June 30, 2015

We know not what we do. We do not realize what we do when we believe the mistaken idea of separation, the mistaken belief that we are not who we really are. Identifying with separation, the alignment with the egoic thought system, is to attack ourselves and make ourselves seem poor. Thus we feel deprived. We then experience depression or anger among a myriad of other feelings because we have exchanged Self-love for self-hate, making us afraid of ourselves. And we have believed this so thoroughly that we don’t realize we have done this. No matter how aware we are of our anxieties, depression or anger, we do not recognize its source as our own identification with our own egoic thought system, so we attempt to resolve it with some arrangement with the world we think we see. Since we believe the world we think we see is outside of us, we never get to the root of the problem and thus our attempts at resolution are futile. We do not realize that we make the world we think we see, for there is no world outside of us and our mind.

The real world is the loving thoughts that are in the Mind of the One Child of God, all of us in Oneness. This truth has always been, is now and will always be. This is incontrovertible. Our mistaken “insane” thoughts are also in our mind, creating an internal conflict of such magnitude that is intolerable. Our recognition that a split mind encompassing completely opposing thoughts within itself, and that this is completely intolerable, cause the mind to project the split, not the reality. Thus, everything we perceive as the outside world is mainly our attempt to maintain our egoic thought system identification. We believe this world we made up is real, more real than reality, and we are at odds with it because we think it is antagonistic to us. This antagonistic world, or any world we see outside ourselves, is not reality. Reality is within our mind. Reality is only love. Our real thoughts are loving thoughts. This “other” world we believe we see outside ourselves is also within our minds. We must first accept that this is so to begin to get rid of it by releasing our attachment to its reality and thus begin to see and perceive the world as it really is, completely loving.

How do we escape this misery? How do we resolve this conflict in our minds? The Course tells us this:

If you will recognize that all the attack you perceive is in your own mind and nowhere else, you will at last have placed its source, and where it begins it must end. For in this same place also lies salvation. The altar of the One where Oneness abideth is there. You have defiled the altar, but not the world. Yet the One has placed the Atonement on the altar for you. Bring your perceptions of the world to this altar, for it is the altar to truth. There you will see your vision changed, and there you will learn to see truly. From this place, where the One and the One Holy Child dwell in peace and where you are welcome, you will look out in peace and behold the world truly. Yet to find the place, you must relinquish your investment in the world as you project it, allowing the Holy Spirit to extend the real world to you from the altar of the One. T-12.III.10.1-9

It is really a matter of release rather than accomplishing. Letting go of our alignment with the egoic thought system we made is a most freeing release. It takes little effort compared to the effort we expend to maintain our belief in separation contrary to our Oneness. Take a moment, decide to be open to Spirit’s guidance and let reality flood your mind with what is already there – the awareness of who we really ate.

June 23, 2015

We are in this world to give and receive – share – love. We are here to find our way back to the awareness of love and to answer the call for love of others. When we are attached to this world, it is difficult for us to see the reality of love from the perspective of our egoic thought system until we decide to ask Spirit for guidance. Once we accept Spirit’s guidance, we can then recognize others’ calls for love and be in a state of mind where we can understand their belief in their lack. We are much more likely to be truly helpful when another sees that we understand and have experienced where they think they are. This is what Jesus meant when he asked his disciples to sell all they had and give it to the poor. We must know where our treasure is to be able to share it with others who do not know. Are we invested in our real treasure or are we invested in lack or the things of this world?

A similar condition arises when another asks us to do something we think we don’t want to do. That one’s insistence demonstrates their belief that their salvation lies in it. In refusing to do what they ask, we may create opposition in that one which demonstrated that we believe our salvation lies in not doing what they ask. Is opposition truly helpful? The Course asks us, Would you rather be right or happy? What are we invested in? Our investment is always related to our notion of salvation and reality. As with all other actions in this world, ask Spirit for guidance. When someone asks us to do something, ask Spirit how we can be truly helpful. Perhaps doing what another asks will show them love and won’t hurt anyone or make any real difference in reality. Then we have answered their call for love and perhaps allowed them to be willing to see a little differently. Are we invested in being right or in being happy? Investing in reality rather than separation always brings happiness and peace.

