May 21, 2019

We are completing our discussion on this chapter; The War Against Yourself. Whether or not we realize it, there is a war going o in our mind as long as we continue to believe we are separate from each other and from our Creator. This war takes many forms. Our own egoic thought system is very creative in finding forms to keep us occupied with conflict. You see, if we are occupied with ideas of conflict – which we believe we must win in some way – we are distracted from our natural state of being which is peace and love. Many times the conflict is about truth and which truth is actually truth. This conflict makes it seem like we are always in the midst of a battleground.

We don’t have to be in the midst of the battleground. We have another choice. Spirit will guide our thoughts to raise above the battleground whenever we allow. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Do I really want to be in the midst of battle?” The battleground is an artificial world. It is no more than an illusion. However, we believe it is real, so we pick up our illusion of a sword and attack or defend, waging war on each other. But we are really waging war on ourselves. If this seems insane, it is. We have made up all we are waging war for or against.

The Course offers us another choice. It offers us another way to see ourselves. The Course offers us the vision of Oneness. The real truth about us is that we are holy, complete, whole and One with each other and the One we may call God. Our true nature is peace and love and joy. Our natural state of being is peace and happiness. We have Heaven on earth as our existence here if we are willing to open our eyes and see what is real and eternal. Our egoic thought system makes up a world for us that distorts the real world. Our egoic thought system distorts peace to look like war and love to look like hate. Any sane person would want peace and love rather than war and hate. It’s our choice. The Course asks us to look beyond the appearance of the world we perceive to the real world – Heaven – beyond. The world we think we see is nothing more than a thin veil, no more than a bit of mist that is easily moved beyond when we release our attachment to it. In this manner does Spirit help us to rise above the battleground we have been so involved in and become an observer of the insanity of the battleground. We begin to see it is little more than an illusion distracting us from all that is good and holy within us. What if we just stopped participating in conflict? What if we chose peace and love instead? We have all we need to let this be. There is only good in reality. When we choose reality, all that is not good fades to nothing. We realize we have been existing in and occupying our minds with nothingness and missing out on all the good and happiness around and within us. Allow yourself to let go of the battles and rise above the battleground to see what truth is and what is false.

Chapter 23 closes with this beautiful statement:

Think what is given those who share their Creator’s purpose, and who know that it is theirs. They want for nothing. Sorrow of any kind is inconceivable. Only the light they love is in awareness, and only love shines upon them forever. It is their past, their present and their future; always the same, eternally complete and wholly shared. They know it is impossible their happiness could ever suffer change of any kind. Perhaps you think the battleground can offer something you can win. Can it be anything that offers you a perfect calmness, and a sense of love so deep and quiet that no touch of doubt can ever mar your certainty? And that will last forever?   T-23.IV.8:1-9

We are truly the light of the world. This is indisputable. Allow yourself to rise above the battleground and let your light shine. Be a beacon for those searching for the recognition that they are One with you and your Creator. Let them see their wholeness reflected in the image you hold in your eyes of them. This is the salvation we offer each other as we join in holy Oneness.

April 30, 2019

We have been discussing the laws of chaos the last three weeks. This can be a downer, for it is challenging to talk about this negative mind set. Yet, we have all delved into this chaotic mindset at some time or another. We may even have dwelt there for some time. This chaotic world can seem to be full of attack, fear, guilt, suffering and many other forms of misery. First we must realize we have chosen to align our mind with these “laws of chaos” at some level, whether or not we even realize we have done so. Once we have accepted this, we can begin to realize that this chaotic world is not the real world, for it is insanity. More to the point, we can begin to accept that we can make another choice. We ca choose to set a new course of thought. We can align our mind with a thought system that is rooted in love and compassion, one that is at peace, one that recognizes our innate wholeness, completeness and limitlessness.

