July 3, 2018

We are in this temporal world of form on a journey back to the awareness of who we really are. We are really One with each other and all that is. We are One with Source. We are One with all that is eternal and limitless. All that is real is connected and innocent. All that is real is completely without any kind of sin or any kind of flaw. We are created whole and we remain whole in Oneness. Any idea that tells us otherwise is merely a mistake, born of a misperception of truth and reality. We have blocked our awareness of our true nature, our true being, by believing we are somehow separate from all others and all else. And, we reinforce this belief by making our relationships in this temporal world appear as we believe them to be. This belief blocks the awareness of who we are from our minds.

The journey back to the awareness of our natural state of being is through the healing of our relationships. Each one we encounter on this journey is there to help us remember who we really are. They come into our lives so we may change our mind and look beyond their appearance to their irrefutable wholeness hidden by what we think we see. We offer the miracle of healing our relationships by offering each other the awareness of their wholeness as we join with them in Oneness.

In this world, We come closest to ourselves in a holy relationship. There we begin to find the certainty our Creator has in them. And there we find our function of restoring our Creator’s laws to what was held outside them, and finding what was lost. Only in time can anything be lost, and never lost forever. So do the parts of the One Child gradually join in time, and with each joining is the end of time brought nearer. Each miracle of joining is a mighty herald of eternity. No one who has a single purpose, unified and sure, can be afraid. No one who shares their purpose with them can not be one with them.   T-20.V.1:1-8

We are the heralds of eternity. We are the ones who call out in the darkness proclaiming light that shines away the darkness. Once we awaken to the light and wholeness within us we begin to remember we are all joined in Oneness. The light within each and every one of us has never dimmed nor was ever extinguished. We simply, in our denial of our own light, shuttered our light so we could not see it ourselves. Our partners on our journey could see our light, but we denied it was there and refused to see it reflected in their faces. Thus, we created a symbolic hell of the darkness we believed was there. We can open the shutters with which we blocked our light. This is what begins our return to the awareness of reality and eternity.

Each herald of eternity sings of the end of sin and fear. Each speaks in time of what is far beyond it. Two voices raised together call to the hearts of everyone, to let them beat as one. And in that single heartbeat is the unity of love proclaimed and given welcome. Peace to your holy relationship, which has the power to hold the unity of the One Child together. You give to your friend for everyone, and in your gift is everyone made glad. Forget not Who has given you the gifts you give, and through your not forgetting this, will you remember Who gave the gifts to this One to give to you.   T-20.V.2:1-7

Offer your relationships to Spirit for healing. In this offer, you can rest assured you will see correctly. You will see you friend as they truly are, whole and complete. In their healed appearance will you see your whole and complete Self reflected back to you. You will see you relationship joined in Oneness, never again to be seen as separate. Your example will be the Herald of Eternity shining in Holy Oneness for others to see and return to. Let the light within you shine. It truly is the Light of world.

June 26, 2018

What if our real world is nothing but peace, love and joy? Could we be open to this possibility for just a moment? The Course teaches there is nothing but peace, love and joy. It also teaches that all fear, limitation and suffering is merely a mistaken perception and is not real. However, for those of us who experience these feelings, they seem very real and we see no way to escape from them. The world we think we see with our bodies’ eyes is a world distorted through the lens of separation. As we have aligned our thoughts with our belief that we are many separate beings, we have perceived a world of many unlike identities. The world appears to be comprised of many competing beings and ideas. Sometimes it can feel very lonely. Could it be possible that there is another interpretation? Most of us have felt some sort of wider connection with others at some point in our existence. Whether of not we believe in a God or some other larger concept, we have somehow felt this connection among beings some way. Perhaps there is a deeper or higher connection.

