January 27, 2015

Heaven is our true home. Heaven is the dwelling place created by the One for all the children of the One. And there is no other place. We may not see Heaven around us, but that is only because we have chosen not to see the reality of where we are. We have chosen to see separation and division rather than unity and Oneness. The veil of the idea of separation has clouded our vision and thus obstructed our awareness of Heaven. We have spent a lifetime building and reinforcing our belief in the temporal world we think we see. We have invested in it and we have given it value in our minds. Yet, the world we perceive is temporal. It will not last. It will wear down, it will collapse, and it will eventually decay. It is anything but eternal. Heaven is eternal. All that is real is eternal. And nothing can threaten anything that is eternal.

We, at home in Heaven – which we are – are eternal. The One created us eternal. Our home is eternal. Our Oneness is eternal. We are One with each other in this eternalness. Nothing can break us apart. Yet we have chosen to see ourselves broken apart from each other. We have chosen to perceive ourselves in separate worlds and gather as much around us as we can and thus keep it from each other. How do we perceive ourselves and each other? If we see ourselves or another as sinful, in pain and suffering, or less than joyful, we have chosen to see something other than reality, other than truth, and other than Heaven. We have chosen to deny ourselves and the reality of who we are. We have chosen to deny our divine nature. Yet we cannot remove ourselves or another from our divine nature. We can only block our awareness of our true nature. And it takes effort to maintain that denial.

Are we not ready to release ourselves from the self-imposed bonds of denial? Are we all not ready for the freedom of joy that is our natural state? We are created to be One. We are created to soar free and unlimited. We are created to love. We are created to create like ourselves and like the One, for we are created like the One. In Heaven we are all we are created to be. We can be nothing less. And though we have perceived ourselves and each other far less than we really are, we can just as easily change the way we perceive ourselves and each other. Instead of looking outward to nothing, look within to the Spirit within us that is always there. Spirit holds the truth about who we are out to us, inviting us to reconnect with our true Identity and see that It has never left us. As we allow the awareness of who we really are to rise within us, we feel peace and calm and joy well up within our minds. We look around us in love and see the beauty of all Creation around us. We are still in this temporal world, but it transforms before our very mind into Heaven.

This is the miracle of healing. This is the healing of the mind. This is where separation and division transform into Oneness and Love. This is what we have been seeking through our efforts to be separate and divided. We have been in the midst of what we were seeking all along, yet couldn’t see it because we were so busy denying our true and real selves. Let go of your denial now. Begin to allow Spirit to rise up in your mind and guide you to seemingly new levels of awareness. And find Heaven, your real home, unfolding all around you. Accept only what is timeless as real and you will begin to understand eternity and make it yours.

January 20, 2015

The One, our Source, created us wholly without sin, wholly without pain, and wholly without suffering of any kind. If we experience sin, pain, or suffering, we have denied the One, we have denied our Creator, and we have denied our Self. Denial is simply believing that we are separate from the One and thus our One Self. It is impossible to actually be separate, but it is possible to believe an erroneous belief. Because the One created us like the Creator, we can create our own world. If that world is unlike us, it cannot be real, for anything we create that is unlike us is an illusion and therefore not real.   Separation appears to be real merely because we have chosen to believe it is real. Yet separation fades into nothing when we choose to see ourselves as we really are, One with our Creator and each other. So the sin, pain and suffering we appear to be experiencing fade into nothingness as we let go of our belief that sin, pain and suffering are even possible.

Our true essence is Love. We are created as Love and are an extension of the Creator’s essence, Love. We can be nothing other than what we truly are. Anything else we may appear to be is simply a mistaken belief that we can be anything other than Love. The One has never denied us and has never retaliated against us. The One never punishes us. But the One calls to us to remember, to return to the awareness of who we really are. When we think the One has not answered our call, we have not answered the call of the One. The One calls to us from every one of our brothers and sisters, without exception, for everyone is One with the One. Are our ears tuned to the Voice for the One, or are we tuned to the gods of separation and sickness we made? This is our choice. We cannot hear both voices at once. The voices of the gods of separation we made call loudly, for they have nothing real to offer us except their distraction. Yet, as we listen beyond the din of their voices, the calm clear Voice for the One will be gently and patiently calling to us reminding us of the ancient song we stopped hearing long ago as we chose to hear a different voice. There is no harm to fear. The One has been watching over us, knowing nothing can harm us until we finally turn our hearts, eyes, and ears back to the One who is our Source who has always sustained us. We always are and always will be the Love in which we are Created. We are nothing more, nothing less. We are all that is.