We maintain we do not believe these senseless laws of chaos, nor act on them. When we look at what they say, we simply can’t believe them. My friend, we do believe them. How else could we perceive the seemingly insane mad world we experience? Yet we accept the world we see and do not recognize its madness. We paint this world rosy, dress it in loveliness, pet it and pamper it, and tell ourselves it is the best we can achieve. Are we really content with the illusion we are living?

There is no life outside of Heaven. Where the One created life, there life must be. In any state apart from Heaven life is illusion. At best it seems like life; at worst, like death. Yet both are judgments on what is not life, equal in their inaccuracy and lack of meaning. Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusion stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.   T-23.II.19:1-9

Do the laws of chaos bring us a world that seems to be hell? They are the descending stairway to what seems to be hell. Hell is not real, it’s an illusion. Bu when we believe and live by the laws of chaos, our world at times certainly appears to be hell. Love seems to fade into darkness which appears impenetrable. Many of those we encounter seem to be attacking us in some form. We seem to never have enough, or we feel we must get “more.” The steps to chaos do follow neatly from their starting point. Each is a different form in the progression of truth’s reversal, leading still deeper into terror and away from truth. Do not make the mistake of thinking one step is smaller than another, nor that return from one is easier. The whole descent from Heaven lies in each step. Wherever your thinking starts, there must it end.

Friend, take not one step in the descent to hell. For having taken one, you will not recognize the rest for what they are. And they will follow. Attack in any form has placed your foot upon the twisted stairway that leads from Heaven. Yet any instant it is possible to have all this undone. How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go.   T-23.II.22:1-13

We are the friend that helps each one we encounter to ascend the stairway to the awareness of Heaven around us. And each one we encounter is the friend that helps us ascend the stairway to the awareness of Heaven around us. Accept this friend into Oneness when you first encounter them and begin to experience the peace of Heaven within. The extension of peace and love to all Creation is our purpose in this world. Peace of mind is the sign we have made the correct choice.

April 23, 2019

We continue discussing the “laws of chaos.” These aren’t really laws at all for they are based in illusion, unreality and thus have no real effect. However, our egoic thought system gives them enough power to block our awareness of their lack of truth. The first “law” is The truth is different for everyone. The second “law” is Each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. The third “law” is If God cannot be mistaken, God must accept your belief in what you are, and hate you for it. The fourth “law” is You have what you have taken. These “laws” add up to a twisted view and belief about what we are and what the world is.

These “laws”, when believed and aligned with, motivate us to believe we need to attack each other and deprive each other of the things we think are in short supply. These “laws” convince us to believe that only a few can be granted salvation or at least “happiness” and the rest must lose out. What is it you want that you are willing to get at another’s expense? Can you be sure your attack is justified unless you know what it is for?

And here a final principle of chaos comes to the “rescue.” It holds there is a substitute for love. This is the magic that will cure all of your pain; the missing factor in your madness that makes it “sane.” This is the reason why you must attack. Here is what makes your vengeance justified. Behold, unveiled, the ego’s secret gift, torn from another’s body, hidden there in malice and in hatred for the one to whom the gift belongs. This one would deprive you of the secret ingredient that would give meaning to your life. The substitute for love, born of your enmity to another, must be salvation. It has no substitute, and there is only one. And all your relationships have but the purpose of seizing it and making it your own.   T-23.II.12:3-12

We who abide by these “laws” believe we walk in sanity with our feet on solid ground through a world where meaning can be found. The Course asks us to consider this: These are the laws on which our “sanity” appears to rest. These are the principles which make the ground beneath our feet seem solid. And it is here we look for meaning. These are the laws we made for our salvation. They hold in place the substitute for Heaven which we prefer. Their purpose is madness. They were made for madness. Are we certain madness is really our goal? The ground we walk on in this madness governed by the laws of chaos is anything but solid. And the world governed by these laws has no meaning whatsoever. It is madness to believe we could ever find meaning there.

