October 8, 2013

The amazing thing is that we have chosen to think we are something other than what and who we really are.  What and who we really are is so great there is nothing that can top it.  But we still try.  We are created in the image of and One with the One, the Creator.  Creation is extension and so creation remains One with its Creator.  We are created to be creators and have the Divine capability of creation.  And what we create is shared by all for we are all One and share all of Creation.  This is the condition of Heaven.  This is the condition of Joy.  This is our natural state of being.  But for some reason at some time, we made a decision to try to be something other than our true Self.  We thought we could make our own world made up by our own thought system that was ours and no one else’s.

We made a decision.  Sometimes it goes well.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  We made it and we believe in it.  However, we can’t destroy our true Self.  We can block our awareness of our true nature and wholeheartedly believe in another realm of our liking or disliking.  The One understands we need to sow our wild oats.  The One understands we have to work it out of our system.  The One knows we will eventually return to the awareness of who we really are.  It’s merely a matter of decision and a little willingness on our part.  The One has placed everything we need within us and the world.  Though we may make the choice to perceive and experience lack and limitation, we have the abundance of everything we really need.  Spirit walks with us every moment gently reminding us of our true nature and who we really are.  Spirit keeps up the ancient song of joy and peace we will recognize when we stop a moment in stillness and listen.  Spirit knows that nothing real can be threatened including our true Self.  And, Spirit knows and remembers for us that nothing unreal exists.

The blissful joyous peaceful Realm of Heaven is our true home.  In fact, we are always there.  But we have built an imaginary wall around us blocking our awareness of all that abundant limitlessness that is our true nature.  Always Spirit walks with us.  One might even say that our true Self walks with us, for that is what Spirit is.  The One – Creator, brother, sister, Spirit, Higher Self, or whatever label we have for the Divine nature we really are – is always with us 24/7, never leaving us alone for that is impossible.  If we feel alone, we are not recognizing the Realm of Heaven around us.  We are not recognizing the Self that is who we really are.  Take a step back a moment and let yourself decide again.  We were able to decide wrongly, so we are certainly capable of changing our decision to a more correct one.  Ask Spirit to guide you in the decision and the choices you make.  Ask your Higher Self to guide you in those decisions and choices.  The One is ever present and all powerful, correcting all mistakes in thinking we may have made and reinterpreting and using every encounter and experience in our life for a new and Holy purpose.  Make the Decision for God – the One – and find a new world, a new Self that is anything but new, but better than any idea we could have made up.  This is who we really are, the Divine One Self we share with all of creation.  Make the decision and mean it.  Make the decision with all your being and let it be so.

October 1, 2013

The Course tells us that infinite patience produces immediate effects.  This statement makes no sense until we realize that time does not result in eternity.  Time is exchanged for eternity.  Time and eternity cannot co-exist in our awareness for they are opposing ideas.  We have the choice to be in the awareness of time or the awareness of eternity.  An attitude of infinite patience produces infinite love now and thus renders time unnecessary.  Remember that time is neither wrong nor right.  Time is merely an illusion that is useful as a learning device and then discarded when it no longer serves any purpose.  We need not fret that we don’t understand how time could possibly be an illusion.  Be grateful for the learning device for Spirit sees a purpose for it on our journey.

Our journey back to the awareness of who we really are is the journey from time to eternity, from infinite patience to immediate results.  We might begin this shift in thought systems by relinquishing any attachment to time.  We may obsess that our journey is taking too long, or life is moving too fast.  We can begin by accepting that where we are right now is exactly where we need to be.  This is true for a variety of reasons.  Being in the present moment is being in the now.  This is the only real moment there is.  The past is gone and future hasn’t happened yet.  The Course has explained to us that Spirit guides us in the present moment.  The Course has taught us that all things, events, encounters, and circumstances are helpful.  Surrendering to the guidance of Spirit in all of this relinquishes our attachment to time in our minds.  This shift in our mind-set opens up our willingness to allow Spirit to heal our minds and give us the miracle of healing of the mind.