We do not realize how much we have denied ourselves and how much the One would have it not be so. Yet the One would never interfere with our choice for that would be to deny our freedom. To interfere with our choices would be to attack us and thus attack the One. That would be insanity! So is our denial of our Oneness insanity. But our insanity is undoable. The One holds our sanity in the Mind of the One, knowing we have never left it except in dreams. From the Course:

The One will never cease to love Us, and We will never cease to love the One. That was the condition of Our creation, fixed forever in the One Mind. To know that is sanity. To deny it is insanity. The One gave Itself to us in our creation, and the One’s gifts are eternal. Would you deny yourself to the One? ACIM T-10.V.6-11

We are fixed forever in the One Mind. This is sanity. We are wholly Divine in Oneness and will never be anything less. Join in Oneness and be who you really are, and be filled with peace, love and joy.

January 13, 2015

To deny the One (God) is to give our allegiance to the gods of sickness and separation we made. The result is isolation, a kind of depression, for we have denied ourselves joy by believing we are separate. What we really do by denying the One is to deny who we really are. We deny our own Identity! How insane is this? The Bible tells us that the wages of sin is death. The Course clarifies this statement. Since sin is merely the misperception that we are not who we really are, denial of our true Identity is the denial of life itself and so we perceive life’s opposite. In all forms of denial we replace what is with what is not. Thus we deny who we really are.

Once we have denied the One, the inevitable result is projection. We believe that others have caused this to happen to us. We believe others have taken away our joy and made us unhappy. So we blame others and then we look for others to make us happy. We may believe that we judge each other by the message they give us, but we are judging them by the message we give them. Our mistaken and separated mind believes that the message we give another is actually originating from that other. Once we believe this, we block our awareness of the ethereal spark in them that would bring us joy and the awareness of who we really are in our joining. When we see another without the spark, we deny the One in us and our true Identity.

Our return to the awareness of our Identity and knowing ourselves is inevitable. The One created us like Itself. We are created in Oneness, whole and inseparable, perfect and limitless, and full of love, joy and peace. This is who we really are. The Course tells us that of yourself you can do nothing, but you are not of yourself. If we were, what we made would be true and inescapable. Our gods of sickness and separation are nothing for they were made up and are not like Us. We cannot make creations that are not like ourselves, for the One creates like the One and created us like the One. Creation is sharing and it cannot create unlike itself. Thus we cannot create unlike ourselves. All that is real and holy is shared and nothing is real that cannot be shared.

No matter where we are at this moment or what we have thought and believed, Spirit is waiting to guide us back to the awareness of our true Identity. Love is the only thing that is real and true. It is in this love that the One provides for our return to the awareness of who we really are. Our denial quickly fades away as we turn our mind back to and join with the One Mind we share with the One who created us. Accept your denial’s undoing now as you respond to Spirit’s call.

T-10.V.6. “Child of the One, you have not sinned, but you have been much mistaken. 2 Yet this can be corrected and the One will help you, knowing that you could not sin against the One. 3 You denied the One because you loved the One, knowing that if you recognized your love for the One, you could not deny the One. 4 Your denial of the One therefore means that you love the One, and that you know the One loves you. 5 Remember that what you deny you must have once known. 6 And if you accept denial, you can accept its undoing.”