No one wants madness, nor does anyone cling to their madness if they see that this is what it is. What protects madness is the belief that it is true. It is the function of insanity to take the place of truth. It must be seen as truth to be believed. And if it is the truth, then must its opposite, which was the truth before, be madness now. Such a reversal, completely turned around, with madness sanity, illusions true, attack a kindness, hatred love, and murder benediction, is the goal the laws of chaos serve. These are the means by which the laws of Truth appear to be reversed. Here do the laws of sin appear to hold love captive, and let sin go free.   T-23.II.14:1-8

Love is what we are really looking for. Peace is where we want to rest. Both are ours already. They are within us. We simply need to turn our sight within to the truth about who we really are. We don’t need to understand the laws of chaos that seem to bind us. Just recognize they keep us from the awareness of the love and peace that dwell within all of us. We don’t need to even know how to get there, for when we are willing, our inner Spirit will guide our journey and open our eyes to the holy light shining within us. The Course reminds us we are the light of the world in lesson 61. Believe it for it is wholly true. And we will see it reflected in each of our relationships as we realize we are One with all creation. Allow your spirit vision to open to the reality of the eternal around us. Love and peace will light our way. Follow this holy Light and be healed and whole.

April 16, 2019

We have been discussing the “laws of chaos.” These aren’t really laws at all for they are based in illusion, unreality and thus have no real effect. However, our egoic thought system gives them enough power to block our awareness of their lack of truth. The first “law” is The truth is different for everyone. That would mean we each have our own truth independent of anyone else. The second “law” is Each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. This would mean we are each caught up in the helpless web of “sinning” and thus deserve to be attacked and punished by death. These two “laws” alone sound pretty chaotic and they do cause us to be in a chaotic state of mind, unaware of our true essence and nature. The purpose of these chaotic laws is to keep us aligned with the idea of separation and keep us distracted from our own awareness of our wholeness.

This week we will look at two more “chaotic laws” and how they keep us further ensconced in our chaotic world of separation.

The arrogance on which the laws of chaos stand could not be more apparent than emerges here. Here is a principle that would define what the Creator of reality must be; what the Creator of reality must think and what the Creator of reality must believe; and how this One must respond, believing it. It is not seen as even necessary that this One be asked about the truth of what has been established for this One’s belief. The One Child can tell the Creator this, and the Creator has but the choice whether to take their word for it or be mistaken. This leads directly to the third preposterous belief that seems to make chaos eternal. For if the Creaor cannot be mistaken, the Creator must accept the One Child’s belief in what they are and hate them for it.   T-23.II.6:1-6

With this third “chaotic law” we have reinforced the fear of our Source and made it impossible to turn to Source for any help whatsoever. The One becomes something to be avoided because this One “hates” us and desires to “punish” us. We now believe that Source is our “enemy” who caused our misery making any appeal seem useless. This now makes conflict inevitable. Now salvation appears to remain impossible because the Savior has become the enemy. So, we feel hopeless with no apparent way out of the cycle of misery and conflict. What a web we have allowed our egoic thought system to weave.

The ego values only what it takes. This leads to the fourth law of chaos, which, if the others are accepted, must be true. This seeming law is the belief you have what you have taken. By this, another’s loss becomes your gain, and thus it fails to recognize that you can never take away save from yourself. Yet all the other laws must lead to this. For enemies do not give willingly to one another, nor would they seek to share the things they value. And what your enemies would keep from you must be worth having, because they keep it hidden from your sight.   T-23.II.9:1-7

This fourth “chaotic law” is rooted in the belief in lack. It operates from the premise that we live in a limited world where we must take from others what we need to be happy or even survive. It denies the fact that reality is limitless and has an infinite supply of anything we could possibly need or want. This “chaotic law”, like the others, is a complete denial of truth and reality. Yet, when we align our mind and thought system with the belief in separation, we buy into it at the expense of the awareness of our true happiness. This chaotic thought system with which we have aligned our mind is truly madness. It feels insane at times and it truly is. We may, at any moment, change our mind and align with the One Holy Mind we all share. As we begin to understand that we have made a choice to align with madness, we no longer need to even try to understand the madness but shift to align with the light of truth within us. It is a matter of releasing our hold on madness and allowing the holy and divine within us to surface in our awareness. The effort is slight and requires only a little willingness, for truth shines its light in our mind and all darkness will disappear in its light. It is a matter of letting go and letting what is be.