The Course teaches there is another way, another plan. We give as we receive. There is power within us to see power within another and share with them the power of the release from separation we offer them. To each who walks this earth in seeming solitude a savior is given, whose special function here is to release them, and so to free themselves. In the world of separation each is appointed separately, though they are all the same. Yet those who know that they are all One do not need salvation. Each one of us finds our savior when we are ready to look upon the face of Oneness within another and see them whole and joined. In reality we are all joined in Oneness with each other and with Source. Nothing can change this fact, yet we can perceive our world differently.

Our purpose given to us in this world is to heal this belief in separation. Do not think the forgiveness of another serves only the two of you alone. The whole new world rests in the hands of every two who enter here to rest. As we rest, the face of Heaven shines on us and we remember the reality of Oneness, forgetting all else that is not real. We can no more leave one of us outside than Source could leave us and forget part of what is One. Through our relationships we heal our belief in separation and remember we are One with each other and One with all of Creation. The friend with whom we will heal our relationship is with us when we are ready. Is that time now? It is our choice. We will decide to open our minds when we are ready to accept real happiness, love, and peace. There the awareness of our Oneness will follow our willingness to leave separation behind.

You may wonder how you can be at peace when, while you are in time, there is so much that must be done before the way to peace is open. Perhaps this seems impossible to you. But ask yourself if it is possible that God would have a plan for your salvation that does not work. Once you accept God’s plan as the one function that you would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. Spirit will go before you making straight your path, and leaving in your way no stones to trip on, and no obstacles to bar your way. Nothing you need will be denied you. Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it. You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you would fulfill. As that was given you, so will its fulfillment be. God’s guarantee will hold against all obstacles, for it rests on certainty and not contingency. It rests on you.  And what can be more certain than the One Child of God?   T-20.IV.8:1-12

Do not think that you do not need to do your part in the whole. In your part lies all of it, without which is no part complete, nor is the whole completed without your part. The ark of peace is entered two by two, yet the beginning of another world goes with them. Each holy relationship must enter here, to learn its special function in Spirit’s plan, now that it shares Spirit’s purpose. As this purpose is fulfilled, a new world rises in which separation cannot enter, and where we can enter without fear and where we rest a while, to forget imprisonment and to remember freedom. Choose today to see another as they really are and step into the ark of peace that is the Heaven we seek.

June 19, 2018

As in the previous section, Section IV teaches us about our relationships and the importance of healing our relationships. The One we are in relationship with in this world right now is the one to whom we are to offer healing. The Course has taught us there is only one problem – belief in separation. It has also taught us there is only one solution – the end of separation in the awareness of Oneness. If we give our friend the power to hurt us, we have believed that power can be split – separated – that we can give something away and no longer have it. This is impossible in reality where everything is shared. The Course has taught us that giving and receiving are the same. Thus, everything real is shared. The body’s eyes do not see this, for they are designed to see separation. Whatever we seem to have seen in this world has another interpretation. Our own Higher Holy Spirit Self within us will show us the correct interpretation if we will allow ourselves to be open minded. The answer is already within us.

Sin has no place in Heaven, where its results are alien and can no more enter than can their source. And therein lies your need to see your friend sinless. In them is Heaven. See sin in them instead, and Heaven is lost to you. But see them as they are, and what is yours shines from them to you. Your savior gives you only love, but what you would receive of them is up to you. It lies in them to overlook all your mistakes, and therein lies their own salvation. And so it is with yours. Salvation is a lesson in giving, as the Holy Spirit interprets it. It is the reawakening of the laws of the One in minds that have established other laws, and given them power to enforce what the One created not.   T-20.IV.2:1-10

Salvation is freedom. Our salvation is the release of our friend from the perception we have of them that limits them and thus likewise limits us. We are limited by the perception we hold true of our friend. The insane world we made up rooted in our mistaken belief in separation is the world we have given power over our freedom and relationships. We have believed this world is our “just reward” when it can’t really reach our true holy Self. This is nothing but madness! Is this what we would see within our savior from insanity? Our savior is as free from this as we are, and in the freedom that we see in them we see our own. For this freedom – salvation – we share.

