~NOW is always the moment to see the face of Christ…

Lesson 27:

“Above all else I want to see…”

Above all else

I want to see.

I’m not interested in seeing ahead, only in seeing who’s doing the seeing…in seeing inside my seeing… seeing and having faith simultaneously, trusting that Now is always the moment to see the face of Christ… the sacred reunion of One Son~ the Self that is my ‘true face’ reflected in what you are.

Above all else I want to see..

This is it all right…pure life ~One life ~ the one I share with God.

I’m thinking again about the section in the course, “This Need Not Be” where it says, ‘If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen’… If I cannot see the face of Christ it is because I do not choose to see above all else… then he says, ‘Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not see the face of Christ. The glass in which it ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? …But where you look to find yourself is up to you…’ …above all else I want to see~

A little bit further down in this same section, Jesus says, “You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. To the ego’s dark glass you need but say, “I will not look there because I know these images or not true. Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. You ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.”…Above all else I want to see…

As with Jesus’ appeal this same section, I ask my self to look honestly, so I can see. …Look honestly…’what have I thought that God would not have thought? What have I not thought that God would have me think?’ My thinking makes my seeing; I want only to see the Truth. “I’m willing to see what I denied…because it is the truth.”

‘Awaken and be glad’… ‘Above all else I want to see’…many countless symbols reflect for me the goal to awaken. “Vision is given freely to those who ask to see,” It seems to me that Vision creates its own morality, its own imperatives…

When we are asleep to what we are, and a veil of denial covers our sight, we can so readily give in to the constant harangue of the ego’s voice…

When I think I’m/you are really here, or that ‘this” is really happening,

I cannot know integrity and cannot be a reliable source for interpreting what I think I see because I have, as the Course says here, allowed myself to be ‘deceived by the temptations of the ego due to voluntary dis-spiriting…easily disengaged and risen above through developing the habit of engaging with God and His creations… by actively refusing to let the mind slip away’…

Above all else I want to see… this small expression of willingness is enough. It seemed it would take tremendous courage and tenacious stamina~ yet, it is simply a miracle. And one I am not in charge. I could never do it! But thank God, I don’t have to. That’s not my job. It turns out; I’m not even the one who does the looking…it is my small gift of willingness and the mighty power of God through the Holy Spirit in my mind… see, above all else I want to see~ and…

“Truth is restored to you through your desire, as it was lost to you through your desire for something else… Vision is given freely to those who ask to see.” ~Above all else I want to see…

~Just that simple and lay wait in trust…

We Are Christ and we are in this together, you and I and we are not alone~

~The view from within:lesson 17~

Lesson 17:

“I see no neutral things…”

…because I have no neutral thoughts…

I notice a background of comfort abiding me as I am going through the lessons with ya all, this time around.
It used to be, back in the beginning, I was always feeling afraid I would forget throughout the day –that I would do too few practice periods to “get it”, that I would be unconsciously sabotaging and defeating myself. Of course, all that came to pass. …And now; well, now I notice I can’t forget, really. “I see no neutral things,” (or whatever the lesson) answers every question the day seems to ask.
That happens is the miracle; the shift in perception from thinking I have any idea about what I think I see, to realizing that, that very idea of thinking I know, is the very deflector the ego is using at the time, to avert me from using the mirror of my thoughts for my function of forgiveness. The Danét character, doesn’t know. And, alas, the One Who does know, has been invited to reinterpret my so call life, by my willing commitment to the curriculum set forth in God’s plan for salvation… (even if that little ‘I’ thinks I fail to remember something I deem important… the Holy Spirit always has my back!
It is a comfort to realize that regardless of what I might think I think… the Holy Spirit is reaching me at the perfect match possible to my available willingness for the maximum benefit at this time, without increasing fear or reproducing time. I feel cuddled in a sense of timeless safety, while I let the past be undone: I watch the past images drift by, not ever really lodging themselves anymore; while I take instruction from within. Furthermore, I am not alone and we are One…
So what, if it is, that I, Danét, see no neutral things because I have no neutral thoughts…That works for me… I merely happily watch the production from Here, Now,~ and not know ‘what’s going to happen or what it means when it does, and wait… Thanks for joining me above the battleground. It seems David Whyte, a delicious poet I love is present in my mind this morning, as well …His depiction from Tilicho Lake…

In this high place
it is as simple as this,
leave everything you know behind.

Step toward the cold surface,
say the old prayer of rough love
and open both arms.

Those who come with empty hands
will stare into the lake astonished,
there, in the cold light
reflecting pure snow,

the true shape of your own face.

~ David Whyte ~

~From meaninglessness to miracles~thoughts with lesson 13~

Lesson 13:

“A meaningless world engenders fear….” What does this mean? Okay, meaningless… Wholly @#*! The idea of meaninglessness rises to mind the question of my little existence, what value it has, hell even its validity or reality at all. Of course that’s a threat to the idea of self dreamed up separate from the truth of being where one can reside soundly in reality. Hell yeah, it’s a threat to recognize that all that gave me reason to fight and struggle, make better and win~ was meaningless. To give up every idea I ever had of what life was; every belief and value ever held. Surely I too, would be meaningless, yes?