January 6, 2015

The One created us perfect, and so we are perfect. We have always been perfect and always will be perfect. In this perfectness, we are given freedom, for we are free. The One has given us free will. In that free will we are free to deny our freedom, but we cannot give up our freedom. It is an inseparable part of our being given us in our creation. When we deny our freedom, we align our minds with the gods of sickness and separation. These mistaken gods do not actually bring us chaos. We endow them with chaos, and accept it of these made up gods of sickness and separation. They have no power over us other than the power we give them through our allegiance. This is our choice, even though it is mistaken and our freedom allows us to deny ourselves the awareness of our own freedom and power. The laws of the One, of Realty maintain that this misperception cannot be real. However, Reality cannot break through the obstructions we interpose in our awareness, but Reality will envelop us when we let go of our allegiance to those obstructions.

The miracle of healing is the act of a Child of the One – us – who lays aside all allegiance to the made up gods of sickness and separation and calls on another to do the same. This is an act of faith for in our healing we recognize that another can do this. This call is not to the mind that sees itself as separate, but to the Spirit in their mind, their true Self we recognize in our healing. Because we have heard the One’s Voice through our faith in who we really are, we strengthen that Voice in another through our joining. We weaken another’s belief in separation by not sharing that belief. The light of one mind shines into another mind because we are all the Light that was lit by the same spark that is everywhere and eternal. We are truly the Light of the World.

No matter what ideas or made-up gods we have chosen to obstruct our awareness of who we are, the spark of our wholeness remains in our mind for it cannot be extinguished. The full awareness of the Great Light we are may be temporarily obscured, but it cannot be completely forgotten or extinguished. Turn to that spark within. Perceiving that spark within begins the healing of the mind. As we allow our minds to perceive the spark, we ascend from the littleness we have believed ourselves to be and step into the ever brightening awareness of who we are and the Light we are. We join together as we relinquish our belief in separation and return to the Oneness of our Creation. As we let go of the gods of sickness and separation, the Great Rays wash over us. In this awakening are we returned to the awareness of who we really are and Reality.

December 30, 2014

The One created us perfect, and so we are perfect. We have always been perfect and always will be perfect. When we believe we can be sick, we have placed other gods before the One and have made up the god of sickness replacing our allegiance to the One with our allegiance to the one we made up. Remember, the Course has taught us we cannot place our allegiance in two conflicting ideas. Which do we choose? We are attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable! To believe that making the body whole will make us whole is attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable.

First of all, let me say that there is nothing wrong with healing the body. It has its time and place, even in our plan for salvation. But, healing the body is not the same as healing the mind. The healing of the mind is the end of separation, the joining of minds into the awareness of the unity of the One Mind of the One. There is no magic pill, no magic list of steps to be taken that when ticked off result in the healing of the separation. Healing comes in the decision to stop deciding against the One and to return to the awareness of who we really are. As long as we maintain our allegiance to the gods of sickness and separation we made up, we are afraid of them because they cannot be reconciled with the Will of the One which is also our own true Will. The gods of separation we made up cannot be reconciled with who we really are. And when we attack the gods we made up, we make them appear real to us. Is it any wonder we feel conflicted? Yet, if we refuse to worship those made up gods in whatever form they appear to us, they disappear into the nothingness out of which they were made.

Reality can dawn only on an unclouded mind. We must be clear that we want to know the reality of who we are. Our One Mind is definitely unclouded. It is clear as a bell. There is no chaos there. Yet we are helpless as to how to sort out all the stuff that is going on in our minds. It all seems so confusing and we are at a loss as to which way to turn. Why isn’t my mind as clear and certain as the Course says it is? It really is that clear and the simple way to that clarity is total surrender to the guidance or Spirit, the plan the One gave us for healing the sickness of the mind. Instead of fighting everything, let go of everything. Let go of the need to control every little detail of our journey in this world and begin to see the big picture through the eyes of Spirit. Perception, which is how we see the world, has infinite ways of seeing everything we experience. Spirit’s guidance will help us see the highest perception of our journey and guide us to the awareness of who we really are. The laws of the One have made our wholeness certain and changeless.

The chaos we seem to feel in this world is meaningless when we realize it is without the One. We may have relinquished the awareness of our peace to the gods of separation and sickness, but our peace is always with us and cannot be given away. Peace can only be shared as it is real. Surrender all today to Spirit and allow the peace of the One to wash away all traces of the gods of sickness and separation into the nothingness they came from. Such is the end of sickness.

