February 14, 2017

We have been looking at the illusion and the reality of love.  How could love be both illusion and realty?  We have made up a false idea of love in an effort to thwart hate or at least keep ourselves safe from hate.  Pursuing a love that recognizes hate as real denies us the awareness of real love.  Hate cannot exist in the presence of real love, for real love is all there is.  In reality, hate just isn’t.  Eternal or unconditional love is all consuming.  It is what we are.  Love is the state of Heaven and who and what we are.  We can’t get rid of real love, but we can deny it by thinking that hate exists and thus blocking our awareness of love.  We may think we can overcome hate by defeating it with love that tries to defeat hate.  But any love that tries to defeat hate is as illusory as the hate it seeks to overcome.

We have been told of the bridge to our union with our Self.

The bridge that leads to union in yourself must lead to knowledge, for it was built with the One beside you, and will lead you straight to the One where your completion rests, wholly compatible with the One’s completeness.  Every illusion you accept into your mind by judging it to be attainable removes your own sense of completion, and thus denies the Wholeness of your Creator.  Every fantasy, be it of love or hate, deprives you of knowledge for fantasies are the veil behind which truth is hidden.  To lift the veil that seems so dark and heavy, it is only needful to value truth beyond all fantasy, and to be entirely unwilling to settle for illusion in place of truth.   T-16.IV.10:1-4

We have chosen to settle for illusion through our denial of our Oneness.  In settling we have chosen to believe we are limited, broken and less than holy.  We have chosen to believe that we are less than who and what we really are.  Because of that choice, we ae unaware of the truth of who we are.  We have blocked our awareness of our divine nature and all that entails.  The Holy Spirit -the Higher Holy Spirit Self – within us is waiting for us to decide we are willing to change our perception of ourselves and rejoin with each other in the awareness of our Oneness again.  There is nothing to lose but our unhappiness and fear.  There is nothing for us to lose except the illusions we hold about ourselves and this world.  Who would not want to rejoin this Oneness?

The quality of our relationships tells us where we have placed our allegiance.  Are we aligned with our special hate and love relationships?  Are these special relationships giving us the peace and joy and love we are seeking?  Are they opening us to the divine nature within us?  This needless journey is nearly over.  Take the hand of Spirit and turn firmly away from all illusions now, and let nothing stand in the way of truth.  We will take the last useless journey away from truth together, and then together we go straight to the One, in joyous answer to the One’s Call for our completion.

If special relationships of any kind would hinder the One’s completion, can they have any value to you?  What would interfere with the One must interfere with you.  Only in time does interference in the One’s completion seem to be possible.  The bridge that the One would carry you across lifts you from time into eternity.  Waken from time, and answer fearlessly the Call of the One Who gave eternity to you in your creation.  On this side of the bridge to timelessness you understand nothing.  But as you step lightly across it, upheld by timelessness, you are directed straight to the Heart of the One.  At its center, and only there, you are safe forever, because you are complete forever.  There is no veil the Love of the One in us together cannot lift.  The way to truth is open.  Follow it with me.  T-16.IV.13:1-11

There is no more need for hate or a love that tries to defeat hate.  The timelessness and limitlessness of our Divine nature is within us.  It has always been within us.  Let go of the illusion of love our special relationships appear to give us and look within to the perfection that is there as we join with each other in eternal love.  And allow that love to be evident in all we say and do.  Allow yourself to step on that bridge to completion and allow yourself to be carried there.  This is your way home.

February 7, 2017

Real Love is not an illusion.  It is eternal.  It is unconditional.  It has no opposites.  It is all encompassing.  Nothing can destroy this love.  It is always with us, even when we think we can’t see or feel it.  The worst we can do is block it from our awareness.  But, it will always be within us waiting below the surface for us to release the blocks we have made that hide it from our awareness.  Are we willing to look within and see the barriers we have made in our minds that block our awareness of the incredible love within is?  This love within us is limitless, complete and peaceful.  It is a love we can rest in, knowing it will never let us down and that it will heal our minds as we let go of all the illusions of special love and hate relationships we thought would protect and save us.  Real love need never triumph, for there is nothing real to triumph over.  We may believe that “special love” will triumph over “special hate”, but both are illusions and therefore not real.  Love just is, and what an is love is.