Salvation is healing and healing is always of the mind. It has nothing to do with the world, just our mind. Salvation and healing are attained or recognized through peace. Any response other than love arises out of an investment in our egoic thought system. The Course tells us:

Salvation is for the mind, and it is attained through peace. This is the only thing that can be saved and the only way to save it. Any response other than love arises from a confusion about the “what” and the “how” of salvation, and this is the only answer. Never lose sight of this, and never allow yourself to believe, even for an instant, that there is another answer. For you will surely place yourself among the poor, who do not understand that they dwell in abundance and that salvation is come. T-12.III.5.1-5

Recognize what does not really matter. Ask Spirit – your Higher Holy Self – for guidance in recognizing what does and does not matter. Do not make it matter to you, for then you have invested in the world and lack and made the unreal seem real to you. Thus you have placed in your mind another block to your awareness of who you really are. No “outrageous” requests can be made of one who recognizes what is truly valuable and real and does not want to accept nothing else. Remember, nothing unreal exists, nor does it matter. What does matter is recognizing and answering another’s call for love. Ask Spirit for guidance and let it be so.

June 16, 2015

Do not let anything stand in the way of love. Nothing can withstand the power of love, unless we hide it from love. Awake and remember your purpose, for it is your will to fulfill your purpose. Our purpose is to share love, giving and receiving the unlimited love we are. There is nothing that can block this purpose, nothing that can take away this purpose and nothing that can destroy this purpose. Our purpose goes on in eternity, never beginning or ending. The only thing that can interrupt this is our lapsing into an unawareness that we are love. If we allow the distractions of our egoic thought system – a mistaken way of thinking rooted in our belief in the thought that we are not love – to occupy our mind, we block our awareness of who we really are and our true divine purpose. Little do we realize we have a divine purpose and we share that divine purpose with all of Creation.

We cannot, nor do we need to, fulfill this divine purpose alone. To attempt to do this alone is contrary to the very idea of sharing. We must come together to share. We must join in unity to share. To divide and separate is completely foreign to sharing. Yet we still hang on to our mistaken idea that we are separate and need to “get” some little part of a limited “something” to find love. We have Spirit to guide us to the fulfillment of our purpose. Not only is Spirit there to guide us, but Spirit is already within us holding us in Its love waiting for us to ask for guidance. Perhaps we think Spirit is hiding from us. However, the opposite is true. We are hiding from Spirit. We are hiding from the One, our Source, who we are One with. In essence, we are hiding from our true Self! As long as we hide one thought, one idea, one fear from the light of Spirit within us, we remain in the darkness made by that one wall that blocks our full awareness of who we really are and our divine love.

 There is no fear in perfect love. We will but be making perfect to you what is already perfect in you. You do not fear the unknown but the known. You will not fail in your mission because I did not fail in mine. Give me but a little trust in the name of the complete trust I have in you, and we will easily accomplish the goal of perfection together. For perfection is, and cannot be denied. To deny the denial of perfection is not so difficult as to deny truth, and what we can accomplish together will be believed when you see it as accomplished. T-12.II.8.1-7

As it states in this paragraph from this section, we accomplish this together. We accomplish this together with Spirit, with the Christ Spirit, and also with each other. Every One we encounter in this world is one we are meant to join with in Oneness. We are to recognize perfection in each other, not by looking at how they appear in this world, but beyond that appearance to the divine perfection beyond we share with them in Oneness. Trust in each other that we are the divine love we are and look beyond the appearance that anything else is real. Once we pull down all the walls that are keeping our belief in fear, attack and guilt hidden, the light of divine love will shine away any doubt that they are unreal and do not exist at all.

We are embarking on an organized, well structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer Spirit everything we do not want. Spirit knows what to do with it and will guide us in doing so. Yet we must be willing to look at everything we have hidden, for otherwise it remains hidden to Spirit and cannot be released from our mind. As long as we hide any thought from the light of Spirit and love, we cannot release it and let it go and it therefore keeps us limited. It is time to release all the thoughts we have hidden in the dark recesses of our egoic mind and remember the divine nature of who we really are. We are complete, whole and perfect and are divine love itself. Be who you are.

June 9, 2015

As I read this section, I think, “Do we love?” If, as the Course tells us, we are Love, and Love is all that is real, what else is there but Love? I want to hold the intention to love, to see love, and to share and offer love in all I think, do and say. If I do not hold love in my mind and love is my essence, am I not denying love and myself? The truth is I am Love. The truth is we are all Love. The truth is that all that is real is Love and nothing else exists. This sounds insane to me when I think with a split mind, but it is nevertheless the truth the Couse teaches. This section begins with the statement that miracles are merely the translation of denial to truth. To love oneself is to heal oneself. And to love another is to heal another. So when we or another call for love – anything that is not love itself – we are asking for healing by being loved. Of course, we must also be willing to be loved to be healed.

