at the mercy of what shows up and therefore what is available as far as resources goes, to make do the best I can to survive and hopefully, be happy…. In this scenario~ the more ‘stuff’, the better the success … Sounds pretty tenuous and insecure to me…

With the latter, identifying myself as the Son, which God created as Himself, my perception develops from within; taking form from the meaning or purpose of the situation. So what I see is part of me… and the purpose of life itself… The particulars of any circumstance or chain of events are seen as relevant only in so much as they serve the relationship to each other… Here, happiness rules, because it is not dependent on a state other than Now… Patience and certainty are present, because nothing is missing, for oneness is known.

The miracle allows us to make that shift from fantasy to reality in God; to see the false as false and only the truth as true... to experience our unity with each other as well as our oneness with Creator and creation.

This lesson is reminding us that when we experience anger of any kind, we have flip-switched to the false, attacking our true identity…And that by that decision, we are keeping the miracle at arms length… Luckily, at this stage of the game, we are generally quick to realize our error because any lack of peace is becoming increasingly intolerable. Plus, we know the restoration of peace and joy is just decision for forgiveness, away…

We judge because we’re afraid to trust. However, what we know now, is that this need not be. And we are willing to give up our defense against love and let anger dissolve into this instant where we are willing to listen… and in that stillness, we recognize the gentle Voice for God assuring us that He has judged… and that we are the Son He loves…

Lesson 333:

Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here….

I was always one to attempt to avoid conflict. These attempts were ultimately futile. This world is conflict materialized, yes? It was designed by a cunning mad idea that postured a ‘reality’ in opposition to all that is; where Oneness is no more. In its place there reigns a hierarchy of orders and levels. Levels of ‘specialness’ and scarcity determine ones value and survival… where there are beginnings and endings. The end and the king is death; the ultimate proof of defeat.

This of course requires bodies to house this idea and to ‘give life to death’, yes? I know it sounds a bit insane when seen with any reason. But then, that’s precisely why we attempt to avoid looking at all, let alone with the Mind of reason; the Mind we share, untainted, whole, and free. ~ No more shadow boxing!

The Course tells us: “Forgiveness is the healing of the perception of separation… The Holy Spirit’s function is to take the broken picture of the Son of God and put the pieces into place again. This Holy picture, healed entirely, does He hold out to every separate piece that thinks it is a picture in itself. To each He offers His identity, which the whole picture represents… The willingness to let illusions go is all the Healer of God Son requires….”

This Mind where we are always already united as one through the Holy Spirit is always already present ~we can’t loose it. It is not in conflict and is joyously fulfilling the function of implementing the Atonement, as long as any part of the mind of God’s Son serves itself up to the remedial rumination of the time/space separation idea….

Here’s what I finally saw: the key to all resolution in this world is beyond this world… Forgiveness allows me to look square on at where I seem to experience conflict and to allow the reason that sings deep within, that permeates and resonates till I can feel the truth that is all ways calling me back to point zero. Forgiveness is sort of a mechanism to shake me just enough to see that it isn’t just that I’m choosing to see conflict, but that a thought system that see conflict where there is none could not be real. ‘Only illusions battle; and only with them selves…’ which, now I recognize as simply more of the same original mad idea that one could separate from one’s Source… That idea can’t do anything else… that’s why the dream… It’s not possible in reality, where all is one… This oneness is the healed perception of Christ vision which is ours. It is always available to me I notice, as soon as I am fully willing to hide nothing… Now, this makes for much easier viewing because you’re looking at it exactly as it is, where it is thought to be, in the reality which has been given it, and with the purpose that the mind accorded it.

Illusion is where conflict and all its bedfellows live. ~I do not ~I am above the battleground; forgiving and healing the mind that thought it was here… ~For I am as God created me, still exactly free ~to dream of conflict or not. I accept the Atonement and all my dream of conflict are transformed through forgiveness because their premise now is seen. No compromise is possible. Premise; where one appears, the other disappears. And which you share becomes the only one you have. You have the one that you accept, because it is the only on you wish to have…. Why would I defend against a shadow? Now I let it be…The false is false. Period. And only the truth is true. Period. Accepting the Atonement for yourself means not to give support to someone’s dream of sickness or death. It means that you share not his wish to separate, and let him turn illusion on himself…