As long as the illusion of hatred lasts in our minds, love will be an illusion to us.  The only choice remaining possible is which illusion we prefer.  However, there is no conflict in the choice between truth and illusion.  Seen in these terms, we would hesitate.  But conflict enters our minds the instant the choice seems to be one between illusions.  But this choice does not matter.  Where one choice is as dangerous as the other, the decision must be one of despair.  We have another choice.  We can choose to release our belief in these contrasting illusions.  We can choose to see our choice differently.  The Course tells us what our task is.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all of the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.  It is not necessary to seek for what is true, but it is necessary to seek for what is false.  Every illusion is one of fear, whatever form it takes.  And the attempt to escape from one illusion into another must fail.  If you seek love outside yourself you can be certain that you perceive hatred within, and are afraid of it.  Yet peace will never come from the illusion of love, but only from its reality.   T-16.IV.6:1-6

We must recognize the following, for it is true, and truth must be recognized if it is to be distinguished from illusion:  The special love relationship is an attempt to bring love into separation.  And, as such, it is nothing more than an attempt to bring love into fear, and make it real in fear.  The belief in fear – the idea that we have anything real to fear – is a sure way to block our awareness of the truth of real love within us.

Heaven waits silently, and your creations are holding out their hands to help you cross and welcome them.  For it is they you seek.  You seek but for your own completion, and it is they who render you complete.  The special love relationship is but a shabby substitute for what makes you whole in truth, not in illusion.  Your relationship with them is without guilt, and this enables you to look on all your sisters and brothers with gratitude, because your creations were created in union with them.  Acceptance of your creations is the acceptance of the Oneness of creation, without which you could never be complete.  No specialness can offer you what the One has given, and what you are joined with the One in giving.   T-16.IV.8:1-6

Be willing to look within and release your attachment to the barriers you have placed in your mind to your awareness of the eternal love within you.  Allow yourself to approach the bridge in your mind to the union of Oneness.  Reach for the hands reaching out to you to help you cross.  It is the bridge to the awareness of your completeness, your wholeness and the awareness of love and peace.  It is the bridge to the awareness of who you really are in Oneness.  This is our holy Will, to join with all Creation in the awareness of our Oneness.  Wait no longer and step up to that bridge.  This is what you have always been seeking.  Choose it now.

January 31, 2017

It is essential that we look within with a willingness to see clearly what is within our minds, what thoughts and thought system we are operating from.  We must look at our relationships honestly.  Are we harboring special hate relationships and special love relationships?  Why do we hang on to these relationships and remain attached to them when they do not serve us?  In our effort to maintain an identity that is separate, we revert to special relationships, whether love or hate, that serve to keep us unaware of our Oneness with all and who we really are.

The special love relationship will not offset the special hate relationship, but will merely drive it underground and out of sight.  It is essential to bring it into sight, and to make no attempt to hide it.  For it is the attempt to balance hate with love that makes love meaningless to us.  When we harbor hate, we cannot experience the magnitude and healing of real love.

The Course tells us this about love and hate:

The symbols of hate against the symbols of love play out a conflict that does not exist.  For symbols stand for something else, and the symbol of love is without meaning if love is everything.  You will go through this last undoing quite unharmed, and will at last emerge as yourself.  This is the last step in the readiness for Oneness.  Be not unwilling now; you are too near, and you will cross the bridge in perfect safety, translated quietly from war to peace.  For the illusion of love will never satisfy, but its reality, which awaits you on the other side, will give you everything.   T-16.IV.2:1-6

We do not understand what real love is.  We tend to think of love as an opposite of hate, but this idea is wholly inadequate.  In the presence of real love there can be no hate.  Real love is all encompassing.  Hate cannot exist in our minds in the presence of real love.  Anything less than real love is an illusion.  Real love, of Oneness, is all encompassing.  It recognizes our wholeness, completeness, peacefulness and our Divine nature.  Nothing can harm the real love within us.  However, our unwillingness to look truthfully at our special hate and love relationships does block the awareness of real love from our minds.  The special love relationship is an attempt to limit the destructive effects of hate by finding a haven in the storm of guilt.  It makes no attempt to rise above the storm, into the sunlight.  On the contrary, the special love relationship emphasizes the guilt outside the haven by attempting to build barricades against guilt, and keep within them.  The special love relationship is not perceived as a value in itself, but as a place of safety from which hatred is split off and kept apart.  This is the illusion of the special love relationship.  And it will always let us down.