April 9, 2019

The laws of chaos are not understandable for they make no sense. These laws are made up by our egoic thought system to convince us that separation is reality. They are designed to keep us distracted and confused. They support a distorted view of the world that is just mistaken. They are not meaningful and out of reason’s sphere. The minute we look at them through the eyes of reason, they make no sense whatsoever. We need not ever understand the laws of chaos, but we can bring them to light. These laws of chaos may appear to be obstacles to reason, but there is a way to look beyond them. The Course asks us to take a step back and look at them calmly. Their purpose is to make meaningless and attack the truth. Here are the laws that rule the world we made. And yet they govern nothing and need not be broken; merely looked upon and gone beyond. Let’s begin to look at them.

The first chaotic law is that the truth is different for everyone. Like all these principles, this one maintains that each is separate and has a different set of thoughts that set them off from others. This principle evolves from the belief there is a hierarchy of illusions; some are more valuable and therefore true. Each one establishes this for themselves, and makes it true by their attack on what another values. And this is justified because the values differ, and those who hold them seem to be unlike, and therefore enemies.   T-23.II.2:1-5

This first law of chaos contradicts the first principle of miracles – There is no order of difficulty in miracles – for this first law of chaos implies there are degrees of truth and illusions. If we realized that they are all the same and equally untrue, it would be easy to understand that miracles apply to all of them. Errors of any kind can be corrected because they aren’t true. When we bring them to truth instead of to each other, they simply fade to nothing. And no part of nothing can be more resistant to the truth than can another.

The second law of chaos, dear indeed to every worshipper of sin, is that each one must sin, and therefore deserves attack and death. This principle, closely related to the first, is the demand that errors call for punishment and not correction. For the destruction of the one who makes the error places them beyond correction and beyond forgiveness. What they have done is thus interpreted as an irrevocable sentence upon themselves, which the One is powerless to overcome. Sin cannot be remitted, being the belief the One Holy Child can make mistakes for which their own destruction becomes inevitable.   T-23.II.4:1-5

Think what this seems to do to the relationship between the Creator and the Created. This belief makes it appear that They can never be One again. For One must always be condemned by the Other. They now seem to be different, and enemies. Their relationship is one of opposition, just as the separate aspects of Us meet only to conflict but not to join in Oneness. One becomes weak, the other strong by their defeat. The fear of Oneness and of each other now appears sensible. This illusion, this mistake, is made real by what We have done both to ourselves and our Creator. As we align our minds with the laws of chaos, we dig ourselves into separation and block ourselves from the awareness of who we really are. It is not difficult to undo this mistaken belief. We simply look beyond the laws of chaos to reason and truth beyond them.

April 2, 2019

Truth tells us that Love is all there is. The truth that follows is that there is no conflict possible in Love and therefor there is no conflict possible in reality. Yet, there appears to be conflict all around us in this world. Only the belief in sin – the belief in separation – make conflict appear real. Conflict is essentially one illusion warring with another illusion to triumph nothing over nothing. This sounds irrational because it is. In reality, Love does not war with anything for it knows there is no need to triumph over nothing. Love also knows that if it is in conflict, it has made something out of nothing that cannot be real. It makes war out of peace which is impossible.