Those who choose freedom will experience only its results. Their power is of the One, and they will give it only to what the One has given, to share with them. Nothing but this can touch them, for they see only this, sharing their power according to the Will of the One. And thus their freedom is established and maintained. It is upheld through all temptation to imprison and to be imprisoned. It is of them who learned of freedom that you should ask what freedom is. Ask not the sparrow how the eagle soars, for those with little wings have not accepted for themselves the power to share with you.   T-20.IV.4:1-7

What will you accept for yourself? What will you accept for your friend? Your friend is your savior and you are your friend’s savior. It doesn’t matter what your friend does in this temporal world. Begin by recognizing the holy within them they may not see right now. Grant your friend freedom from all you have previously believed about them and reveal their holy Self in your mind. This is what begins the healing of your relationship. Take the first step, for that is a step toward Heaven that is within both of you. Thus, we enter peace hand in hand with our friend. Take this first step right now.

June 12, 2018

Through the lens of separation, we perceive our relationships adjusted from their true meaning. The belief in the idea of separation adjusts our relationships to appear “special” – meaning not holy. All our relationships are holy in reality. It is only in this “adjusted” world that they appear “special.” Are we not tired of relationships that seem to attack, produce guilt or appear dysfunctional in any way? We have made this misperception, this adjustment, through our alignment with our own egoic thought system. Believing this adjusted perception is real blocks our awareness of the true nature of our relationships. We have made our relationships appear to be something they are not, nor have they ever been in reality. This adjusted world and this adjusted relationship is merely a puff of madness in a moment of mistaken thinking in separation.

Does one ask judgment of what is totally bereft of judgment? And if you have, would you believe the answer, and adjust to it as if it were the truth? The world you look on is the answer that it gave you, and you have given it power to adjust the world to make its answer true. You asked this puff of madness for the meaning of your unholy relationship and adjusted it according to its insane answer. How happy did it make you? Did you meet your friend with joy to bless the One Child of God, and give them thanks for all the happiness that they held out to you? Did you recognize your friend as the eternal gift of God to you? Did you see the holiness that shone in both you and your friend, to bless the other? That is the purpose of your holy relationship. Ask not the means of its attainment of the one thing that still would have it be unholy. Give it no power to adjust the means and end.   T-20.III.8:1-11

Reach out to your friend and offer them freedom from this adjusted world. Offer them the freedom you so crave. We may not recognize it at once, for we are so aligned with the world we made up, we find the freedom of the real world frightening and even daunting. It seems so strange to us, yet somehow familiar. Allow yourself the time to adjust again. We can adjust again to the real world, the holy world – to real relationships, holy relationships. Spirit will guide us in the healing and transformation of our relationships into their natural state. Give it time. This is the holy purpose of time. The miracle of healing our relationships brings the real world without our adjustments to light. The light within us is shining on the real world within us. Remove the shutters on your inner light and let it illuminate the real world around you.

Your gift unto your friend has given me the certainty our union will be soon. Share, then, this faith with me, and know that it is justified. There is no fear in perfect love because it knows no sin, and it must look on others as on itself. Looking with charity within, what can it fear without? The innocent see safety, and the pure in heart see Source within Us, and look unto Us to lead them to Source. And where else would they go but where they will to be? You and your friend now will lead the other to Source as surely as Source created Us holy, and kept us so. In your friend is the light of Source’s eternal promise of your immortality. See them as sinless, and there can be no fear in you.   T-20.III.11:1-9

Set your friend free – and yourself, too. The prison of separation is merely a distortion and an adjustment to freedom. Freedom is our truth. Holiness is our truth. Completeness and wholeness is our truth. Offer your friend the gift of forgiveness and healing; release from the adjustment of sin and misperception. Wholeness is waiting to take its place. Love and peace are already welling up within us. Make your choice today and set the world free.