Love is not an illusion.  It is a fact.  Where disillusionment is possible, there was not love but hate.  For hate is an illusion, and what can change was never love.  It is sure that those who select certain ones as partners in any aspect of living, and use them for any purpose which they would not share with others, are trying to live with guilt rather than die of it.  This is the choice they see.  And love, to them, is only an escape from death.  They seek it desperately, but not in the peace in which it would gladly come quietly to them.  And when they find the fear of death is still upon them, the love relationship loses the illusion that it is what it is not.  When the barricades against it are broken, fear rushes in and hatred triumphs.  T-16.IV.4:7-10

Hatred need not triumph in our minds.  It is an illusion.  Hare can only triumph if we allow it to do so.  Look honestly at hate whenever it comes up.  Look within to the higher Holy Spirit Self we are and let real Love shine brightly in your mind.  Hate cannot remain in the presence of real love and will fade into nothingness as it is merely illusion.  Release your attachment to that illusion and allow the presence of your Divine nature to rise in its place.  And rest in the peace of Oneness you will find there.  Rest in the reality of the Love within you.

January 24, 2017

Have you ever felt conflicted?  Have you ever felt like there were two or more different “yous” fighting for control of your identity?  Perhaps the conflict inside your mind made you feel a bit crazy.  The Course tells us this would be our egoic thought system trying to take control of our mind.  Our egoic thought system battles for the separate identity it makes for us in an attempt to keep us thinking we are separate and thus maintain the egoic thought system’s illusion of its existence and autonomy.  It is invested in us maintaining that each of us has a unique identity of our own that is completely separate from any other.  Yet, the Course tells us we are not two selves in conflict.  We, in our holy nature, are One with all the universe.  There is nothing else that is real and there is no conflict in reality.

One might ask how we can teach truth and not learn truth.  This concept is perplexing, especially when we look at it from the perspective of separation.  We are the One Holy Child of the One.  That means all of us in Oneness are the One Holy Child.  Our Holy Self teaches truth and yet we, in our perception from separation, do not have faith in what we have taught.  We do not have faith in who we really are, our One Self.  So, we have no faith in what our One Self teaches.  This is nothing more than a misperception and can be corrected if we are willing.

This year you will begin to learn, and make learning commensurate with teaching.  You have chosen this by your own willingness to teach.  Though you seemed to suffer for it, the joy of teaching will yet be yours.  For the joy of teaching is in the learner, who offers it to the teacher in gratitude, and shares it with them.  As you learn, your gratitude to your Self, Who teaches you what your Self is, will grow and help you honor your Self.  And you will learn you Self’s power and strength and purity, and love your Self as your Creator does.  Your Realm has no limits and no end, and there is nothing in your Self that is not perfect and eternal.  All this is you, and nothing outside of this is you.   T-16.III.7:1-8

Teaching and learning are the same – they are One.  And there is great joy in the awareness of the limitless freedom this realization brings us.  It begins in our willingness to allow ourselves to have faith in our teaching.  Thus do we bridge the gap between separation and Oneness.

Sooner or later we all must bridge the gap we imagine exists between our two perceived selves.  Each one of us builds this bridge, which carries us across the gap as soon as we are willing to expend some little effort on behalf of bridging this gap.  Our little efforts are powerfully supplemented by the strength of Heaven, and by the united will of all who make Heaven what it is, being joined within Heaven.  And so, the one who would cross over is literally transported there across the gap.

Your bridge is builded stronger than you think, and your foot is planted firmly on it.  Have no fear that the attraction of those who stand on the other side and wait for you will not draw you safely across.  For you will come where you would be, and where your Self awaits you.    T-16.III.9:1-3

We do not yet see who we really are, so the reward of teaching does not yet make sense to our egoic thought system.  Do not dwell on what doesn’t make sense, for it never will make sense.  Instead, allow yourself to have faith that your Holy Self will teach you who you are and the learning of that truth will fill you with the joy of all you truly are in Oneness.  Let this be the lesson you choose to learn this year and realize the reward of teaching.

