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.