The first time I did the lessons, I remember I thought something to the effect of “Yeah, well maybe if I had a negative spin on things like so many people do, but I don’t, thank god, I see mostly the good…” (Competition with God ~ self authorship) I look at that now and I recognized the ego ‘sidestepping denial technique’, a rose-colored glasses perspective designed to avoid even the idea of fear. The idea of total meaninglessness was horrifically terrifying to me. Yet I was completely oblivious to this. So far from any awareness I had to keep it from myself~ too small and fragile was my ‘self’ esteem, too tenuous was my significance in this world ~in my so-called life, which I couldn’t afford to relax a bit. “Had to strive… become a better person… show God I was serious, and appreciative, and a good student’. I didn’t see the set up then… the fear of meaninglessness, let alone the meaningless world, and certainly not the competition with God ~which when I did glimpse it rendered me crippled with guilt. I was a good path for me.
Turns out; none of it meant anything. But, my willingness to trust the Holy Spirit by way of this Course, my gradual willingness to be wrong; to question every thing I ever thought or believed, and my willing to be shown another way and then to practice it, regardless of my personal reactions to it… ~this has been enough…
At some point I became profoundly aware that every upset, from the slightest confusion, irritation, bored resistance, to “knowing” what I “prefer” were confusion about authorship. And, always, with my willingness to look straight on at the seeming situation, I realized no real facts comprised it… only the desperate demands of a spoiled, frightened ego-child afraid to see the truth for fear of losing the ‘seeming security’ of being right about the images and they’re seeming meaning that frailly strung them together to give the illusion of a solid world. Always, this loss of peace stemmed from the belief that I was in competition with God. My “little willingness” to be wrong…showed the instability of a foundation based in “belief” rather than truth which is always solid, immovable and unchanging ~waiting for my recognition of it ~ my Self ~ Love, as God created me. Thank God.

More and more I see evidence in the world of the only thing that could be true, I am as God Created me, and you and I are one. The Peace of God is in our very make up. Being fathered by God, how could it possibly be made of some thing else… No~only God. Only the desire to author myself and reality … to “specialize” myself, could make it seem so. It feels so good, no; right, to finally forgive this arrogant competition with God.... It’s nearly comical to look at it now … like watching little children acting like they ‘know everything’, like; “you’re not the boss of me…!”
Ummm~talk about a shift in perception ~thank you, God; “my so-called life is nothing short of a miracle the holy shift from meaningless-mindedness to miracle-mindedness. What a miracle.
The section in the workbook called “What Is a Miracle?” keeps surfacing in my mind, so apropos… Take a gander if it suits you: http://www.truthbook.com/sacredtexts/ACIM/Workbook.html#P2_13

All of life needs a source to exist and it is impossible that perfect love ~LIFE ~ could mutate into fearful, inevitable death. What a relief to see this folly, ~ Talk about peace…aahh, peace, this is my natural state. Here, I am at home. And you are there with me because there is no such animal as aloneness ~ in oneness. It’s so simply obvious … LOVE IS ALL THERE IS ~and if for a second I don’t see it, I just close my eyes and zero in on the still point of light at the center of my mind, from which I draw out the world, I feel the deep peace and abiding joy of my Self, ~and Love itself expands, beaconing me to extend… Love whispers, “draw this world” ~ and as I open my eyes, I see… Such is the yummy nature of “choosing once again. “

Lesson 350:

Miracles mirror God’s eternal Love. To offer them is to remember Him, and through His memory to save the world….

What does it mean to offer miracles? And what are the miracles we offer? Well, not religion sponsored in childhood; not walking on water or raising the dead … It turns out that miracles are merely natural acts of love seeking expression. (Which, by the way, was always, already our natural state, but for the prodigal wool of fantasized separation we pulled over our innocent eyes)

We offer miracles when we life instead of death; Love instead of fear… Miracles are sight cleansing; allowing us to see what is really there… Miracles turn the mind back to Source and we see our brothers as God sees them; loving and forgiving. So our actions reflect the oneness we share, taking direction from within~ regardless of the seeming circumstances…

Offering Miracles is the willingness to see through the constructs of water and death and walking and rising to the love within. It is being willing to see things differently; to trust that regardless of what I might think I see due to my beliefs, somewhere within/amidst the situation, is the one unyielding truth: God’s eternal Love is!

I don’t have to know how I will recognize its presence in any given situation… Love is what we are and it will recognize itself… I but need to want to offer miracle’s in place of all other responses, therefore allowing, Christ’s vision to rest upon all things, which brings to light the “I am as God created me and you are part of me” force of all creation, with in our mind.

Its funny, I started forgiving because, well, frankly, I was a pussy, couldn’t tolerate a lot of discomfort for long. When I saw a possible way out of it, I took it…. (Incidentally, up till I found the Course and therefore forgiveness; with meaning resonated to the core with, my ‘ways out’ always resulted in shame ~yuk)… Anyway, when I saw the falsehood of everything the way I had been looking at it, and experienced the relief of turning the dial to ‘miracles’; through forgiveness.

