August 2, 2016

Spirit – God’s Teacher – uses time for one prose, to teach us happiness and peace. What more could we want? Happiness and peace are at their purest in the present moment. The egoic thought system uses time for teaching, but for a much different teaching. Peace is inconsistent with the ego’s existence. So it teaches anything but peace. Fear is one of its primary lessons. There are also guilt, attack, lack and a myriad of other lessons it wants us to buy into. Hell is the idea the ego teaches us to believe to reinforce fear in our minds. The egoic thought system teaches us to perceive the world through the lens of fear, teaching us the world is a precursor of hell. It teaches us we are destined to relive our miserable past over and over again into the future until we finally die and end up in hell for eternity. The only way in which the ego allows the fear of hell to be experienced is to bring hell here, into the present, but always as a foretaste of the future. Where is happiness and peace in this scenario?

However, God has something else in mind for us.

The Holy Spirit teaches thus: There is no hell. Hell is only what the ego has made of the present. The belief in hell is what prevents you from understanding the present, because you are afraid of it. The Holy Spirit leads as steadily to Heaven as the ego drives to hell. For the Holy Spirit, Who knows only the present, uses it to undo the fear by which the ego would make the present useless. There is no escape from fear in the ego’s use of time. For time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teaching device for compounding guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, demanding vengeance forever.   T-15.I.7.1-7

Fear seems compelling. Nothing appears to threaten happiness and peace like fear, and particularly the fear of hell. Yet Spirit assures us that all that is not happiness and peace is illusion – not real. It is our belief in the lessons of the egoic thought system that keep us attached to the idea that we have anything to fear. Alone – in separation – it is very difficult to unlearn this fear, for we have given up the awareness of our divine nature to learn fear. But when we allow Spirit to guide us in joining in Oneness, we realize our true divine identity and fear fades away into nothing. It seems difficult, yet in unity with the divine it is effortless.

 The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the One Child of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.   T-15.I.8.1-7

Right now, just in this present moment, as we look within to our divine identity, all is well. We have all we need in this moment. We can sense the calm within us. We can be content. We can feel love within us. The past has no place in this instant and so has no effect on our wellbeing. Be in this moment. Feel the holiness that wells up from within you. Feel the connection to all creation and to the Source of your being in this moment. This is the Oneness we are. This is the recognition of who we really are that is unchangeable. This is Heaven on earth. Rest in this holy instant. Let it be just for now. In this instant time has collapsed. There is no past or future to fear in this instant. In this instant we are complete, whole, limitless, loved, loving and at peace. From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time. Be the peace you are.

July 26, 2016

Can you imagine what it is like to be in perfect peace? What would perfect bliss be like? Can we imagine being without a care in the world? Imagine no urgency, no anxiety, no angst. This Chapter begins with this thought:

Can you imagine what it means to have no cares, no worries, no anxieties, but merely to be perfectly calm and quiet all the time? Yet that is what time is for; to learn just that and nothing more. God’s Teacher cannot be satisfied with their teaching until it constitutes all your learning. God’s Teacher has not fulfilled their teaching function until you have become such a consistent learner that you learn only of your Teacher. When this has happened, you will no longer need a teacher or time in which to learn.   T-15.I.1.1-5

Time, though an illusion in eternity, has purpose in this world. Time is not real, for reality has no time, but it has purpose. That purpose is learning. Time can be used to learn separation, or it can be used to learn unity and joining.

Learning is our function in time. Time provides the framework that enables us to learn. We can use it to learn correctly or incorrectly. We have used time thus far to learn separation. We have used it in partnership with our egoic thought system to learn and reinforce the idea that we are separate from God and each other. We have used this method to convince ourselves that we have an identity that is completely independent from all the universe and all creation. We have learned this so well that we believe we are autonomous and control our own destiny, yet also believe we are victims in this world.

There is an alternative to this destiny. We can also learn to recognize who we really are. We can learn to recognize that we are One with God and all creation. We can learn that God’s Teacher can guide us to an awareness of a different reality – a reality that is real – that is peace and calm, that is free of cares, worries and anxieties. This is the reality we seek but do not know that It is already within us but hidden by our belief that we are separate – not as we really are. We expend great effort maintaining our egoic learning, for we are attached to that learning by our commitment to it. Yet I know each of us has had moments of bliss, of complete peace and calm where there seemed not to be a care in the world. Essentially our egoic thought system keeps us attached to the past and its outcomes. They are predictable. They are familiar even though they are not happy. Wouldn’t you rather have those moments of bliss and peace? Wouldn’t you rather have peace and calm and bliss be the constant state of your experience in this life?

Turn toward the Teacher God has placed within you. This Teacher is an integral part of you. It will guide you in unlearning the lessons you need to unlearn and will teach you the perfect lessons you need to learn in the form that you will learn best from. And if we don’t learn from the first lesson, another will be offered and even another until we learn the lesson we need to learn. Open your inner eyes. Allow this Teacher to guide you in your learning. What is holy and good will remain while what is not real or true will fade from your mind as you allow. Come, join with us in the holy instant. Peace and love are always with all of us. Allow the holy instant to arise in your mind. This is what you’ve been seeking.