Spirit brings to our minds reinterpretations of all ideas we have made.  Spirit undoes the mistakes in perception we have believed and reinforces the truth in our ideas.  We share the infinite love that reawakens within our minds as Spirit shares with us.  And we share the infinite love of Spirit with our brothers and sisters and all of creation as we allow our minds to be lifted and healed.  The awareness of our higher Spirit Self is the greatest blessing we can receive ad it is the greatest blessing we can share with another.  Making the choice to free our own minds from the chains of limitation and thus freeing all of creation from those same chains of limitation is the greatest gift we can give ourselves and others.  Infinite patience is the key.  Forget about worrying about the right step, the right path, mapping it all out in front of us.  The right step will be offered us by Spirit as we allow Sprit to guide us.  Accept whatever is right in front of us right now.  Reach out your hand and let Spirit guide your path.  We don’t need to worry about what to say or what to do because Sprit will direct us.  Choose to listen and follow the direction Spirit provides.  The awareness of the Realm of Heaven is awaiting that simple decision.  Let it be so.

September 24, 2013

Our true place is only in eternity where we were placed by the Creator.  We do not belong in time.  However, we have freely elected to be in time.  And therefore we have chosen to be bound by time.  By choosing to be in time we have lost sight of eternity and the freedom eternity gives us.  And since we (not the Creator) have freely chosen to be in time the choice is alterable.  The choice can be undone because we have chosen a consciousness that is not real.  In the Realm of Heaven, which is eternity, there is no other real option.  As we choose the illusion of time we wait for the Realm of Heaven to come for us.  Of course, if we are waiting, so all others are waiting.  Who will step forward and start the awareness of eternity rolling?

The concept of time has no purpose in the Realm of Heaven.  It has absolutely no meaning for we cannot actually be in time.  It is a mistaken idea.  It is a mistaken idea that is healed through a change in perception, a change of mind.  We simply choose another concept, the concept of eternity.  Eternity is a completely different concept than time.  We tend to think of eternity as a very very long time.  Instead, it is the ever present moment that is the Now.  It is never the past, nor is it ever the future.  Eternity is always the present moment.  This is a natural concept that makes perfect sense to the Mind of God for eternity is where the Mind of God is.  Only the mind that believes it is separate from the Mind of God can even fathom the idea of time.

The egoic mind needs our belief in the idea of time for it to maintain its hold over our mind.  The egoic mind doesn’t really hold any power over anything, but we have believed it does so we relinquish to it our power. Though we appear to exist and experience in this space time continuum, we are still firmly rooted in eternity and the Realm of Heaven.  We have simply blocked our awareness of eternity by believing the idea of time the egoic mind has presented us.  As a result of this belief, we experience guilt, suffering, attack, and division in the world we perceive.  We are perceiving our world through a distorting lens that shows us an incomplete and unreal world.  Since we have blocked the real world from our consciousness, we think this world we perceive is real.

We have another choice.  Our true Self, the Spirit that dwells within our mind, is placed there to guide our mind back to the awareness of its true essence.  This Higher Self, as we allow it, gently guides the corrections we need to make in our perception.  Each change in perception raises our awareness step by step, closer and closer to true perception where we experience the real world.  We again feel the Love, Joy, and Peace of Source welling up within us.  We begin understanding the idea of being in the present moment, the eternal moment of Oneness with all of Creation.  As we allow each change in our perception we see our perception of each other, our brothers and sisters, changing before our very eyes.  And we experience a whole new understanding that we had lost sight of in our separation.  The awareness of the Realm of Heaven engulfs us and we bask in the brilliance of its radiant Love, Joy, and Peace.  And we recognize that we are at last in the home we never left.  Let it be so.

September 17, 2013

Everything boils down to a choice we make.  We make this choice every minute, every second, every moment.  There are two choices, or two alternatives.  We can choose to think with the mind of Spirit or we can choose to think with the lower mind, the mind of separation, the egoic mind.  Our mind has the power to think and believe what it thinks.  Because we are created by Source, we are one with Source and have the creative power of Source.  Creation in the spiritual world is creating thought.  All else is reflection of thought.  We choose to either co-create with Source, guided by Spirit, or we choose to make apart from Source, guided by the egoic mind we made and believe in.  The world we see or perceive is a reflection of the choice we made in how we create or think.