The miracle is the premise metamorphosis the Atonement principle insists ... Forgiveness is it’s lamp to access the light of truth and truth shines in its wake and whatever ‘it’ was, disappears…

LESSON 316:

All gifts I give my brothers are my own…

You know how sometimes it seems like you finally handled some burdensome circumstance of your life; have offered forgiveness to a particular brother or a particular situation, or perception even~ just to feel blindsided when seemingly the same problem, at least something almost like it, happens all over again? Back in the day, I took this quite personally. I told myself things like, “Something’s deficient in my spiritual program, I’m not doing it right”, etc., etc… This used to really frustrate me! That was until I realized and accepted the reason for it. And just why the similar ‘problematic’ concept serves itself up all over again…

Not only did I not want the problem; including the lack of peace that always characterized the conflicting state called “problem", which in itself offers a direct view into what I believe I am, and where I’m operating from at the time of my judgment… but, and importantly, because I can’t identify with my Self in this state.

It is not who I am in truth and the very act of ‘taking issue’ means I have forgotten and need reminding. There’s no other way home. And we do this until all spit thoughts are forgiven and all is seen with love…This is the condition of the Atonement. My responsibility is 100% accountability, at all times, to choose it for myself.

When I deny the actuality of the state I’m experiencing; when I think there’s a problem, and actually think there is an issue “out there” to resolve, it is simply a tap on the shoulder or slap in the face (whatever’s needed, eh?), which says, “Wake up! You’re dreaming and believe the dream is dreaming you”.

“Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. It is not difficult to change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized”. (T-27.14.1-2) Always, what I’m dealing with boils down to the authority problem. It’s an authorship issue. ‘Taking issue’ is a symptom of the one problem: I think I am separate from God, (and all else): the same authority problem which fathered and characterizes the not-real world. So this is actually a gift to have show up so can look it square in the eyes and see its folly.

The seemingly, ‘previously forgiven issue’, apparently shows back up so I can see that I had my interpretation on what forgiveness was before. I know this because I had an idea of a result from my being forgiving, that would be give me the state of peace not available during ‘the problem’. ‘I’ don’t get to decide… and… There is no future peace! Peace is right here, right now! It is the natural state of my being.

Only from allowing myself to be present with it NOW, can I then let that state, where the Holy Spirit’s voice can be heard, to direct me as to the gifts I give, etc.

How convoluted is the ego’s idea of gift giving, yes? it’s always giving to get~ even if it’s to get spiritual enlightenment, yeah?

All gifts I give my brothers are my own… Due to the holographic nature of the universe, this is going be the case whether I choose littleness; to be hostage to the ego (disguised as ‘The Boss’), or host to God and accept my magnitude. From magnitude I can afford to look at the contradictions in my thought system and not take them personally, as with the littleness character; they’re just beliefs to be forgiven… they are impossible incompatibilities in the flow of peace~ blocks to Loves awareness~ not the truth. “I” don’t know what a gift is, what it’s for or when, how or to whom to give it~ not left to my own devices, that is.

This whole universe of separate special-nesses was the best ego/I could come up with. Here, every gift comes at the price of peace. So, for me, a good guide is to enter the day with the miracle worker’s prayer on my mind-lips:

“I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him Who sent me. I do not have to worry about what to say of what to do, because He Who sent will direct me. I am content to be wherever He whishes, knowing He goes there with me. I will be healed as I let Him teach me to heal.” (T-2.18)

Now, whatever seems to show up~ peace is merely as close as my willingness. So too, is the reminder from the Holy Spirit to “Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the world, or would remain in hell, and hold your brothers there.”… For He has come, and He is asking… (T-VIII.5-6).

Let’s join in the prayer for today’s lesson in communion with all our brothers through the Holy Spirit and God the Father as one:

“Father, I would accept Your gifts today. I do not recognize them. Yet I trust that You Who gave them will provide the means by which I can behold them, see their worth, and cherish only them as what I want”. Thanks for the gift of joining in a unified purpose…

Lesson 296:

The Holy Spirit speaks through me today…

Like yesterday’s lesson, today’s lesson represents the decision to accept the Atonement for our Self… And in practice, that means that we set the goal for truth at the outset of the day, dropping all defenses that tell us that we know the meaning of what it beholds. We then step back into the vast peace of trust and let the Holy Spirit give us the meaning in each and every circumstance as the fresh single moment that is, arises… We understand that do not know what anything is, or how to be, without His Voice giving us the meaning we need in each single now, where truth is always found… For the Holy Spirit is our Self. We are united in one Self and we chose to teach only what we want to learn. And what we want is truth…

