September 22, 2015

What are we afraid of? There may be no rational answer to this question. There is nothing real to be afraid of! But we do feel fear in our human condition. We may even fear fear itself. But I think the Course is telling us we actually fear the truth about who we really are. We want to feel whole and complete, loved and loving, abundant and blessed. And guess what, we ARE all that and more. The fact we are all that and more is what terrifies us. We have spent a lifetime convincing ourselves and making an identity that contradicts who we really are. Crucial to that identity is that it is not whole or complete, not loved or loving and not abundant and blessed. We have believed this mistaken identity and adopted it as our own. We are so attached to it that we seek our true identity but believe it impossible to achieve.

The Course teaches us this:

Under the ego’s dark foundation is the memory of the One, and it is of this that you are really afraid. For this memory would instantly restore you to your proper place, and it is this place that you have sought to leave. Your fear of attack is nothing compared to your fear of love. You would be willing to look even upon your savage wish to kill the One’s Child (you true Self), if you did not believe that it saves you from love. For this wish caused the separation, and you have protected it because you do not want the separation healed. You realize that, by removing the dark cloud that obscures it, your love for your Creator would impel you to answer Spirit’s Call and leap into Heaven. You believe that attack is salvation because it would prevent you from this. For still deeper than the ego’s foundation, and much stronger than it will ever be, is your intense and burning love of the One, and the One’s love for you. This is what you really want to hide. T-13.III.2.1-9

We are afraid of who we really are. We are afraid of the power and responsibility of being whole and complete, loving and generous. We have convinced ourselves we are not capable of such a feat when in reality that is second nature to who we really are and it takes no real effort to be that when we believe in the whole of who we really are in community as One.

Reality is never experienced alone – in separation. Who we really are is never experienced alone. Our true identity and nature is experienced in the Oneness of all Creation as One.  We are all One. We cannot be separated. We are created One and in Oneness. Nothing can undo that fact. Only our willingness to believe we are something other than who we really are can we experience ourselves separate and vulnerable to any threat.

You have built your whole insane belief system because you think you would be helpless in the One’s Presence, and you would save yourself from the One’s Love because you think it would crush you into nothingness. You are afraid it would sweep you away from yourself and make you little, because you believe that magnitude lies in defiance, and that attack is grandeur. You think you have made a world the One would destroy; and by loving the One, which you do, you would throw this world away, which you would. Therefore, you have used the world to cover your love, and the deeper you go into the blackness of the ego’s foundation, the closer you come to the Love that is hidden there. And it is this that frightens you.   T-13.III.4.1-5

We are simply afraid of losing this mistaken identity we have made and believe we are. Even though our true Identity is far greater that this little identity, we still cling to this little identity even when it doesn’t serve us. Our little identity has become the identity we are accustomed to and familiar with. It often doesn’t serve us well or at all, but we continue to cling to it and feed it. It’s now time to shift our attention and look at the Divine Identity within us that is real. This Identity includes all we encounter ad experience in our lives, each One and experience pointing us to the remembrance of who we really are and always have been and will be. Neither the past nor the future matter, for we are known to ourselves in the present moment. Be present right now and feel the Divine Presence we are in Oneness. Be not afraid, and let it be, just for this moment and eternity will take care of itself.

September 15, 2015

Our destiny is happiness and peace. This is the One’s will for us. This is our true nature that we always have been and always will be. This is who we really are. Any idea, belief or conviction that we are anything else is simply mistaken. Yet we fear this truth about ourselves. What is this all about? Why are we afraid to step into the awareness of our own Divine nature? The One created us whole, complete and limitless. We are afraid of this truth about us because we believe ourselves limited. We have so bought into our egoic thought system’s idea of separation and inadequacy that we cannot see or believe anything else about ourselves even if it is true. And even when Spirit holds our true nature up for us to see we refuse to recognize it as who we are.

The Course tells s this:

This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace. Yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that it will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you. You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego’s thought system. To some extent, then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself. And you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you.   ACIM T-13.II.7.1-6

Somehow we believe that we are protecting ourselves by believing we are something we are not. In other words we are denying who we really are. We thus make ourselves miserable by denying our Divine nature, our completeness and our wholeness. What an insane thought! Yet, we continue to believe it and hold on to it very tightly.

The Atonement – At-One-ment – is our release from this prison of thought. Realizing we are free, complete, whole and limitless is the healing we desire. It is a simple act of letting go of our attachment to the mistaken and limiting ideas about ourselves and others we hold fast in our minds and allowing Spirit to flood our minds with the truth about us. This truth is freeing. It releases us from the bonds we have chosen for ourselves and brings to our minds the reality of who we are. The darkness we have grown so familiar with recedes and vanishes. The world we see transforms before us. We find ourselves basking in the light of Heaven on this earth and feeling the love that radiates from all creation.

Our “guilty secret” of separation is nothing at all. When we bring it to the light, the light dispels it and no dark cloud will remain between us and the remembrance of who we really are. In this understanding lies our remembering, for it is the recognition of joy without fear. There is great joy in our homecoming, for this joy is ours. Come hone prodigal child, for your place has always been yours. Let yourself be in that place as you celebrate the return of your awareness of who you really are. You are the Love in which you are created. Be hat Love and let it shine.