To put this simply, what we co-create with Source guided by Spirit is real.  What we make with our separated mind is illusion.  And because we believe we have created with our egoic mind, we believe that what we made is real.  We are even amazed when another doesn’t see the same reality as we think we see.  Ah, the power of our belief.  Our belief in the choice we made obscures even the reality of Source and true creation from our eyes.  Our choice in thought systems has determined what world we see.  Most of the time we see the world through the perception we made up with our belief in the egoic thought system.  Therefore we see a world fraught with attack, guilt, blame, fear, and judgment.

Source has given us a way of moving from a horizontal path to a vertical path.  The instant we decided to choose separation, Spirit gave us a plan for returning to the awareness of who we really are.  It comes in the form of a choice.  This choice is the undoing of our original mistaken choice for separation.  All we are asked to do is choose the Atonement for ourselves.  That is, to change our allegiance from the egoic thought system to the Mind of Source as guided by Spirit.  There is no problem too great to be resolved by this choice.  But we must come to the conviction that there is only one problem: our belief in separation.  We must come to the conviction that we want our own perception healed more than we want any physical outcome.  Nothing outside our perception need change for our perception to be healed.  There are no exceptions, none whatsoever.  This involves total surrender to all our attachments to the way we think things should be.

It sounds like a tall order.  We actually lose nothing by making the choice of Atonement for ourselves.  All we have thought with our separated mind is healed as we allow Spirit to guide our choice.  What is holy and real remains.  What is false fades away, for it was never real at all.  No one else need make this choice for us to do so.  Spirit tells us that all we need do is accept the Atonement for ourselves period.  Once we remove to log from our own eyes, we will see there is nothing to remove from another’s eye.  Let go of the disordered thought system you are so attached to.  Make the choice to accept the Atonement for yourself.  And find yourself in the Realm of Heaven on earth.  Oneness is your natural state of being.  Choose it to be so.

September 10, 2013

The question we must ask ourselves – and answer – is, “What do I want?” What do I really want?  Do I want this life of separation I have made?  Or do I want the reality of my true nature?  It’s a simple choice between sanity and insanity.  Except, we don’t know how to tell the difference if we continue to believe our separated thought system we made.  The ego is the thought system we made up.  We may ask why we ever made it up.  The egoic thought system goes against everything we really are.  We don’t realize it does this.  We have given this false thought system control over our mind, or at least this mind we are aware of.  Our true mind and the Divine thought system we share cannot be altered.  It is ours, fully ours and is all powerful as its power is Source’s power.  But we have used our creative power to block our awareness of the true Mind we are.  All we need do is accept the Atonement for ourselves to release the guilt the egoic thought system uses to control our mind.

We are the One Holy Child of Source, Spirit.  We are completely One with that Source.  We are the love, light, joy, and peace that make up Source and eternally extend from Source.  Heaven is the state of mind that is our home.  It is a state of mind where Spirit guides our perception of the world we see and shows us the Truth about all we experience.  Sprit transforms the experiences and encounters of our everyday life and shows us a transforming reality that transcends the perception we see with our separated minds, the egoic thought system.  This transformation is the miracle of the Atonement, the joining of our minds to the One Mind we all share completely.  No made up thought system can compete with this One Mind.  It is so powerful, yet gentle that all misperception fades in the light of its knowing.  This is our home.  This is our natural state of being.  The awareness of this grace flows through us and brings us back to the ancient song of Oneness we know so well.

The egoic thought system uses whatever it can to keep or awareness of our glory blocked from our awareness.  Guilt and fear are the egoic mind’s tools.  We fear the loss of our separateness.  We fear the judgment of a wrathful god.  We feel guilt for turning our back on the truth about ourselves.  But we have allowed the egoic mind to cleverly disguise this fear ad guilt and project it on others as blame.  It is cleverly disguised, but no disguise can fool the eyes of Spirit.  Let yourself be willing to allow Spirit to guide you.  Be willing to accept the Atonement for yourself.  The miracle of a higher thought system will unfold in your mind.  What we have come to think of as sane will now be obviously insane, and we will recognize the sanity that returns to our awareness as we allow it.  Take a step away.  Take a deep breath.  And see the Divine nature that is you as you recognize the Divine in all around you.  This is Happiness.  This is Joy!  This is You!  This is what you really want!  Let yourself be so.