The body-mind mechanism is now a superb vehicle for the communication of love from brother to brother. We can trust that what we say will be for the good for all, since our voice has been consecrated for truth and given to the Holy Spirit today… Forgiveness is the benchmark of our relationships and love is the experience…

Please join me in this prayer:

“The Holy Spirit needs my voice today, that all the world may listen to Your Voice, and hear Your Word through me. I am resolved to let You speak through me, for I would use no words but Yours, and have no thoughts which are apart from Yours, for only Yours are true. I would be savior to the world I made. For having damned it I would set it free, that I may find escape, and hear the Word You holy Voice will speak to me today…”

7. What is the Holy Spirit?

I love that the Holy Spirit within our minds is and has always been, (since the beginning of time when it became necessary, that is) right there, reinterpreting, healing, and forgiving our misguided dreaming and believing…. Cuz as soon as one is finished with the game of bunkers-hill and quits the futile effort of making God an object of ‘competition for control’, and the wrong-mind is surrendered; right here, right now, is the Holy Spirit Voice, already, as always, righting the perception of one’s so called life and filling the listener with peace…

This is certainly my experience. When I became willing to recognize that I had been wrong… about everything, I realized that the Holy Spirit, which was the right answer, had been there all along, in the midst of every situation and circumstance. I had simply placed on my attention on false ideas instead of truth (placed on the inner alter) death instead of eternal life, fear instead of love, and therefore, that was the experience it rendered in place of Love and God…

What a relief! For me, the more I got into the forgiveness thing, the more I saw how very little my character is required to do to fulfill my function in God’s plan for salvation. My willingness, it turns out, ~whatever that level of willingness might be at the time, is enough, and will be used. For that matter, any and every thing I offer will be used… For it is the Holy Spirit that bridges the gap from what has already been accomplish in God and my recognition of completion in Him. In other words, it is the mere decision see instead of dream that changes for me, all situations into the “call from Love to Love that it be itself”… strangers to brothers and earth to Heaven…

Lesson 281:

I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts…

Boy, you really get this awareness up close and personal as you begin the active practice of mind-watching, forgiving and seeing differently, yes?!! What a blessing to see that we are not what we once imagined, and that no one else was either, but rather that we are all joined in a unified purpose to bring to awareness, Love’s eternal presence…

Today’s lesson prayer is a perfect reminder of the truth. Please join me in recognizing and aligning:

“Father, Your Son is perfect. When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am, and that I am as You created me. Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness. if ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The Thoughts I think with You can only bless. The Thoughts I think with You alone are true…”

In joy~

Lesson 275:

God’s healing Voice protects all things today…

Ultimately, I have no concerns… The Voice for God speaks to me, as with my brothers, all the time. Beneath the dynamic surface skin of time and space and persons and events, the calm assurance of perfection speaks to me; directing my thoughts, guiding my actions, healing my misperceived waves of unbelief, imbuing all seeming situations with the love of my being… the unifying Self which each brother and circumstance mirrors back to me.

Turns out it is easier to hear than I ever dreamed when I started this so-called journey of awakening… for it is the one constant… The Voice for God, quietly, powerfully, calling me to return home… And the feeling is nothing short of peaceful; a calm assurance that perfection is… and nothing can impede upon what God created.

I am as God created me… This statement, in short, represents the Word of God and the Atonement guaranteed that we would all remember fully~ the truth. So what is there to worry about? We can’t do it wrong… The Holy Spirit will correct all errors within our mind; reinterpret any misperceived situation and offer forgiveness’s picture of oneness instead…

My one job, so to speak, is to choose but God’s healing Voice instead of pain; be host to God rather than hostage to the ego… What do I have to loose? Nothing (literally). The ego voice (fingernails on chalkboard) really never had my best interests in mind… No, it had it own survival at stake, made real for me by my belief in it. My mistake was believing this to be myself… I was merely wrong~ about everything… What I found, was that in the surrender of thinking I know, the Voice for God obvious. It was clear and certain and constant… I can’t imagine how I ever missed it…

We can afford to give up control and lean back and let the Voice for God lead the way. Let today be a day where we look for the ways that God’s healing Voice protects all things with certainty and love in all our perceptions and encounters…

Lesson 254:

Let every voice but God’s be still in me…

“Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. In deepest silence I would come to you, to hear Your Voice and receive Your Word. I have no prayer but this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. And truth is but Your Will, which I would share with You today.”