What you remember is a part of you. For you must be as Source created you. Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. Illusions battle only with themselves. Being fragmented, they fragment. But truth is indivisible, and far beyond their little reach. You will remember what you know when you have learned you cannot be in conflict. One illusion about yourself can battle with another, yet the war of two illusions is a state where nothing happens. There is no victor and there is no victory. And truth stands radiant, apart from conflict, untouched and quiet in the peace of Oneness.   T-23.I.7:1-10

Conflict is possible only between two forces. It cannot exist between one power and nothingness. In the act of attacking we make two illusions of ourselves, in conflict with each other. This occurs whenever we look on anything that Source created with anything but love. Conflict is merely the birth of fear. Let all this madness of conflict be undone, and turn in peace to the rememberance of Oneness, still shining in our quiet mind. Conflict disappears when it is brought before truth, for it cannot exist or be sustained in the presence of Truth. \

We give up our awareness of the peace within us to perpetuate this so-called war within us. Wouldn’t we rather be making a difference in this world by extending the reality of unconditional Love to all we encounter? Joining with each other in the recognition that we are One is the end of conflict in us. Conflict is not real, so it has no affect on us unless we believe it can. Trust Source that stepping out of conflict, no matter how dangerous it may appear, is what we really want. As we take this step, we raise the awareness of Heaven on this earth. And make it the peace, love and joy we are. This is how we bring salvation to this world.

Illusion meets illusion; truth, itself. The meeting of illusions leads to war. Peace, looking on itself, extends itself. War is the condition in which fear is born and grows and seeks to dominate. Peace is the state where love abides, and seeks to share itself. Conflict and peace are opposites. Where one abides the other cannot be; where either goes the other disappears. So is the memory of Oneness obscured in minds that have become illusions’ battleground. Yet far beyond this senseless war it shines, ready to be remembered when you side with peace.   T-23.I.12:1-9

Peace is our choice any time we choose. It is our choice when we choose to let go of the warring illusions we have made to try finding truth. Truth has always been within us waiting for us to stop devoting ourselves to conflicts between illusions we have made up. Release the belief that conflict is necessary. Release the belief that we must win peace and truth. Winning is an empty victory, for it is no victory at all. Look within yourself to the peace and love that already dwells there and rest in Oneness for eternity. Spirit will guide us in helping each other find our way to this place of infinite peace. This is the truth of who we really are.

March 26, 2019

A quiet mind, a peaceful mind, is the state of mind that supports our awareness of reality and the true essence of who we really are. To be in this state of mind we have released our attachment to our past and all the busyness of conflicting thoughts with which our egoic thought system tries to distract us. I find that when I realize I am anxious or upset, I can take a step away from the appearance of conflict in my life and mind and reattune to the peace and love within me. The upset and anxiety immediately lessens and allows me to reconnect with my higher reality in Oneness. I know that the idea that I am separate from others and my Source can block my awareness of the Oneness I am. I will always return to this happiness when I look within to the Higher Spirit I share with all creation. Peace is there in that presence. Love is there in that presence. The troubles of the world lose their hold on me when I step into that presence. There may still be things I need to do in the world, but from that presence of mind I will be guided to more correct and helpful responses. The impact of the conflict I felt will be gone and I will walk in Oneness with holiness.

When we forget to attune with our inner wisdom and get caught up in the world, we end up in a war with ourselves. This war’s effect on us is quite devastating for it distracts us from the awareness of who we are. We get all caught up in the conflict we feel. Conflict is impossible in reality for it is made up by our egoic thought system which is trying to prove that separation is how we win. Winning over Oneness is impossible. Peace and Love are truth and cannot be defeated, yet we still try when we have denied our Oneness and Unity. Letting go of our attachment to the mistaken ideas we have learned over a lifetime frees us from those limitations and opens us to a power and strength we share with each other in Oneness that can never be conquered.