September 3, 2013

The essence of our true being has never left us.  Our Divine essence is still within us.  Who we really are can never be destroyed or changed.  We are extensions of our Source and can never be separated from that Source.  Our holiness is placed within us at our creation by our Source and can never be taken away.  Only the mistaken thought of fear and separation can remove the awareness of our true nature from our day to day consciousness.  So our egoic thought system we made up to convince ourselves we are separate from our Source has limited our awareness to a narrow slice of perception governed by the lower or split mind.  Though the fear and separation we think we feel are not real, Source provides us with a way out of fear and separation.

Spirit has been placed within us to help us reinterpret everything we perceive as fearful and separate.  Spirit also teaches us that only what is loving is true and real.  Our true reality is Heaven and Spirit is within us to teach us how we need to perceive to be in the awareness of Heaven on earth.  This is our true home.  We haven’t ever left it, but we have blocked our awareness of our true home we already live in.  It’s like having the shades drawn across a window and thinking there is no light, when all we need do is draw the shades back and let the light flood in through the window.  We have made up a picture of the world around us, framed it to make it appear important and maybe prettier, and blocked the beautiful Heaven on earth within us by focusing on the picture.  Spirit teaches us to look beyond the picture and see the peace, love, and joy beyond the perceived picture of the world.  This is the real world we are meant to be aware of.

Spirit guides us to the awareness of Heaven on earth if we will simply allow It.  We begin by being willing, even just a little bit, to perceive differently. Sprit will guide us in changing our perception.  Every encounter, every relationship, every experience is an opportunity to learn a new way of perceiving from Spirit.  Each change in perception we learn is a step in moving towards our higher mind and a higher thought system.  As we take each step in our learning we share that new perception with each other.  The sharing need not be specific or active, for another can’t help but see the transformation in us.  We may not even see the transformation I ourselves right away but it will be apparent.  Step by step we move, guided by Spirit, to a new awareness, a new understanding of our essence and the knowing of who we really are and the Divine nature of our being.

What a comfort this is.  It’s no wonder Spirit is referred to as the Comforter.   Monday’s Spiritual Espresso Prayer from Jennifer Hadley was all about gratitude and appreciation.  Being grateful for every experience and appreciating every One who we encounter on our journey places our mind in an attitude that is willing to receive guidance from Spirit.  This is the healing of the mind we are truly seeking and that we truly want.  Monday’s lesson in the Workbook for Students, #245, “Your peace is with me, Source.  I am safe.” is what we are really looking for.  And today’s lesson, “To love Source is to love myself.” emphasizes that we are all joined in Spirit.  We are all the great Oneness that is.  Let us each move toward that Oneness and feel Heaven unfold all around us.  It’s already here.  Just allow it to come into focus around us.  And so it is.

August 27, 2013

Our true state of being is Oneness, in unity, of One Mind.  Our journey is the return to the awareness of our unity, Oneness, with God, each other, and all of Creation.  All of life in this world of perception is for the purpose of remembering and reconnecting with the awareness of who we really are.  Heaven is our natural state.  The peace and joy of Heaven are ours right now whether we are aware of it or not.  There is nothing like the joy of reconnecting with that peace and joy through the love we share with each other through the guidance of Spirit.  What we believe about ourselves and each other determines how we perceive the world.  Do we like what we are perceiving?  Are we feeling peaceful, loving, and joyous about everything?  We have Spirit within us to help guide us to the state of blissful being that is ours.  All Spirit needs is a nod, the OK to guide our perception.

Our perception is based on our beliefs.  So if our beliefs are mistaken we will perceive a mistaken world around us.  It will not be understandable because it can’t be understood from a mistaken thought system.  We may be able to convince ourselves that an isolated bit of the world we perceive makes some sense, but it will be limited.  Spirit can work with what we have made up and guide us in the reinterpretation of all we have perceived and give us a real and right understanding of the world.  Since we are all One, our new perception comes through our relationships.  Each one we encounter on our journey has some lesson to offer us as we have a lesson to offer them.  The perfect lesson is there in that relationship and is realized through the guidance of Spirit.  As we turn to Spirit and ask for guidance, we allow Spirit to reinterpret what we thought we understood and allow new understanding to well up in our mind.  The understanding is not new, for it has always been within us, but it is new to our awareness.

