June 24, 2014

Every time we meet someone, remember it is a holy encounter. From the briefest glance to the most involved relationship it is always a holy encounter. As we see that One, we see ourselves. As we treat that One, we treat ourselves. As we think of that One, we think of ourselves. Do we recognize the Child of God in each encounter? If we do, we also recognize the Child of God we ourselves are. If not, we deny both of us our true Identity as a Child of God. In each encounter we either find our true Identity or lose it. Even the slightest glance is an opportunity at salvation. Salvation is the shift to the recognition and the awareness of who we really are. Do not allow an encounter to pass without extending and receiving Love. It is the key to our happiness.

Yes, we are already and always have been whole. But are we living our wholeness? Do we allow ourselves to consciously radiate and extend Love. There is no greater demonstration of Love than extending it to each and every one we encounter. For that means we know Love within ourselves. A gentle smile will be on our face and in our eyes. Our step will be a bit lighter. Peace will radiate from us. This is God’s Will. And this is also our Will. We are the agents of the healing of our minds in this world. Our smile heals. Our gentle loving glance heals. Our gentle loving word of greeting heals. Our gentle loving thoughts of each other heal. We allow the loving radiance of Heaven to shower over each and every one we meet. We are each the light of the world and each encounter is the opportunity to recognize it in each other and in ourselves. This recognition is salvation. It recognizes the wholeness within all others and ourselves.

Begin by learning that we are light. There is great joy in this learning. We have denied this light that we are. We have taught ourselves that we could not be that limitless. We have learned to think of ourselves in the limited way of separation and it may seem impossible that we could be anything more. But Spirit is given us to make this seemingly impossible shift in our thinking. Spirit is a gentle teacher. Spirit gently takes us by the hand and guides our thoughts as we allow. The willingness to learn is our choice. Each step involves keeping our thoughts on Spirit and allowing It to guide us on our way. Spirit will guide us in each holy encounter. We will feel the comfort of Spirit as we take each step and trust Spirit’s guidance. Peace will rise up in our mind. A knowing that we are connected to and a part of the energy of love and compassion springs up within our mind as we allow Spirit to guide us. We need not convince anyone of anything. The idea of wholeness will quietly flow between our gentle loving glances and gentle kind greeting in each holy encounter. That One will move on with an uplifted mind even in that brief encounter. They will feel somehow that they have received Love in their mind whether or not they recognize it. Let every encounter today be a holy encounter. Let the light you are shine in everything you do. And each encounter will certainly be a holy encounter.

June 17, 2014

We have taught ourselves that freedom and imprisonment are the same. What does that mean? How could we possibly think imprisonment and freedom are the same? Let’s put it another way. We have taught ourselves to believe that real freedom, the Will of God, Imprisons or limits us. We believe It limits who and what we are. The Will of God, which is also our Will for we are created by and share the Will of God, is real freedom and limitlessness. We have mistakenly taught ourselves that real freedom is imprisonment in an effort to establish an identity separate from our true identity. We have aligned our minds with the idea that the Will of God, our own will, limits who we are when the total opposite is true.

The Will of God, which is our own Will since it is completely shared, is limitless. It is all powerful, infinite and totally loving. There is nothing real that can threaten that Will. The most we ca do is block our awareness of Its limitless love and power. Those blocks are ideas and thoughts that we choose to believe. Because we have free will, we are free to think and believe whatever we choose to think and believe whether or not the idea is correct. Aligning our minds with ideas that are incorrect or in conflict with Truth creates a block to the truth and knowledge that is in conflict with the incorrect idea. It is impossible to believe two conflicting ideas at the same time. Our true mind knows the difference, and we never leave our true Will, but we block our awareness of our true identity and therefore think we are separate. The Holy Spirit is our guide back. The Course is the method Spirit uses to help us change our mind and the way we think.

The Course tells us:

“The Will of God is without limit, and all power and glory lie within it. It is boundless in strength and in love and in peace. It has no boundaries because its extension is unlimited, and it encompasses all things because it created all things. By creating all things, it made them part of itself. You are the Will of God because that is how you were created. Because your Creator creates only like the Creator, you are like the Creator. You are part of the One Who is all power and glory, and are therefore as unlimited as the One is.” (T-8.II.7.1-7)

Spirit appeals to us to restore our awareness of the power and peace of the Realm of Heaven to our minds. Spirit asks us to simply acknowledge who and what we really are and the Realm which is our true home. By our recognition, our belief of and alignment with our true shared Will, we awaken the minds of all Creation and through theirs our awakening of our awareness is extended. This is the natural response of the One Child of God to the Voice for the Creator. The confusion of imprisonment and freedom is resolved. For we are the essence of freedom and limitlessness. Let go of your alignment with your mistaken beliefs that hold you captive and allow Spirit to gently guide you to the freedom in the awareness of who you really are.

