March 29, 2011

The Truth about ourselves, who we really are is so powerful that we need only the tiniest of wishes to transform our world. The wish is that we be joined with each other; our brother, our sister, even our self, whoever and whatever we are in relationship with at this moment. Whatever stands between us is the barrier we must let go of. Forgiveness will take away any barrier, but first we must wish to be joined, to end the separation. The wish is the choice. That little willingness makes it even possible.

As long as we maintain our attachment to the illusion that separation is our path to happiness and salvation, we leave the barriers to Truth in place. We believe in “doing it ourselves” so strongly that we see no other choices. But in this world we always have a choice. Each one we encounter along the way is a new opportunity for a new choice. The choice to be willing to join, the wish to see this one just a little differently and join with them allows us to see this one as they really are. Our willingness allows us to recognize the divinity within that one and see it is the same divinity that we find within ourselves. What peace, love, and joy this brings in that holy moment that only our surrender to that wish can bring.

Stop for a moment. Look at the One who has come to you art this moment. Are you willing to let yourself be joined with this One and let healing come? Right now this is an opportunity to let forgiveness flood your thoughts and let Spirit shine the light on the Truth of who we really are. This moment, this place, this time is the opportunity. And the next moment, the next time, and the next place is the next opportunity. With each opportunity we recognize and realize a bit more of the Truth about us. And each encounter brings the next step to realizing the freedom of who we really are. When we allow ourselves to join with and love someone, we see the face of God and recognize ourselves in it.

March 22, 2011

Our beliefs hold incredible power in determining the world we see and experience. And we don’t even realize they have that power. We see our beliefs as truth when in fact they are probably some form of illusion. We say God is love, yet we believe in a God of wrath and punishment and perceive wrath and punishment rather than love. We don’t realize how much our beliefs affect our experience of our lives. We have no idea that we have a choice in what we believe! We also don’t realize we have a choice in every experience and situation.

The world we live in is experienced through our mind and our thoughts. Even the sensations of smell, sight, sound, touch, and taste are experienced though our mind and thoughts. Whatever our thoughts are about anything is colored and influenced by our past experiences and what thoughts and ideas we formed about those past experiences. It is no wonder that no two of us have the same perception of anything in our lives even when we share the experience. Some of us have agreed to perceive some experiences very similarly, but even so, there are still differences and the differences grow with time and experience.

Reality and Truth are unchangeable. Perception and past experience have nothing to do with reality and truth. The Course says sin is more that just an error because we believe in it. Yet God tells us there is no sin at all. So why do we believe this untruth? We are One with God and God is not sinful, so how can we be sinful? The belief in the idea of sinfulness is the perception that clouds our vision and hides our true Self from ourselves only because we believe we are sinful more that we believe we are One with God.

God has given us the never ending opportunity to choose to see differently. It is not so much that we must try to see differently, but we must be wiling to let go of all the ways we think we see and all the beliefs we hold to be true and let Spirit show us what is true and real. There is great freedom in this letting go. There is a deep peace that washes over us and fills us with the recognition of the Presence of God within us. In this Presence we recognize the Truth of who we really are and find the Oneness with our brothers and sisters in this world that Is in the real world, the state of Oneness and Unity. We have all the time we need to practice and rediscover this Heaven. What better time to start than now?

March 15, 2011

Do we understand the laws of healing? We have embarked on a journey. We have chosen A Course in Miracles. In order for us to understand the purpose of the Course, wit is essential we understand the laws of healing. A number of things must occur on our journey for us to believe healing is possible. And once healing is possible in our mind, it will and must occur. Nothing else is possible.

At the base of all we must believe is that all sickness comes from separation. When we truly believe that separation can be denied, it goes. For separation is at the root of our belief in illusion, unreality, the “upside down” world. We have spent a lifetime choosing our thoughts, rationalizing our thoughts, and making up new thoughts about the world we think we see around us. But we must come to a realization that our thoughts and beliefs make up the world we think we see.

We keep all this thought and belief carefully hidden from light because the light shows our mistake. And we are so unwilling to admit that we have spent a lifetime investing our ideas in this mistaken illusion. So we remain attached, sometimes at great cost to our sanity, to our separation resulting from the thoughts and beliefs we so strongly cling to. We then feel guilty and grant our request for punishment even if we don’t understand why. We think it has come from outside of us and fail to see it is all an illusion seeming very real because of our belief it.