December 23, 2014

The idea of sickness has always been a difficult one for most Course students. The Course clearly tells us that sickness is an illusion, it is not real. We confuse body sickness with mind sickness. And mind sickness is simply believing the idea that we are not who we really are, One with the One and each other with no separation. As I have said many times, sickness is solely of the mind. Sickness may or may not be reflected in the body just as healing may or may not be reflected in the body. However, healing will most definitely be reflected in the mind as peace and joy, no matter what the body experiences. Remember, the Course teaches that the body, though an illusion, can be used by Spirit for holy purpose.  If we adhere to a rigid idea that the body we are using as a learning device is the ultimate manifestation of our Spiritual health, we are identifying with and as the bodyand are therefore sck.

We must ultimately dissociate with the body to realize the end of our belief in separation. The Curse tells us, “I am not a body, I am free.” And so we are not our physical ailments either. I am reminded of a story about a Buddhist monk who was dying of cancer when a student asked him how he bore the suffering of his pain. The monk replied that he was experiencing bodily pain, but he was not suffering because he knew he was whole and his mind was at peace. The pain was simply of the body. Many go through life with physical imperfections, yet identify as the whole Child of the One they truly are. They are able to let go of their attachment to the idea that the body must be whole for their mind to be whole. We must look beyond the appearance of the body to the truth about ourselves that lies beyond appearances.

Christmas is just a few days away. We just passed the winter Solstice. We are moving to a time of new beginnings, to new births. Are we willing to allow Spirit to guide us in a spiritual rebirth, a reawakening to the awareness of who we really are? This is really what we are asked to do. This is our true plan for salvation. Our rebirth is the reawakening to the awareness of our Oneness with the One and all of Creation. As we remain in the physical form for just awhile longer, we shine the light of peace, joy and love with all who are willing to see as a beacon for them to follow to the reawakening of their own awareness of who they really are.

The Foundation for Inner Peace sent the following messages from the Course relating to Christmas.

“The sign of Christmas is a star, a light in the darkness. See it not outside yourself but shining in the Heaven within, and accept it as the sign the time of Christ has come.” (T-15.XI.2:1-2)

“It is in your power to make this season holy.” (T-15.X.4.1)

Let your mind remember lesson 61 in the Workbook, “I am the light of the world.” We are nothing more, nothing less than just that, the light of the world. The healing of sickness s simply reawakening to the awareness that we truly are the light of the world. This holiday season be just that, the light you really are.

December 16, 2014

The Course defines sickness in the Glossary of Terms as: “a conflict in the mind (guilt) displaced onto the body; the ego’s attempt to defend itself against truth (spirit) by focusing attention on the body; a sick body is the effect of the sick or split mind that is its cause, representing the ego’s desire to make others guilty by sacrificing oneself, projecting responsibility for the attack onto them.” The Course also explains that sickness is of the mind, and that everything we encounter in the world can be used for holy or higher purpose; for good. Sickness is an illusion – an element of the temporal world – and is not real in the Realm of Heaven. Sickness is simply the belief that we are anything other than who and what we really are – whole, complete, limitless and divine.

Our egoic thought system, the split mind, tries so hard to promote the idea that we are separate. It wants us to believe we are not whole, not complete, limited ad not divine. Believing this about ourselves blocks our awareness of the truth about us. It keeps us distracted from what is within us, directing us to seek outside of ourselves what is already within us. This surely is sickness. It is a sickness of our beliefs. The troubles of a limited world will certainly keep us distracted and unaware. What we have done is replace our divine Identity with an egoic identity that cannot be real because it is made from a belief we are separate. In essence we have replace the One, God, with this egoic identity. It is an attack on who we really ae, even though it cannot harm us.

