October 29, 2013

The experiences we encounter in this world have only one purpose.  Their one and only purpose is that we learn from those experiences.  We each have the experiences that will teach us exactly what we need to learn.  Our correct perception of these lessons is the key to our learning the correct lesson.  Perception guided by the separated or split mind, the lower mind, will teach us the incorrect lesson and reinforce the blocks to the awareness of who we really are and our Divinity.  Perception guided by Spirit, our higher Spirit Self, removes the blocks to our own awareness of our true Divine Self, One with all Creation.  Whether we believe our experiences are placed in our lives by Spirit or that we encounter them by chance, each experience has a lesson to teach us as we allow our perception to be guided by Spirit.  All experience is neutral, neither good nor bad.  All experience has a lesson for us to learn.  It is our choice where we look for guidance in learning from our experience; lower mind or higher mind.

Spirit also teachers us through the experiences and lessons or others.  Jesus experienced the crucifixion to teach us we need not suffer, attack, or be attacked.  The crucifixion teaches us we cannot be attacked because we are an extension of and One with our Source.  When we believe we are a body, we believe we can be hurt because the body can be hurt.  But reawakening to the reality of who we really are reconnects us to the knowledge that we are not this imperfect body, but holy and complete, just as we were created.  The ones we encounter in our life journey all have lessons to teach us as we have lessons to teach them.  As we see another as whole and complete, we also see ourselves as whole and complete.  As we encounter another, Spirit interprets their experiences for us so we can also learn from them.  There is always a holy lesson to be learned as we allow Spirit to reinterpret our perceptions for us.

Approach each experience from a place of gratitude.  Allow spirit to guide our perception and understanding of any situation or experience.  We may not know why we should be grateful for an encounter or experience at the moment, but if we allow Spirit to guide our thinking we will receive a new understanding and healed perception.  Spirit will lead us in the healing of our mind; the miracle we are really seeking.  Our mind is already whole.  We were created whole and Source placed the Mind of God within us.  This right and holy thought system is already ours and has always been ours.  We simply looked somewhere else for guidance and made up our own little thought system.  It is time to unlearn that little thought system and reawaken to all that is truly ours.  There is no need for us to crucify ourselves in the name of learning something incorrect.  Learn as Spirit guides us through our experiences and the experiences of each other.  Spirit will teach us the perfect lesson form our experiences.  Let us all be guided in our learning experiences and return to the joy of our awareness of who we really are.  And so it is.

October 22, 2013

What Source creates is indestructible because what is real cannot be threatened or destroyed.  Since the body is destructible it cannot be real.  Therefore we are not a body because we are a creation of the Creator and indestructible.  Remember the lessons that centered around the statement “I am not a body, I am free, for I am as God created me?”  For us to understand the message of the crucifixion we must understand that we are real and that we cannot be threatened or destroyed.  We may still believe we are vulnerable, but the Course is asking us to be open to the idea that we are not our body.  We are really an extension of the Creator.  And, what we believe about ourselves we also teach each other.

The message the crucifixion was intended to teach was that it is not necessary to perceive any form of assault in persecution because we cannot be persecuted.  If we react to anything with anger, we have chosen to see ourselves as destructible and therefor regard ourselves insanely.  We have believed we are something we are not and have opened our mind to the idea that we are separate rather than One.  The crucifixion is an extreme example of the body’s vulnerability to destruction.  But it results in the resurrection, which demonstrates that even though the body may be destructible, we are not.  The belief we are our body and thus fragile or destructible, is a mistaken belief, a belief of the lower thought system or split mind.  Allowing our thought system to shift to the belief that we are whole, unchangeable, and indestructible, is the miracle of healing of the mind that we really seek.  It is not a new thought system.  It’s the thought system the Creator placed within us at our creation.  We have simply forgotten who we really are.  We have simply blocked our awareness of who we really are.

We are free to choose the thought system with which we perceive ourselves.  Once we make that choice we believe it.  We are invested in it.  We continually reinforce that belief and strengthen our resolve to maintain that belief in that thought system.  Sprit has patiently held our True thought system within us, waiting for us to be ready to allow a corrective shift in our thought system.  Whatever we believe, we teach.  And we teach by example.  If we believe we are our body we teach others that they are their bodies.  If we believe we are the One Child of God, we teach others we are the One Child of God.  No matter what the world throws our way, the lesson we are to learn is to return to the awareness of who we really are.  Once we reawaken to that Truth, we know who our brothers and sisters really are and we reawaken to the knowledge that we are all One.  We begin to see the world with corrected perception.  And we find ourselves in the awareness of the Heaven around us.  What more could we possibly want?  We are the Divine presence of Divinity itself.  Love, Peace, and Joy are ours for the awakening.  Let it be so.

October 15, 2013

This chapter begins by teaching us about attack, anger, and insanity.  Anger cannot occur unless we believe we have been attacked, that our retaliatory attack is justified, and that we are in no way responsible for any part of it.  Given that we believe these three wholly irrational premises, the equally irrational conclusion that another is deserving of our attack rather than love must follow.  When the thought system we believe is based on insane ideas, the conclusions are inevitably insane.  None of this is based in reality.  Nothing real can be threatened.  Nothing unreal exists.  The only way to change insane conclusions is to change the insane premises.  And, the only way to change the insane premises is to change the insane thought system to a sane thought system. Sound reasonable?  We cannot be attacked, so we have no justification for attack, and we are responsible for the thought system we believe.  Life presents us with all the situations, encounters and experiences we require to make this shift in our thought systems.  Spirit, if we will allow, guides us through all these lessons correctly.  The result is the miracle of the healing of the mind.  We return to our natural state of being and the awareness of who we really are.

We are free to choose the thought system we hold allegiance to.  Because we have that choice we always have the freedom to choose another thought system.  The crucifixion is nothing more than an extreme example for us to learn from.  It is a learning device.  We may have many fearful thoughts about the crucifixion, but it is not a fearful idea if we allow Spirit to reinterpret it for us.  The value of the crucifixion is solely in its use as a learning device, as is any other situation or experience.  If we allow Spirit to interpret for us we gain the benefit of the lesson and the change in our thought system it produces as a result.  Of course if we misinterpret the lesson from a separated thought system, we learn a mistaken lesson based on the thought system we believe and have faith in.  The message of the crucifixion must be approached without fear, for there is nothing to be afraid of.  Nothing real can be threatened.  Nothing unreal exists.  If destruction itself is impossible, anything that is destructible cannot be real.  Since attack can only be made on the body, the body must not be real.  In other words we are not our body, for we are real.  Source created us, so we must be real.  It is insanity to see ourselves as destructible, but it is sanity to know we are indestructible.  We must understand this premise so we can understand the meaning of the crucifixion.

At the core of our true real thought system is the knowing of who we really are.  We are of God, of our Source, and not the body we have made.  It is also important to remember that the body is neither right nor wrong, good or bad, even though it is not who and what we are.  The body is a learning device.  It is useful to us for that purpose and that purpose only.  We choose what we learn through the use of the body, right or mistaken.  It may get battered and fixed along the way, but its use is to learn the lessons we need to learn through the use of it.  If the body is destructible it is not real and we cannot be our body.  We are so accustomed to identifying who we are by our body we may find this a difficult idea to accept.  Ask Spirit for guidance.  As we accept the idea we are not a body, if follows that another is not a body and none of our sisters and brothers are bodies either.  Knowing this frees us from the fear of attack and being hurt.  The thought system raises a level or two and becomes joined with the Mind and thought system of God, our Source.  Allow this shift to occur and let it be so.