I just love that prayer… It’s like my theme mantra…

This is it! This is the only thing I want; the only thing that matters: the truth, unrestricted. The truth is the only thing of interest to me anymore. I’ve been around the block, only to return to but one real place of peace and joy ~The state of total empty willingness (which turns out to be a fullness of wholeness that is joy and peace; the One, the Only) …

Now, from this vantage point, I simply do not care about appearance’s particulars, my interest is only on the love that flows, unimpeded throughout…nothing else can hold my attention… Sure, at times it distracts me for a moment, but it can’t hold my attention for long. I am always aware that ‘it’ is not my Self, but merely an out-picturing of a belief I had kept secret from my awareness until now, which I am currently prepared to offer to forgiveness’s gentle light. In other words, a call from truth for truth… the seat of my being…

The feeling of being truth is the only home found within this world of appearances and beliefs. And it is arrived at when we discontinue placing our attention on the false. And as it gently slips from our mind, only the Voice for God can be heard. And find that we already rest where we never left, as One truth; from which all fantasy; time and space. and subject and object, is but a speck that comes and goes, but by our will.…

Today we would but share only God’s Will, which is our own. Could we remain this one day in the zero-point of creation along with God and heed not to the specks that float by? We will be directed very specifically, per our part in God’s plan for salvation, as will each and every brother. So, why not, what’s to be concerned with? Ah, the peace…

Let every voice but God’s be still in me…

Lesson 237:

Now would I be as God created me…

Christ is my eyes today, and He the ears that listen to the Voice for God today. Father, I come to You through Him Who is Your Son, and my true Self as well. Amen.

Umm, this is the perfect touchstone to broach the day, is it not? We remember, or rather, place at the forefront of our mind, the fact; that we are, and only can be, as God created. From this vantage, one has set the mind right; answering to the call for joy which is the Holy Spirit within the mind, as the single guide for today’s perception and expression of life.

Now we lean back and trust…

At this stage of the curriculum, we have consistently, continually, practiced the art/habit of engaging with God… and we recognize that our bad habit of misdirection and distraction from the truth; getting caught up in body-mind fantasies and being right, etc., was just part of the ‘one error’ that has already been corrected, through the Atonement; which the miracle has shown us through our forgiveness…

So on a very intimate level, we are prepared for this day, where we forget what we made of ourselves and universe and allow Christ within to give us our experience, instead...

Imagine if you will, that you see only love, as far as your eyes can see, in every circumstance or situation, you see only the exchange of love unto itself; the call and the answer, equal in their joyous exchange. Imagine being the light that shines on and through… Imagine that everyone you come in contact with feels like family; the warmest of familiar safety and belonging you have ever felt. Imagine that you have a direct and permanent line to the Voice of Truth and you are certain in every way… Imagine that you are the gift, the giver, and the receiver of life itself…

Today, we will have this day, for it is already given:

Now would we be as God created us…

Lesson 214:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

I place the future in the Hands of God.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

We always hear, and maybe even say; now is all there is… Now is the only moment in which we can truly live. How real is that for us? Will we, this day, this moment, place the ‘future’ in the Hands of God? Apparently, it wasn’t ours to begin with. So what’s the beef? I know, in my own experience of this so-called life, that the very deference to timeline; past, now, future, places me in a position of impotence, ~now~. I can’t make a legitimate decision about what is and what I want to do with it, from the reference vantage of the past/now/future. Because, time and space are meant to be used in service of Spirit; which is only~ now. What I’ve seen, is that when I am attempting to make decisions based on what I have learned in the past, I am really attempting to not decide. I am attempting to not be accountable for right here, right now.

This is the way the ego mind likes it; use guilt from the past and threats and promises about the future, to seduce my mind in to relinquishing its decision making power. I know. I have fallen prey to its seductive antics; feared them, and believed them, and gave myself temporarily to their addictive pull…. It was nothing, in the end. It was death. Which too, turned out to be ‘nothing’...

“I am responsible for what I see.