Be thankful, then, for the One has a plan for our healing, for our salvation, for the return to the awareness of who we really are. We are the One Child of the One and as we heal the misperception in our mind by seeing another as whole and complete, limitless and divine, we accept the Atonement for all and return the world to right-mindedness. We see for all as we allow Spirit to guide our seeing. And so we allow the Realm of Heaven to rise in our collective consciousness. There is no idolatry in the realm of wholeness. All that is real is valued equally and fully. There is nothing of lesser or greater value in divine order. All is equally precious. Let us begin to see that value as we allow our minds to heal.

The sickness of our minds is that we do not value ourselves. Correcting our perception of our value and the value of another corrects the perception of value for all because we are all One Child, One. Peace is and always has been ours. Yet we blocked it from our awareness as we believed we were separate. Spirit holds that peace for us and offers the awareness of its presence within us. Allow peace to rise in your mind, reminding you that we are all One and One with our Creator and Source. So is our value unsurpassed by any thought our egoic thought system could possibly think. Let healing rise in your mind that thinks you are not whole, complete limitless or divine. Awareness of the divine within will surely rise in you and thus within all for we truly are One. And so it is.

December 9, 2014

We are created knowing who we really are. We are created in Oneness, knowing we are One with the One and each other. In knowing who we really are in Oneness we are at peace and filled with joy and love. This is our natural state of being. This is the Truth about us. What happened? Why are our minds not at peace? At some point we made a decision to believe a thought that is in conflict with our true state of being. We chose to believe a dream of separateness. To believe this dream, we must dissociate with the knowledge of who we really are. Dissociating with Truth doesn’t change the truth about who we really are, but it does block our awareness of it since it is in conflict with the truth. So we essentially make the decision to forget.

Even in forgetting, the truth is still true. It cannot be changed as who we really are cannot be changed. We are simply either aware of truth or dreams. The phrase “what I believe I will see” comes to mind. This is perception and this is what makes the world we “see” or perceive. I have often said that no two of us will ever “see” the same event or thing the same way. We will inevitably describe anything differently than another who saw the same thing right next to us. Since we have chosen to dissociate from the truth about us, we can also choose to give up dissociation of reality. If our minds are free to dissociate from reality, our minds are certainly free to give up that same dissociation from reality and re-associate with reality. The reality of who we are has never changed, only our awareness of it through our choices. Again, what I believe I will see.

Essentially we are asked to unforget or remember who we really are. The truth never changes. Only our awareness changes. Remembering restores to our mind what is already there. We aren’t making up something new when we remember. We are merely accepting again what is already in our minds but was previously rejected. The ability to accept truth in the world is the perception partner with creating in the Realm of the One, Heaven. This results in the reestablishing of the exchange of knowledge with perception. This faith in who we really are signifies our will to remember and thus all that is real is restored to our awareness.

We would never make a decision to dissociate with the awareness of who we really are if we realized the complete havoc this makes of our peace of mind. We could only make such a decision if we believed it would give us something we want. It follows that we have wanted something other than peace of mind. We must not have considered the results of the decision to dissociate or we would never have done so. Choosing to allow Spirit to guide our decisions now will help us realize the outcome of our decision on our peace of mind. We have chosen to disregard our peace of mind and block our awareness of this peace of mind as we choose to forget who we really are. Choose now to unforget and remember and restore the awareness of our peace of mind right now in this very moment. It has never gone away. It is ours to choose now.

December 2, 2014

We all have some idea of what home means to us.   For me, home is a place of rest, of peaceful rest where I can relax and let the cares of the world drop away. I think this is so for many of us. If we don’t have a home that reflects this character, we desire that idea of “home”. It is a place where we are free to be ourselves without judgment, criticism or fear. It is a place where love permeates everything and we are content. We would like to be at home in this peaceful place all the time and never leave. Yet our lives are not that way. Even if we have that feeling of “home” somewhere in this world, we don’t feel that feeling everywhere we go. So much of the world seems to be at odds with our desire for peacefulness and often obliterates it completely.