June 5, 2018

In the presence of holiness, we can be only holy. Yet we continue to deny our holiness. Holiness is all there is. However, we continue to deny our holiness and the holiness of each other. We become attached to the idea of unholiness and then reinforce it again and again. We perceive the world around us as unholy and cement that idea in our minds, blocking all ideas that seem to contradict it. What if our perception is mistaken? What if our mind has adjusted the appearance of the world around us to make it appear unholy? There’s something to think about.

Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, “What are you?” And the One Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, “What am I?” The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you.   T-20.III.6:1-8

Look at the relationships you have chosen – or that have chosen you. Are they holy? If not, they are there in your life to be healed. Our own egoic thought system has adjusted our perception of these relationships to appear unholy. We thus blame, attack or deprive the one in relationship with us in an effort to make them change their behavior or perception. We want them to adjust their sense of “right” to our sense of “right.” The reason we see another as unholy is that our own perception is distorted, not theirs. They need do nothing to heal our relationship. We are the ones who need to decide that we want to perceive our relationship differently. The willingness for healing and change is our responsibility and no one else’s. Are we even a little willing to open ourselves to this possibility?

Seek not to make the One Holy Child of God adjust to their insanity. There is a stranger in them, who wandered carelessly into the home of truth and who will wander off. They came without a purpose, but they will not remain before the shining light the Holy Spirit offered, and you accepted. For there the stranger is made homeless and you are welcome. Ask not this transient stranger, “What am I?” They are the only thing in all the universe that does not know. Yet it is they you ask, and it is to their answer that you would adjust. This one wild thought, fierce in its arrogance, and yet so tiny and so meaningless it slips unnoticed through the universe of truth, becomes your guide. To it you turn to ask the meaning of the universe. And of the one blind thing in all the seeing universe of truth you ask, “How shall I look upon the One Holy Child of God?”   T-20.III.7:1-10

We’ve been looking for love in all the wrong places! The light of truth and knowledge is already within us planted there at our creation. It has never gone away, it has never been corrupted. No sin has ever or could ever blemish our true Self. Spirit holds this for us to offer again to our awareness when we are ready and willing to see again. Allow your relationships to be healed as Spirit directs. Just a bit of willingness is needed to begin. Then the willingness to follow the guidance of Spirit within us will bring our light to shine within us and radiate holiness. Allow your light to shine on your relationships and see the holiness that was there all the time waiting to be recognized. This is why this One is in our life right now.

May 29, 2018

What does it mean when the Course says, “sin is an adjustment?” Start with the fact that truth, reality, needs no adjustment. Truth just is.  In order to believe anything else is real, truth must be adjusted to fit our belief of what is true. I know, it sounds twisted, and it is twisted. There is no way to believe we are sinful unless we twist or adjust the truth that we are sinless. This sounds crazy, even insane to us. Yes, it’s insane. We have spent a lifetime adjusting the truth about ourselves to fit the perception of ourselves and each other we mistakenly believe is true and real. We are asked by the Course to question this perception and set it aside, with the recognition that we are truly holy.

We learn how to do this in our relationships with each other. All relationships are truly holy, yet we perceive them as anything but holy. We perhaps perceive them as challenging or a necessary evil. Adjustments of any kind are of the egoic thought system. For it is the egoic thought system’s fixed belief that all relationships depend upon adjustments, to make of them what it would have them be. Direct – holy – relationships, in which there are no interferences, are always seen as dangerous. The egoic thought system is the self-appointed mediator of all relationships, making whatever adjustments it deems necessary and interposing them between those who would meet, to keep them separate and prevent the remembrance of their Oneness. It is this studied interference that makes it difficult for us to recognize our holy relationships for what they truly are. The Course teaches us to re-perceive our “special” relationships as holy relationships. This process is the healing of our relationships and the healing of our minds.