June 10, 2014

We have previously learned that we cannot learn from two opposing teachers. This attempt leads only to confusion and conflict. In this section, the Course tells us that only one Teacher knows what our reality is. That Teacher is Spirit, our higher holy One Self. If our goal is to remove our blocks from the awareness of who we really are, we must learn it from the One Teacher who knows what our reality is. Our “other” teacher, the ego, is trying also to teach us what we are without knowing what we really are. And wherever we are on our journey, our true nature and identity is always with us behind those blocks we have chosen to believe are there. Is it any wonder we feel confused and uncertain? However unintentional our confusion is, it is important to take responsibility for our role in making and believing our egoic thought system. It is made up and therefore unreal, but it is of our making.

Source gives us free will at our Creation. And that free will is one with the Will of Source. And, they cannot be out of accord. As there is nothing other than this will, there is nothing real that opposes our shared Will.   Freedom is ours and we are therefore limitless. Our belief and alignment with the egoic thought system is the denial of our free will. It also blocks our conscious awareness of who we really are. The idea that we are separate from our Creator and each other and our belief that this idea is true is the root of every block we have to the awareness of who we really are. But, we have a guide, a Teacher who knows our reality and is ready to guide us in removing every one of those blocks. That guide is Spirit, our higher holy Self, always within our mind, gently watching waiting and calling us back to our home, our One Mind.

There is nothing outside our mind that can prevent us from the awareness of who we really are. Any limits to our free will we share with Source is completely fabricated in our egoic mind. At any moment we can release our attachment to that belief and allow ourselves to be guided by Spirit. As the Course says:

“When you have learned how to decide with God, all decisions become as easy and as right as breathing. There is no effort, and you will be led as gently as if you were being carried down a quiet path in summer.”

(T-14:IV.6.1-2)

Once we stop making the extraordinary effort to hold on to our allegiance to our egoic thought system, we will be amazed at the ease that comes over us. Spirit’s way, which is really our true way shared with Source, is our natural way. It is the higher road, the road we recognize that we have been looking for all this time. Take each other’s hands and joyfully walk together as Spirit guides us to the awareness of the Realm of Heaven all around us. We have always been there, yet we couldn’t see it for the fog of our egoic thought system. Let go, and let it be so.

June 3, 2014

Peace is our motivation for learning this course and is the prerequisite for knowledge. If we are not is a state of peace, we are in a state of conflict, and knowledge cannot be accessed in a state of conflict. Peace is the natural sate of who we really are. Peace opens the door to the awareness of our natural state of being that is all around us. Conflict keeps our mind divided. Peace unites our mind and joins our mind with all other minds. In Chapter 7 we learned about the state of grace being our natural state. The state of grace and the state of peace are one and the same. There is no conflict and our mind flows freely in harmony with all other minds within the Mind of God. Our mind cannot rest in peace and grace when it is conflicted.

What causes our mind to be conflicted is that we have given our allegiance to a thought system that is not real. We may not even realize it, but we have given control of our mind over to an egoic thought system. It is a thought system that is invested in maintaining the idea that we are separate from Creation and somehow are independent from God and all others. This idea is constantly in conflict with the truth about who we are – that we are One with all that Is. Much of the teaching and learning we have encountered since our physical birth has guided us to the belief that we are separate and have a separate identity. But that doesn’t make separateness true. It only conflicts with the truth about who we are – that we are One with God and all creation. We cannot change who we really are, so we place blocks to the awareness of who we really are in our thought system. The result, we believe we are a separate identity that is in conflict with our natural state of peace and grace and our higher One mind.

We have inadvertently been following two teachers and two curriculums. One of separation and one of Oneness. One can already see the conflict in this statement. A simple choice to relinquish our allegiance to egoic thinking and the belief in separation begins a journey to the reawakened awareness of who we really are and our Oneness. We already are that One, but we are guided back to the awareness of who we really are as guided by Spirit. Spirit guides us to a state of peace and grace where we can listen to the Voice of Spirit as It guides us. Every moment, every experience, every encounter and relationship become the lessons that teach us the power we have to be at peace, to be in a state of grace. Wherever we are, whatever we do, we are in that state of peace and grace whether we are aware of it or not. Relinquish any attachment and belief in separation and a state of conflict. And allow Spirit to guide our thoughts and mind to Oneness and Unity. We have nothing to lose but conflict. And, we have nothing to gain but peace, love and joy. Don’t worry, be happy. Let it be so.