What rather rapidly began to happen, which I’m sure you can relate to, is that I just could not abide the feeling of holding grievances…. It just feels too icky…

Also, what I found out was that I didn’t have to make it (whatever they or the circumstance was) right in my mind, if I just exercised a little faith in a power greater than myself. If I could suspend my judgment ever so slightly and allow that the Holy Spirit, did know what was right for all~ And quite without reason, peace would come over me and I had a much better view of the big picture. WOW! I felt better immediately.

Not only that, it works virtually every time. I became able to let go and let God so to speak…

Needless to say, when I started this practice, I did it on shoestring faith without any idea that I was offering miracles or that it would be this simple exercise that would restore my faith in you and me and more. I never dreamed the gap I saw between us would begin to close and all the ideas of ‘specialness over oneness’ would meld into the Christ-melding-pot, as God’s eternal Love reality penetrated more and more of my mind.

I never I guessed that I would, as a result of ‘forgiving to feel better’, begin to remember God ~ nor did I foresee that that my insane busy mind would begin to still... That the memory of Him would come softly and terminally… everlastingly ~ that I would have moments of eternity where God’s Love erased all form and space and time; engulfing me (well, the experience of Son of God) in eternity, forever now….

And, that that would restructure my on-going experience with time and space and form…. That I would begin to identify more with the ‘Son of God’ indelible identity within rather than the ‘you/me’ with out…. Maybe, it’s because of the sense of reality, which too, I never dreamed would not seem solid any more as I had always believed. But rather, it has taken on the sense of being more a shadowy overlay mirroring belief…

I see my so-called life like a sort of reoccurring (or ongoing) lucid dream where I am aware, from above the battleground of the stream of events; where I can spot the false and choose the truth, instantly altering my perception and flooding me with love….

No, I wasn’t looking for that by forgiving…. But, it turns out, forgiveness, like lessons 122 and 121 say; offers everything I want and is the key to happiness.

No question, we are remembering God and the world is being saved …

Lesson 349:

Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.

I dearly love these last lessons, because they perfectly articulate the forgiven world from which I truly desire to experience life~ now …

They are succinct, yet open expansive and completion-ideas which not only appeal to the truth in myself, but show me by my responding in love and full acceptance and application, that indeed, it is my own true Self, in the Holy Spirit, from which they come…

It is easy to ‘lean back’ and trust from this place of surrender and acceptance. For I recognize that every aspect of the Atonement is playing out perfectly as God’s plan for salvation… blessing each and every brother, relationship, situation, and circumstance with miracles.

Oh, it is so delicious to taste the glory of God’s Love through just stepping back in mind and allowing Christ’s vision to visit the miracle of love upon the seeming events of the day… How freeing it is to have no agenda of my own that I would keep when clearly miracles bless me with the agenda the Holy Spirit unfolds for me instead…

In accepting the gift of forgiveness, and offering it, I feel my eyes soften into Christ’s sight of Love before me…. Solutions and direction unfolds in the perfect grace of God. I am eternally grateful and join all my brothers today in the hallelujah chorus of gratitude and praise to God the Father and His holy Son…

Lesson 345:

I offer only miracles today, for I would have them be returned to me….

For years I took the miracle on faith, choosing out of hopelessness and into hope. And gradually, miracles have altered my whole life; my total way of thinking, therefore seeing the world… And now, miracle-mindedness has become a habit you might say. I am ever awe-struck by how the Holy Spirit uses all the ego’s little tactics, like the addictive mechanism, for exactly the opposite purpose than they were made, healing the mind to wholeness through complete surrender to what is... We, as the characters in the dream, are already networked with the mechanisms once used for defense, and find another purpose; one of unity rather than separation, peace rather than competition, sameness rather than specialness ~till this is all we want~….

I want only the healed perspective. I want only to see unity where division once seemed so real.

Because of the single goal to see the truth set forth by my accepting Atonement for myself, I accept it for you, for we are one. The methodology I have at my disposal is the Miracle~ the correction of the error of seeing any interests apart from my own. ~I want only to see the false for what it is, denying its power, and leaving only the Christ we are as one. And in this one desire rests the miracle, which is now visited upon us both in grace, and with it deep abiding peace.

How joyous is the timeless gift of unending Love we experience by merely choosing to offer only miracles today.

Even on the level of this world, just slowing down our compulsive, competitive, thought system and therefore actions, and thinking of the ‘other’ choice; miracle-mindedness ~ the possibility of looking with only loving eyes/perception) already feels better. Geez, just softening our eyes and considering it, starts warming the heart, ~yes?….

I offer you only miracles for I would have them for myself~ otherwise I am blind…. Truth be know, I have no other goal to choose any more. No-thing else satisfies or raises the slightest interest for me…

Thank you for the miracles you have given and received…. Not one has been lost on me (or anyone in truth). I might have been (and still can be) a resistive study at times, but I have found that every loving thought merely awaits reception. Period. Like the ever-favorite quote from the Course says: “LOVE WAITS ON WELCOME NOT ON TIME”.