September 8, 2015

Our happiness, our awareness of our wholeness, completeness and abundance is a direct result of our beliefs about ourselves. Do we really know ourselves? Does what we believe about ourselves serve our awareness of who we are? The Course tells us this:

The darkest of our hidden cornerstones holds our belief in guilt from our awareness. For in that dark and secret place is the realization that we have betrayed Ourselves by condemning ourselves to death. We do not even suspect this murderous but insane idea lies hidden there, for the ego’s destructive urge is so intense that nothing short of the crucifixion of God’s One Child (ourselves) can ultimately satisfy it. It does not know who the One Child of God is because it is blind. Yet let it perceive guiltlessness anywhere, and it will try to destroy it because it is afraid. T-13.II.3.1-5

Our egoic thought system is interested only in its preservation in our minds through the belief in separation. As long as we believe we are separate and therefore not who we really are, we will perpetuate our separation and thus deny ourselves the joy of our wholeness and divine nature. Our call is to let go of our attachment to our belief that we are separate – not who we really are – and allow Spirit to guide us in all our thinking and lead us to remember the truth about who we really are. The real world becomes the world we see and we find ourselves in Heaven on earth.

September 1, 2015

Such a comforting thought this is: God’s will for us is perfect happiness. Our happiness is guaranteed! Why don’t we feel this way? The simple reason is that we thought we were separate and then believed it, too. We believed we were guilty and vulnerable, both which are against our true nature and thus impossible. We have looked upon ourselves and judged ourselves unworthy and deserving of punishment. We have aligned our awareness with our split mind that thinks we are separate from our Source. Yet, a simple change in our thinking can bring about a huge change in our awareness. The Course tells us what happens when we accept Oneness for ourselves:

When we have accepted the At-One-ment for ourselves, we will realize there is no guilt in Us. And only as we look upon ourselves as guiltless can we understand our Oneness. For the idea of guilt brings a belief in condemnation of one by another, projecting separation in place of unity. We can condemn only ourselves, and by so doing we cannot know that we are God’s One Child. We have denied the condition of our being, which is our perfect blamelessness. Out of love we were created, and in love we abide. Goodness and mercy have always followed us, for we have always extended the Love of our Creator. T-13.I.6.1-6

As we accept each other ­– the holy companions we travel this journey with whether for a moment or a lifetime – we will realize there is no journey, only an awakening. Our holiness, when allowed to shine from within ourselves, shines away the cloud of guilt that darkens our mind. And by accepting our purity, we learn this holiness is our own.

By aligning our mind with the egoic thought system we made, we attacked ourselves because we felt guilty. The cycle of attack and guilt serves only to reinforce this idea in our separated mind. Yet, Spirit holds within us our true nature, our holy wholeness, for us to recognize when we choose to think again. Our choice is to remain embroiled in our brokenness or recognize our wholeness. The instant we recognize our wholeness, we are instantly united with our Oneness and the truth about who we really are. It comes flooding back in an instant and washes over all conflicting thoughts we had been harboring in our mind. The world changes before our very eyes for our perception has changed. We see the world with changed vision, seeing through the lens of Spirit that is our true Self. What more could we want? As we look upon ourselves with Spirit eyes, we know our wholeness and Oneness is true. Being true for us, we cannot attack ourselves, for without guilt attack is impossible. We, then, are saved because We are guiltless. And being wholly pure, we are invulnerable. This is who we really are. Let this be what we recognize and believe about ourselves and thus know about ourselves.

August 25, 2015

Guilt is the result of condemnation which is the judgement of one mind by another as unworthy of love and thus deserves punishment. This is the birth of the split mind. The mind that judges perceives itself separate from the mind it judges, believing that by punishing another, it escapes punishment itself. The fault of this “logic” is that we are all One, and thus we judge and punish ourselves in order to escape punishment. It’s a vicious cycle perpetrated by the egoic thought system – the result of the split mind – that keeps us aligned with the idea of separation and thus keeps us in misery. In doing so we have turned away from the awareness of who we really are and hidden our true nature from ourselves.

We seem to be trapped in this world of guilt. As a direct result of our belief in the idea of separation, we have blocked our own awareness of our own wholeness, completeness, worthiness and limitlessness. It is impossible for us to see ourselves as split or separate and whole and complete at the same time. Separation and Oneness are incompatible and irreconcilable. To see both at once would drive us insane, though one might say we are insane for believing the idea of separation at all. It goes against our nature. But there is a way out of this insanity. Just as the acceptance of guilt into our minds is the beginning of our separation, the acceptance of At-One-ment is the end of separation. The shift in our minds from the belief in separation to the belief in our Oneness – our connectedness with all Creation – is our salvation. It is the return to the awareness of who we really are. It is impossible for the One to be so cruel to subject us to this misery, for our Source is Love and Love would never punish. Love does not kill to save. Love brings together and unites. Love is the expression of Oneness. No one drove us out of Paradise, for we are and always have been and always will be in Paradise. We, by believing in separation, blocked our own awareness of our presence in Paradise. The Holy Spirit within us is present with us to guide us as we learn to remove the blocks we have placed to the awareness of who we really are.

The Introduction to Chapter 13 leaves us with this:

This world is a picture of the crucifixion of Us. And until we realize that We cannot be crucified, this is the world we will see. Yet we will not realize this until we accept the eternal fact that We are not guilty. We deserve only love because we have given only love. We cannot be condemned because we have never condemned. The At-One-ment is the final lesson we need learn, for it teaches us that, never having sinned, we have no need of salvation.   T-13.in.4.1-6

Accept the guidance of Spirit right now and let go of our guilt and judgement of ourselves. The guiltless world – the real world – is there beyond it, waiting for us to allow ourselves to see and experience it. In this rests our awareness of our wholeness, our completeness, our worthiness, our limitlessness and Love.