The holy do not interfere with truth. They are not afraid of it, for it is within the truth they recognize their holiness and rejoice at what they see. They look on it directly, without attempting to adjust themselves to it, or it to them. And so they see that it was in them, not deciding first where they would have it be. Their looking merely asks a question, and it is what they see that answers them. You make the world and then adjust to it, and it to you. Nor is there any difference between yourself and it in your perception, which made them both.   T-20.III.3:1-7

There is a question we must ask ourselves. Do we like the world we have made? Yes, we’ve made it. We have twisted the real world and adjusted it so much that it is a world that reflects nothing of its reality. The world we see is not pleasant. We probably see it worse than that, full of attack and judgement, frightening and unbearable. It appears to be a world through which we thread our timid way through constant dangers, alone and frightened, hoping at most that death will wait a little longer before it overtakes us, and we disappear. We made this up. It is a picture of what we think we are; of how we see ourselves.

Have you ever wondered what the world is really like; how it would look through happy eyes? The world you think you see is nothing but a judgment on yourself. It is not there at all. Would you rather see a happy world – a world full of peace, joy and love? The world you think you see is outside of you and therefore unreal. The real world is and remains within you, unseen but waiting to be recognized.

Who in a holy relationship can long remain unholy? The world the holy see is one with them, just as the world the ego looks upon is like itself. The world the holy see is beautiful because they see their innocence in it. They did not tell it what it was; they did not make adjustments to fit their orders. They gently questioned it and whispered, “What are you?” And the One Who watches over all perception answered. Take not the judgment of the world as answer to the question, “What am I?” The world believes in sin, but the belief that made it as you see it is not outside you.   T-20.III.6:1-8

Release all the adjustments you have made to yourself, your relationships and the world you see. Let the light of holiness shine away all those adjustments and reveal all that is real and true in you, your relationships and the world. You will find nothing short of Heaven, for Heaven is Reality. Let the healing begin.

May 22, 2018

Our true home is beyond this world we seem to be surrounded by. We never left our true home. We simply blocked our awareness of it. The world we seem to think is around us is a distorted version of the real world. There is nothing but Love in the real world. However, we have chosen to align with our egoic thought system in believing and viewing the world as it is not. The holy Ones around us in the real world are still around us in the world we seem to see. We just have chosen to see the distorted image of them our egoic thought system holds before us. They are truly just as holy as we are and, in reality, hold our holiness for us to see when we are ready.

You have the vision now to look past all illusions. It has been given you to see no thorns, no strangers and no obstacles to peace. The fear of Source [God] is nothing to you now. Who is afraid to look upon illusions, knowing their savior stands beside them? With them, your vision has become the greatest power for the undoing of illusion that Source [God] Itself could give. For what Source [God] gave the Holy Spirit, you have received. The One Child [of God] looks unto you for their release. For you have asked for and been given the strength to look upon this final obstacle, and see no thorns nor nails to crucify the One Child [of God], and crown them ruler of death.   T-20.II.7:1-8

This is a beautiful tribute from the Course to who we really are. Deep down within us we know this. Our brothers and sisters know this. Spirit knows this. There is no question about who we really are. Spirit asks us to release our attachment to the illusion we believe is who we are. We can tell who we believe we are by whether we offer each other thorns – attack – or lilies – love. The thorns are the obstacles to peace. Lilies welcome peace and love to rise within us to our awareness. Our true home beckons to us beyond the veil. It calls to us to step through the illusion of the veil to who and what we truly are.

There is no fear in love. Let us lift our eyes together, not in fear, but faith. There is no fear in us, for in our vision there are no illusions; only a pathway to the open door of Heaven, the home we share in quietness and where we live in gentleness and peace, as one together.