I bless you with miracles today…

13. What is a miracle?

When it becomes apparent that a miracle is necessary in a given situation … When all ego antics to maintain control have finally failed, it is not the agony of defeat that I reference in my experience bank, but rather, the relief of letting go of the heavy burden of self deception, and leaving me at last in the present, in peace…

For me, when it finally became clear that I did not know… When I finally threw my hands in the air; in the great universal signal for defeat, I was totally open to receive the miracle that would at last breathe life back into my tired and worn-out sense of identity, with the truth instead …

In other words, one must virtually die to the world we made, if but for an instance, to receive the vision of Christ which allows us to see the inner oneness we all share. Persons are revealed as long-lost brothers and competition dissolves in the recognition of a unified purpose. By checking nothing at the door, and giving over my entire idea of ‘problems’ to the miracle allowed me a new perspective entirely. I came to realize that a miracle was not some kind of ‘outside- help-from- above’ but simply the righting of perception. The miracle works within the seeming problem or situation illuminating another way of looking at it that eliminates all fault; wipes tears away and replaces defensiveness with gratitude. What’s more, is that the core on which this healed perspective all takes place, is already in place, right there waiting for the mind that is ready for the miracle. It is merely invisible or inaccessible when the desire for the problem is taking precedence.

Only dream figures move and seem to change. It is within this dynamic that the miracle is needed. …

The ever-familiar film-clip of the tiny mad idea, known as life, supported by belief in, and fears of, death…has been answered… The Atonement principle rights the divisional perspective to see/experience beyond, where all remains as one, always, already…

Reality is Changeless.

Lesson 341:

I can attack but my own sinlessness,

And it is only that which keeps me safe…

I accept Atonement for myself and defer to God’s identity for me, in place of the one I made… both for myself and for you…

To attack is to accept temporary insanity in any given situation… And it always, with out fail, only hurts my state of peace; my sense of certainty, safety and awareness of love…

I am as God created me. And sin is obliterated in this acknowledgement. We use the term sinlessness only because we are speaking to a mind dulled by belief in personhood and sin and punishment and death… But it is really no-thing…

Sinlessness is not even an appropriate technology for the changeless reality in which we rest in God; where there is only God the father and his innocent Son, completing creation in perfect oneness…

Today’s prayer:

Father, Your Son is holy. I am he on whom You smile in love and tenderness so dear and deep and still the universe smiles back on You, and shares Your Holiness. How pure, how safe, how holy, then, are we, abiding in Your Smile, with all Your Love bestowed upon us, living one with You, in brotherhood and Fatherhood complete; in sinlessness so perfect that the Lord of Sinlessness conceives us as His Son, a universe of Thought completing Him.

I joyously join with everyone to right every circumstance and situation within belief through the miracle of our changeless, sinless reality as love….

Lesson 282:

I will not be afraid of love today…

How twisted is this? We deny our identity as Love, identify with fear and then spend our lives looking outside ourselves for the love we think we don’t have. And, make ourselves believe we are afraid to find it that we could… what, get hurt? That’s crazy! Love is what we are. It is our Spirit DNA, so to speak. It couldn’t really have gone anywhere… our being proves it out… the very awareness of thinking, proves us out… ~insanity~ Love holds space in its womb even for insanity, till we change our mind and recognize the truth…

~ ONE CANNOT LOSE WHAT ONE IS…~

Love is it. Period. The Father, His Son, Creation…

Even the slightest experience of the miracle; the simplest forgiveness, smallest or random acts of kindness puts one in touch with the love that is always, forever, the coded being-ness of what we are in truth.

Sanity visits the truth upon our mind the instant we want only truth… As we choose the miracle, instead of illusion, Atonement instead of death, all fear and its sentinel are seen for the shadow figures made to appear real and seem alive entirely by the smoke and mirrors of illusion…

Each one handled with the hands of Love, gently kissed with forgiveness, transforms fear to love. The tapestry of Love unfolds before our very eyes as vision is accepted and unity is seen…

Take the leap of faith if you haven’t yet, and find that there is nothing to fear as we join in the lesson prayer for the day:

“Father, Your Name is Love and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of gear is simply a mistake. Let me not be afraid of truth today…”

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 159:

I give the miracles I have received….

The miracle I have received through accepting the Atonement for my Self is Christ’s vision. With it comes a certainty that I do not see alone. I see only with the mind I share with God, which gives all meaning for the body’s eyes to deliver back to Source in gratitude. Giving the miracles I have received is all I am interested in any more, truly. It changes the mundane to the fascinating, the weak to the strong, and the lost to home in the united body of the Son of God… All glory to God…

Christ’s vision sees with the magnanimous feeling of eternal love and peace and oneness, not really the eyes at all. They but merely answer to the requests of the mind. The acceptance of the miracle sets our minds aright through the Holy Spirit. When we accept miracle-mindedness, we have eyes to see… The eyes look upon the world yet what they see is given meaning from beyond. Our acceptance of miracles is our access to the vast eternal treasure house of ways to share Heaven’s meaning here on earth. This is how Christ’s vision is the bridge between the worlds. From this eternal storehouse creation’s gifts go out but to complete themselves; returning expanded and united.