I choose the feelings I experience, and I decide upon the

goal I would achieve.

And everything that seems to happen to me I ask for,

And receive as I have asked”... (T-.21.11)

When I place my decision making in the service of Spirit; this present moment becomes fully alive for me, and all manner of resources seem to appear within my field of vision, which previously alluded me. Also, I am unconcerned about the so-called future; I know that no accident or chance is possible within the universe as God created it, ~outside of which is nothing. I decide for happiness, now; I give the power of decision to the Holy Spirit, Whom is consecrated by God to decide for God for me.

Yes… I place the future in the Hands of God, for in the now, I feel my Self; alive and creative:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

What God gives can only be for good. And I accept but what He gives as what belongs to me…

Lesson 213:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

The truth is true and only the truth is true. This is the simple lesson which is at the core of all the miracles, or lessons God would have us learn in place of we made that hurts. Simplicity is very difficult to twisted minds, so a restorative of peace, from judgment, is necessary for us to hear the Voice for God.

God’s Will for us is perfect happiness.

The course tells us to learn to be a happy learner. And that to do so, we must give everything to the Holy Spirit, so we can see that what we valued was really ‘nothing’. And, it says ‘be not content with nothing, for you have believed that nothing would content you. It is not so’. This surrender of everything is the beginning of our learning the joyous lessons that come quickly on the firm foundation that truth is true.

Every lesson is one that teaches us what false beliefs we have peopled our world with and where healing can heal our misperceptions. So the first guide to realize a lesson God would have us learn is right here, right now, is that we aren’t feeling perfectly happy. Yes? The next obvious step is stop doing whatever it is that we are currently identifying with, seeing it must be false if we are not happy, and recognizes the opportunity to choose once again. We forgive and see things differently. Previously perceived difficulties become simplicity seen as the lesson God would have us learn. And the miracle replaces all error in our minds.

Anytime we think that what is happening is about persons and bodies and things, and time and space; we have another opportunity to recognize that God’s lesson is within this very situation, if we but ask for the miracles we are entitled to. No matter what the situation may seem to be, within it lies the truth:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am still as God created me…

Lesson 210:

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

I choose the joy of God instead of pain…

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

Here’s something I have learned. I can not hear the Voice for God from a pain point of reference. As long I am in pain; as long as I am thoroughly immersed in my belief in the state of pain; whether it be seemingly physical pain or emotional pain or mental pain (well, it’ all really mental now, isn’t it), no matter how sincere I ask for help, the answer eludes me. I have already the experience I want to be real for me ~ pain. And pain and the joy of God simply cannot occupy the same place.

I simply must choose again. It requires but an instant of suspended thought that I know what is, and the desire to see things differently. And that is enough. I have place the key in the door of the new perspective and the Holy Spirit within my mind unlocks and swings wide open the floodgates of my true nature of Love and the joy of God.

Now my seeming pain can be seen for what it is: a forgiveness lesson; merely as misperception about who I am and why I am here. And healing can begin.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know it is a constant redirect process sometimes (a lot of times) because the seeming pain has got a sufficient hold, through practiced belief, in my mind. But that is just what it is: a practiced skill; the skill of shutting off the flow of joy that is my true Self. And mastering a skill does not change who one is in truth.

I am not a body. I am free.

For I am as still as God created me.

Period.

The rest is the restoration of the mind of God’s Son to the truth; unearthing every false thought ever believed and re-member-ing the authentic Self within it; re-uniting all the pieces within one holographic instant of prefect peace as the complete whole we are as one…

Today, let us let joy rip and listen to the Voice for God in gratitude and love for all our brother and our Self…

Lesson 199:

I am not a body. I am free…

The Course speaks to the Self that is not a body. It speaks a language that this ‘beyond Self’ is somehow familiar with and drawn to in indefinable way. And yet, for some of us, it is so compelling, that the ‘real’ it points to becomes the only honest direction we can possibly take; and still face ourselves and our lives from its on-coming forward…

It is the infinite, inward journey; exposing its vastness as we expose the false in the light of truth. It is the journey of de-body-ing. Where once the body, and therefore the world at large, was a stable comfort zone, the recognition of Spirit within uncovers its instability in light of an indelible beacon of truth within. Within, we find a Self we perhaps weren’t aware was there, but nonetheless, recognize its works in bringing us this far. Reality as we knew it begins to take on a sort of dematerializing essence as our framework starts to shift. We begin to uncover that ‘reality’s’ solid nature was proportionate to our belief that it was true and that what we see out-pictured, was first in our mind, made solid by our attention to it. As we begin to question every belief and value we ever held, we see the body is the central theme of all the false, and beyond the construct of bodies, we find the truth.