January 17, 2017

Do we really know ourselves?  Do we really understand ourselves?  We have learned much about who we really are.  But, do we believe what we have learned about who we are?  We have learned that we are both teachers and students.  Just as giving and receiving are the same, so are teaching and learning the same.  We have learned that Spirit uses everything for good, that each perception we have can be looked at differently when our perception is reinterpreted for us by Spirit.  We have learned that all things, all experiences, may be repurposed as learning experiences when we allow Spirit’s guidance into our minds.

We all teach, and teach all the time.  We may have taught well, and yet we may not have learned how to accept the comfort of what we taught.  If we will consider what we have taught, and how alien it is to what we thought we knew, we will be compelled to realize that our Teacher came from beyond our own egoic thought system.  Therefore, our Teacher could look upon what we taught fairly, and perceive it was untrue.  Our Teacher must have done so from the basis of a very different thought system from ours, and one with nothing in common with ours.  For what our Teacher has taught, and what we have taught through our Teacher, have nothing in common with what we thought we taught before.  And the results have been to bring peace where there was pain, and suffering has disappeared to be replaced by joy.  We have, within us, the truth of who we are even when we deny it or don’t recognize it.  The fact that we have not learned what we have taught shows us that we do not perceive all of Creation as one.  It also shows us that we do not regard ourselves as one.

The Course explains it this way:

This is a course in how to know yourself.  You have taught what you are, but have not let what you are teach you.  You have been very careful to avoid the obvious, and not to see the real cause and effect relationship that is perfectly apparent.  Yet within you is everything you taught.  What can it be that has not learned it?  It must be this part that is really outside yourself, not by your own projection, but in truth.  And it is this part that you have taken in that is not you.  What you accept into your mind does not really change it.  Illusions are but beliefs in what is not there.  And the seeming conflict between truth and illusion can only be resolved by separating yourself from the illusion and not from truth.   T-16.III.4:1-10

We have taught what we are, but have refused to see and believe the obvious about what we are.  We have denied our own higher teaching.  How insane is that?  We choose to deny the one thing about us that is true – our Holiness in Oneness.

Your teaching has already done this [separating yourself from the illusion and not from truth], for the Holy Spirit is part of you.  Created by the One, Spirit left neither the One nor the One’s creation.  The Holy Spirit is both the One and you, as you are the One and the Holy Spirit together.  For the One’s Answer to the separation added more to you than you tried to take away.  The One’s Answer – Spirit – protected both your creations and you together, keeping one with you what you would exclude.  And they will take the place of what you took in to replace them.  They are quite real, as part of the Self you do not know.  They communicate to you through the Holy Spirit, and their power and gratitude to you for their creation they offer gladly to your teaching of yourself, who is their home.  You who are host to the One are also host to them.  For nothing real has ever left the mind of its creator.  And what is not real was never there.   T-16.III.5:1-11

It is time for us to accept our own real Teaching, that which we have been teaching all along.  We have hidden the peace, love and joy of that teaching from our consciousness for so long.  Accept your own teaching and rest in the reward of that teaching.

January 10, 2017

We have built the world we see on our own interpretation of our own past.  We have chosen to accept much of what we have been taught as truth, often without question, and often in fear.  Even with our best intentions, we still do not feel at peace with it.  We feel we are lacking something.  We feel we are missing something.  We don’t feel happy or even content.  We feel conflicted and want something better.  Yet, without realizing it, we have what we are seeking within us.  It is embedded in the beingness we are that we have denied by seeking outside ourselves for what we want.  Spirit is gently calling to us 24/7, reminding us of who we really are and directing us where to find the answers we are seeking.  We have glimpsed the reality of our divine Self, for we have all experienced the holy instant many times. We may not have recognized it as such, but we have experienced it.

Our denial of our true nature, our Oneness, is the barrier that keeps us from recognizing our divine nature.  And we need not prove to ourselves the realty of our divine nature, for this would be nearly impossible on our own.  The Course asks us, not to understand this, but to accept Spirit’s understanding of our divine nature.  The reality of this acceptance is that Spirit is within us and One with us.  As long as we remain attached to our belief that we are separate and achieve understanding alone, we will fail to recognize the Oneness of our divine nature and remain in darkness unaware of who we really are.