Perception is not Truth, it is always illusion. But God has an eternal answer that works in the world of illusion and bridges the chasm between separation and Oneness, illusion and reality. God’s presence never leaves us no matter how strong our belief in illusion and sickness. We never leave our Source and the reality of our true Being. The illusions we so strongly believe in are merely ideas given power by our belief in them, yet because they are not real, they do not have any real power. They’re seeming power is also an idea that is no more than an idea, but seems very real to us.

It is time for us to look inward to the idea that we are as God created us. Can we let the possibility that that idea is true sit in our mind? Can we set all else aside for just a moment to consider this idea and let Truth speak to us? Spirit is there within us waiting to welcome our remembrance, to show us the memory of our true Self and flood our lives with the peace, love and joy of the Heaven within us. Are you ready? Just say yes and let go.

March 8, 2011

Whatever illusion we believe, we give the power to seem real. It doesn’t matter what that illusion is, or how big or small it may seem. Our belief that it is real makes all other illusions real or at least possible. Our belief that it is real also makes what is real seem false. Illusion cannot exist in the awareness of reality. Yet we cling to some seeming reality in this world, unwilling to let reality in, even just a little.

God has appointed a Friend just for us. This Friend brings the gift of the awareness of reality to us. But we put our illusion of ‘friend” in its place, obscuring the Friend God appointed for us from our awareness because we believe in that “friend” we made up. No matter where we think that “friend’ came from, we have actually made it up. The gifts that “friend” gives us are also not real, though they seem so real. Even if we don’t like those gifts or want them, we have believed them real. Such is our belief that we are separate, even that we are lost and alone. We truly believe it and therefore it seems very real to us.

So where is this appointed Friend? Who is it? How do we recognize it? Where do we find it? This section of the Course doesn’t seem to address these questions or give us an answer. We have learned that God gave us Spirit to guide us on the path to the awareness of Truth and reality. Is Spirit that Friend? We have also learned that we are all One and inseparable, not separate. We have learned that we already have all we ever need. Perhaps we are to use what we have learned to recognize the appointed Friend. Are we willing to let go of the illusions we have believed that obscure our awareness of this Friend? Perhaps this Friend is already within each of us, waiting for us to awaken to the possibility that it is within each of us and each other.

Be willing, just a little willing, to make room for this appointed Friend. When we do, we will see the gifts we have received as we make room for what is real in our mind. The blessing of Heaven is already with us. The abundance of Heaven is already with us. The peace, love, and joy of God is already with us. Remove the illusion you believe that obscures that Friend, and experience the fullness of eternity that we are already in. Just Be, and what is illusion will fall away, leaving us right in the middle of reality.

March 1, 2011

Most of us, at one time or another, have experienced our Oneness with God and each other. And we remember it. It was so beautiful, peaceful, joyous, and freeing, we could never forget it. Most likely we have experienced that Oneness, that presence of God, many times and in many places. We may not even recognize it was the presence of the One, but we know it was peaceful and loving. We also know we want to experience it again and again.

What brought these cherished and remembered moments to us? What happened to bring this joy to us? We may associate these moments with being in nature, being with someone we love, being in a joyful place or situation. What these moments all have in common is that we let go of our association with the past. Just for a moment we let our guard down and opened our mind to something new, real, and present. Just for a moment we let go and were totally in the present moment. This is where God is, in the present moment. God is now, and so are we, for we are One with God.

But so much of our life is caught up in our association with and attachment to the past. So we return to our association with the past and are again unhappy. We long for that remembered bliss we experienced in that precious moment. This association with time, this identification with what is past, is the hindrance that keeps us from the full awareness of who we really are, the full awareness of our Oneness with God. The present is where we find our real Self and our connection and communication with God and all that is real.

But nothing is lost, nothing is hopeless or missed. We have experienced and remembered our Oneness in that present moment. We recognized the Truth, for it is within us. That present moment or moments brought us home and reminded us of who we really are. We can never go far from that remembrance. In that remembrance we stand in the borderland at the gates of the realm of Heaven. It is our choice when we allow our mind to open to the remembrance of Truth. It is our choice to allow Spirit to change our perception of the world we live in and transform it to that of the real world. We recognize our True Self in that transformation and know that we are free, healed, sinless, and One with God and all Creation. Let go of the past, and be the One you really are. Love is yours and ours.