July 31, 2012

This week we continue to discuss the Principles of Miracles. As we discussed last week, miracles are always about correcting our perception and correcting the way we think. We have spent a lifetime learning to think the way we think. We have also spent that lifetime becoming attached to what we think about everything we believe about everything we have experienced, observed, and learned. All those thoughts and deductions have formed the self identity we hold about ourselves. But we forgot one very important thing about ourselves.

We have forgotten, put aside, or denied our Divinity, our Oneness with God and all creation. We got so busy “doing it all ourselves” that we forgot to look within to who we really are and ask ourselves if our learned identity has any resemblance to our Divinity, our natural state of being. We are created Divine, unchangeable, and incorruptible. We may have forgotten who we really are, but God hasn’t. And so God has sent us Spirit to connect the thoughts between who we think we are and who we really are. Principle 36 says miracles are examples of right thinking realigning our perception with Truth. Principle 37 says miracles are correction introduced into false thinking. Principle 34 tells us miracles restore the mind to its fullness. Principle 32 tells us miracles intercede for our holiness and make our perceptions holy. Miracles place us beyond the physical world and place us into the celestial sphere of order, our natural order, the order in which we see our perfection and the illusions we were so engrained in fade and drop away. This is the world we are meant to see.

Miracles, as stated in the first principle, have no order of difficulty. One is no greater or lesser than another. All miracles are maximal, for they each correct our perception. Every shift in our perception, our thinking, is an expression of love. And since love is an expression of who we really are we immediately, without effort, extend that love to another, sharing our miracle with them, and opening up the opportunity for that another to experience their own miracle. Since we are all connected at the level of Oneness, miracles are all around us and run through us all the time. Let your attachment to your learned ideas, beliefs and perception loosen and look to Spirit to guide in forming your perceptions. Deep inside we know who we really are. That Truth never leaves us. Decide to remember this Truth and expect a miracle! Come join us tonight and continue on this journey.

July 24, 2012

Last week we discussed the section in the Preface that tells us what the Course says. Our discussion involved the idea that the Course transforms our inner life or our inner experience of life in this world. For our life is not so much about what happens to us, but how we experience and think about all we see and experience. Are we experiencing and thinking about our lives through the lens of our egoic or split mind? Or, are we experiencing and thinking about our lives through the lens of our Divine Mind, our Divine wholeness? The answer can be seen fairly clearly by our sense of happiness or our sense of peace within.

In reality we are in a constant state of miracles. The Principles tell us miracles are expressions of love, they are love, they are natural, they take no effort, and they occur naturally. The first few principles of miracles tell us there is no order of difficultly in miracles and they are all maximal. Most of us see miracles very differently and believe they are very special and infrequent occurrences that originate from outside ourselves. Just the opposite is true. If we are not experiencing miracles all the time, something is amiss. And what is amiss is that we don’t recognize the miracles in our lives because we don’t understand what they are and what their purpose is.

The Principles also tell us that miracles are habits and involuntary. They just occur in Divine consciousness. And, miracles involve no effort. If a miracle does seem to involve effort, it is suspect and must be false. A miracle is not physical in nature. A miracle always occurs in Thought, for reality and truth are within the One Mind, the Mind of God, not in illusion. Miracles are the shifts in our thought, shifts in the way we think about ourselves, each other and all we experience in this life.   These shifts are guided by the One who God has given us to guide us, the Holy Spirit. If we will allow Spirit to guide us in our decisions we will experience and recognize the miracles occurring in and around us. We will begin to feel the sense of inner peace that rises from deep within us, having always been there but unrecognized.

Take a moment and look at the 50 principles of miracles contained in the first section of Chapter 1 in the Course. Let Spirit guide you in your new understanding of miracles so that you recognize the work of Spirit and the Divinity within you. And so you will recognize that Divinity as it extends outward form you. Though the world may be an illusion, it has a purpose in God’s Divine plan for each of us. Each experience, each encounter, each relationship is a naturally occurring miracle that is waiting to be recognized. Each miracle may or may not have an outward result in this world of form. But each miracle will be transformational within each of us as we allow Spirit to show its meaning to us. All the Course asks is that we be just a little willing. And so it is.

July 10, 2012

Last week we finished reading the Text of the Course. What a beautiful passage it is. Every moment, every encounter, every experience, every relationship, and even every thought is an opportunity to reconnect with the awareness of who we really are, our Divine Self. We remain who we have always been, we just remember who we have always been and always will be. What a comfort and joy this is. We need never be out of awareness unless we forget to remember who we really are. And the appearance of the world is transformed by our awareness. It is amazing how the same happening, occurrence, or event can be perceived so many different ways depending on our state of being, our awareness.

As we go back to the beginning of the text, the Course tells us it is all about love, recognizing love, experiencing love, sharing and extending love, and realizing there is nothing except love. Our lessons in this life are about removing our own blocks to the awareness of Love in our lives. We all have love. Love is at the core of our being, it is our natural state of mind. And since love is all-encompassing, it can have no opposite, cannot be taken away, and cannot be destroyed. Love is real and all that is not love is not real.

The Course puts it this way:

“Nothing real (Love) can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.”

We will begin reflecting on the principles of miracles as put forward in the Course. All miracles are founded in Love, for they each lead to the awareness of Love within us. Peace of mind is the result of the awareness of Love within. All miracles, whatever form they may take, lead to the awareness of love. We need only let go of our blocks and barriers of thought and allow Sprit to show us the miracles around us every moment of every day. Come join us on Tuesday evenings to join in this discovery. Bring a friend and embark on this journey without distance. You will experience the Love that you really are and encounter the peace of God within you.