No evidence will convince you of the truth of what you do not want.  Yet your relationship with Christ Spirit is real.  Regard this not with fear, but with rejoicing.  The One you called upon is with you.  Bid the One welcome, and honor the witnesses who bring you the glad tidings the One has come.  It is true, just as you fear, that to acknowledge this One is to deny all that you think you know.  But what you think you know was never true.  What gain is there to you in clinging to it, and denying the evidence for truth?  For you have come too near to truth to renounce it now, and you will yield to its compelling attraction.  You can delay this now, but only a little while.  The Host of God has called to you, and you have heard.  Never again will you be wholly willing not to listen.   T-16.II.6:1-12

Listen for the Voice for the One gently calling you to the awareness of the divine being you really are.  You need not understand it, but simply accept that the divine within you understands.  Put your faith and trust in the divine within you. Let its awareness rise in your mind and reveal to you the truth about your inherent holiness.  Allow the joy and peace within you to rise.

This is a year of joy, in which your listening will increase and peace will grow with its increase.  The power of holiness and the weakness of attack are both being brought into your awareness.  And this has been accomplished in a mind firmly convinced that holiness is weakness and attack is power.  Should not this be a sufficient miracle to teach you that your Teacher is not of you?  But remember also that whenever you listened to your Teacher’s interpretation the results have brought you joy.  Would you prefer the results of your interpretation, considering honestly what they have been?  The One wills you better.  Could you not look with greater charity on whom the One loves with perfect Love?   T-16.II.7:1-8

Listen for the One’s Voice that speaks to you from within.  Recognize Its understanding of who and what you are and accept Its understanding for yourself.  Release yourself from the limitations of the limited understanding you made for yourself.  What is real will remain and what is mistaken will fade into nothingness.  Step into the awareness of your divine nature as Spirit guides you and feel divine peace and joy rise within you.  Once your eyes are opened, you will return again and again to the awareness of your divine nature shared completely with the One and all Creation.  Be the peace and joy you truly are.  In this awareness will you find the power of Holiness within you.

January 3, 2017

We do not understand holiness or even miracles, for that matter.  Our minds are still focused on the egoic thought system we’ve been developing all our lives.  It is impossible for us to hang onto what we think we know and understand the Holiness of all at the same time.  Our true power lies in our Holiness, yet we have denied that power by believing we are separate.  Even as we begin to change our minds about what we believe we are, we struggle to apply holiness to all.  The Course explains it this way:

You may still think that holiness is impossible to understand, because you cannot see how it can be extended to include everyone.  And you have been told that it must include everyone to be holy.  Concern yourself not with the extension of holiness, for the nature of miracles you do not understand.  Nor do you do them.  It is their extension, far beyond the limits you perceive, that demonstrates you do not do them.  Why should you worry how the miracle extends to All of Us when you do not understand the miracle itself?  One attribute is no more difficult to understand than is the whole.  If miracles are at all, their attributes would have to be miraculous, being part of them.   T-16.II.1:1-8

We are just beginning to accept the idea that we are all One in Oneness and do not fully understand this concept.  Yet, Oneness is our true nature and our holiness and the giving of miracles happens on a level that transcends the current level of our awareness.  We are beginning to catch glimpses of who we really are as we allow our minds to follow the higher guidance within us.

Invested in our egoic thought system, we tend to fragment our thoughts, and then to be concerned about the truth of just a little part of the whole.  This is a way of avoiding, or looking away from the whole, to what we think we might be better able to understand.  For this is another way in which we would still try to keep understanding to ourselves.  A better and far more helpful way to think of miracles is this: We do not understand them, either in part or in whole.  Yet miracles have been done through us.  Therefore, our understanding cannot be necessary.  Yet it is still impossible to accomplish what we do not understand.  And so there must be Something in us that does understand.  This is the natural essence of who we are that cannot be changed, that cannot be corrupted, that cannot be lost.  We can deny it all we want, but it remains within us, hidden from our awareness only by our denial of its being.  We have extended miracles from the power of our holiness in Oneness even as we have denied our own holiness.