Forgiveness grounds us firmly in Christ’s vision allowing us to see no one as having interests separate from our own. We see the ultimate instead of the strategic. And ultimately we all but seek our Self in God. Having received His charity we gladly offer our forgiveness of whatever seems to cross the field of our so-called lives to unite with them in the completion giving and receiving bring… This is the circle of Atonement.

You know something I just love about doing these commentaries? I am so immersed in the endless oneness beyond that joins us in this world, and I feel so completely in love with all of you, my brothers, who are one with me. In holy gratitude I give the miracles I have received….

Lesson 130:

It is impossible to see two worlds…

Once again the Course is reminding us that there is no compromise between the real and the unreal, between truth and illusion.

Here we have the Miracle ~ the shift in mind to the Holy Spirit’s sight, which see only truth but recognizes illusion fostered by our belief in it. The miracle is the transformative agent that witnesses to the real (vision) beyond the sights we look upon to reinterpret what we believe is there by placing within the mind, one purpose which changes their meaning, which literally changes the way they look. We begin to see past the figures in front of us, as if they as mere shadows had been eclipsing something more substantial that the essence of our vision has already made known to us and we come to this particular place and time just to see it.

We instinctively ‘focus’ now and the figures themselves meld into the inner essence of the truth beckoning the blend…

Perception is changed. Forgiveness shows its face, holding only the essence of the new perception in mind. A calm sense of forgetting what the original judgment or problem was ensues…

Ok, here’s where we tend to get hooked-up; we don’t, or feel we can’t, empty our minds of what seems like proof that what we believe, and therefore see, is what we have to deal with… We lock ourselves in the body identity and although we want another way, we think we have the only and all ingredients so to speak, from which to make another choice…

This perspective grounds us firmly in unreality and literally blinds us to what we can’t conceive of… The Lesson’s commentary begins with a succinct, specific description about the dynamics of perception: “Perception is consistent. What you see reflects your thinking. And your thinking but reflects your choice of what you want to see. Your values are determiners of this, for what you value you must want to see, believing what you see is really there. No one can see a world his mind has not accorded value. And no one can fail to look upon what he believes he wants”…

For so many years I lived in fear, calling it by many names, not being able to really grasp what transformation could be possible in my life, without it. Oh, I wished, I imagined, I even wanted to want badly to have all fear removed. But I simply couldn’t wrap my mind around what I had no construct for.

This is definitely where the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit saves the day…

The early chapters of the Course text speak to the two levels of the mind which the Holy Spirit bridges and careful study of these introductory ideas that yield the possibility of allowing truth be reflected within the constructs available in mind. Check out the section called Fear and Conflict in chapter 2. It is a wonderful assistant in understanding, this dynamic, which makes implementation of today’s lesson increasingly viable…

Here’s the thing; as long as I am under the influence of the mind that believes the dream real, then I see myself as reliant on the figures of the dream and the timeframe of the dream for any change to happen. It is a victim position of ultimate proportions… Yet, as long as I am afraid to see the truth I will continue in this circular thinking of wishing things would be different, really bad… and nothing really changing…

This is not willing with God. It is wishful thinking (which, by the way, is exactly what got us into this so-called world in the first place, duh…)

An analogy that works for me (due to my love/hate relationship with addiction) is that of attempting to perceive clearly while under the influence of separation, drugged by the time space construct, which continues to make us think and question in a manner that is circular. If we can accept the basic premise that the ‘separation/ error’, with all it constructs in time and space, never really occurred, yet we seem to be experiencing it reality, as a case of being ‘drugged’. I think most of us could agree that we have some personal reference to “believing certain things were absolutely true” when given to a little drink or drug or anger or righteousness, or food, (pick your poison), that later we can’t take too seriously, due to the loaded state we were in.

The thing is, we can’t see what the premise we are operating from dictates. Therefore the answer must be outside of the premise.

There is no compromise in this. Believe me, I know.

Any attempt at compromise; to see the ‘beauty’ of this world made up by fear to eclipse the truth, is a decision already made, whether we cop to it or not. Delay in healing has been our choice and wishful thinking replaces the deep certainty and joy that accompany the choice to see the world God gave instead… It is impossible to see two worlds. Let me accept the strength God offers me and see no value in this world, that I may find my freedom and deliverance.

When the temptation to take that first hit off unreality arises, can we take a minute’s pause to remember: It is impossible to see two worlds. I seek my freedom and deliverance, and this is not a part of what I want. Can we empty our minds for just an instant to allow the strength of God to give meaning to our seeing? We allow our wishful thinking, now, to be replaced by the Strength of God, revealing vision… YES! YES! YES!

Lesson 91:

Miracles are seen in light…
The body’s eyes do not perceive the light…
But I am not a body. What am I?