For me, its pull to return home, to the seat of freedom within mind, where the Holy Spirit resides is so overwhelmingly compelling, that absolutely, as the Star Trek saying goes; “Resistance is futile”.

When I recognized the light within, it was so brilliantly true that I had a sense that if looked at it too long; it might burn off all that I now knew myself to be. I think I was right. “The Incredible Lightness of Being” can not be seen with the body’s eyes. But it can be brought to light through the body, when the body is used as a communication devise for truth. The Holy Spirit brings us on a much more gentle path of awakening, one in which we can get our footing back after the upset to our belief structure at each step along the way.

Somewhere inside we all remember and really know that bodies are not what we are in truth. Although we may not have a ‘solid fix’ on who we are in truth, our faith draws as forward and inward toward the match with the great Love in which we have our being. Free-mind lights our way as we practice, in gratitude, today’s lesson:

I am not a body, I am free. I hear the Voice That God has given me, and it is only this my mind obeys…

Thank for joining in…

Lesson 194:

I place the future in the Hands of God…

When I came to this lesson with an mind and heart, where I no longer cared to ‘understand’ what it meant with my strategic mind, I noticed in the core of my being the response to this was: “Whew, take it off my hands, p l e a s e. . . I am no longer interested.”

Now this brings me to discuss this topic from a miracle-received place. And if I were to describe, in worldly terms, a statement that encapsulates the freedom and ease that has come to me as a result of placing my future in the Hands of God’, it would be that, ‘ I don’t really care’. I don’t. It’s as simple as that. The truth is, I haven’t really cared for a long time. Scratch that~ ever! I don’t care what the future brings. I’m never going to see it.

I am interested in my happiness, right here, right now.

Truthfully, it’s the only thing I’m capable of…this present moment, always.

Every manner of twisted, so-called self-sacrificing, self-depreciating, other-focused, self-focused, acting out of beliefs, no matter how convoluted they may seem to a semi-sane mind; when it gets down to it, some place, somehow, I signed-on to a belief that x-amount of x was necessary for happiness. I acted out of the belief in scarcity and that the rights to happiness were earned through hard work, sacrifice, guilt and worry. Or, I stole moments of fabricated relief and called them, happy- times, knowing the fraudulency of my actions; justifying and attempting to rationalize legitimately, dodging the bullet at every turn… and so on. All to be happy, now.

You know, bottom-line, all the twisting and turning, I fondly refer to as my so-called life, find its roots in one belief: that I am a separate being, existing in a world of time and space. Now, with this kind of lonely start, add a list of all possible defenses and offense maneuvers for survival as necessary components. And it all plays out as a grand competition with God for control. ~ arrh, the compulsion to feel in control~ As if…

Well, anyway, it sounds ridiculous when I try to talk about it now…

I place the future in the Hands of God…

I, through the Holy Spirit within my mind, and the course’s suggestion, am developing the habit of engaging with God in acceptance of my identity in Him as a way of dealing with the time-construct. I choose being present, now, in the place of the self-identity, past-future construct. And when I loose my way and real-ize a particular ‘care’, it is easily seen differently when given over to the lens of forgiveness… I love the way it works, I am never without the deep abiding joy that comes with placing the future in God’s Hands… I can so relate to this lesson and feel the workings of transformation taking place within;

E.g. from today’s lesson:

“Accept today’s idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. Accept today’s idea, and you have released the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received.

In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.”

I am no longer deceiving myself that the nothingness of unreality holds anything I want. The rest it just breaking the bad habits that were once coping mechanisms, through forgiving the false and accepting that only the truth is true.

Thank you for joining me as we still a our minds an instant, letting this moment tell as what I time is. We find the inevitability of God, eternally, always, already, now…

And as we begin our day,we go with this surety:

“For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend”...

Lesson 156:

I walk with God in perfect holiness…

Who walks with me? The lesson suggests that this question should be asked a thousand times a day until certainty has ended doubting and established peace….