You have done miracles, but it is quite apparent that you have not done them alone.  You have succeeded whenever you have reached another mind and joined with it.  When two minds join as one and share one idea equally, the first link in the awareness of the All of Us as One has been made.  When you have made this joining as the Holy Spirit bids you, and have offered it to Spirit to use as Spirit sees fit, Spirit’s natural perception of your gift enables Spirit to understand it, and you to use Spirit’s understanding on your behalf.  It is impossible to convince you of the reality of what has clearly been accomplished through your willingness while you believe that you must understand it or else it is not real.  T-16.II.4:1-5

Releasing ourselves and each other from the limiting thoughts of our egoic thought system is key to opening our minds to the limitless possibilities of our natural being.  It is opened only in the joining of our minds as we allow the awareness of our Oneness to rise in our minds.  This has nothing to do with making it happen in physical form first.  That is impossible, for physical form is born of fragmentation.  Unity and Oneness are natural.  In the acceptance of this truth is the awareness of who we really are.  Let go of division and step into the power of holiness that lies within us.  It is waiting for nothing more than our willingness to let it rise in our minds.

December 27, 2016

Empathy is a concept we often misunderstand and thus misuse.  What is your understanding of empathy?  Is it truly helpful?  Does it help another to rise to their strength in Oneness?  Or does it keep them in a pattern of suffering?  A teacher of mine once described the difference between empathy and sympathy as follows.  Suppose I come across one who has fallen into a deep pit and cannot climb out.  They perhaps have lost hope of finding a way out and are in despair.  How do I best help them?  One alternative is to show sympathy for them and jump in the pit to comfort them.  Then we are both trapped in the pit unable to get out.  The alternative is to stay out of the pit and find a way to help them climb out or go and find help and return to stay near them and guide the help to them so they can be released from the pit.  We don’t join this one in their suffering, yet find a truly helpful solution.  The Course teaches this about our understanding of empathy.

To empathize does not mean to join in suffering, for that is what you must refuse to understand.  That is the ego’s interpretation of empathy, and is always used to form a special relationship in which the suffering is shared.  The capacity to empathize is very useful to the Holy Spirit, provided you let Spirit use it in Its way.  Spirit’s way is very different.  Spirt does not understand suffering, and would have you teach it is not understandable.  When Spirit relates through you, Spirit does not relate through your ego to another ego.  Spirit does not join in pain, understanding that healing pain is not accomplished by delusional attempts to enter into it, and lighten it by sharing the delusion.   T-16.I.1:1-7

We do nothing truly helpful by sharing with another in the delusion of suffering. This sister or brother who has believed they are suffering is calling out for help.  How can we be truly helpful?  The Course has taught us to be vigilant for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  First, we must stop and listen with our spirit ears and hear a true cry for help and realize there is a more helpful way to respond if we seek Spirit’s guidance.  Our egoic thought system rooted in our beliefs about our past would have us jump in the pit with the one suffering and find ourselves just as trapped as they are.  Is that truly helpful?  This makes our relationship with this one a “special relationship.”  We’ve joined in the illusion of suffering.  There is a better way.  It is rooted in the power of love.

The meaning of love is lost in any relationship that looks to weakness, and hopes to find love there.  The power of love, which is its meaning, lies in the strength of the One that hovers over it and blesses it silently by enveloping it in healing wings.  Let this be, and do not try to substitute your egoic “miracle” for this.   T-16.I.6:1-3

Strength and true helpfulness always comes from love as guided by Spirit which is always within us.  No exceptions.  We tap into this strength as we are willing to allow our minds to be guided by Spirit.  How do we begin practicing this?  Focus your mind only on this:

• I am not alone, and I would not intrude the past upon my Guest.
• I have invited My Guest, and My Guest is here.
• I need do nothing except not to interfere.

 True empathy is of the One Who knows what it is.  You will learn Spirit’s interpretation of it if you let Spirit use your capacity for strength, and not for weakness.  Spirit will not desert you, but be sure that you desert not Spirit.  Humility is strength in this sense only; that to recognize and accept the fact that you do not know is to recognize and accept the fact that Spirit does know.  You are not sure that Spirit will do Its part, because you have never yet done yours completely.  You cannot know how to respond to what you do not understand.  Be tempted not in this, and yield not to the ego’s triumphant use of empathy for its glory.   T-16.I.4:1-7

Place your trust in the Higher Holy Spirit Self within you who will guide you in everything as you allow.  No real harm can come to you or anyone else when we rely on the strength of the love within us that rises from the awareness of Spirit within us and the remembrance of who and what we really are.  Step into that awareness and be truly helpful through the practice of true empathy.