The Course has taught us that giving and receiving are the same.  In a like manner teaching and learning are the same.  Spirit uses the world we perceive as a learning tool.  It is neither good nor bad, but is the perfect learning tool.    We learn by teaching, and we teach by learning.  For as we correct our perception of ourselves we correct our perception of another.  In that correct perception of ourselves and another we have extended the Love of God to all of creation.  Once we have corrected our perception of each other we have joined with each other and rediscovered our Oneness.  We reconnect with our true nature.  We have reawakened our awareness of the realm of Heaven which is our home, the home we never left.  The truth about us is in this reawakening.  We remember our Divinity, our peace of mind, and our ever extending love that comes from the Divine nature within our true Self.  We share this peace, love and joy with all of Creation.  We are limitless in this awareness.   Say “yes’ to Spirit’s guidance right now.  We have nothing to lose but a misperceived perception of our world.  What we gain is the awareness of the realm of Heaven all around us and the ever abundant love of the Divine flowing through and around us.  Let it be so this very moment.

August 20, 2013

Our minds are split.  We have our higher mind, our true mind where
Spirit dwells.  We also have our ego minds, our lower minds, the egoic minds we made up when we believed we were separate.  The higher mind knows the ego mind is not real, that it is made up.  But the lower mind sees the higher mind as a threat to its very existence, and so blocks our awareness of our higher mind.  Our lower mind sees itself the opposite of the higher mind, and therefore threatened by it.  So turmoil and fear characterize the existence of the lower mind.  While peace characterizes the higher mind.

The blessing is that God set the Spirit in our higher mind as we chose to believe the idea that we are the lower mind.  We blocked our awareness of our higher mind and our true state of being by believing the misperception that we are separate.  The gift of Spirit within us is our salvation, the salvation from the misperception that we are separate from God and each other.  Spirit knows the real world.  Spirit is in and aware of Heaven, our true home.  Spirit also understands the world we think we see.  Spirit sees and understands what this world really is.  The world we think we see is a world perceived by our egoic mind made up by that same egoic mind.  Since Spirit understands both reality and perception, It works at the level of perception to correct our perception and our thinking to a higher level.  Spirit works with our mind quietly.  Spirit, however, only works with our mind when we let It guide us.  Spirit never forces us or works against our will.

All the world is a learning tool for Spirit’s teaching and guidance.  No matter what happens in our life, good or bad, there is a learning experience in it for each of us.  As we allow, Spirit translates each experience for our mind, teaching us whatever we need to learn through this experience.  Spirit asks that we embrace each lesson.  Allow Spirit to show us the lesson.  We will begin to recognize a measure of peace come over us as we allow Spirit to teach us. The anxiety of the lower mind will give way to the peace of the higher mind.  No longer will we need to fight our thoughts or fight for our lessons.  The change and shift in our thoughts come to us naturally.  And then we recognize we are feeling peaceful.  We begin reconnecting to the holy within.  The reality of our Divine nature wells up within us.  The light we truly are shines forth from us, radiating the light we are to all our brothers and sisters.  Come, it is time.  Eternity is now.  It can only be in the now.  Let Spirit guide you to the awareness of who you really are and let your light shine brightly to the world, radiating its love and peace to all who seek. Let it be so.

August 13, 2013

We often feel that life is aimless, that it is random, or that it has no direction.  We think life “happens” so to speak.  But we have a guide at our disposal.  But this guide can only provide us with direction if we allow it to.  We are so accustomed to doing it all on our own, or alternatively just giving up.  Sometimes we charge through our life, focused on what we think is the prize.  Sometimes we just give in and let fall what may fall.  Neither of these scenarios need be our reality.  A change in our focus has an amazing power to make a difference.  We already have the guide we need.  This guide is within us.  God placed it there when we believed in the idea of separation.  It is there patiently waiting for us to recognize it and ask for its guidance.

This guide within our minds is the Holy Spirit.  We can call it Spirit if you wish.  Spirit is the Voce for God.  Spirit is all knowing in the Oneness of Heaven, and in the perception of the world we think we see.  Spirit is the bridge between our perceived minds, separation, and the Oneness and perfect Mind of God.  In the Mind of God there is no limitation, no lack, no pain, and no blame or guilt.  All that is perceived by our mind is separate from the Mind of God.  We chose to hold allegiance to the separated mind we think we are.  And we are often loath to let go of our allegiance to it.  But Spirit holds the memory of our true mind, the mind that is one with the Mind of God.  That one mind, that shared knowing of truth, has simply been blocked from our awareness by our choice to perceive ourselves separate from our true nature.  If we remembered our true nature we would never stay in the choice of separation for an instant.  We have blocked our awareness that completely.