I know for sure that this is an effective exercise. One of the earlier rounds of my going through the daily lessons, I was so struck with the simplicity of: ‘ask and ye shall receive’, that I wrote “who walks with me” on the back of both my hands, reminding me constantly throughout the day that I only had one question. And, I wanted only the answer that felt the way reading today’s lesson made me feel: namely Holy; certain, enough, innocent, a marked absence of self-necessity replaced with a sense of oneness so complete…. Love… The feeling was fleeting yet unmistakable. And I knew for sure that it was my true feeling.

I went about my regular day with the ‘who walks with me’, constant question on my lips, in my mind and heart. The body did its thing; tasks and all, but those specific details slipped to the background of my intent. Who walks with me? I ask a thousand times and then a thousand times more and the only thing that seemed certain in my day, was that nothing mattered but allowing myself to receive/remember my oneness in Him.

The certainty that I do not walk alone, but that something much larger walks with me began to carry my question. There came a sense that I was one with that hugeness and that within it was my safety and security and not within the seeming necessities of my so-called life… Peace began to fill my being, beyond the petty details and actions and emotions that seemed to fill the screen, I felt my Self beyond, undisturbed.

Who walks with me?

I walk with God in perfect holiness. I light the world; I light my mind and all the minds which God created one with me.

That day was so powerful for me; I often referenced this lesson to share with others in hopes that they might taste the experience of holiness that I had received.

What I love now is that I have learned to step back and let the light in me encompass the world in a lightened perspective; where laughing at the ego’s absurdity is always at the ready and as natural now as fear of future used to be. I know who walks with me, and that you and I are one.

We walk with God in perfect holiness….

Lesson 151:

All things are echoes of the voice for God…

This is the one perspective worthy of the Son of God, yes? Even repeating this statement slowly as the lesson instructs, invites us to feel expanded within, allowing us to sink past all meaning prior to this instant. We use the words only as a springboard request for the Holy Spirit to flesh out meaning purposeful for our lives. Sink deeper with me as we move beyond the familiar of this moment in time, leaving time behind… Feel the ever-present belly of holy witness~ We know this witness, already, naturally. It was only denied by diverting our attention from certainty to disparity. Sink back into mind to rest in meaning, letting it find its place of truth within us, simultaneously bringing forward the recognition of the Self.

This Self-sense is a not quite tangible in the usual sense, yet real in an all-encompassing, filling the gaps kind of way. It is an unlimited spaciousness, which bestows safety, a quiet resting in the certainty that we are indeed what we are exactly, completely, wholly as God created. The strategic mind cannot get a hold of this, so it relies on mindlessness techniques based in fear and guilt, which we relent to and habitually ignore this awareness of our Self. But rather, robotically plug into the matrix of the strategic, egoic play, which then details out through the body’s senses and the regurgitated memory bank the to-do list we call life. This then becomes what we see and hear, already fixed with the mistaken meaning believed … We find our strategic mind cannot be trusted as a source to know the Self.

“Where can one find a reliable, consistent source for meaning in a situation rendered meaningless, when ones own mind cannot be trusted? How can one possibly see this differently?”

Ask and you shall receive. I ask, and meaning arose of itself… It’s peculiar, even from the beginning, I had this sense that I had a different perspective~ some portal, somewhere deep within myself that would reveal a completely different picture of the world ~ if I could just access it… meanwhile, there were these obligations and experiences always buoyed up with that ‘last change or else’ mentality to keep them in the attention slot of my mind. I don’t know why, but for me, the realization of finding myself in a self-made prison of hell, made me more receptive to the possibility of another way…

Today I see that lessons learned through joy come easily and heal permanently. A major contrast in experience apparently was necessary for me to be willing to relinquish being right. Major. However, just this little willingness, regardless of what it took to get there, has truly opened the portal, the Holy Spirit manages.

My doubting the legitimacy of my what my experience was telling me was my ‘real life’, was enough to show me the entry to the portal where truth lights the world with gentle recognition of Christ seen everywhere in everyone.

It whispers softly a belonging so complete and whole, I want to listen up for my brother and my self to hear one message we all share, through every voice and in every situation: “We are as God’s Son, created by Him and still as He created us as one”. This joyous reinterpretation, this portal of forgiveness, comes quietly to the mind stilled for a moment by the release of thinking ‘I know’… Its essence is one of recognition that … all things are echoes of the voice for God…