This is the real question, is it not? This idea is the one that begins the undoing; the dismantling of the ‘solid-not-so-solid’ structure of the so-called self ~the self-concept. It is the sense of this idea behind the forms of our so-called lives that forces our recognition of our dissatisfaction with ‘the way things are’… The feeling that this is not quite ‘it’… that we are play acting on some level…the vague feeling that there is something ‘more real’ just behind the curtain.
This lesson is the perfect opportunity to look behind the curtain, using faith in the light we sense, even if very subtly, and sink into that light, which is of course, right there waiting only for our attention to be seen, being there already, always… This is a time for faith: faith beyond the body. After all, faith always goes to what we want, and we instruct our minds accordingly. What is it we want? We want to know the truth of what we are. We want the light for which to see miracles by which we experience all strength, all power, all grandeur, limitlessness, and certainty, ~the light of ‘reality’. Miracles bring in the light of experience that allows us to see, because we want to see the truth…
The exercises today gently take us to this experience of seeing…
Miracles are seen in light… the body’s eyes do not perceive the light… But I am not a body… What am I? … I am not weak, but strong… I am not helpless, but all powerful… I am not limited, but unlimited… I am not doubtful, but certain… I am not an illusion, but a reality… I cannot see in darkness, but in light…
I am not a body at all… I am the light in which I see miracles … I am the awareness of the idea of the body concept, now expanding beyond the concept of ‘body’ all together… sinking, and expanding beyond and released to the light: all images merely float by released to the light, feelings float by released to the light, thoughts float by released to the light which is effortlessly aware of all of them; and effortlessly dissolve into the light…These are not what I am for I am aware of them, I am beyond… I am the light…and the light disperses all into love’s ever-present essence: strength, power, limitless certainty ~the grandeur of reality~ always present, always alive…
Miracles are seen in light and allow that one recognize oneSelf...It is the light in us that is already always awake. Always- fully- present. It is, in this instant, right now, effortlessly noticing everything that seemingly arises, that dispels seeming darkness into the light in which we see ~our vast infinite awareness, the deep recognition of what is… always, already, aware, awake…
We place our faith where it is worthy of the Son of God, today, and feel His Strength and walk in certainty…
Yes, we join in this holy purpose, unified and sure… We do not walk alone for He walks beside us as the light within, which lights our way and by which all miracles are seen…
Miracles are seen in light… The Course tells us that the task of the miracle worker is to deny the denial of truth. Since miracles are merely the translation of denial into truth, it is our willingness to put our faith in that seeming unknown that keeps bringing us back to this Course, these lessons, each other… that unknown is the light…. The goal is to accept the atonement for ourselves. The methodology for this is the miracle; the light that burns away the darkness~ the dense obscure tremor of the denial of light. Forgiveness is the means at our disposal, NOW, to release the past denial of truth to be replaced by the present experience of the presence of Light Itself~ and all strength and power and certainly are ours for the asking… What am I? I am the light in which all miracles are seen. Offering miracles has now become the modus operandi… and miracles abound…

Lesson 90:

Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved… Let me recognize my problems have been solved….

The only problem is a grievance cherished above the light. We can’t really hold a grievance since all grievances were one grievance and were handled in the instant of Atonement and placed in the time-space belief, as miracles; which alter the temporal order and see all as one… How can someone have something you feel they are withholding from you, when you are one with them very literally, and they, in brother form, have come as the messengers of the miracle principles to shine the light on those illusions/idols you still value above truth?… Can there really be any honest response to these brothers, save it be gratitude? NO! I think not…
The ego’s is a desolate belief and baron belief system, once one has accepted the Atonement…One has to really fertilize and nurture grievances to get them to stay alive: remind yourself constantly, attach every seeming loss of peace to their fault, tell the story over and over, perfecting it along the way, (embellishment is your right~ it’s your grievance, after all) constantly covering over the light behind, which you know is seeping through the cracks, with new justifications…(gawd, its exhausting)…
All to satisfy the goal: to keep a little space between the miracle ask for when you answered the call, and the time in which it is received … till you’ve invested so much seeming life force in the grievance, that you can’t possible give it up… too much is at stake… Not to mention the whole ‘being right’ thing… After all, isn’t this the purpose of our so-called lives?…
Being right really translates to: “I’m more special than you are…so, na na na na”… Pretty cheap, eh? This is the best the ego has to offer… and believe you, me, it only gets mean from here. ~On some level, I’m sure you can agree with me that it’s really rather laughable, it has to crack you up; the ego’s antics for control… to maintain its righteous little throne…whew…
Once the forgiveness template is engaged, the Holy Spirit is running the show… and time, whose purpose was to forget ourselves, becomes the means by which the forgetting of illusions and their seeming meaning and remembering Christ begins. The course is inevitable…
We can’t buckle to the temptation to see ourselves as ‘wrongly’ treated. That is an just an old thinking pathway in the brain of the neutral body, which has been recovered from the once separation device to the now communication device… Let’s not forget that the brain is not mind, it is rather an idea within the mind, neutral really, (contrary to whatever the ego has evidenced up) and, it is in the service of Christ… How could it be that there is a problem now, when the past is gone (that is the definition of p a s t …) and all seeming problems with it, having been answered with the ONE unequivocal ANSWER: “WE ARE CHRIST; The Son Whom God Created Holy as Himself… This is reality and nothing ‘unreal’ can threaten it. Nothing unreal exists at all. The one question was answered within the truth of Who We Are, and while time still seems to exist within our minds, let us allow its corrective use to guide our steps.
Isn't it time we get really honest with ourselves… Isn’t the path of peace really easier? Isn’t the war against ourselves really over? Doesn’t the view look better from above the battleground through the eyes of Christ? Wouldn’t we rather love… and see how forgiveness offers everything we want ~which is the restoration of love and all the meaning we are as Christ? Yes!, can be the only answer now, just as it was when the Atonement principle was enacted; before we seemingly made the choice to sleep and dream a lonely dream of ruler over hell…
Lets cop to having made the wrong choice, and finally let it be dissolved into the dark past from which it came and could never, possibly effect the heartbeat of God and His love for His Creation…. Let’s wake to the gentle voice for God today and deceive ourselves no longer…
Here, is where we are, at home in God… right here, right now, in total joy and peace…
~And on and on love expands as miracles replace all grievances, waking us from the obstacles to full awareness of Who We Are ~LOVE… I meet my debt to you gladly today, with gratitude bursting from my heart to yours ~