Spirit is within us.  It is sounding the Call to Joy.  Joyfulness is our true nature.  Resting in God is our true nature.  Our true calling in this world we perceive is to release it to Spirit and allow Spirit to guide us in our choosing.  Where does our devotion lie?  Is our devotion to Spirit, to God, or is it to the world and life we have perceived on our own?  No matter what lessons we have to learn, Spirit will guide us to and through them.  Each of them will be the perfect and most efficient lesson for us.  Rather than bumbling around blindly on our own through our perceived journey, wouldn’t it make sense to ask the perfect guide to guide us on our journey?

No matter where we’ve been, no matter what mistakes we’ve made, no matter how abused we think we have been on the way, Sprit is there holding out its loving comfort and guidance calling us to be just a little willing to shift our devotion.  Devotion to separation will gain us only separation and will never move us to the full joy of Spirit.  Shift your devotion to the Guide within, Spirit, and begin to see the light that shines deep within you.  Begin to allow it to shine from deep within you to light the way for others.  We are truly the light of the world.  Joining with Spirit is the plan God has for us to share with each other and discover the awareness of the truth about who we really are.  Invite Spirit to be your guide.  Place your devotion at the altar of Spirit within you and let your light shine brightly.

August 6, 2013

We are the Realm of Heaven, nothing more, nothing less.  This is the radiant Realm of Light.  It shines forth forever.  There is no limit to Heaven’s radiance or its reach.  It is peaceful, it abounds in Love and Joy.  It is abundance itself where lack is not even a concept.  This is our true state of being.  This is who and what we are.  This is the beauty of our creation.  It doesn’t matter what name we give this Heaven, it is always this Grandeur of Light, Peace, and Joy.  It flows through our being with infinite Grace without a trace of anything less.

But wait a minute.  What happened?  Our world certainly doesn’t look like this to us right now.  We allowed the belief in darkness to enter our mind.  We chose to separate our minds from the awareness of Light and believe instead we are separate from the reality we cannot be separate from.  Just as we allowed the belief in darkness to enter our mind, our Creator placed the Holy Spirit within our mind to remind and guide us on our journey back to the awareness of who we really are.  By believing in this darkness, we severed our mind from the knowledge through which the Creator communicates with us.  Since our Creator honors the free will to choose that is our holy gift and wishes not to hinder our creative choice in any way, the Creator gives us a Voice to speak for our true state of being. This Voice calls to us, quietly and gently reminding us of who we really are.

Spirit calls to us both to remember and forget:  to remember who we really are, and to forget the state of opposition we have chosen.  Spirit calls to us to again make a choice.  In the holy state, where our will is free and unlimited, choice is meaningless.  But once we have chosen to separate our mind, we must make another choice to undo that error of choice.  Spirit gives us a holy choice with which to correct that choice.  It is actually the unchoosing of our previous mistaken choice and making the correct choice guided by Spirit.

The Voice of Sprit is gentle.  It does not command, demand, overcome, or attack.  It simply gently reminds.  The Voice is compelling only because of what it reminds us of.  It brings to our mind the other way; the real way.  It remains quiet even in the midst of the turmoil we have gotten caught up in.  Spirit guides us to the part of our mind that speaks for the right choice; that knows where to find the peace love, and joy that are our real state of wholeness.  It brings us back to the awareness of our higher state of mind.  Here we recognize the reality of who we really are.  We may find it takes a few – or perhaps more – steps to reach that awareness, but Sprit knows the perfect steps for us to take and will guide us in those steps if we will simply make the choice to allow our minds to be guided by Spirit.

What do we really want?  If we want to be in the Realm of Heaven radiating light, love, peace, and joy, make the choice to unchoose our belief in darkness and let Spirit guide us to the light that is our natural state of being.  The peace of Heaven is truly ours if we will just let it be ours.  Let it be so.