Would you not have your holy friend lead you there? Their innocence will light your way, offering you its guiding light and sure protection, and shining from the holy altar within them where you laid the lilies of forgiveness. Let them be to you the savior from illusions, and look on them with the new vision that looks upon the lilies and brings you joy. We go beyond the veil of fear, lighting each other’s way. The holiness that leads us is within us, as is our home. So will we find what we were meant to find by the One Who leads us.   T-20.II.9:1-6

Look to the light within you. Look to the light within your friend. Your light has never waivered nor gone out. It shines brightly within you waiting for you to follow its light. You and your friend will gladly walk the way of innocence together, singing as you behold the open door of Heaven and recognize the home that called to you. Give joyously to your friend the freedom and strength to lead you there. And come before their holy altar where the strength and freedom wait, to offer and receive the bright awareness that leads you home. The lamp is lit in you for your friend. And, likewise, the lamp is lit in your friend for you. By the hands that gave it to them you shall be led past fear to love. Love is your true home. Choose love today – now – for your friend and for you. And choose to live in gentleness and peace, as one together.

May 8, 2018

We have been discussing releasing our attachment to the obstacles to peace we have made. Peace is within us.  Peace is around us. Likewise, we have blocked our awareness of our own holiness – the holiness within us. It is there within us, no question. However, we have blocked our awareness of it by holding the belief that we are not holy. While we believe we are not holy, we cannot see the holiness so obvious within us. The two are completely incompatible.  We have come to a place in the Course that talks and teaches about the meaning of Easter. And, as one might expect, the Course gives Easter a completely different meaning than what we may currently hold about Easter. The Course gives us an interpretation of Holy Week that symbolizes our journey in this world. What if we were to look differently at our journey in this world as we return to the awareness of who we really are? Perhaps we need to take another look through the vision of our holiness.

We tend to look at the Easter season through the lens of sin, suffering and death. What if we were to look at Easter through the lens of holiness, returning to the awareness of our innocence? The lessons the Course teaches us are that there is no sin and we are incapable of sin. The Course then teaches us there is no real suffering and no death. We are and have always been innocent because we are created holy and remain holy because holiness is permanent; holiness cannot be sullied. We believe we have sinned and are corrupted because we have sinned, believing in the impossible. Any truth in this belief is impossible and unthinkable in the realm of Heaven. We have convinced ourselves that this untruth is true and then spent much effort reinforcing this mistaken belief. Now is the time to release this error from your mind and discard it as hogwash – though I don’t mean to demean hogs. Let Spirit and your friend bring a new meaning of Easter into your mind now. Here’s how the Course describes Holy Week: I have altered pronouns to express how I have come to understand the Course.

A week is short, and yet this holy week is the symbol of the whole journey We have undertaken. We started with the sign of victory, the promise of the resurrection, already given us. Let us not wander into the temptation of crucifixion, and delay ourselves there. Help us to go in peace beyond it, with the light of our own innocence lighting our way to our redemption and release. Hold us not back with thorns and nails when our redemption is so near. But let the whiteness of our shining gift of lilies speed us on our way to resurrection.   T-20.I.3:1-6

It’s time we step back and take a new look within at ourselves. As we look within, really look within, we will begin to see something beautiful emerging in our awareness. We will begin to see a beingness full of such light that brightens the world and bathes all the world in holiness. There is peace and love and joy there. We want for nothing there. As we gaze upon the world around us, we will see the light of holiness shining away the pain and suffering we saw before. Easter has no particular time of year for the Course. Easter is when we choose innocence over pain and suffering.

Easter is not the celebration of the cost of sin, but of its end. If you see glimpses of the face of Christ behind the veil, looking between the snow-white petals of the lilies you have received and given as your gift, you will behold your friend’s face and recognize it. I was a stranger and you took me in, not knowing who I was. Yet for your gift of lilies you will know. In your forgiveness of this stranger, alien to you and yet your ancient Friend, lies their release and your redemption with them. The time of Easter is a time of joy, and not of mourning. Look on your risen Friend, and celebrate their holiness along with me. For Easter is the time of your salvation, along with mine.   T-20.I.4:1-7

This is the release you have been seeking ever since you started on this journey. It is your choice when to accept your Easter in your journey. Why wait any longer? Accept the gift of lilies offered you now. There is no need or purpose in a crown of thorns – ever.