Lesson 89:

I am entitled to miracles… Let miracles replace all grievances…

I am thinking about this idea of miracles and how right up front in the Course we get a thorough description of what miracles are. We are not looking for the experience of ‘revelation’ here~ we are looking to undo misperceptions… waking from the dream of otherness…
The idea that something other than what is, could be, was the first misperception… The sense that something could be lacking was the first grievance… The law of creation has continued along its natural lines, only channeled by misdirection, within the sleeping mind. The first idol was the self-concept, which was made ‘special’ by the use of the concept of time and space, separating itself out from the rest in some distinguishable way (body) and therefore had to squeeze all creation’s expression through limited channels of selves. Creation does not change because we harbor a favor for limit. We get what we ask for… So we placed the mind under the disposal of limitation, (perhaps to feel we can ‘control’ how thing work out), we get a sense of specialness from this ‘new god’/self’ that the old one wasn’t offering… don’t we? We get to be the boss of or own self and our own world… so there… The obvious next step is “ok, what will make ‘me’ happy”, right? Something is drastically off if I get to be god and I’m not happy, eh? It’s lonely at the top? It’s just plain lonely… to be ‘special’ (also known as the ‘detour into hell”…)…
Here’s where miracles come in. the first recognition of the presence of the miracle is the idea “maybe I am wrong ~ maybe there is another way ~ maybe I’m off the mark’…
We are so lucky… we have A Course in Miracles… so really; we don’t have to figure anything out any more. We can be exactly were we find ourselves at any given moment in time (for as long as time is a construct within our minds), and when I say find ourselves, I mean: the glitch in the program of the ego mind that seems to be going along its merry way, and we say, “Stop! Wait just a blinkin’ minute here, this doesn’t feel so good. I don’t want it! This is the moment of willingness to be shown another way. This engages the miracle template:
“To change your mind means to place it at the disposal of Authority”.
And for those of us who answered to call to return via A Course in Miracles, need only show up and wake up. Of course, how this looks can get really convoluted at times, I’m sure I’m not the only one that systematically attempted to reformat the Course to my comfort level ~ [it’s the nature of the beast, ego.]
The groovy part is that it is just this type of interference on ‘my’ part that the forgiveness principle/practice dispels.
And the Miracles… they are already there, waiting replacement of any of ‘my’ thinking, as ready as I am willing to be corrected.
It a simple program really: 1) we are just undoing. We don’t and can’t perform miracle on our own, we can only recognize our need for them ~ by our lack of peace. 2) Jesus is directing IT ALL, since He is the symbol of the Atonement principle~ so it isn’t on our shoulders to get the miracle or give it. The Holy Spirit orchestrates that, through Jesus’ direction, so we can’t mess it up… when we’re not ready to join… it waits…till we are. The atonement with all its messengers, won’t quit on us… even if we seem to quit, for a second, on ourselves… what never happened cannot be real and realty will not rest until it is restored to its own completeness.
3) Plus, ‘we’ don’t ‘do’ the miracles, they are done through us by our willingness to change our mind about… well, everything, I guess, it turns out, in the end…
So, our focus must be about ‘miracles’. We are entitled to them because of who we are in truth and this very same truth, systematically replaces grievances with miracles by way of forgiveness. And none of this is under our split mind control, seeing as by splitting the mind in itself is a loss of power and confusion about power and control and who’s in charge. ~ It is enough to say, “we’re not”...
If we can accept this simple possibility, we can begin the dismantling of the “AUTHORITY ISSUE”; the confusion of authorship, which was the template for the ‘detour into hell’… Now that’s a good deal…
And, we’ve got the course, and we’re suiting up and showing up, and waking up, and miracles abound… And we even notice…
One has to admit, things, over all, are looking up… and PEACE is being restored…
“This is a course in mind training. All learning involves attention and study at some level. Some of the later parts of the course rest too heavily on these earlier sections not to require their careful study. You will also need them for preparation. Without this, you may become much too fearful of what is to come to make constructive use of it. However, as you study these earlier sections, you will begin to see some of the implications that will be amplified later on… A solid foundation is necessary because of the confusion between fear and awe to which I have already referred, and which is often made. (T-1.VII.4-5)
It’s so good to revisit and review these initial sections of the Course ~ elementary, my dear Watson, so to speak…

I expect only miracles today… thank you, thank you….