As a miracle worker, whose purpose is “Only to be truly helpful”, our task is simply to deny the denial of truth! We must heal ourselves for the truth is already within us. Yet we have obscured it from our minds, so light in another’s mind must shine into ours because that light is also ours. The Course tells us:

The light in them shines as brightly regardless of the density of the fog that obscures it. If you give no power to the fog to obscure the light, it has none. For it has power only if We give power to it. We must ourselves withdraw that power, remembering that all power is of the One. You can remember this for all of Us. Do not allow another not to remember, for their forgetfulness is yours. But your remembering is theirs, for the One cannot be remembered alone. This is what you have forgotten. To perceive the healing of another as the healing of yourself is thus the way to remember Oneness. For you forgot your sisters and brothers with Oneness, and the One’s Answer to your forgetting is but the way to remember. ACIM T-12.II.2.1-10

The light and love we are is within us and has always been within us. We have simply forgotten who we are and our healing is to remember who we are. This is the answer we so diligently seek, yet seek it outside of us when it can only be found within us.

Whatever seems to be amiss in the world we think we see, perceive it as a call for love and offer another what they believe they cannot offer themselves. Whatever condition we perceive in this world, it has one and only one remedy. Allow the light and love of truth to shine into the mind of each One we encounter.

Learn to be quiet in the midst of turmoil, for in the quietness is the end of strife and is the journey to peace. Look at each obstacle that arises in our way to delay us and let it fade in the light of the goal before us as it is inevitable because it is eternal. The Love we are is eternal and nothing can destroy the eternal within us. The goal of love is our right because it belongs to us. Let its light shine away all doubt that this is so. Ask then for the guidance of Spirit in all you do, for Spirit will assist us to fling open the shutters of our split mind letting the light of love shine through us into another’s mind where they will recognize the truth about themselves. Yhis is the miracle. This is the return to the awareness of who we really are.

June 2, 2015

Appreciation is the only appropriate response to the one we are encountering at any given moment. This may be someone we encounter by “chance” on the street or someone we have been in relationship with for some time. Each one is in our life at any given moment for a reason. That reason is for us to appreciate them. Our gratitude is due them for their loving thoughts and their appeal for help.   Both are capable of bringing love into our awareness if we perceive them truly. Reality is revealed in our perceiving them truly. If we feel love and peace as we see this one, we are seeing truly. But if we feel a sense of strain, it comes from our attempts not to perceive truly, to perceive from our egoic thought system made of our desire to be separate. Being in unity and Oneness with one another is our natural state of being and is truly effortless. However, we seem to want to expend great effort to maintain a false sense of separation from our whole Self.

Spirit’s job is to work with us and guide us in correct perception, guiding us in the awareness of the love that we are. When we begin to appreciate our brothers and sisters and are grateful for their presence in our lives, no matter the circumstance, we allow Spirit to shift our perception and see each other more clearly. Truly recognizing a call for help for what it is as Spirit guides us allows us the opportunity to see the healing of not just another, but of ourselves.

Your interpretations of another’s needs are your interpretation of yours. By giving help you are asking for it, and if you perceive but one need in yourself you will be healed. For you will recognize the One’s Answer as you want It to be, and if you want It in truth, It will be truly yours. ACIM T-12.I.7.1-3

Our desire for truth is key. Our desire to appreciate, be grateful and extend love and help are the key intentions that open our minds to Spirit’s guidance. Can we set the intention to be only truly helpful? Yes we can and that is really what we want.

By applying Spirit’s interpretation of the reactions of others more and more consistently, we will gain an increasing awareness that Spirit’s criteria are equally applicable to us. Should we recognize fear? Yes, but simply recognizing it is not enough to escape it. We must open our minds and allow Spirit to correctly translate fear into truth for us. Just recognizing fear leaves us stuck in fear, but accepting Spirit’s translation of fear into truth opens us to the love that lies beyond it. That love is rooted in reality and opens our minds to the awareness of who we really are. We are complete, whole, limitless, and filled with peace. What more could we wish to be? By interpreting fear correctly as a positive affirmation of the underlying belief it masks, we are undermining its perceived usefulness by rendering it useless. We have undone the misperception and revealed love in its place. The veil we have drawn across love’s face has now disappeared.

If you would look upon love, which is the world’s reality, how could you do better than to recognize, in every defense against it, the underlying appeal for it? And how could you better learn of its reality than by answering the appeal for it by giving it? Spirit’s interpretation of fear does dispel it, for the awareness of truth cannot be denied. Thus does Spirit replace fear with love and translate error into truth. And thus will you learn of Spirit how to replace your dream of separation with the fact of unity. For the separation is only the denial of union, and correctly interpreted, attests to your eternal knowledge that union is true. ACIM T-12.I.10.1-6

Our eternal knowledge of our Oneness is within us and has never left us. Waken to that knowledge now and live in the awareness of love and peace. It is our function in this world to be who we really are and share that with each other and all creation. Let it be so.