We do have a home where restfulness and peacefulness are constant. It is our true home. It is our home in Oneness, God. It is the place of our Creation. It is our birthright. It is a place we are always wholly welcome. The beautiful thing about this home is that we are always there and we have never left it. This home goes with us wherever we are and whatever we do. It is always peaceful. It is always full of love. It has everything we need and the abundance of all of creation contained within it. We might well ask, “Then why don’t I feel this home?” The Course tells us we have simply believed we are not worthy of it and thus blocked it from our awareness. It’s like we are asleep and are dreaming a nightmarish home that is anything but peaceful.

The Course tells us this world we see around us is like a dream. We are spiritually asleep and are dreaming a life based in our belief in separation. Everything we perceive and experience appears real to us because we believe it is all true and real. Our belief is so powerful it has blocked the awareness of who we really are and the real world from our minds. From our experience in this world we understand the concept of dreams and know that a dream is not real when we awaken from it. Most dreams we dream while asleep are irreconcilable with the waking life we know and therefore can’t be real. The Course asks us to consider the idea that we might actually be in a dream state that is not real, that this life we perceive is actually a dream based on our perception rooted in the belief we are separate from the One and each other. This dream state based on the belief we are separate is irreconcilable with our true nature, our true state of being. We are created by the Creator, One with the Creator and all Creation. Yet we certainly don’t feel one with everything. We probably don’t feel one with anything at all!

Would we be willing to let go of this perceived existence if we knew there is an existence at home with the One that was restful, loving and peaceful? If we allow Spirit to enter our mind and speak to us, we will begin remembering our true home. We will begin remembering our true Identity, the Self that knows our natural state of being. Spirit holds our wholeness and divinity for us, gently reminding us who we really are. As we journey in this world, we will begin to return to the awareness of who we really are and know we are One with the One and each other. The Course asks us only to be a little willing to open our minds. Spirit will guide us back to the awareness of who we really are when we allow It to do so. Dreams will be impossible now because we will want only truth. Peace, love and joy will be ours, for we will know that is what we really are.

November 25, 2014

As I read this introduction again, my heart swells so as my mind becomes immediately in tune with my true Self. Nothing beyond us can make us anything other than who we really are. Fear and love cannot come from outside of us because there is no “outside of us.” Fear and love are both within our mind, and because they conflict, we cannot experience both at once. We choose what we experience. Time and eternity are similarly conflicting. They will continue to conflict until we realize the sole purpose of time as a means to regain eternity. We cannot make this realization as long as we believe that things happening to us are caused by factors outside of us. We must learn that time is solely at our disposal to use for its designated purpose, and nothing in this world can take this responsibility away from us. We are responsible for the world we perceive.

The One created nothing but us and nothing but us exists, for we are part of the One. Nothing beyond the One can happen because nothing beyond the One exists. Our creations add to the One as we do, but nothing is added that is outside the One because everything has always been and is always One. The One created us eternal, so time is meaningless to our true creation. Our holy mind establishes everything that happens to us. Every response we make to everything we perceive is up to us, because our mind determines our perception of it. We are responsible for our perception. The One is certain of who we are and is certain we are whole and as the One created us. Nothing from outside the One can reach us because being in the One, we encompass everything. If any perception threatens our peace of mind ask, “Has the One changed Its mind about me?” Accept the decision of the One is changeless, for deciding against us would be the One deciding against Itself.

At times we may feel banished from peace and love, even from our home. The One is our home. We are actually at home in the One dreaming of exile, but perfectly capable of awakening to reality. What prevents us from awakening to reality? We understand from our own experience that what we see in our dreams seems very real while we are asleep. Yet the instant we wake up we realize everything that seemed to happen in the dream didn’t happen at all. It may even have appeared to have an effect on our body. Perhaps it is possible we have shifted from one dream to another without really waking. We don’t bother reconciling what happened in conflicting dreams, so why do we insist on reconciling the waking dream with reality? There is no reconciliation for the waking dream is not real. Listen, then, for the Voice of Spirit, holding the memory of our true essence. What we have been is so now. And so when we remember, we will know that what we remember is eternal and therefore is now. We are wholly responsible for our perception and choosing to remember. Return to the remembrance of the awareness of the eternity of being the One and step into the Heaven we never left. We are at home in the One.