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…

~Lesson 68 musings~

Lesson 68:

Love holds no grievances…
Love is all that I am … I hold no grievances… Can I say this without reservation, in complete safety and peace and total expansion? I rest in God and nothing else is really happening at all… Love is, and ‘i’ ceases to be. It is the keystone melody that harmonizes all seeming discord of the personal self and private thoughts. Only a 'person' can hold grievances, and must have ‘others’ in which to evaluate personal significance and weigh against. This is necessary to solidify the seeming ‘real’-ness of the world peopled by the personhood concept… A 'person' is just simply an image which is in constant need of defending; it unconsciously fears its instability will be discovered and its ‘nothingness’ revealed. After all, what seems more solid than a person fighting for their very life; defending against enemies perceived and not yet known? …Sitting at the edge of the cave in breathless attack mode, to ward off being stabbed in ones sleep? Only a person has enemies. A person can loose their so-called life, because a person’s life is extinguishable… Yet, persons are only figures in the dream of separation. We perceive ‘others’ because we sleep. Grievances are the sleeping pill that darken the mind to submission to the deep-sleep or unconsciousness of the belief in ‘special personage’~ the ‘hero’ of the dream, which was promised by the ego in that past, unholy instant of forgetfulness…The past is nowhere now, having already been Corrected. It is not reality. We are not mindless, as the ego would have us believe, We are the Mind that thinks the thought of God… The miracle restores us to awareness of Mind, which is the activating agent of Spirit. We are therefore Spirit, and spirit is in a state of grace forever. Therefore, we are in a state of grace forever… where could grievance possibly fit into this perfect picture of all-encompassing peace?
The whole of universe of perception; with it the scarcity principle, the idea of needs, the structure of personhood, and the entire ego dynamic produces and perpetuates the necessity to order our thoughts. Judgment is, of course, what is at the heart of grievance. Judgment is the tool we use to develop and maintain hierarchies of values, is the chosen hiding place for the idea that reality is ours to select from. This is the darkness the personal-self flails around in, protecting its survival. The Atonement answered this darkened thought with the light of truth. And the miracle restores light to the mind with the memory of the Self.
I’m thinking about the part in chapter I of the text called “The Escape form Darkness”, it seems apropos to revisit here...
Thank you my brothers for bringing my Self to my awareness, at last!

~Holiness:everything for nothing...

Lesson 38:

“There is nothing my holiness cannot do…”

Nothing. Nothing for Everything! …hmmm…. Not a bad deal… Not a bad deal, indeed, for a mind once lost in hopelessness, eh?.... Not a bad deal, at all...

My holiness answers every seeming question with the truth of what I am. THE TRUTH OF WHAT I AM is that I am forever exactly as God created me; unchangeable, eternal oneness…. This is true regardless of my awareness of it.

I can and have delayed and attempted every possible method to distract myself from my function here which is to experience my holiness through forgiving everything else I think I think and seem to experience, and allow instead, my holiness to bless and transform it all. Ah, the ego puts up a fierce battle-to the-death for allegiance to its nothingness with promises then threats when necessary. But here’s the thing, one cannot solve a situation from the level of mind that experiences the situation as reality. Oh, the wasted tenacity of this little one on futile efforts to eradicate the feelings of hopelessness, guilt, and grief ~ ‘attempts for more and/or better something’ ~through careful placement of ‘idol’ dreams, and plans~ plans for a better ‘tomorrow’, a better ME ~ You know the ones… they come with a mind - split…a mind that thinks it has actually accomplished the impossible and dethroned God. Excruciating! ~Save tenacity for vigilance against ego seduction through looking with my holiness, the Holy Spirit within Onemind…. Scary at first, due to my little-minded predictions, but oh….

To look at this seeming horror square on, has turned out to be nothing I imagined at all…as a matter of fact, ~ it turns out to be ‘nothing at all’…imagine that… That the ‘best this world had to offer’ is exactly the same as the ‘worst this world had to offer’~ it is all nothing... dressed noisy fluff~ ~~~Poof~~~ and behind all that ‘noise’, was what I was REALLY trying to avoid ~ MY HOLINESS ~ the unbearable lightness of my BEING…unbearable only to the ego reign, as the light of what I am, literally burns ego to annihilation off its defiled throne, which I willing placed on the alter of God’s Son within my mind.

This annihilation ~ this waking up from the dream of many ~ has been magnificently powerful, humbling, beautiful ~and actually quite gentle, safe and warm. Onemind /the Sonship is dominion over all things because of what we are. ...Always. Already. Everything. All power in the universe. All Glory to God. …As it turns out, there is nothing my holiness cannot do…

I keep thinking of the part in the Course called The Changeless Dwelling Place. It moves me to tears of overwhelming gratitude. I share it with you now:

“There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both. And where They are is Heaven and is peace.

Think not that you can change Their dwelling place. For your Identity abides in Them, and where They are, forever must you be. The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within. (T-29.V.1)

This is my home~ my home of holiness…and there is nothing that my holiness cannot do…