Child, the war against yourself is almost over. The journey’s end is at the place of peace. Would you not now accept the peace offered you here? This “enemy” you fought as an intruder on your peace is here transformed, before your sight, into the giver of your peace. Your “enemy” was the One to Whom all conflict, triumph and attack of any kind are all unknown. This One loves you perfectly, completely and eternally. The One Child at war with their Creator is a condition as ridiculous as nature roaring at the wind in anger, proclaiming it is part of itself no more. Could nature possibly establish this, and make it true? Nor is it up to you to say what shall be part of you and what is kept apart.   T-23.I.4:7-9

This war we have waged against ourselves is nothing more that the denial of our true Self. We are holy. We are whole, complete and limitless. We have everything within us in abundance we could ever need. We contain the wisdom of the One and share it in Oneness with all. This truth can never be forgotten by itself, and we have not forgotten what we are. Only a strange illusion of ourselves, a wish to triumph over what we are, forgets. We can choose to remember whenever we choose to remember.

The war against yourself is but the battle of two illusions, struggling to make them different from each other, in the belief the one that conquers will be true. There is no conflict between them and the truth. Nor are they different from each other. Both are not true. And so it matters not what form they take. What made them is insane, and they remain part of what made them. Madness holds out no menace to reality, and has no influence upon it. Illusions cannot triumph over truth, nor can they threaten it in any way. And the reality that they deny is not a part of them.   T-23.I.6:1-9

Release yourself from the war with yourself. Both sides of that war are simply temporal ideas of who you think you are separate from Oneness. Allow the truth of who you really are to wash over you, filling you with the awareness of peace and love within you. We them bring this peace and love to all we encounter on our journey sharing peace and love with all and bringing a state of Heaven to this earth we walk on for a time. Let the light within you shine, for it cannot long stay hidden. Others will awaken to this light and join their light with yours, for it is the One Eternal Light of Reality we all share. Be the blessing you are. We are the Light of the world.

March 19, 2019

War, which is attack, requires an enemy – or at least the belief that there is an enemy. Innocence and sinlessness are strength. Nothing else is strong. Our egoic thought system may think it is strong, but it uses the appearance of strength to cover the frailty and weakness of unreality. Likewise, no one is strong who has an enemy, and no one can attack unless they think they have enemies. Belief in enemies is therefore the belief in weakness, and what is weak is not real and thus not our true Will. Anything opposed to reality is seen as our “enemy” and must be feared.

This war against ourselves is very strange! We will believe that everything we use for separation can hurt us and become our enemy. We will fight against it and try to weaken it because of this; and we will think that we succeeded and attack again. It is certain we will fear what we attack as it is sure that we will love what we perceive as sinless. We walk in peace as we travel sinlessly along the way love shows us. For love walks with us there, protecting us from fear. We will see only the sinless, who cannot attack.

Walk you in glory, with your head held high, and fear no evil. The innocent are safe because they share their innocence. Nothing they see is harmful, for their awareness of the truth releases everything from the illusion of harmfulness. And what seemed harmful now stands shining in their innocence, released from sin and fear and happily returned to love. They share the strength of love because they looked on innocence. And every error disappeared because they saw it not. Who looks for glory finds it where it is. Where could it be but in the innocent?   T-23.in.3:1-8

Do not allow the little and the unreal to pull you away from strength to littleness and weakness. Think what a happy world we walk now, with truth beside us! Do not give up this world of freedom for anything less no matter how attractive it may appear. Would you, for all these meaningless distractions, lay Heaven aside? No! Our destiny and purpose are far beyond these meaningless distractions, in the place where littleness does not exist. Our true purpose is not with littleness of any kind.

Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. How beautiful it is to walk, clean and redeemed and happy, through a world in bitter need of the redemption that your innocence bestows upon it! What can you value more than this? For here is your salvation and your freedom. And it must be complete if you would recognize it.   T-23.in.6:1-8

Release the littleness you have held so close. It can only result in an inner was with yourself – insanity. You are strong. You have the strength of the whole universe in the Oneness you are. We share this strength in our connectedness. We are joined with each other and all creation in Oneness. And there is nothing that can possibly take this reality away from us. Join into communion with each other and find the reality you thought you lost. In this Oneness you walk in Heaven on earth, bringing to all their wholeness and freedom, peace and love.